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Sara

State Farm: Dangerous Intersections    State Farm.docx Download State Farm.docx

1.     Identify the various constructs and concepts involved in the study.

A construct is an abstract idea intending to conduct research or theory (Schindler, 2022). The construct in this study is State Farm wanting to identify the most dangerous intersections in the United States. Constructs are vital and are essentially what wants to be assessed (Bachman, 2007). A second construct is formed within the study, observing possible ways to improve the dangerous intersections.  A concept is associated with specific events, objects, conditions, situations, or accepted behaviors (Schindler, 2022). The concept within this study is the information gathered from the customers involved in collisions in the area of the most dangerous intersections.

2. What hypothesis might drive the research of one of the cities on the top 10 dangerous intersection list?

A hypothesis attempts to explain its observations of facts and laws (Eastwell, 1988). Roughly more than 50% of collisions occur at intersections and are continually increasing (Hakkert & Mahalel, 1978). A reasonable hypothesis driving research on one of the top cities would be that implementing certain engineered safety precautions will reduce the number of claims and increase safety at intersections. The first step of this process is to select a city where the study will be conducted. Once the city is selected, the next part is to identify the majority of the collisions and deduct possible reasons the collisions have occurred. Factors to consider are the lanes well lit, whether there is a delay in the turning of lights, and whether there is enough lighting are a few of the questions to consider when researching.

3. Evaluate the methodology for State Farm’s research.

State Farm conducted this study to identify problem intersections within the United States and gathered the data after policyholders had made multiple claims within the exact location. However, the study only evaluated the people with State Farm Insurance rather than the population. Instead of evaluating the population, the study examined the individuals representing a population sample. The study focused strictly on intersections and avoided other incidents involving automobile collisions, such as significant interstates, rural roads, and other areas. State Farm’s ability to disregard irrelevant data is a significant success of this study. An area not discussed in the case study is the driving conditions, such as rain which correlates to increased road crashes (Ashraf, 2019). One of the other concerns is the lack of reporting when accidents occur. Police reports are a primary source of information when gathering safety research, and crashes under-reporting are a continued issue (Imprialou&Quddus, 2019).

4. If you were State Farm, how would you address the concerns of transportation engineers?

As a result of this case study, citizens were becoming concerned with how high an intersection ranked within the local area. The demand for immediate resolutions for safety became an issue due to the budget. Since money became an issue, I believe that grants should have been part of the pre-planning that could help alleviate public concerns. Though immediate results are not feasible, there would have been some relief knowing that State Farm had a plan ready to execute. State Farm based the severity level on the payout amount that was deemed necessary based on property damage. I would have found a better rating scale for the severity that would hold more value if death or severe personal injury occurred.

5. If you were State Farm, would you use traffic volume counts as part of the 2003 study? What concerns, other than those expressed by Nepomuceno do you have?

Previous studies have documented that accident frequency increases when congestion increases (Retallack&Ostendorf, 2020). With that in mind, traffic volume reports can help identify the correlation between higher congested areas and the number of accidents. I think volume reports play a crucial part in understanding more about traffic. The issue with traffic volume reports is the inaccuracies and prepared infrequently. However, despite inaccuracies, valuable information is still worth being studied, and one can consider the shortcomings of traffic volume reports. Among the issues expressed by Nepomuceno are fuel costs, employment, and, as the world has seen in 2020, worldwide pandemics (Hoque et al., 2022). Improving the traffic volume counts will improve the overall ability to make informed decisions on any infrastructure decisions and track which months are the busiest. The Bible says, “ Let us not become weary in doing good,” it is essential not to become tired of trying to implement change that will positively impact safety (New Living Translation, 1996/2015, Galatians 6:9). With technology constantly evolving, safety can continue to make progress in lowering the number of accidents occurring at intersections.

 

References

Ashraf, I., Hur, S., Shafiq, M., & Park, Y. (2019). Catastrophic factors involved in road accidents: Underlying causes and descriptive analysis.  PloS one,  14(10), e0223473. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223473

Bachman, L. F. (2007). What is the construct? The dialectic of abilities and contexts in defining constructs in language assessment. Language testing reconsidered, 22(1), 41-71.

Eastwell, P. (1988). What is a hypothesis?  The Science Teacher,  55(4), 49–49.  http://www.jstor.org/stable/24140815Links to an external site.

Hakkert, A. S., & Mahalel, D. (1978). Estimating the number of accidents at intersections from a knowledge of the traffic flows on the approaches.  Accident Analysis & Prevention, 10(1), 69-79.  https://10.1016/0001-4575(78)90009-XLinks to an external site.

Hoque, J. M., Erhardt, G. D., Schmitt, D., Chen, M., Ankita, C., Wachs, M., & Souleyrette, R. R. (2022). The changing accuracy of traffic forecasts.  Transportation, 49(2), 445-466. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-021-10182-8

Imprialou, M., & Quddus, M. (2019). Crash data quality for road safety research: Current state and future directions.  Accident Analysis & Prevention, 130, 84-90.  https://10.1016/j.aap.2017.02.022Links to an external site.

New Living Translation. (2015). New Living Translation. (Original work published 1996)

Chaplaincy, 20(4), 161-170.  https://10.1080/08854726.2014.959374Links to an external site.

