Final Stories | Students For Road Sa

Nohemi Flores' Story:

Road rage crashes rising in Harris County; TxDOT data shows

By Nohemi Flores

What is life like for Doogie Roux? Roux is a photographer, cyclist and micromobility consultant. He travels the country doing freelance work. Roux has worked with the City of Houston, the county seat of Harris County. Specifically, Houston’s BCycle bike share program.

Roux loves cycling, but says that Houston is not a safe place for cyclists.

“Things [were] thrown at me, [I was] cursed out,” said Roux.

All of this happened when he was using his bike on Houston roadways.

Road rage involves motorists being aggressive towards other drivers, cyclists and pedestrians.

TxDOT data shows that road rage crashes are rising in Harris County. The data showcases crashes from

Jan. 1, 2020 - Sept. 1, 2022.

For 2020, TxDOT recorded 137 road rage crashes for Harris County. In 2021, the number increased to 174.

As of Sept. 1, 2022, 143 road rage crashes had been recorded.

From 2020 to 2021, the number of road rage crashes increased by 27%.

Where do road rage crashes happen the most?

The data reveals that many road rage crashes take place on or near major roadways. These findings support the idea that as more drivers are on a particular road, the chances of road rage crashes taking place there increase.

2020

Note: Other road rage crashes could not be mapped due to insufficient data.

2021

Note: One road rage crash could not be mapped due to insufficient data.

Jan. 1, 2022 - Sept. 1, 2022

Note: Other road rage crashes could not be mapped due to insufficient data.

On what day do road rage crashes happen the most? The least?

The data illustrates that drivers, cyclists and pedestrians are more likely to experience a road rage crash on Friday. Friday had a total of 86 road rage crashes. It also shows that Sunday is when these crashes happen the least. Sunday had 51 of these crashes.

After Friday, Wednesday is when road rage crashes happen the most. Wednesday had a total of 75 road rage crashes.

Do road rage crashes happen the most before noon or after noon?

The data shows that these crashes happen the most from 12-11:59 p.m. This time period saw 306 road rage crashes. 147 of these crashes took place from 12-11:59 a.m.

What is the relationship between road rage crashes, rush hour and lunchtime?

The morning rush hour for Harris County is from 7–9 a.m. The number of road rage crashes increases up to 16 during this time period. So far, this is the highest number of road rage crashes in the morning. The 8–9 a.m. time period had 13 crashes.

As the county approaches lunchtime, the number of road rage crashes increases. Lunchtime is considered the 12–1 p.m. time period. Lunchtime had 28 of these crashes. After lunchtime, the number of road rage crashes decreases but then increases.

It is until the evening rush hour that the highest numbers are recorded. The evening rush hour for Harris County is from 4–7 p.m. Forty-three road rage crashes were recorded for the 5–6 p.m. time period. This is the highest number for the evening rush hour.

. . .

Roux believes that drivers can make the roadways safer for other motorists, cyclists and pedestrians by sharing the road.

“We really do have to share the road,” said Roux.

Robert Anthony' Story:

Motor Vehicle Crashes and Fatal Accidents; Is it a Texas-Sized Problem?

By Robert Anthony

Whenever you are driving the long roads of Highway 6 or battling the rush hour traffic of US-59 and I-10 local drivers all have the same concerns. Accidents. Motor-vehicle accidents and deaths not only back up one of the vehicle-dependent states in the country, but it is also one of its biggest and leading causes of fatalities.

Doogie Roux a local Houston cyclist and a Microbility Consultant helped to give me some insight from his perspective on some of the dangers of Houston roads.

“You got to look at options besides cars,” said Roux. "I've been run off the road, cursed out, stuff thrown at me, I just wasn't safe." He continued.

He is just one of many people that have to worry about their safety on the road. This is an issue that affects not only locals cyclist like Mr. Roux, but even motorcycles, cars, and truck drivers.

In this story, I wanted to show not only how the data on motor-vehicle accidents affect us on a local level like Harris and Fort Bend, but also how data might show a statewide problem.

This pie chart is an interactive graph that shows an increase of deaths from 2003 to 2021 shows the number of motor-vehicle-related deaths in the state of TX. This was information obtained and provided by TXDot.

What are some factors of accidents and fatalities?

First, we want to check some of the main components of what we found out from exploring the data. The datasets obtained from TXDots websites led us to explore some numbers. One thing the data revealed was the top ages of drivers involved in accidents in 2021. This reinforces the belief that people between the ages of 21 and 32 get into the most fatal accidents as they are the demographic that drives the most.

