Traffic Safety Factors Research Articles

Analysis of Traffic Safety Factors and Their Impact Using Machine Learning Algorithms

The safety of road traffic is facing increasing challenges from a range of factors, and this study aims to address this issue. The paper describes the development of a model that assesses both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the current traffic situation and can also predict future trends based on monthly data on traffic accidents over a period of years. The dataset is composed of the number of accidents that occurred in the Pristina region over a 10-year period, and these are categorized based on the type of accident and safety factors, including human, vehicle, and road factors. By using machine learning algorithms, a model has been developed that determines the factor with the greatest impact on traffic safety. To create the model, the algorithms Multiple Linear Regression (MLR), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), and Random Trees (RT) were used. The model evaluates the contribution of human, road, and vehicle factors to traffic accidents, using machine learning algorithms and 36 types of traffic accidents to analyze the relevant statistics. The results indicate a very good fit of the model according to the MLR algorithm, and this model also identifies the road factor as the main influencer of the traffic safety level. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2024-010-09-06 Full Text: PDF

교통장애인의 교통복지 포용정책에 관한 연구:이동편의와 교통복지의 딜레마

The purpose of this study is to examine various policies to promote the mobility of people with transportation disabilities, to identify problems and improvement measures in terms of transportation welfare, and to identify dilemmas in transportation welfare inclusion policies due to the strengthening of transportation rights and regulations. The scope of the study is limited to the current situation in Korea since the enactment of the Act on the Promotion of Mobility Convenience for the Transportation Disadvantaged in 2005, and the spatial scope is limited to the central ministries that manage transportation welfare inclusion policies related to the promotion of transportation convenience for the transportation disabled in Korea and abroad. Although previous studies have provided facility functions, practical and policy alternatives for transportation safety of people with disabilities, the comprehensive status of transportation welfare of people with disabilities, analysis of media reports, laws, and case studies have been overlooked. When the transportation safety of people with disabilities becomes an issue, it is necessary to find out the key factors for solving the problem by their characteristics and focus policy resources to solve the problem. In conclusion, this study is expected to contribute to the current situation where social problems of people with transportation disabilities remain, by identifying trends in transportation welfare, which is an antecedent factor of traffic safety, to check the current status of transportation welfare support for people with transportation disabilities and to provide basic data for social welfare intervention.

The Impact of Cross-Cultural Customary Transportation on International Capital Flows

Economic globalization promotes the development of cross-border investment, and cultural differences in transportation between different countries also play an important role in this process. Starting from cross-cultural customary transportation, analyze the impact of public transportation on international capital flow, and propose economic and legal suggestions from the perspective of transportation governance, for the sake of promoting the effectiveness of international capital flow. By combining theoretical analysis and interdisciplinary integration methods, the study suggests if the "left-hand" rule is applied to the driving direction, it can increase the traffic safety factor, promote the effective development of public transportation, promote exchange rates and international balance of payments, and improve the dispute resolution on international investment. Starting from the socio-cultural perspective, this study aims to explore interdisciplinary issues between law and economics, providing reference and inspiration for social governance and policy formulation.

CHANGE IN THE NUMBER OF TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS IN THE LVIV REGION DURING 2019–2023

Current trends in the development and modernisation of transportation systems focus on safety. However, it is worth conducting an in-depth analysis of data related to traffic safety factors to maximise the safety emphasis in future strategies. This approach concentrates the efforts of engineers and scientists primarily on combating the causes of road accidents rather than their consequences, as is often the case today. The object of research in this article is the street and road network of Lviv region, as it is necessary to take into account the regional aspects of traffic and their differences in the country’s regions, given the density of streets and roads, climatic and hydrometeorological conditions, as well as the typology of roads. One of the scientific problems that the study’s results can partially solve is to identify time patterns and dynamics of changes in the number of road accidents in the Lviv region and compare the results with the targets set out in strategic documents in the field of road safety in Ukraine. The article analyses the data on the number of road traffic accidents in the region from 2019 to 2023. At the same time, it carries out the statistical distribution of traffic accidents by the causes of their occurrence. We also account for the time aspect – a breakdown by time of day and days of the week, including the general trend over the past years. We established that the dynamics of the number and severity of road accidents for the period under consideration is negative; however, the patterns of their occurrence persist, which explains the positive statistical result obtained due to quantitative but not qualitative factors affecting traffic safety. The results obtained are of more value from an engineering and scientific point of view, particularly in comparison with traffic accident statistics disseminated on information resources or social media. The analysis conducted in this article allows us to identify problematic areas in the functioning of both the bodies that ensure the safety and organisation of road traffic and transport systems. Keywords: road safety, road traffic accident, accident rate, transport systems.

