Road Safety Problems Research Articles

A novel tripped rollover prevention system for commercial trucks with air suspensions at low speeds

This paper presents a novel system to avoid tripped rollovers at low-speed operations for commercial vehicles with air suspension systems. This is of particular significance since truck rollovers have become a serious road safety problem, which usually lead to severe injuries and fatalities. Several active anti-rollover systems have been proposed in the past two decades; however, most of them focus on untripped rollover prevention instead of the tripped rollovers. Up to now, very few pieces of literature discuss the approaches that are used to avoid tripped rollovers of trucks. Furthermore, the air suspension is widely used for commercial vehicles, thus it provides an opportunity to prevent rollovers when properly manipulated. Therefore, a novel tripped rollover prevention system is proposed for trucks at low-speed operations with air suspensions. A roll dynamics model with an air spring is built to investigate the dynamic behavior and the time response of the whole system. More importantly, the feasibility of this new anti-rollover system is discussed and verified by the co-simulations in TruckSim and MATLAB/Simulink under two possible tripped rollover conditions.

Sleep loss and change detection in driving scenes

Driver sleepiness is a significant road safety problem. Sleep-related crashes occur on both urban and rural roads, yet to date driver-sleepiness research has focused on understanding impairment in rural and motorway driving. The ability to detect changes is an attention and awareness skill vital for everyday safe driving. Previous research has demonstrated that person states, such as age or motivation, influence susceptibility to change blindness (i.e., failure or delay in detecting changes). The current work considers whether sleepiness increases the likelihood of change blindness within urban and rural driving contexts. Twenty fully-licenced drivers completed a change detection ‘flicker’ task twice in a counterbalanced design: once following a normal night of sleep (7–8 h) and once following sleep restriction (5 h). Change detection accuracy and response time were recorded while eye movements were continuously tracked. Accuracy was not significantly affected by sleep loss; however, following sleep loss there was some evidence of slowed change detection responses to urban images, but faster responses for rural images. Visual scanning across the images remained consistent between sleep conditions, resulting in no difference in the probability of fixating on the change target. Overall, the results suggest that sleep loss has minimal impact on change detection accuracy and visual scanning for changes in driving scenes. However, a subtle difference in response time to change detection between urban and rural images indicates that change blindness may have implications for sleep-related crashes in more visually complex urban environments. Further research is needed to confirm this finding.

CAUSES OF ACCIDENTS AND CRITERIA OF CONTROL ON THE ROADS

[For the English abstract and full text of the article please see the attached PDF-File (English version follows Russian version)]. ABSTRACT In the article, which has a nature of a review, the views of domestic and foreign researchers on the problems of road safety on roads, the causes of accidents and ways to prevent them are analyzed. Attempts are made to trace the main trends of scientific research in this field, including those that concern diagnostic criteria and indicators for assessing safety of passenger vehicles, as well as the human factor in all its contemporary manifestations. Keywords: road safety, passenger motor transport, accident rate, diagnostics, control criteria, prevention of violations, human factor.

SAFETY IN TRANSPORT OF PERSONS AND GOODS IN POLAND

The problem of road safety is an important problem that accompanies mankind from the very beginning of the development of communication. Based on the statistics, the article presents the analysis of road traffic safety in our country over the past few years and shows how it shapes compared to other European Union countries. The main reasons, which lie behind the situation, are also identified as well as the ways and directions of actions that are taken to minimize the effects of road accidents. The pace of reduction of the number of fatalities and injured on Polish roads is still unsatisfactory and therefore far-reaching measures to counteract such a situation have to be taken. These steps are based on normative provisions and long-term actions supported by the media and various types of advertising campaigns. The article also presents the issues related to the road transport of dangerous goods, which, due to the specific nature of the cargo carried, is subjected to special treatment and governed by international regulations and arrangements under the ADR Agreement.

Most common road safety engineering deficiencies in South Eastern Europe as a part of safe system approach

Most common road safety engineering deficiencies identified by the authors in South Eastern Europe, including Romania, have been collected together and presented in this paper as a part of road safety unbreakably connected to the safe system approach (driver-vehicle-road). In different South Eastern Europe countries Road Safety Audit (RSA), Road Safety Inspection (RSI), as well as Black Spot Management (BSM) was introduced and practical implementation experience enabled the authors to analyze the road safety problems. Typical road safety engineering deficiencies have been presented in 8 different subsections, based on PIARC (World Road Association) RSA approach. This paper presents collected common road safety problems with relevant illustrations (real pictures) with associated accident risks.

