Investigation on the wrong way driving crash patterns using multiple correspondence analysis

Wrong way driving (WWD) has been a constant traffic safety problem in certain types of roads. Although these crashes are not large in numbers, the outcomes are usually fatalities or severe injuries. Past studies on WWD crashes used either descriptive statistics or logistic regression to determine the impact of key contributing factors. In conventional statistics, failure to control the impact of all contributing variables on the probability of WWD crashes generates bias due to the rareness of these types of crashes. Distribution free methods, such as multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), overcome this issue, as there is no need of prior assumptions. This study used five years (2010-2014) of WWD crashes in Louisiana to determine the key associations between the contribution factors by using MCA. The findings showed that MCA helps in presenting a proximity map of the variable categories in a low dimensional plane. The outcomes of this study are sixteen significant clusters that include variable categories like determined several key factors like different locality types, roadways at dark with no lighting at night, roadways with no physical separations, roadways with higher posted speed, roadways with inadequate signage and markings, and older drivers. This study contains safety recommendations on targeted countermeasures to avoid different associated scenarios in WWD crashes. The findings will be helpful to the authorities to implement appropriate countermeasures.