Traffic Safety Factors and Observation of the Influence of Social Networks Based on the Example of the Republic of Serbia

Traffic Safety Factors and Observation of the Influence of Social Networks Based on the Example of the Republic of Serbia

Limited Response of Curve Safety Level to Friction Factor and Superelevation Variation under Repeated Traffic Loads

Although road horizontal curves are high-risk sections for accidents, current road safety assessments often neglect the dynamic evolution of superelevation and the friction factor. The connotation for road safety level was clarified by examining the significance of road factors in traffic safety through the systemic characteristics of roads. Among these characteristics, curve safety level is determined by the ratio of the supply and demand of the lateral friction factor. On the basis of international standards and specifications, this study clarified the design supply and demand of friction factors for curve by considering the distribution of tangential and lateral friction factors. Expanding on the steady-state bicycle model while accounting for road geometric parameters and vehicle operation characteristics, the lateral friction factor demanded for vehicles was quantified. Meanwhile, the characteristics of the friction factor supplied and the superelevation variation were analyzed by using the road service life as a variable, along with their influence on the actual supply of the friction factor and the curve safety level. The results of the analysis indicate a rapid decrease in curve safety level during the first two years of road utilization, followed by a slower declining trend, with a significant 27% reduction in curve safety level by the end of the second year. Furthermore, the decline in the curve safety level is mainly attributed to variations in the road surface friction factor, whereas the influence of superelevation variation on the curve safety level is restricted. In the absence of maintenance interventions, the curve safety level will decrease by over 30% after three years of operation. Controlling operational speed is one of the effective measures for ensuring traffic safety. Meanwhile, the impact of the friction factor and the superelevation variation on the curve safety level accumulates over time, thus causing drivers to have difficulty perceiving these alterations. Therefore, dynamic safety evaluations that account for the fluctuation in the friction factor and superelevation induced by repetitive vehicle loading must be undertaken.

The impact of different service states of tunnel lighting on traffic safety

The service states of tunnel lighting will directly affect the lighting conditions, which affect traffic safety. Therefore, it is imperative to evaluate and predict traffic safety accurately in different lighting states. In this research, three hundred experimental scenarios of the service states of tunnel lighting were designed and implemented to evaluate the impact of different service states of tunnel lighting on traffic safety. The evaluation was achieved through a visual identification experiment in a physical tunnel. The experimental results show higher simulated vehicle speeds pose a greater threat to traffic safety. The severity of lighting attenuation contributes to an increased risk to traffic safety. An increase in the number of luminaires failure also poses a greater threat to traffic safety. The newly proposed traffic safety factor was employed to evaluate traffic safety quantitatively in road tunnels. To improve the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the traffic safety factor prediction in different lighting service states, an advanced neural network prediction system was developed. The prediction system was constructed using the Sparrow Search Algorithm (SSA) to optimize Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) neural network, and the dataset from the experiment was used for the prediction model. The SSA-ELM neural network model is a reliable model that can predict the traffic safety factor comprehensively and accurately. The recommended threshold value for the traffic safety factor is 0.6. When the value falls below 0.6, it shows that the service states of tunnel lighting pose a threat to traffic safety in the tunnel. These findings can provide insights into the safe and energy-efficient maintenance of road tunnels.

Traffic safety assessment method of the immersed tunnel based on small target visual recognition image

The quality of lighting installation performance has a direct impact on the traffic safety of immersed tunnels. To effectively investigate and judge the traffic safety of immersed tunnels having different lighting installations, a traffic safety assessment method for immersed tunnels based on lighting performance degradation was put forward in this study by using big data technology. Numerical simulation was used to simulate the lighting environment in an immersed tunnel under different conditions of lighting performance degradation, conduct the small target recognition test in a physical tunnel, and calculate the traffic safety factor; then, a real-time kinematic assessment model of traffic safety in immersed tunnels was built in combination with the key index factors influencing lighting installations in immersed tunnels. The test results showed that the performance degradation of lighting installations positively correlated with the visual cognition of drivers and passengers. long short-term memory neural network model can effectively assess the traffic safety of immersed tunnels, and the root mean square error (RMSE) and coefficient of determination of the model were separately 1.029 and 0.95, which were superior to the RMSE and coefficient of determination of random forest and recurrent neural network model, and the running time was often less than 1min, complying with the rea; -time assessment requirements; the boundary value of the traffic safety factor of immersed tunnels was 0.6304, and if a value was less than the boundary value, it indicated that the performance of lighting installations was not good and might pose a threat to traffic safety. The research results provided a new perspective for the status assessment of lighting installations in immersed tunnels and also offered a theoretical basis for fine maintenance and repairs of lighting installations.

