Traffic Safety Evaluation of the 30 Provincial Capital in China Based on Principal Component Analysis

In order to evaluate traffic safety level in the 30 provincial capital cities (except Lhasa) of China, the correlation between the number of traffic accident fatalities and social-economic factors were analyzed. It shows that the number of traffic accident fatalities in the provincial capitals cities of China is markedly correlative with the gross regional product (GRP), population, passenger traffic, and freight traffic. According to the correlation, six feasible evaluation indices were put forward, including fatalities per 100000 people population, fatalities per 100 million GRP, passenger traffic fatalness, freight traffic fatalness, fatalities per accident, and mortality of traffic accident. Then they were transformed into four uncorrelated principal components based on principal component analysis. Finally, the four principal components were used to estimate the evaluation score of traffic safety level for the 30 provincial capital cities. The 30 provincial capital cities were ranked by road safety level. The results show that the differences in road safety among the 30 provincial capital cities were comparatively distinct in 2006.