Rapid Reporting of Vehicle Crash Data in California to Understand Impacts from COVID-19 Pandemic on Traffic and Incidents

Waetjen, David Shilling Fraser University of California Irvine University of California Institute of Transportation Studies

In 2015, the Road Ecology Center at UC Davis developed a web-based method to collect all incident data that appear on the CHP real-time incident-reporting website (https://cad.chp.ca.gov/). These data are assembled into a database called CHIPS, the California Highway Incident Processing System. Previous analyses suggest that these data are more spatially accurate than other state resources (e.g., the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS)). Because they are collected and organized in real-time, they can also be shared and queried more easily. The current project developed a web-portal that supports queries for counties and specific highways (https://roadecology.ucdavis.edu/resources/covid19- traffic). The results shown make apparent the reduction in crashes and traffic during the summer 2020 peak of the COVID19 pandemic.