In 2006 the Alberta Traffic Safety Plan noted the following Alberta statistics:

  • A traffic collision occurs every five minutes in Alberta.

  • On average, one person is killed and 65 injured in collisions every day.

  • Collisions kill six times as many people as homicide, eight times as many as AIDS, and 100 times as many as meningitis.

  • The costs associated with collisions in Alberta are $12 million per day, or more than $4 billion per year.

The statistics indicate that collisions are common and have significant costs both to property and people.

An intersection is essentially a planned point of conflict. Two roads, traveling in different directions, meet with drivers traveling in a variety of directions.  The greater the number of points of conflict, the greater the number of collisions.



Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay


Image by marcinjozwiak from Pixabay

To understand the scope of this problem, open an online map site that allows a satellite view.  Then find your house.  Use the satellite view, and zoom in as far as you can with a clear satellite image.  How many intersections are in your neighborhood?  Now find the intersection of 75th street NW and 98th Avenue NW in Edmonton by entering the address in the search area.  Zoom out and look at more of the city.  How many intersections do you think there are?  Now try the intersection of 17th Avenue SW and 14th Street SW in Calgary.  In cities such as Edmonton and Calgary, there are many intersections.

Bill and Kathy

At this point, you may wish to return to Assignment 3 to continue working on the questions.  Remember to re-save your updated Assignment 3 when you're done.