Retallack, A. E., & Ostendorf, B. (2020). Relationship Between Traffic Volume and Accident Frequency at Intersections.  International journal of environmental research and public health,  17(4), 1393. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17041393

Schindler, P. (2022).Business Research Methods. (14th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education

Jessica

 State Farm: Dangerous Intersections

Q1. Identify the various constructs and concepts involved in the study.

             Schindler (2022)  defines a construct as “an abstract idea specifically invented for a given research and/or theory-building purpose” and a concept as “a generally accepted collection of meanings or characteristics associated with certain events, objects, conditions, situations, or behaviors” (pgs. 12-13). After a study to reduce the claims filed by their policyholders for crashes at intersections, State Farm came up with the idea to provide funds to the communities to help them fix the dangerous intersections. The constructs in the State Farm study is their idea to fund communities with dangerous intersections to further their research and as initiate to improve the intersections and lower claims filed by policyholders for crashes at these dangerous intersections. The concepts are that the intersections are dangerous with everyone understanding that dangerous means there are a lot of crashes and that there needs to be a solution.

Q2. What hypothesis might drive the research of one of the cities on the top 10 dangerous intersection list?

            In hypothesis-driven research a hypotheses is defined prior to the start of the study that is related to the object of the study (Camerlink & Pongracz, 2022). A hypothesis that might drive the research of one of the cities on the top 10 dangerous intersection list would be that the city was number one on the list having the most dangerous intersection. It could be that the city has the most crashes at their intersection than any other. That the crashes in their intersection happen at a certain time of day or involve a certain age range of drivers.

Q3. Evaluate the methodology for State Farm’s research.

             Snyder (2019) gives guidelines for research methodology in literature reviews stating that traditionally they often lack thoroughness and are conducted ad hoc rather than following a specific methodology. State Farm had a methodology to figure out which intersections where most dangerous with the most crashes by policy holders. They looked at only intersecting roads where their policy holders were at fault. Then they took that information  to form the list and work with the communities on how to make the intersections better. By working with the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, Canada (ICBC) and the American Automobile Association of Michigan (AAA) they were able to provides grants to the cities on the list.

Q4. If you were State Farm, how would you address the concerns of transportation engineers?

            If I were State Farm I would have a meeting with the transportation engineers to address their concerns. In the meeting we could discuss the results of the study and brainstorm improvements of the intersections. Letting them know we were in it together and willing to help anyway we could. Explaining the grants that would be giving that they could use to pay for the improvements while also brainstorming with them for further funds or grants if the one giving was not enough to cover the full cost. With their concerns about data left out of the study I would continue to educate them about the grant funds that were available to them for the improvements. For those that the grants weren’t a full solution to their budgetary concerns we could brainstorm other ways to help. Meeting with the engineers and discussing their concerns would help to build a relationship between them and State Farm where they could build trust and understanding. An article by Garfinkel, Alam, Baskin, Bennett, et.al. (2023) talks about how it is important in a partnership such as the one between the transportation engineers and State Farm that there should be effective communication improving the collaboration and transparency between the involved parties. The most important outcome of the study is to help keep drivers safe on the road and to prevent accidents from happening, the only way to come to this resolution is to work together. Proverbs 11:14 ESV says “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in abundance of counselors there is safety”. By working together with the data State Farm has provided and the knowledge of the community transportation engineers they can come to a resolution to keep all safe.

Q5. If you were State Farm, would you use traffic volume counts as part of the 2003 study? What concerns, other than those expressed by Nepomuceno, do you have?

            Many metropolitan areas collect vehicle counts on a select number of major roads (Ganji, Zhang, & Hatzopoulou, 2022). If I were State Farm, yes, I would use traffic volume counts as part of the 2003 study. Concerns I would have would be if the length of time we did the study was an accurate depiction of the traffic volumes. It could be that traffic volumes had increased from what they were during the time of the reported incidents or it even could have decreased. I believe the traffic volumes would be important though. Thinking that the higher the traffic volume the more dangerous the intersection and even risk of doing improvements during peak traffic volume times. This would be again something that we would need to meet with the engineers to discuss. Indeed high traffic volume would contribute to the number of accidents at the intersection but construction could also increase those numbers. Working with the engineers hopefully we could help them to brainstorm the best solution for everyone without cause even more crashes.

 

 

References

Camerlink, I., & Pongrácz, P. (2022). When to formulate a research hypothesis.  Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 248, 105583.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2022.105583Links to an external site.

Garfinkel, S., Alam, S., Baskin, P., Bennett, C., Carruthers, B., Engler, J., Flanagin, A., Garrity, S., Graf, C., Imperiale, M. J., King, C., Kleinert, S., Kulp, D., Mankowski, C., Nugent, N., Pulvirenti, T., Qualkenbush, L., Sobiecki, E., Wainstock, D., Yucel, J. (2023). Enhancing partnerships of institutions and journals to address concerns about research misconduct: Recommendations from a working group of institutional research integrity officers and journal editors and publishers.  JAMA Network Open, 6(6), e2320796-e2320796.  https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.20796Links to an external site.

Schindler, P.S. (2022).  Business Research Methods 14th edition. McGraw Hill LLC.

Snyder, H. (2019). Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines.  Journal of Business Research, 104, 333-339.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.07.039Links to an external site.

Ganji, A., Zhang, M., & Hatzopoulou, M. (2022). Traffic volume prediction using aerial imagery and sparse data from road counts.  Transportation Research. Part C, Emerging Technologies, 141, 103739.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2022.103739Links to an external site. State Farm.docx