Road Safety Problems Research Articles

Specific road safety issues in LMICs: an overview and some illustrative examples

This paper gives an overview of the work of PIARC Working Group 3.1.1 ‘Specific road safety issues for LMICs’. The working group performed its activities in the period 2019–2023. We prepared two deliverables: (a) a literature review, and (b) an overview of illustrative examples. The review started from the notion that the road safety problem requires a multi-disciplinary approach. The safe system approach is generally considered as the central concept for this purpose and this starting point is also taken in this study. However new directions are needed to make the safe system concept work in LMICs. The period of the first UN Decade of Action for Road Safety has brought us a series of valuable problem analysis and overview articles prepared by a variety of institutions and institutes. As a PIARC working group we did not repeat this effort, but used it as a starting point to indicate which specific issues do require a boost in LMICs for the coming period up to 2030. We concluded that the following 12 issues deserve special attention. Strategical: (i) Sustainable Development Goals integral approach, (ii) safety culture, (iii) road safety management and leadership, (iv) building road safety expertise and science; Tactical: (v) transportation system as a whole, (vi) city design, architecture, land use, rural planning, (vii) cost effectiveness, (viii) legislation and enforcement; Operational: (ix) speed, (x) sustainable safe roads, (xi) vehicles as a safe system component, (xii) post-crash health care. As a result of our discussions and analyses we also concluded that it is worthwhile and necessary to make a distinction between the issues in terms of levels of approach. Making roads and vehicles safe may be considered as operational safety measures on a component level, whereas city design and transport system issues do represent a more tactical approach. On top of that, organisational and cultural aspects do have a more strategical nature. As in many managerial and planning tasks the distinction between strategical, tactical and operational levels of approach is needed in the road safety field. It illustrates that the Safe System concept asks for a multi-level vision, thus preventing a silo approach with a limited focus on human behaviour, safe roads or vehicle safety. A further analysis for each of the selected issues resulted in priority areas, i.e. topics that deserve special attention in the LMIC context. In a similar line of reasoning we also described illustrative examples, i.e. LMIC related before-after studies that show the perspective of certain measures on an evidence basis. Although we found some illustrative cases for each of these issues, our search for evidence based cases confirmed the findings from recent overview articles indicating the lack of LMIC related road safety research. A more widespread implementation of effective road safety measures in LMICs would require a stronger national commitment and leadership from the road safety agencies point of view in the first place. Moreover an evidence based policy asks for a strong national and regional knowledge infrastructure. Ultimately road safety policies and road safety research programs are to be considered as inseparable. A strong local knowledge infrastructure may thus become the basis for an effective national road safety policy.

Analysis of Children's Road Crashes in Hungary

In the EU, more than 6,000 children died in road accidents between 2011 and 2020. Children are particularly vulnerable road users, and they need to be protected. This underlines the importance of the Safe System approach. The Safe System approach is a holistic view of road safety, which integrates the different elements of the traffic system and takes human vulnerability and fallibility into account. Children are still in the phase of developing the cognitive and physical skills necessary to travel safely in traffic. Because of their small size, children are less visible than other road users and less experienced; they can easily become innocent victims in collisions. Despite significant improvements in vehicle safety in recent years, almost half of all child road deaths occur while traveling in cars. Limited data is available on the correct use of child seats in cars across the EU, but studies have shown that misuse remains a significant problem. Several measures have been taken in recent years to make it safer for children to travel on the roads, but many more interventions are needed to further improve their safety. Our research aimed to examine the characteristics of child accidents in Hungary and to highlight the main road safety problems affecting children in Hungary.

L’intoxication au protoxyde d’azote : un nouveau défi pour la biologie médicale

AbstractNitrous oxide (N2O) is a gas used in medicine for its anesthetic and analgesic properties, and in industry as an oxidizing gas or propellant. This gas is also available on self-service for food use. In recent years, its use has been increasingly diverted to recreational purposes. Between 2020 and 2021, the number of serious cases of intoxication increased by 320% in France, demonstrating a major public health concern. It is also a problem for road safety, with an increase in the number of road accidents linked to the consumption of this gas. Nitrous oxide causes both short-term effects (euphoria, disorientation, etc.) and long-term effects (sensory and motor neurological disorders and thrombosis). This gas acts on the central nervous system, inducing anxiolytic, anesthetic, antidepressant and analgesic effects. Nitrous oxide is difficult to quantify because of its rapid elimination. Biological investigation is thus based on secondary anomalies linked to vitamin B12 inactivation: increased methylmalonic acid and homocysteine levels. However, these two biological markers are not specific to nitrous oxide intoxication. To improve patient support, we need to find new biological markers that are more specific to nitrous oxide intoxication.

