A-02. Collision
Diagram Module:
·
It plots collision diagram according to your data and coding
definitions.
·
You can specify location to be plotted by clicking on the
map, by picking from a list of street names and intersections, or by entering
the street names.
·
You can label each collision with any or all of the
following: date, time, day of week, weather, pavement condition, accident
identification number, vehicle travel directions and collision type. The label
is in English description, because it converts the codes for weather, pavement
condition, vehicle travel directions and collision types into English.
·
It has a drawing/editing tool for adding texts, symbols,
lines, circles, rectangles, polygons, etc.
·
You can query any field in the data and plot only those
collisions according to the query.
·
It produces many reports, including:
§
A list of all records of the selected location.
§
A list of records from which collision diagram cannot be
plotted (good for checking coding error).
§
A yearly report, including number of accidents, injuries,
fatalities and pedestrian accidents.
§
A report by collision type, with collision type codes
converted into English.
§
A report by causes of collision, with collision cause codes
converted into English.
§
A report by day of week
·
It
saves the diagram and reports as files in various formats to be used by other
software.
·
It prints the diagram and reports in printer or plotter.
·
If you order the Accident Report Image Module (Item A-11),
when you click a plotted symbol, it will display the scanned accident report
image on the screen (see Figure A-11A).
B-02. Collision
Diagram Non-GIS Module:
It has all features as
listed above, except that you cannot select locations from map.
A-03. Accident Rate Module:
It
enables you to compute accident rates for intersection accidents and
non-intersection accidents. It includes the following features:
You may assign any weights to injury
and fatal accidents (for example, you may assign 1 injury accident = 3 property
damage only accidents, 1 fatal accident = 10 property damage only accidents)
You may compute the accident rates
on any accident locations you have selected. The way it works is as follows.
You may select locations by clicking on the map. Once the locations are
selected, AIMS will provide a list of all the selected locations on the screen,
plus a blank entry next to each location. The blank entry is for user to enter traffic
volume for each location. After the user has entered the traffic volumes, users
simply clicks a button, the accident rate for each location will be computed.
Instead of selecting locations from the map, you may select location by query.
For example, you may want to query or sort all accidents that happened on
Friday in 1999. AIMS will retrieve all accidents according to your query. Once
the accidents have been sorted out, AIMS will provide a list of all the sorted
accident locations on the screen, plus a blank entry next to each location.
User simply enters the traffic volume, and AIMS will compute the accident rates
automatically.
Both intersection and
non-intersection accident rates are computed as mention in the previous
paragraph. For non-intersection accidents, however, there will be an extra
entry next to each location. This extra entry is for user to enter the length
of each non-intersection or mid-block section.
If Traffic Volume Module (A-04) is
included in AIMS, AIMS will automatically look for traffic volumes from the
volume database for each accident locations. If it finds the volume, it will
list the traffic volume out next to the corresponding accident location. User
can use this volume for computing accident rate, or override it with his/her
volume.
Besides computing accident rates
based on traffic volume and/or section length, it will compute accident index
based on the assigned weights to injury and fatal accidents. That is, accident
index = number of property damage only accidents + number of injury accidents *
injury accident weight + number of fatal accidents * fatal accident weight
Intersection accident rate and
non-intersection accident rate are computed according to the formulae in Traffic
Engineering Handbook published by the Institute of Transportation Engineer.
It
produces the following statistics and reports:
·
Number of accidents per location per year
·
Number of property damage only accidents per location per
year
·
Number of injury accidents per location per year
·
Number of fatal accidents per location per year
·
Accident Index per location per year (based on injury and
fatal weights)
·
Traffic volume per location per year
·
Section length per location per year
·
Accident rates per location per year (based on volume and
length)
·
Accident rates per location for all years
·
Location ranking by accident rate (locations arranged
according to accident rate, locations with highest accident rates are listed
first)
·
Location ranking by accident index (locations arranged
according to accident index, location with the highest accident indices are
listed first)
A-04. Traffic Volume Module:
This
enables you to handle many types of traffic volume data: 24-hour, turning
movement, vehicle classification, pedestrian, intersection, mid-block, etc. If
you are using a database to manage traffic volume data, we will customize AIMS
to use and interpret your existing data, hence you do not need to change your
system or data. To input the data, you only need to save them in a file, click
a button in the system, and then type in a file name. The system will
automatically read and input the data into the system. The data may be saved as
a file in any of the following formats: ASCII (TXT), DBF (dBase), WKS
(Lotus123), XLS (Excel) or MDB (Access). You may use your existing system or
AIMS to maintain/update your data. If your volume data are not in electronic
form, we can develop a database and data input system for you (at additional
cost). Once the volume data are in the system, you can manage them the same way
as the accident data. That is, you can:
·
Display locations of traffic volumes on map.