Emotions, behaviour, and the adolescent driver: A literature review

BackgroundThe intractable global road safety problem of the overrepresentation of young drivers in road crashes, despite a plethora of intervention, suggests that innovative approaches to understanding – and thus intervening in – road crash risks is required. The current research recognises that young drivers frequently are adolescents, and that adolescence is characterised by rapid physical, psychological, cognitive, and social development, each of which interacts with, contributes to, and is impacted upon by a wealth of negative, neutral and positive moods and emotions. The literature regarding relevant to adolescent drivers and emotions between 1 January 2005 and 30 September 2015 will be synthesise, in addition to posing future research questions regarding adolescents, emotions, and driving behaviour. ResultsOne hundred and three peer-reviewed articles were identified, and these were summarised within emotions and the adolescent (44 papers); emotions, the adolescent, and driving risks (23 papers); emotions, the adolescent, and risky driving behaviour (30 papers); and emotions, the adolescent, and road safety interventions (6 papers). The findings were synthesised within the context of the characteristics of the adolescent driver, their emotions, the driving context and their driving behaviour, including a pictorial representation of two temporal models depicting the sequence via which emotions can impact upon adolescent driving behaviour (Path A in which the adolescent driver experiences emotions after entering the car; Path B in which the adolescent experiences emotions before entering the car). Discussion and implicationsThe relatively recent proliferation of literature pertaining to adolescents, emotions, and their driving behaviour suggests that the breadth of research questions posed in relation to the domains of the adolescent driver, their emotions, the driving context, and their driving behaviour are timely. Indeed, recent applications of systems thinking within road safety, including young driver road safety specifically, maintain that a holistic approach to the understanding of who plays what role in this system that currently contributes to crash risks, and conversely can play a role in effective and efficient intervention, is essential before the real world realisation of a safe road system. Addressing these research questions are fundamental to sustaining progress on the path to young driver road crash prevention through a safe young driver road safety system.

Curb-to-Barrier Face Distance Variation an a TB51 Bridge Barrier Crash Test Simulation

Abstract This paper addresses the problem of road safety regarding barrier placement as relative to the curb. A short summary of existing regulations is presented. Numerical simulations using the explicit finite element system Ls-Dyna are shown. In the analysis, variable distance between the barrier and the curb is assumed. The obtained result reveals that the distance has little impact on the working width of the barrier.

Are you okay to drive? Commuting behavior and blood alcohol concentrations among restaurant diners

ABSTRACTObjective: Drink driving is widely recognized as a major road safety problem. In Australia, health promotion messages encourage monitoring the number of standard drinks consumed prior to driving. This pilot research aimed to investigate commuting behavior and blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of diners, including intended drivers, at Sunshine Coast restaurants.Methods: Five hundred and forty-four diners (n = 260 males) consented to participate in a brief interview and to use a breathalyzer device to measure their BAC.Results: Forty percent of participants advised they don't drink and drive (34% of males, 45% of females; 67.25% of <17–20 years, 30.5% of 50–59 years), and of the remaining participants, 75% advised they count the number of their drinks (69% of males, 84% of females; 32% of <17–20 years, 82% of 50–59 years), while 10% of participants monitored their BAC by how they were feeling (12% of males, 6% of females). Thirty-seven percent of participants said it was easy/very easy to estimate their BAC (41% of males; 33% of females; 21% of <17–20 years, 43% of 50–59 years). The actual BAC was less than expected for 56% of participants, with one-third underestimating BAC and some intended drivers having an actual BAC in excess of the 0.05 limit.Conclusions: Given the proportion of diners who reported they count the number of drinks, or use feelings as a way to gauge BAC, coupled with the considerable proportion who underestimated their BAC, a safer public health message is to avoid driving if you intend to drink. In addition, targeted intervention for experienced drivers (and, arguably, drinkers) appears warranted, as every participant aged less than 21 years who stated he or she would drive home indeed had a zero BAC. Interestingly every female driver who stated she would be driving home also had a legal BAC, suggesting gender-specific intervention.

