Abstract
Too often the identification of critical road sites is made by “accident-based” methods that consider the occurred accidents’ number. Nevertheless, such a procedure may encounter some difficulties when an agency does not have reliable and complete crash data at the site level (e.g., accidents contributing factors not clear or approximate accident location) or when crashes are underreported. Furthermore, relying on accident data means waiting for them to occur with the related consequences (possible deaths and injuries). A non-accident-based approach has been proposed by PIARC. This approach involves the application of the Human Factors Evaluation Tool (HFET), which is based on the principles of Human Factors (HF). The HFET can be applied to road segments by on-site inspections and provides a numerical performance measure named Human Factors Scores (HFS). This paper analyses which relationship exists between the results of the standard accident-based methods and those obtainable with HFET, based on the analysis of self-explaining and ergonomic features of the infrastructure. The study carried out for this purpose considered 23 km of two-way two-lane roads in Italy. A good correspondence was obtained, meaning that high risky road segments identified by the HFS correspond to road segments already burdened by a high number of accidents. The results demonstrated that the HFET allows for identifying of road segments requiring safety improvements even if accident data are unavailable. It allows for improving a proactive NSS, avoiding waiting for accidents to occur.
Highlights
Each homogeneous segment was analyzed in both directions; a merge of the results was made considering the worst results for each Human Factors (HF) demand; in processing the checklist of the first HF rule (4–6 s rule), the subsection 1 (“Moderation of transitional area” in Figure 6) was fulfilled for each identified critical point present in each homogeneous segments (HSs), and the worst result was retained in the Human Factors Score (HFS) calculation; if one type of critical point was present several times along one segment, the worst result was taken
The paper analyzed the effectiveness of a proactive road safety analysis procedure suitable for Network Safety Screening (NSS), which was based on the analysis of Human Factors aspects
The proposed procedure was based on the use of the Human Factors Evaluation Tool (HFET) proposed by PIARC [56]
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. APMs account for the systematic influence of road layout on accident occurrence and are developed by analyzing the historical accident trends occurring on similar road infrastructures using statistical procedures These models allow relating of the number of expected crashes on a site to its specific geometric and environmental characteristics [10]. The work was carried out as part of the CMRSS (Centro di Monitoraggio ReThis paper shows the results of applying an NSS procedure based on Human Factors gionale per la Sicurezza Stradale) research project of the Tuscan Region Administration. To test the effectiveness of the procedure, the results were out an NSS considering Human factors aspects through the application of the PIARC’s compared with those obtained by the application of a standard. Methods and those obtainable with HFET, based on the analysis of self-explaining and ergonomic features of the infrastructure
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