Drivers' use of different types of multimedia devices while driving - a survey study

Accidents and collisions continue to be an ongoing problem in road safety. While driving, drivers are influenced by stimuli that can affect their behaviour in various ways. Nowadays, various types of multimedia devices have become popular, which, when used by drivers while driving, can influence driver attention. The literature undertakes studies of the impact of such devices on the driver's degree of distraction as measured, for example, by the driver's reaction time. A survey was conducted to identify sources of driver distraction. A total of 237 drivers aged between 18 and 78 years participated in the sample. Of the respondents, 64.6% use a mobile phone while driving, 20.3% use a smartwatch, 33.3% use a multimedia control system for vehicle functions. Respondents indicated that they had either witnessed (18.1%) or been involved (6.3%) in a collision/accident when the driver used various types of multimedia devices while driving. Of those surveyed, 2.1% had caused a collision or accident by using a multimedia device while driving. Respondents are aware of the risks of using different types of media devices while driving, but they still use them. The analyses of the survey data will be used in future research using a car simulator.

Analysis of Road Infrastructure Problems in Urban City, Karachi

Road infrastructure is a significant part of the economic development of countries. Better performance of road communication system is significant part of all over the world. Developed countries make a significant effort for designing a well-managed traffic arrangement for the individuals. Furthermore, an efficient transport system is the key element for improving the country's economic conditions. Sustainable and efficient traffic management system is the backbone for humanizing the economic growth of developing countries. In case of Pakistan, Karachi is the main industrial hub for whole country's economy and accommodates enormous number of migrants. Due to this reason the population of city is increasing day by day. This paper presents the current situation of road infrastructure troubles in Karachi. The urban city is facing several numbers of issues that were already documented by researchers such as traffic congestion and road safety problems. On an urgent basis an efficient mass transit system is required to reduce the traffic jam conditions. The transport system of Karachi requires instant proper management rules and designed transport facilities. The aim of the paper is to identify the main traffic problems of the large urban city, Karachi, which is faced by the people in their daily life and to suggest recommendations for reducing the current situation related to traffic management strategies. The research methodology for this paper will be based on qualitative analysis of the road infrastructure troubles that are identified by the individuals through interviews and detailed group meetings.

An open dataset on individual perceptions of transport policies

Many cities are facing challenges caused by the increasing use of motorised transport and Hanoi, Vietnam, is no exception. The proliferation of petrol powered motorbikes has caused serious problems of congestion, pollution, and road safety. This paper reports on a new survey dataset that was created as part of the Urban Transport Modelling for Sustainable Well-Being in Hanoi (UTM-Hanoi) project. The survey of nearly 30,000 respondents gathers data on households’ demographics, perceptions, opinions and stated behaviours. The data are informative in their own right and have also been used to experiment with multi-scale spatial statistics, synthetic population generation and machine learning approaches to predicting an individual’s perceptions of potential government policies. The paper reports on the key findings from the survey and conducts a technical validation to contrast the outcomes to similar datasets that are available.

Distracted driving: its Causes and Effects

Distracted driving is a major problem for road safety as it is one of the main global causes of collisions and deaths. Distracted driving rates are still startlingly high even with major improvements in car safety systems and laws. This widespread problem demands a thorough examination of its origins and consequences, especially from the perspective of data science, which provides strong instruments and techniques for deciphering complicated events. All activities that take attention away from the core job of driving fall under the umbrella phrase of "distracted driving". Three broad categories of distractions exist: visual (distracting one's eyes from the road), manual (distracting one's hands from the wheel), and cognitive (distracting one's thinking from driving). Using a cell phone to text or chat, eating, drinking, interacting with other passengers, and modifying in-car entertainment or navigation systems are typical instances. Because distracted driving is a complex phenomenon that interacts with a range of environmental, behavioral, and technological factors, efforts to reduce its influence are made more difficult.

Examination of factors associated with the temporal stability assessment of crash severity by using generalised linear model-A case study.