·
Retrieve data by clicking one or more areas on map
·
Perform query or sorting on the data.
·
Generate reports and summaries.
·
Display results in bar, pie, line, area or x-y graph.
·
Customize results by adding texts, symbols, lines, curves,
etc.
·
Save the outputs/results in various formats to be used by
other software.
·
Print the outputs/results on printer or plotter.
A-05. Data
Entry Module:
We
develop a data entry form for you to enter accident or traffic volume data. The
data entry form will reflect your data fields.
When user clicks a button in AIMS, the data entry form will appear on
the screen. User simply fills in the blanks to enter new data. When finished,
user clicks a button to save the new records in a file. To put the new records
into AIMS, user simply clicks another button, and AIMS will read the records
into the system automatically. When entering accident or traffic volume
locations in the data entry module, user will be able to pick and choose from a
dropdown list, hence the spelling of location reference will be accurate and it
will improve the displaying of the data on the GIS map.
A-07. GPS
Module:
It
enables you to use GPS (Global Positioning System) device to locate accident or
traffic volume location. AIMS will use the coordinates from your GPS device as
the location reference for the GIS map. If the resulting location from your GPS
device does not fall onto the street lines on the GIS map, AIMS will correct it
and bring to the nearest street line.
A-08.
Aerial Photograph Module:
·
It displays aerial photograph as a layer of the GIS map.
·
It adjusts the scale of each layer to be the same so that
all layers have the same spatial locations.
·
Each layer can be turned on or off. As a result, accidents
can be plotted on the map, on the aerial photographs, or on both by turning
each layer on or off.
·
You can display aerial photograph on any 3-dimensional plot
on GIS map (such as Figures A-01A to A-01D, A-11B, or A-12A to A-12B).
·
With aerial
photograph, user can visually relate to the surrounding environment.
·
Source of aerial photographs may be from your agency, or
from other vendors. The cost of aerial photograph is not included.
A-09.
Network Module:
This
enables AIMS to work in a network environment. For example, it enables AIMS to
run at each client computer (or workstation), and each client computer can
access the same data from a centralized location in the server on the network.
A-10.
Database Connection Module:
This
enables you to connect, read and access your database system in the server
dynamically. Your database system may be ACCESS, DB2, INFORMIX, INGRESS, ORACLE,
SQL Base, SQL SEVER, SQS, or SYBASE. We customize AIMS to read and to access
one of these database systems. Please contact us for details.
A-11. Accident Report Image Module:
·
Each plotted symbol on GIS map or in collision diagram (such
as those in Figures A-01A to A-01D, A-02, A-08, A-12A to A-12B, or A-17A to
A-17D) is linked to a scanned image of the accident report.
·
When you click a plotted symbol (such as the arrow as
highlighted in red in Figure A-11A, or any symbol in Figure A-11B), AIMS will
display the scanned image of the accident report on the screen.
·
You can zoom-in the scanned image to see more details, or
print it out.
·
You can go to any page of the scanned report if it contains
several pages.
·
You can use any scanner to scan the accident reports, as
long as it can save the file in “BMP”, “JPG”, “PDF” or “TIFF” format.
·
You can save the scanned files anywhere in your computer or
network.
·
It provides archival and retrieval capabilities to manage your
crash reports.