Enhancing roll stability of heavy vehicle by LQR active anti-roll bar control using electronic servo-valve hydraulic actuators

ABSTRACTRollover of heavy vehicle is an important road safety problem world-wide. Although rollovers are relatively rare events, they are usually deadly accidents when they occur. The roll stability loss is the main cause of rollover accidents in which heavy vehicles are involved. In order to improve the roll stability, most of modern heavy vehicles are equipped with passive anti-roll bars to reduce roll motion during cornering or riding on uneven roads. However these may be not sufficient to overcome critical situations. This paper introduces the active anti-roll bars made of four electronic servo-valve hydraulic actuators, which are modelled and integrated in a yaw-roll model of a single unit heavy vehicle. The control signal is the current entering the electronic servo-valve and the output is the force generated by the hydraulic actuator. The active control design is achieved solving a linear optimal control problem based on the linear quadratic regulator (LQR) approach. A comparison of several LQR controllers is provided to allow for tackling the considered multi-objective problems. Simulation results in frequency and time domains show that the use of two active anti-roll bars (front and rear axles) drastically improves the roll stability of the single unit heavy vehicle compared with the passive anti-roll bar.

Children road traffic injuries in Poland

Abstract Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of child mortality in Poland, resulting in more deaths than cancer or birth defects. We present the main problems of road safety and the nature of the causes and consequences of accidents among children based on the World Health Organization Report. Children injuries are one of the main problems in modern medicine requiring vigorous and preventive actions. Children of all ages should be intensively involved in the educational activities related to road safety. Raising awareness concerning the risks associated with children’s participation in traffic as well as the awareness of parents and carers can greatly reduce the number of accidents.

REPLACE: A Reliable Trust-Based Platoon Service Recommendation Scheme in VANET

The fast development of intelligent transportation has paved the way for innovative techniques for highways, and an entirely new driving pattern of highway vehicular platooning might offer a solution to the persistent problem of road congestion, travel comfort, and road safety. In this vehicular platooning system, a platoon head vehicle provides platoon service to its user vehicles. However, some badly behaved platoon head vehicles may put the platoon in danger, which makes it crucial for user vehicles to distinguish and avoid them. In this paper, we propose a reliable trust-based platoon service recommendation scheme, which is called REPLACE, to help the user vehicles avoid choosing badly behaved platoon head vehicles. Specifically, at the core of REPLACE, a reputation system is designed for the platoon head vehicles by collecting and modeling their user vehicle's feedback. Then, an iterative filtering algorithm is designed to deal with the untruthful feedback from user vehicles. A detailed security analysis is given to show that our proposed REPLACE scheme is secure and robust against badmouth, ballot-stuffing, newcomers, and on-off attacks that exist in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). In addition, we conduct extensive experiments to demonstrate the correctness, accuracy, and robustness of our proposed scheme.

Conceptual Approach to Improving Road Safety by Improving Reliability of Equipment

The article deals with the problems of road safety, transport logistics, maintenance of motor vehicles.

New innovative educational method to prevent accidents involving young road users (aged 15-24) – European Road Safety Tunes

The article presents a new teaching method designed to improve road safety among young road users. Developed under “European Road Safety Tunes”, this international project was cofunded by EU DG MOVE. Its main aim is to improve road safety and minimize the number of road accidents, injuries and fatalities among road users who are 15-24 years old. The Safety Tunes method contains a series of workshops addressed to young vocational school students: cyclists, moped and motor riders and car drivers. The workshops incorporate peer and emotive education, and delivery of road safety related messages through different types of artistic forms. The topics tackled during class address awareness of possible risks and risk-behaviour, prevention of distraction and reduction in young fatalities and serious injuries on the road. All actions within the project are evaluated, both in terms of the impact of the workshops on students’ attitudes towards road safety problems and in terms of process assessment.

An Adaptive Clustering Mechanism for Data Dissemination in Urban Scenario

For the past few decades, there is a lot of advancement especially in communication technologies which provide an implementation of various networks in different environments. Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) is one of the end products of that evolution leading to have a greater scope in the near future. There is a lot of research that is going on VANETS in countries like US, Japan, and European Nations. The main reason for this is due to the standardization of VANETS in combination with infrastructure based communication contributes a new era in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). This ITS enabled vehicles can be used for high level of transportation from conventional controlled car to an autonomous vehicle. ITS deals with road safety, faster transport, Collision avoidance and many other transportation problems that are faced in real time scenarios. A lot of researches have focused on VANET algorithms, routing protocols, broadcasting techniques and security related issues. Broadcasting in VANETS is highly unreliable due to the Broadcast storm problem. This can be minimized with the help of modified broadcasting technique by splitting the region based on density and followed by clustering mechanism. Such type of context aware mechanisms leads to increase in efficiency and Quality of service (QoS) of the system.