2021

For the next part, I have a multitude of interactive graphs that show and allow many factors to be examined. A lot of the raw data I received did not give me a lot of information that would help me decide if accidents and fatalities were truly a larger issue. I decided my data was best utilized in a way that helped me explore Texas counties rather than cities based on what I was given. With over 1000 cities in Texas, I wanted something easier to quantify and easier to digest. After quantifying the data, I had questions that I wanted to answer. The first question was "Does living in a larger county mean more fatal accidents?" Another question I got was "Does the population of a county correlate to higher accident rates overall?" At first glance, this would seem to be something that you expected the data to tell you but as you take a deeper look this is not the case.

Does Population correlate to Crash Rate and Fatality Rate?

The data in the graphs help explain that a high population does not equate to higher fatal accidents or even high total accidents overall. Using the average population size from 2010 to 2021 we see some outliers. We see a small county like McMullen has an outlier crash rate and counties like Oldham, Glasscock, and Hudspeth being in the top 10 of crash rate despite being on the lower side of the population. The biggest outlier is Loving county which has a crash rate of 561% on average despite only having an average population of around 60 people. In fact, this such an outlier Loving county is removed from certain graphs as it skews the data too much. Even with some of the outliers shown the data shows that high-population counties like Fort Bend and Harris counties do not correlate to high motor-vehicle fatality rates or high crash rates.

What Are Some Trends?

After showing and establishing that population does correlate to high fatality or accident rates, we try to see if data can tell us more by exploring using the years on two scatter plots. 11 years' worth of population data helps explain if accidents and fates do go up over the last decade. Also using our excel sheet we used calculated the crash and fatality rates.

One trend that is noticeable is for a large majority of counties the fatality and accident rate dipped in the year 2020. This is something that makes sense as covid lockdown protocols place in that year and that reflects in the data.

We also notice that on a local level Fort Bend and Harris counties' fatality and accident rates rise steadily from 2010 to 2015 before staying around the same until 2020. Finally, if you scroll back to the top and use the pie chart of Tx deaths you can see the death total rise for all of the texas from 2010 to 2017. It steadies before an alarming increase from 2020 to 2021

. . .

All of the data shows that we do have an increase in motor-vehicle accidents and fatality rates in the last decade and it is indeed a Texas-size problem.

How safe are roads in Harris County for cyclists?
Pedro Hernandez

The last few years have brought plenty of change to nearly every aspect of daily life. Things have changed from how we show up to work all the way to how congested our streets are. Yes, that has changed, too! With so much free time and clear roads because of work from home orders, many thought it would be a good idea to pick up cycling over the last few years. That has prompted a lot of community and local government intervention, though. So, for those looking to get involved in the local cycling community, we offer a word of caution.Houston roads are notoriously congested and pose great threats to all of those who dare commute frequently. However, none seem as much in danger as cyclists. With the growth in popularity over the last few years, more and more cyclists have got into accidents for the simple fact that there are more cyclists out on the roads. So, what are the numbers?

Well, according to TxDOT, there have been a total of 46 accidents resulting in a cyclist’s death since the beginning of 2018. From 2018 to 2019 alone there was about a 160% jump in casualties as a result of cycling accidents.

According to local cycling enthusiast and ex BMX rider, Hector Garcia, it is all a result of poor planning on behalf of social rides around the city. For context, much of the growing popularity over the last few years could be attributed to social distancing. At one point, Critical Mass was a monthly ride on the last Friday of every month drawing in huge crowds of cyclists. However, because of COVID those huge gatherings had to be dialed back. So, people started coming up with their own rides and as a result had less intervention from the city. Now there seems to be a ride going on almost every day at any possible hour. Which could only mean one thing. More riders on the street can only lead to more accidents.

So, what exactly are the hours that seem to be most dangerous for cyclists to ride? Well, according to TxDOT, the most dangerous hours seem to range from 7:00 PM onwards. Which would make sense. At a lower level of visibility there is bound to be accidents if people aren’t being cautious.

As we can see, there has been an upwards trajectory in the number of accidents as the day goes on and visibility begins to dwindle.

According to the data, some of the contributing factors to Harris County's fatal crashes include:

Drivers failing to control their speed
Drivers disregarding stop signs or lights
Drivers failing to drive in a single lane or changing lanes when it's unsafe
Drivers under the influence of drugs or alcohol
Pedestrians failing to yield the right of way to vehicles

For cyclists in Texas, the law requires that they stop at red lights and stop signs, as as ride in the same direction as traffic and use bike lanes or ride as near as possible to the right-hand curb, with a few exceptions. There are also a set of hand signs that they must use when stopping and turning. While riding at night, cyclists must also make sure that their bicycles are equipped with the proper lighting. “People have to learn how to ride safely, it’s not enough that the city is making an effort to provide cyclists with bike lanes if we don’t learn how to share the road,” Hector said.

As for the City of Houston, county officials and other members have made some strides with "Vision Zero" propositions aimed at doing away with all traffic-related fatalities in the region by 2030.