·
Suppose you want to see all crash reports that occurred in
certain dates and times, you can do the following: a) perform a query to sort
out the crashes; b) plot the crashes on map; and c) click each plotted symbol
to view the scanned report image.
·
Suppose you want to see a crash report and the only
information you have is that it occurred in downtown in 2005 during the
afternoon. You can do the following: a) draw areas on GIS map that are
equivalent to the downtown areas, or perform a query to retrieve all crashes
that occurred in 2005 between 12 noon and 6 p.m.; b) plot the crashes on map;
c) label each plotted symbol with time; and d) click each plotted symbol that
is within downtown and with p.m. label, to view each scanned crash report
image, until the desired one is found.
·
You do not need to finish scanning all reports in order to
use this module. You only need to provide one scanned report image to us for
setting it up. Once it has been set up, you can scan additional report images at
any time without going back to us. Any additional scanned images will be
automatically linked to their associated accident records in AIMS and will be
available for retrieval and display.
A-12. Collision Diagrams On GIS Map Module:
It plots collisions directly on GIS map. Each symbol denotes
a crash. Circles denote intersection crashes. Squares denote mid-block crashes.
Different colors denote different collision types. Inside each symbol, there
are 2 arrows, representing the travel directions and turning movements of the
first two involved vehicles or pedestrian (a “?” represents missing data). If
the crashes occurred at the same location, the symbols are stacked on top of
one another, creating a three-dimensional view.
·
It has the 3-dimensional plotting features as described
under Main Module.
·
You can plot collision diagrams for one location, or for
hundreds of locations at the same time.
·
To plot them, you can select locations from the map, or by
performing query.
·
You can select locations from the map by drawing one or more
areas of any shapes on the map.
·
You can select locations by querying any fields in your
data.
·
Once you have selected the locations, by clicking a button,
the collision diagrams will be plotted automatically on the GIS map, as shown in
Figure A-12A.
·
You can adjust the distance between each stacked symbol.
Figure A-12A shows that the distance between each symbol is far enough to see
the arrows (or travel directions) of each collision.
·
By adjusting the distance between each symbol, the symbol
size, the stack angle, and the extent of zoom-in, you can make the plot looks
like Figure A-01A to A-01D, A-01B, A-08, A-11B or A-12B.
·
You can label each plotted symbol with information from 1 to
10 fields in your data (see Figure A-01C).
·
You can click a plotted symbol to see the detail accident
record associated with the symbol, because each symbol is linked to an accident
record (see FigureA-01D).
·
If you order the Aerial Photograph Module (Item A-08), you
can plot collision diagrams in 3 dimensions on GIS map and on aerial photograph
(see Figure A-08).
·
If you order the Accident Report Image Module (Item A-11),
when you click a plotted symbol, it will display the scanned accident report
image on the screen (see Figure A-11B).
·
If you order the Collision Diagram Roadway Layout Module,
you can plot the collision diagrams in 3 dimensions on roadway layout map, as
shown in Figure A-12B.
A-13. Collision Diagram Record Display Module:
This
Module works with the Collision Diagram Module (A-02), Collision Diagram
Non-GIS Module (B-01) or Collision
Diagram Roadway Layout Module (A-17). It has the following features:
·
It links each plotted collision to its accident data record.
·
You can click a plotted collision to see the detail record associated
with the collision.
A-14. Code-To-English Conversion Module:
This
Module works with the Main Module (A-01). It has the following features:
·
You can select any records by clicking on the map, or
through query.
·
You can select one record, or you can select all records in
your system.
·
It converts the codes in your selected records into English
descriptions.
·
It lists out the converted records. You may print them out,
or save them as a file to be exported to other software.
·
After the records have been converted to English, subsequent
query results on the converted records will also be in English. For example, a
query is performed to produce a report that contains collision types in column
one and number of crashes in column two. If the query uses the converted
records, the resulting report will list each collision type in English
descriptions in column one. On the other hand, if the query is performed using
the original crash records, the resulting report will list each collision type
in codes in column one. Since you can perform an unlimited number of queries,
you can produce an unlimited number of reports, each with English descriptions.