Road Safety Management ‒ The Need for a Systematic Approach

In order to achieve significant improvements in road safety at the national level, there is a need for a systematic approach to road safety management with clear responsibilities and accountability. In this paper – after a review of the literature on guidelines, recommendations and research findings – twelve essential elements of such a systematic approach are pointed out, and corresponding relevant issues are discussed. These elements are: 1) Define the burden and nature of road casualties; 2) Gain commitment and support from decision makers; 3) Establish road safety policy; 4) Define institutional roles and responsibilities; 5) Identify road safety problems; 6) Set road safety targets; 7) Formulate a strategy and action plan; 8) Allocate responsibility for measures; 9) Ensure funding; 10) Apply measures with known effectiveness; 11) Monitor performance; and 12) Stimulate research and capacity building. The main conclusions are that: a) Monetary values of statistical life have to be established; b) The police register of accidents should be combined with the hospital register; c) Exposure data for all types of road users is necessary; d) The three-dimensional analysis of road safety problems should be employed; e) Safety performance indicators should be used; f) Only countermeasures with known effectiveness should be applied; g) Performance of countermeasures should be monitored on a yearly basis; and h) Commitment from decision makers is decisive!

Not all minds wander equally: The influence of traits, states and road environment factors on self-reported mind wandering during everyday driving

Inattention is a road safety problem, but few studies have focused specifically on mind wandering during everyday driving. This paper explores differences in self-reported mind wandering according to driver demographic characteristics (including age and gender), cognitive traits (such as tendency toward cognitive failure or mindful attention), states (such as feeling tired or stressed) and road environment factors (such as route familiarity). Five hundred and two participants (113 male, average age 44.4 years, SD=14.0years) completed a series of questionnaires (Mindful Attention and Awareness Scale (MAAS), Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) and Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ)), as well as study-specific questions about mind wandering during different personal states and across a range of road and traffic situations. All respondents reported mind wandering during driving at least some of the time. Mind wandering was more likely to be reported on familiar roads than on unfamiliar roads and when drivers are tired. Drivers who reported relatively more mind wandering were younger, reported less mindful attention in daily life, more cognitive failures, and more driving violations and lapses. Together, the findings suggest that mind wandering is common in everyday driving, however any link with crash risk remains unclear. Future research using self-report and naturalistic methods could provide more insight into relationships between mind wandering, error and crash risk.

Attention Assist: A High-Level Information Fusion Framework for Situation and Threat Assessment in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Driver inattentiveness constitutes the main cause of road accidents, which makes it a major factor in road safety. In this paper, we propose a comprehensive framework to address the road safety problem by tackling it from a high-level information fusion standpoint, considering vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) as the deployment platform. The proposed framework relies on the multientity Bayesian networks (MEBNs), which exploit the expressiveness of first-order logic for semantic relations, and the strength of the Bayesian networks in handling uncertainty. First, the entities that influence the inattention phenomenon, as well as both their causal and semantic relationships, are identified. Next, an MEBN-based high-level information fusion framework is proposed through which entities, situations, and their relationships in specific contexts are modeled using MEBN fragments. Furthermore, MEBN inference is used to assess the situations of interest by estimating their states. To demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed framework, a collision warning system simulator has been developed, which evaluates the likelihood of a vehicle being in a near-collision situation using a wide variety of local and global information sources available in various VANET environments. If the threat of being in a near-collision situation is determined to be high, then the driver is warned accordingly. Our experimental results for two distinct single-vehicle and multivehicle categories of driving scenarios, as well as a novel hybrid MEBN inference, demonstrate the capability of the proposed framework to efficiently achieve situation and threat assessment on the road.

