Exploring temporal and spatial structure of urban road accidents. Some empirical evidences from Rome

One of the measures that can reduce the negative effects of road accidents is the quick arrive of emergency vehicles to the accident area. This measure requires an effective location in space and on time of these vehicles. This location can be decided after an analysis of the available data in order to find the spatial and temporal characteristics of road accidents. The study presented in this paper uses time series accident data of the 15 districts of Rome Municipality, collected in four months in 2016. Results show that such analyses can be a powerful tool for identifying the temporal and spatial structure of road accidents in urban areas and that relevant differences exist in temporal patterns among different districts and types of road users. Further, such outcomes can be used as inputs to decide the optimal location on the urban area of mobile emergency units.