Traffic safety assessment and prediction under different lighting service states in road tunnels

The lighting service state of road tunnels has an important impact on traffic safety. To assess and predict traffic safety in road tunnels under different lighting service states, a traffic safety assessment system of road tunnels was innovatively established by using visual recognition clarity data from 300 field experiments, which uses the proposed traffic safety factor to assess the traffic safety of road tunnels under different lighting service states. Then, the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm is used to optimize the Back Propagation (BP) neural network, and a new traffic safety intelligent prediction method in road tunnels was constructed to predict the traffic safety factor under different lighting service states. The results of the study show that there is a negative correlation between simulated vehicle speed and visual clarity and a positive correlation between lighting attenuation and visual clarity. There is a negative correlation between the number of luminaire failures and the visual recognition clarity. When the lighting attenuation is below 70% or four and above luminaires fail, the lighting service states of road tunnels can seriously threaten traffic safety. The PSO-BP neural network model can accurately predict the traffic safety factor. The critical value of the traffic safety factor is 0.5965. This means that the lighting service state poses a threat to traffic safety in road tunnels when the traffic safety factor is lower than this value. The results of the study can provide the basis for developing a safe and low-carbon tunnel lighting maintenance program.

Research on Driver Emotion Classification Based on ECG Signals

Traffic includes factors that affect people, vehicles, and the environment. According to official data, traffic accidents caused directly or indirectly by human factors account for over 90% of the total number of traffic accidents, of which 70% are caused by vehicle drivers. Studying driver characteristics and considering driver factors in traffic safety has become an increasingly popular topic in the field of traffic safety. Driving emotions, as one of the driver characteristics, have a strong correlation with driving behavior. This article designs a simulated driving experiment and collects the electrocardiogram (ECG) indicators of drivers in driving with pleasure and anger during the experiment. The KNN clustering algorithm is used to classify and analyze the driver’s emotions.

How straylight affects driving ability

AbstractWe investigated how an increase in straylight affects the driving capacity of young, healthy volunteers between the ages of 20 and 40 years (i.e., people without cataract) in various real‐life driving circumstances using a driving simulator. This simulator allowed us to assess driving behaviour in a controlled, repeatable environment without risk to life or property, while providing a large set of parameters (speed, brake performance, deceleration, collisions, standard deviation of the lateral lane position, (SDLP), headway distance, etc.). The simulator used a fixed‐base setup with a force‐feedback steering wheel, an instrumented dashboard, brake, and accelerator pedals and with a 135° field of view. Participants had to drive along a certain course with of 6 traffic situations (e.g., crossing pedestrian, obstacle on the way, etc…) while wearing their own spectacle correction, both in the presence of a glare source and without. Next this was repeated while wearing a Tiffen Black Pro Mist (BPM) filter in front of their eyes and a glare source. These filters approximate the optical characteristics of cataract fairly well, where BPM 1 mimics simulates early cataract (which often prompts people to stop driving at night) and BPM 2 simulates serious straylight hindrance. Straylight was measured with the van den Berg straylight meter (C‐Quant).The results showed that increased straylight significant alters driving behaviour, such as a decrease in mean, maximum and minimum speed. The detection time and reaction time to an obstacle on the road was significantly longer with increased straylight. Consequently, straylight is an important factor in traffic safety driving conditions, causing altered driving behaviour and increasing collision risk in certain traffic situations.

Trend towards Helmet Usage and the Behavior of Riders While Wearing Helmets

Nowadays, it is relatively common to follow traffic rules, such as wearing a helmet and fastening seat belts, but accidents are increasing daily. Concerned with these traffic safety issues, this study focuses on the psychology of bike riders. First, a brief questionnaire is prepared by filtering some significant traffic safety factors. For effective results and analysis, a questionnaire survey (i.e., interviews) is conducted across different road junctions in Sargodha, Pakistan, with the assistance of traffic police. The data is analyzed through a multiple regression analysis, forming a different model for effective outcomes. A risk compensation hypothesis theory is considered; based on the questionnaire designed and the input received from participants, three models are developed with significant variables. The first two models evaluate the physical impact of helmets on riders/cyclists, while the third observes changes (in terms of obeying traffic laws) in behavior when wearing a helmet. It has been observed that cyclists wearing helmets may follow zigzag patterns while wearing helmets, which may cause accidents. Moreover, it has been observed that cyclists wearing helmets may be more responsible regarding traffic rules. These problems should be considered in creating effective traffic safety campaigns and policy making.

