There is significant spatial clustering of traffic accident locations in Quezon City

09 Mar 2026

The surge in urban vehicular traffic volume over the past decade has resulted in a rise in the occurrence of traffic accidents in busy streets and thoroughfares. These have resulted in fatalities, property damages, and economic setbacks which have profound impact on our daily living. Due to this, the analysis of the clustering of traffic accidents about certain locations using various spatiotemporal techniques has become a focal point in recent studies. However, such an analysis in major urban cities in the Philippines, like Quezon City, remains scarce until now. Moreover, access to relevant data collected by numerous government agencies is limited.

To address these issues, the current study aims to identify locations where traffic accidents mostly occur in Quezon City and to observe how their behaviors change over a 27-week period using publicly available data gathered from the official Twitter account of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA). Accident locations were extracted from each tweet primarily by using models trained with accident “keywords” and were subjected to a set of statistical tools to locate and map accident hotspots.

Our analyses show that there is significant spatial clustering of traffic accident locations in Quezon City for the period considered. A stable hotspot was detected along EDSA North Avenue, a disappearing hotspot was found along Commonwealth Litex, and an emerging hotspot was observed along CP Garcia Avenue. The method that we proposed in this study can help promote a data-driven approach to policy making and encourage the use of publicly available data from social media platforms to uncover insights about vehicular traffic accidents in real-time.

The study’s significance lies mainly in its potential to address major public health and economic issues, specifically in the context of traffic accidents. Traffic accidents have been the leading cause of death among younger people, with these accidents also having a significant economic impact, as seen in Metro Manila, where traffic accident-related events have led to a significant loss in GDP based on data published by the MMDA. By identifying accident hotspots and gathering insights through observing their patterns, the study aims to enhance traffic management, policies, and overall road safety. Another significant contribution of the research is the feasibility of using crowdsourced data through social media platforms in addressing problems in the country such as traffic accidents and congestion, leading towards other possible research and use cases for social media data in geospatial applications.

Authors: Mario G. Ugalino Jr., Jason Benedict B. Guillermo, Czar Jakiri S. Sarmiento, Erica Erin E. Elazeguia (all from the Department of Geodetic Engineering, College of Engineering, University of the Philippines Diliman)

Read the full paper: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3009662

There is significant spatial clustering of traffic accident locations in Quezon City

The surge in urban vehicular traffic volume over the past decade has resulted in a rise in the occurrence of traffic accidents in busy streets and thoroughfares. These have resulted in fatalities, property damages, and economic setbacks which have profound impact on our daily living. Due to this, the analysis of the clustering of traffic accidents about certain locations using various spatiotemporal techniques has become a focal point in recent studies. However, such an analysis in major urban cities in the Philippines, like Quezon City, remains scarce until now. Moreover, access to relevant data collected by numerous government agencies is limited.

To address these issues, the current study aims to identify locations where traffic accidents mostly occur in Quezon City and to observe how their behaviors change over a 27-week period using publicly available data gathered from the official Twitter account of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA). Accident locations were extracted from each tweet primarily by using models trained with accident “keywords” and were subjected to a set of statistical tools to locate and map accident hotspots.

Our analyses show that there is significant spatial clustering of traffic accident locations in Quezon City for the period considered. A stable hotspot was detected along EDSA North Avenue, a disappearing hotspot was found along Commonwealth Litex, and an emerging hotspot was observed along CP Garcia Avenue. The method that we proposed in this study can help promote a data-driven approach to policy making and encourage the use of publicly available data from social media platforms to uncover insights about vehicular traffic accidents in real-time.

The study’s significance lies mainly in its potential to address major public health and economic issues, specifically in the context of traffic accidents. Traffic accidents have been the leading cause of death among younger people, with these accidents also having a significant economic impact, as seen in Metro Manila, where traffic accident-related events have led to a significant loss in GDP based on data published by the MMDA. By identifying accident hotspots and gathering insights through observing their patterns, the study aims to enhance traffic management, policies, and overall road safety. Another significant contribution of the research is the feasibility of using crowdsourced data through social media platforms in addressing problems in the country such as traffic accidents and congestion, leading towards other possible research and use cases for social media data in geospatial applications.

Authors: Mario G. Ugalino Jr., Jason Benedict B. Guillermo, Czar Jakiri S. Sarmiento, Erica Erin E. Elazeguia (all from the Department of Geodetic Engineering, College of Engineering, University of the Philippines Diliman)

Read the full paper: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3009662