Road crashes are a major public safety concern in Pakistan. Prior studies in Pakistan investigated the impact of different factors on road crashes but did not consider the temporal stability of crash data. This means that the recommendations based on these studies are not fully effective, as the impact of certain factors may change over time. To address this gap in the literature, this study aims to identify the factors contributing to crash severity in road crashes and examine how their impact varies over time. In this comprehensive study, we utilized Generalised Linear Model (GLM) on the crash data between the years 2013 to 2017, encompassing a total sample of 802 road crashes occurred on the N-5 road section in Pakistan, a 429-kilometer stretch connecting two big cities of Pakistan, i.e., Peshawar and Lahore. The purpose of the GLM was to quantify the temporal stability of the factors contributing crash severity in each year from 2013 to 2017. Within this dataset, 60% (n = 471) were fatal crashes, while the remaining 40% (n = 321) were non-fatal. The results revealed that the factors including the day of the week, the location of the crashes, weather conditions, causes of the crashes, and the types of vehicles involved, exhibited the temporal instability over time. In summary, our study provides in-depth insights aimed at reducing crash severity and potentially aiding in the development of effective crash mitigation policies in Pakistan and other nations having similar road safety problems. This research holds great promise in exploring the dynamic safety implications of emerging transportation technologies, particularly in the context of the widespread adoption of connected and autonomous vehicles.

Forward dynamics computational modelling of a cyclist fall with the inclusion of protective response using deep learning-based human pose estimation

Single bicycle crashes, i.e., falls and impacts not involving a collision with another road user, are a significantly underestimated road safety problem. The motions and behaviours of falling people, or fall kinematics, are often investigated in the injury biomechanics research field. Understanding the mechanics of a fall can help researchers develop better protective gear and safety measures to reduce the risk of injury. However, little is known about cyclist fall kinematics or dynamics.Therefore, in this study, a video analysis of cyclist falls is performed to investigate common kinematic forms and impact patterns. Furthermore, a pipeline involving deep learning-based human pose estimation and inverse kinematics optimisation is created for extracting human motion from real-world footage of falls to initialise forward dynamics computational human body models. A bracing active response is then optimised for using a genetic algorithm. This is then applied to a case study of a cyclist fall.The kinematic forms characterised in this study can be used to inform initial conditions for computational modelling and injury estimation in cyclist falls. Findings indicate that protective response is an important consideration in fall kinematics and dynamics, and should be included in computational modelling. Furthermore, the novel reconstruction pipeline proposed here can be applied more broadly for traumatic injury biomechanics tasks. The tool developed in this study is available at https://kevgildea.github.io/KinePose/.

Navigating the Road to Safer Travel in Pakistan: A Multi-Perspective Analysis of Road Safety Challenges and Solutions

With the growing global population, the demand for mobility and well-managed modes of transportation is increasing day by day. However, the rapid growth in motorization is a double-edged sword. On one side, it brings social and economic development; on the other, it results in severe consequences, such as road traffic crashes. Pakistan, a developing country, is also dealing with the same issue. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the road safety issues in Pakistan. The analysis is carried out from five perspectives: infrastructural, institutional, socio-economic, socio-cultural/behavioral, and educational. The study highlights that inadequate road infrastructure, lack of road safety institutions and policies, absence of a credible crash reporting system, poor and ineffective enforcement, road users’ aberrant behaviors, and lack of road safety awareness all contribute to road safety problems in Pakistan. To address these issues, the study proposes a set of key measures, such as expanding road infrastructure, establishing dedicated road safety institutions, centralizing data collection efforts, implementing comprehensive safety tests for vehicles, and organizing road safety seminars to educate the youth. These recommendations aim to enhance road safety, ultimately reducing fatalities and economic losses caused by road crashes in Pakistan.

Analysis of selected road traffic safety problems in Poland and Mazovia

In Poland, the risk of road safety is still one of the highest in the EU and, despite a 36% decrease in the number of fatalities, requires further intensive work to reduce the risk associated with travelling on the roads. In 2021, the National Road Safety Program for 2022-2030 was announced, which should be followed by regional programs. The article presents a set of information needed to diagnose traffic safety at the province level. Using the example of the Masovian Province, basic statistical data, road safety trends, basic risk indicators, the structure of accidents and fatalities from various perspectives were presented. In addition, the costs of accidents and collisions that occurred in the Masovian Province were shown. Based on the analyses conducted, the characteristic features and main road safety problems in the province were identified. The analyses and their results presented show that the annual costs of all road accidents in the Masovian Province, although decreasing, still significantly exceed the expenses planned in the province budget for a given year. Therefore, reducing the number of road incidents, especially accidents, and their consequences may bring significant savings to the province budget.