Contemporary methods of road safety risk management

The problem of road safety is an important factor in traffic safety, recognized as one of the main goals in the process of improving traffic safety. Improving both the capacity and safety of roads requires, along with large financial investments, planning and developing new tools in order to ensure prevention of traffic accidents and mitigation of their consequences. Establishing a road safety system is based on detailed knowledge of the current safety of the road, as well as on implementing adequate countermeasures that would eliminate existing safety risks. For this, traffic safety tools used for assessing safety are very important, especially in the road design stage, as well during assessment of traffic safety on the existing road.

Change of drivers’ functional condition during dangerous goods transportation

The study of the human factors in traffic safety is a relatively young scientific field that began to develop several decades before the mass car advent. The origins of transport psychology and psychophysiology were mostly aimed at creating more comfortable and safe driving conditions due to the design of highways. Over time, there was a need to take into account drivers working conditions, namely the ergonomics of vehicles. The latest works have already taken into account previous experience and considered the issues of freight and passenger transportation technological processes, including the human factor. Among the objects and subjects of research in previous works were considered the processes of driving vehicles with different ergonomic characteristics and buses of different capacities, which created a kind of case matrix for planning experiments. When it comes to trucks, the matrix of cases became much larger, as the set of ergonomic and dynamic features of vehicles adds a much wider set of specialization of cargo and truck types. In this case, the most important issue is to determine the road conditions impact the driver's functional condition, engaged in the transport of dangerous goods, which is the purpose of this article. The research used: methods of field survey to establish the values of traffic flow on highways; methods of in-house research to determine the value of road capacity; electrophysiological methods to determine changes in the driver's functional condition. The article describes the typing of road conditions according to their complexity, as well as the differentiation of drivers according to their psychological and professional qualities. Experimental studies of changes in driver's functional state of different age and socionic groups with different road conditions complexity, during dangerous goods transportation (second class of risk). The main results indicate that the analysis of traffic conditions' impact on the driver's functional state shows different dynamics of psycho-emotional stress change for people characterized by certain types of the nervous system and the ratio of their age to work experience.

Impact of autonomous truck implementation: rutting and highway safety perspectives

This study aims to evaluate the effect of the autonomous trucks on distresses of asphalt concrete (AC) pavement and determine the influence of the induced distresses on traffic safety factors in wet weather conditions. Two scenarios – the baseline and autonomous scenarios were simulated by the standard deviation of normally distributed truck traffic loading. Compared to baseline, all autonomous simulations have a negative impact on AC rutting, and corresponding skid resistance and hydroplaning potential. A graphical relationship has been proposed to obtain a design threshold value for hydroplaning speed of a standard tire, water film depth, and autonomous truck speed. This was proposed to remove the contradiction between hydroplaning speed and accumulated rutting with increasing truck speed. The placement of all autonomous trucks in a certain low-temperature period of a day was found to be beneficial for reducing asphalt pavement rutting and might bring improvement in highway safety issues.

Assessment of Tire Features for Modeling Vehicle Stability in Case of Vertical Road Excitation

Two trends could be observed in the evolution of road transport. First, with the traffic becoming increasingly intensive, the motor road infrastructure is developed; more advanced, greater quality, and more durable materials are used; and pavement laying and repair techniques are improved continuously. The continued growth in the number of vehicles on the road is accompanied by the ongoing improvement of the vehicle design with the view towards greater vehicle controllability as the key traffic safety factor. The change has covered a series of vehicle systems. The tire structure and materials used are subject to continuous improvements in order to provide the maximum possible grip with the road pavement. New solutions in the improvement of the suspension and driving systems are explored. Nonetheless, inevitable controversies have been encountered, primarily, in the efforts to combine riding comfort and vehicle controllability. Practice shows that these systems perform to a satisfactory degree only on good quality roads, as they have been designed specifically for the latter. This could be the cause of the more complicated car control and accidents on the lower-quality roads. Road ruts and local unevenness that impair car stability and traffic safety are not avoided even on the trunk roads. In this work, we investigated the conditions for directional stability, the influence of road and vehicle parameters on the directional stability of the vehicle, and developed recommendations for the road and vehicle control systems to combine to ensure traffic safety. We have developed a refined dynamic model of vehicle stability that evaluates the influence of tire tread and suspensions. The obtained results allow a more accurate assessment of the impact of the road roughness and vehicle suspension and body movements on vehicle stability and the development of recommendations for the safe movement down the road of known characteristics.

