A Combined Approach to Address Road Traffic Crashes beyond Cities: Hot Zone Identification and Countermeasures in Indonesia

Addressing fatalities on road is a major concern in most countries in the world. South-East Asian countries are no exception. In Indonesia, three persons die on road every hour. Understanding where and how road traffic crashes happen is imperative before the most efficient countermeasures can be devised and implemented. In this paper, three tools—hot spots, hot zones and hot clusters—are used to identify sections of two main highways in the Province of Aceh that require most urgent action. Many countermeasures have been developed to address the problem of black sites (hot spots). Examples of implementation often come from Australia, Europe or North America. Less research exists on countermeasures in hot zones, even less so in the Global South (less developed countries from Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America). This research applies quantitative spatial analysis that builds on existing works using the hot zone methodology and goes a step further by suggesting relevant countermeasures. More precisely, by taking into consideration the global urban-rural divide, this paper attempts to identify the most dangerous highway sections, in Indonesia, and to suggest appropriate hot zone countermeasures based on the characteristics of these hot zones. The results showed that urban highways, when compared to rural highways, were characterized by higher crash rates and a larger number of hot zones. Formulating hot zone countermeasures in urban environments should therefore consider their associated dangerousness and environmental features. Proposed countermeasures in urban roads include a stricter monitoring of the use of helmet, seat belt and cellphone, and the development of periodic communication and awareness campaigns.