Play&Go Corporate: An End-to-End Solution for Facilitating Urban Cyclability

Mobility plays a fundamental role in modern cities. How citizens experience the urban environment, access city core services, and participate in city life, strongly depends on its mobility organization and efficiency. The challenges that municipalities face are very ambitious: on the one hand, administrators must guarantee their citizens the right to mobility and to easily access local services; on the other hand, they need to minimize the economic, social, and environmental costs of the mobility system. Municipalities are increasingly facing problems of traffic congestion, road safety, energy dependency and air pollution, and therefore encouraging a shift towards sustainable mobility habits based on active mobility is of central importance. Active modes, such as cycling, should be particularly encouraged, especially for local recurrent journeys (e.g., home–to–school, home–to–work). In this context, addressing and mitigating commuter-generated traffic requires engaging public and private stakeholders through innovative and collaborative approaches that focus not only on supply (e.g., roads and vehicles) but also on transportation demand management. In this paper, we present and end-to-end solution, called Play&Go Corporate, for enabling urban cyclability and its concrete exploitation in the realization of a home-to-work sustainable mobility campaign (i.e., ) targeting employees of public and private companies. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed solution we developed two analyses: the first to carefully analyze the user experience and any behaviour change related to the mobility campaign, and the second to demonstrate how exploiting the collected data we can potentially inform and guide the involved municipality (i.e., Ferrara, a city in Northern Italy) in improving urban cyclability.

Toward Information-Centric Vehicular Cloud: Technologies, Challenges, and Opportunities

At present, road-safety problems such as traffic accidents have become increasingly serious. In the next ten years, road safety problems will lead to 13 million deaths if no effective measures are taken. Rapid retrieval of road information can prevent most traffic accidents, so it is becoming an important measure to solve road-safety problems. However, with increasing complexity and diversification of road information, an individual vehicle can no longer produce the entire traffic and road information due to limitations of visual angles and resources. In this circumstance, the concept of Vehicular Cloud (VC) is proposed to enable resource sharing and collaboration among cloud members as a solution for overcoming resource limitations. In this article, we analyze the features of VC and the advantages of the information-centric model, and propose that the information-centric model could be an ideal solution for achieving VC. Then, we discuss the open challenges encountered in enabling VC using the information-centric model, and some possible solutions.

An Assessment of The Effect of The Average Speed Enforcement Systems on Lithuanian Roads

The speeding is a major road safety problem on the roads of Lithuania and many other countries. To reduce and control the speed of vehicles, engineering measures are installed on the roads of Lithuania and other countries – intelligent instantaneous and average speed enforcement systems, as well as many other engineering and structural speed reduction measures. The article presents good practices in the use of average speed enforcement systems, assessment of their effect on road safety. The article analyses the assessment results of the effect of the average speed enforcement systems installed on 25 sections of roads in Lithuania that have been operating for four years. Calculations of the effect factor of the installed average speed enforcement systems on road safety were performed using the before-and-after (B&A) method with a comparison group. Studies on the effect of application of speed control systems provide conditions for evaluating road safety, i.e., changes in road accidents linked to the effectiveness of implemented measures. The conclusions of the conducted study presented the calculations of the efficiency coefficients of the average speed enforcement systems on Lithuanian main and national roads. The analysis of the results of the conducted study allows stating that the installed average speed enforcement systems on 25 sections of Lithuanian roads increase overall road safety by 47%, reduce the number of collisions with animals by 80%, and the number of collisions with vehicles by 35%, as well as the number of other road accidents by 56%.