Perceived Lighting Uniformity on Pedestrian Roads: From an Architectural Perspective

Lighting uniformity is a key factor in traffic safety, and it could even result in energy savings for light installations. However, highly uniform horizontal road lighting for motorized vehicles may not be optimal for pedestrian roads. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the way in which pedestrians experience road lighting uniformity. Accordingly, we employed a qualitative approach to examine pedestrian road lighting uniformity. Visual analyses were used to exemplify and discuss the perceived uniformity. The case studies were performed on three pedestrian roads with similar light installations. The results show that the experience of road lighting uniformity differs substantially between the three roads. Based on the case studies, there are many aspects that need to be considered beyond the light falling on the horizontal surfaces. This study suggests that the visual experience of road lighting uniformity for pedestrians is difficult to estimate with photometric values because the visual impact of uniformity is highly influenced by the spatial context and landscape.

Determination of dynamic performance of freight cars taking into account technical condition of side bearers

Purpose. The railway transport plays an important role in social and economic life of the country and carries out the large containment of transportation activities. The transport industry should migrate towards innovation changes and increase its significance as an important transit subsystem on the way of renovation of both the infrastructure and the strategy of all transportation process components including the interaction with other transport modes. At present the life sets strategic challenges for the railway branch, and the basic goals among them are as follows: high-speed train traffic development, increase of the weight of freight trains, new rolling stock development etc. Due to the urgency of this subject, the researchers should cope with the task devoted to one of aspects of improving the freight transportation efficiency, namely to the study of effects of various factors and characteristics of technical conditions of the freight cars running gears (which are unavoidable to arise during operation) on their basic dynamic indices. The deviations of technical conditions of running gears from the normal state of the wedge system of bogie swing suspension also play an important role among them. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the influence of different factors of the technical conditions of freight car running gears (size deviation in both the bearers and the wedge system during operation) on their basic indices – coefficients of horizontal and vertical dynamics, vehicle body acceleration, frame strength, and derailment stability coefficient. Methodology. The study was conducted by numerical integration and mathematical modeling of the freight car dynamic loading using the software package “Dynamics of Rail Vehicles” (“DYNRAIL”). Findings. As a result of the research for freight car dynamic coefficients determination taking into account technical conditions of the side bearers, the dependencies of the basic freight cars dynamic coefficients on the parameters of side bearers (the clearances in the side bearers and the wedge system conditions of the bogie swing suspension) considering running speed in the tangent and curved track sections of minor and mean radii were obtained. Originality. The impact of the technical condition of the car running gears on the traffic safety factors is determined.Practical value. The theoretical research results in determination of freight car dynamic indices taking into consideration the technical conditions of the side bearers of freight cars allow for an adequate assessment of effect of the freight car bogies’ technical conditions, namely the bearers parameters, on the railway traffic safety factors (coefficients of horizontal and vertical dynamics, vehicle body acceleration, frame strength and derailment stability coefficient).

An Evaluation of Executive Control Function and Its Relationship with Driving Performance.

The driver’s attentional state is a significant human factor in traffic safety. The executive control process is a crucial sub-function of attention. To explore the relationship between the driver’s driving performance and executive control function, a total of 35 healthy subjects were invited to take part in a simulated driving experiment and a task-cuing experiment. The subjects were divided into three groups according to their driving performance (aberrant driving behaviors, including lapses and errors) by the clustering method. Then the performance efficiency and electroencephalogram (EEG) data acquired in the task-cuing experiment were compared among the three groups. The effect of group, task transition types and cue-stimulus intervals (CSIs) were statistically analyzed by using the repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the post hoc simple effect analysis. The subjects with lower driving error rates had better executive control efficiency as indicated by the reaction time (RT) and error rate in the task-cuing experiment, which was related with their better capability to allocate the available attentional resources, to express the external stimuli and to process the information in the nervous system, especially the fronto-parietal network. The activation degree of the frontal area fluctuated, and of the parietal area gradually increased along with the increase of CSI, which implied the role of the frontal area in task setting reconstruction and working memory maintaining, and of the parietal area in stimulus–Response (S–R) mapping expression. This research presented evidence of the close relationship between executive control functions and driving performance.

Discussion on Influencing Factors of Traffic Safety in Highway Route Design

Discussion on Influencing Factors of Traffic Safety in Highway Route Design