This study can be divided into two main sections: a high-level analysis of the spatial characteristics of wet roadway and rainfall-related traffic crashes in the City of Philadelphia, PA and a targeted study of a crash-prone site using terrestrial LiDAR technology. Together, these efforts give insight into water’s impact on transportation infrastructure from multiple perspectives.

Much of the research regarding traffic crashes considers various geometric roadway features; however, ever-evolving urban watersheds and climate change increasingly impact roadway conditions. Little research has focused on the relationship between high-resolution drainage characteristics and the spatial distribution of crashes. This study incorporated local environmental and drainage risk factors in assessing network safety performance using spatial analysis techniques. The effects of environmental and traffic risk factors were quantified and visualized across a citywide network. Proof-of-concept for this framework is demonstrated in the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania using publicly available spatial data. The results of this study show a relationship between local drainage, environmental characteristics, and wet crash distribution, providing novel insight into roadway safety during wet conditions.

LiDAR has emerged as an exciting new technology with many applications in transportation engineering. Data is typically collected using sensors mounted to aircraft or vehicles; however, this study used a terrestrial, tripod-mounted LiDAR system with a nodding feature that oscillates the sensor vertically to increase the resolution of captured data. Using this system, multiple sites on Lincoln Drive in the City of Philadelphia, PA were scanned and analyzed using CloudCompare and ArcGIS software. The results and framework developed as part of this research lay the groundwork for future efforts to conduct detailed infrastructure analyses.