A-15. ArcGIS Interface Module: (New)
·
AIMS interfaces with ESRI’s ArcGIS version 9X (including
ArcMap, ArcView, ArcEditor, and ArcInfo).
·
When you click a button in AIMS, AIMS will automatically
execute ArcGIS 9X and will display the 3-dimensional plot or collision diagram
inside ArcGIS 9X.
·
Once it is displayed inside ArcGIS, it becomes ArcGIS’s
layer(s) and feature(s). You can use ArcGIS’s capabilities for further
processing and manipulation, such as setting layer properties, opening and
querying the attribute table, creating reports, labeling features, adding data,
exporting data, etc.
·
If you have the Main Module, AIMS will display the
intersection and mid-block accidents in 3 dimensions in ArcGIS 9X as shown in
Figure A-15A.
·
If you have the Main Module or the Collision Diagrams On GIS
Module, AIMS will display different collision types in 3 dimensions in ArcGIS
9X as shown in Figure A-15B.
·
If you have the Collision Diagram Module, AIMS will display
the collision diagram in ArcGIS 9X as shown in Figure A-15C.
·
If you have the Collision Diagram Roadway Layout Module,
AIMS will display the collision diagram in ArcGIS 9X as shown in Figure A-15C.
A-16. MapInfo Interface Module: (New)
·
AIMS interfaces with MapInfo Corp.’s MapInfo Professional 7X
or 8X.
·
If you have the Main Module, AIMS will display the
intersection and mid-block accidents in 3 dimensions in MapInfo Professional 7X
or 8X as shown in Figure A-01A. It will also display different collision types
in 3 dimensions as shown in Figure A-01B.
·
If you have the Collision Diagram Module, it will display
the collision diagram in MapInfo Professional as shown in Figure A-02.
·
If you have the Collision Diagrams On GIS Module, AIMS will
display different collision types in 3 dimensions in MapInfo Professional as
shown in Figure A-12A.
·
If you have the Collision Diagram Roadway Layout Module,
AIMS will display the collision diagram in MapInfo Professional as shown in
Figures A-17A to A-17D.
·
Once it is displayed inside MapInfo Professional, it becomes
MapInfo Professional’s layer(s) or TAB file(s). You can use MapInfo
Professional’s capabilities for further processing and manipulation, such as
setting layer properties, opening and querying the attribute table, creating
reports, labeling features, adding data, exporting data, etc.
A-17. Collision Diagram Roadway Layout Module: (New)
·
You can plot both intersection and mid-block collision
diagrams directly on GIS map with roadway layout.
·
To plot them, you can select locations from the map, or you
can type and list the locations.
·
If you select locations from the map, you can draw one or more
areas of any shapes on the map. All accidents within the areas will be selected
for plotting.
·
AIMS generates a roadway layout map from your centerline GIS
map, as shown in Figure A-17A.
·
When you click a button, AIMS plots the collision diagrams
corresponding to the intersection and/or mid-block locations you have selected,
with the roadway layout map on the background, as shown in Figures A-17A to
A-17D.
·
You can zoom-in to see the collision diagram in detail. You
can zoom out to see the roadway layout of the surrounding areas.
·
The collision diagrams are sharp and clear when you zoom-in,
because they are plotted in vector format.
·
Figure A-17B is a zoom-in view between locations A and B in
Figure A-17A.
·
Figure A-17C is a zoom-in view at intersection A. It shows a
typical intersection collision diagram with roadway layout.
·
Figure A-17D is a zoom-in view around location B. It shows a
typical mid-block collision diagram with roadway layout.
·
You can plot collision diagrams for a hundred intersections
and mid-block locations.
·
You can label each collision with any or all of the
following: date, time, day of week, weather, pavement condition, accident
identification number, vehicle travel directions and collision type.
·
If you order the Accident Report Image Module (Item A-15),
when you click a plotted symbol, AIMS will display the scanned accident report
image corresponding to the plotted symbol (see Figure A-11).
B-01. Collision
Diagram Non-GIS Module:
It has all features as listed in A-02, Collision Diagram Module,
except that it does not include GIS map, hence you cannot select locations from
map.