Gauging road safety advances using a hybrid EWM-PROMETHEE II-DBSCAN model with machine learning.

Introduction: Enhancing road safety conditions alleviates socioeconomic hazards from traffic accidents and promotes public health. Monitoring progress and recalibrating measures are indispensable in this effort. A systematic and scientific decision-making model that can achieve defensible decision outputs with substantial reliability and stability is essential, particularly for road safety system analyses. Methods: We developed a systematic methodology combining the entropy weight method (EWM), preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation (PROMETHEE), and density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN)-referred to as EWM-PROMETHEE II-DBSCAN-to support road safety monitoring, recalibrating measures, and action planning. Notably, we enhanced DBSCAN with a machine learning algorithm (grid search) to determine the optimal parameters of neighborhood radius and minimum number of points, significantly impacting clustering quality. Results: In a real case study assessing road safety in Southeast Asia, the multi-level comparisons validate the robustness of the proposed model, demonstrating its effectiveness in road safety decision-making. The integration of a machine learning tool (grid search) with the traditional DBSCAN clustering technique forms a robust framework, improving data analysis in complex environments. This framework addresses DBSCAN's limitations in nearest neighbor search and parameter selection, yielding more reliable decision outcomes, especially in small sample scenarios. The empirical results provide detailed insights into road safety performance and potential areas for improvement within Southeast Asia. Conclusion: The proposed methodology offers governmental officials and managers a credible tool for monitoring overall road safety conditions. Furthermore, it enables policymakers and legislators to identify strengths and drawbacks and formulate defensible policies and strategies to optimize regional road safety.