SCHEME OF CROSSING WITH INTENSIVE VEHICLE TRAFFIC

[For the English abstract and full text of the article please see the attached PDF-File (English version follows Russian version)].ABSTRACT Severity and urgency of road safety problem at intersections of highways with railways require not only a sound and long-term control strategy for reducing a number of accidents and a risk of an accident at regulated crossings, but also continuous improvement of technical equipment of control plots by devices intended to prevent possible collision of cars with rail rolling stock. The proposed model of a gateway scheme of a crossing concerns conditions of passage through railway tracks of a motor transport moving with a high intensity (more than 7 thous. vehicles per day). Gateways with barriers and laser sensors-informants are added to standard devices, order of movement is adjusted, causing significant loss of crossing capacity, while safety increases fivefold. Keywords: railway crossing, safety, gateway scheme, road vehicle, transit capacity. REFERENCES 1.Road Traffic Rules 2015 (RTR2015/2016) [Pravila dorozhnogo dvizhenija 2015 (PDD2015/2016 g.)]. 2.Crossings of Russian Railways: analytical materials / Department of track and structures of JSC Russian Railways [Pereezdy Rossijskih zheleznyh dorog: analiticheskie materialy / Departament puti i sooruzhenij OAO «RZhD»].Moscow, Akademkniga publ., 2004, 152 p. 3.Number of accidents at crossings of Moscow Railway have diminished by more than twice [Press release of Moscow Railway - a subsidiary to JSC Russian Railways: in Russian].[Electronic resource] http://mzd.rzd.ru/news/public/ ru?STRUCTURE_ID=12&layer_id=4069&refererPageId =704&refererLayerId=3941&id=113298.Last accessed 15.12.2015. 4.CRB-757.Instructions for signaling on railways of the Russian Federation, 2015 [CRB-757. Instrukcija po signalizacii na zheleznyh dorogah Rossijskoj Federacii, 2015 g.].

An Experimental and Analysis Study on Vibration Control Devices Called as Hybrid Scaling - Frame

Rapid growth in vehicles has been observed in many developing countries in recent years. The number of vehicles has grown but non-motorized vehicles have not disappeared. The presence of dissimilar modes of travel results in unsafe roads. Additional factors that exacerbate the traffic problem in these countries are the tendency of users to not observe traffic rules and the lax enforcement of traffic rules by law enforcement agencies. The combination of these factors can be deadly for road users. For example in India, a total of 134,513 people lost their lives to road accidents in 2010 compared to 32,885 road fatalities in the US during that year. Are roads in developing countries unsafe? Such questions are explored in this paper. Researchers who have studied road safety problems in developing countries have suggested measures to improve safety. Specifying interventions alone will not be sustainable in the long run. Road safety is a complex matter with multiple dimensions. One of the prerequisites for interventions to be effective and sustainable is better institutional management of the safety problem. The paper explores the factors that indicate whether a lead institution to manage the road safety problem will need to be set up before interventions are implemented and safety targets are set.

Evaluating Driver Distraction Factors in Urban Motorways. A Naturalistic Study Conducted in Attica Tollway, Greece

Over the last years, distracted driving possesses a leading position among accident causes and it constitutes an increasing road safety problem with disastrous results. Considering external factors of distraction as highly significant, they can be grouped in four categories: built roadway, situational entities, natural environment, and built environment. The fourth category, related to civil infrastructure and commercial land use, combined with high vehicle speeds that occur in motorways, might contribute to the creation of a very dangerous environment, increasing driver distraction and inattention. Through accurate research, solid results can emerge and traffic safety can be enhanced. The present study deals with driver distraction caused by out-of-the-vehicle factors, as well as factors related to the driver, such as age, gender, driving experience etc. It covers the distraction of driver attention during driving due to external factors that are not related to the main task of driving, resulting in impairments to driver attention and decision-making ability and hence the driver’s overall performance. For this purpose, we assess the side effects of numerous road elements, such as information signs, roadside advertising, Variable Message Signs, toll buildings, noise barriers/panels etc. to driver attention. The study is based on a medium-scale experimental procedure which took place in Attica Tollway, the Ring Road of the Athens metropolitan area, which was part of a larger research project conducted by the University of Thessaly, Department of Civil Engineering that included a total of three urban freeways in Greece. In order to create the appropriate research basis and to use as reliable data as possible, the gaze tracker FaceLab software was used on a sample of 29 drivers. Each participant drove 51 km on Attica Tollway, both in level terrain with 3 lanes and speed limit up to 120 km/h and in rolling terrain with 2 lanes and speed limit up to 80 km/h. The distraction of driver attention is evaluated via a continuous recording of his/her gaze, which acts as the main indicator regarding driver performance. The results of this procedure, analyzed via Captive software, are focused on the time that the driver’s gaze remained on each of the road elements under research. The analysis offers conclusions on different aspects - driver, road element and the road in total - comparing and categorizing the results by using a 4-level timescale from 0 to 2 seconds. This study can be used as a tool that can help in understanding and limiting the use of roadside elements that are not related to the execution of the driving task, but that may serve as potential causes of distraction. The results of this type of research procedures are very useful in preventing the forthcoming pressure for more billboards and trademarks on the roads, as well as in encouraging the adaptation of more precise regulations relating to the road infrastructure, the placement of roadside elements, etc.