The self-reported psychosocial and legal factors contributing to drink and drug driving

Drug driving is recognised as a major road safety problem in many countries. In Australia, the primary response to this problem involved the adoption of roadside drug testing (RDT), which was modelled on the policies and practices used to conduct random breath testing (RBT) for alcohol. However, there remain important differences in the way that RDT and RBT are conducted, which might produce differential effects on drug and drink driving behaviour. In addition, various psychosocial factors are known to influence the two behaviours. Thus, there is a need to investigate the relative influence of legal and psychosocial factors on drug driving and explore how they may be similar or different to drink driving. Accordingly, this study utilised Deterrence Theory and Akers' Social Learning Theory, augmented by measures of dependence and a range of psychosocial factors, to examine the factors associated with self-reported drink and drug driving. An online survey was completed by 1394 licensed drivers from the three most populous states in Australia: Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. Self-reported drink and drug driving became more likely as level of dependence increased. In relation to legal factors, direct experience of avoiding detection was the strongest predictor of self-reported drink and drug driving. Among the psychosocial factors, a significant positive relationship was found between holding favourable attitudes toward both drink driving and drug driving and self-reported behaviours. The findings suggest that applying legal sanctions in isolation without addressing the psychosocial rewards and punishments for the behaviours is not sufficient to reduce drug or drink driving. Future research should identify countermeasures that integrate deterrence and psychosocial principles in order to reduce these risky driving behaviours.

A comprehensive approach to ensuring traffic safety by the police: modern European experience

The article is devoted to the problems of reducing the level of traffic injuries and ensuring road safety. The level of road traffic injuries on the roads of Ukraine indicates the need to improve the activities of the police and the state as a whole in this area, to make efforts in search of new strategies to increase the level of road safety and to implement effective and relevant technologies and measures, even in wartime conditions. The purpose of this article is to highlight and analyze modern European experience in ensuring traffic safety by the police. The article provides individual examples of modern approaches and measures to ensure road safety in the countries of the European Union (Germany, Poland, Sweden). As European experience shows, ensuring road traffic safety is not only measures of a regulatory and legal nature. The conditions for the effective influence of the police authorities on the state of safety in the field of road traffic are comprehensiveness in the combination of the mentioned measures with other modern informational and educational companies and the introduction of various modern technological innovations. It has been established that the achievement of significant progress in solving accident problems and increasing the effectiveness of police work in the specified area is due to a complex combination of a positivist (normative) approach with a multi-vector variety of social, organizational, technical measures and innovative methods of influencing the lawful behavior of various categories of road users . The study proves that the level of road deaths is lower not only in countries with stricter sanctioning systems, but also with more qualified police personnel and effective interaction between the police and other stakeholders in road safety. Taking into account the European experience of the police, promising directions for comprehensive solutions to road safety problems in our country have been outlined.

When policy hits the road: Safe System in Victoria’s policy environment

The Safe System approach has globally become the dominant means to address road trauma, with bodies such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, European Union, World Bank, World Health Organization, National and State Australian Governments and the United Nations encouraging its uptake. However, whilst there has been significant growth in its application, limited attention has been paid to the extent to which Safe System is integrated into public policy. Anecdotally, as an early adopter of the Safe System approach, Victoria’s experience acts an instructive case for other jurisdictions applying the concept to policy. Using an interpretive qualitative case study approach, this study explored whether a) Safe System has influenced Victoria’s road safety policy development to date, and b) if the extent to which Safe System has been integrated into public policy. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Victoria’s strategic, government-based, road safety decision-makers. Interviews were structured around the World Health Organization’s Policy Development Process framework.The results indicate that Safe System has an implicit role in Victoria’s road safety policy. When viewed through the lens of a policy integration framework, the analysis found only partial integration of the Safe System concept within road safety policy in Victoria, with limited flow-on effects of the framework on the policy frame, subsystems, goals and instruments. Governance frameworks, management structures and policy objectives are all influenced by Safe System, with the road safety problem having clearly been established as a cross-cutting issue. However, additional refinement of policy instruments to articulate the role of Safe System as well actively employing the approach in the policy development process is required. These findings confirm that while Victoria’s use of Safe System is noteworthy, it may be beneficial for the framework to feature more prominently in policy for it to have the intended effect on road safety.

A proactive decision support tool for road safety audit of new highway projects based on crash modification factors and analytical analysis: Algeria as a case study

The most cost-effective way to improve the performance of a new road is to integrate road safety into the early phase of the project design. Therefore, the information obtained from the design phase is simply used to get an overview of the project in place. This article proposes a simplified analytical tool to target road safety problems proactively, even before inspection visits. The study area contains 110 segments of 100 m long (inspection intervals) of a highway under construction, sited in Algeria in the locality of Ghazaouet, Wilaya of Tlemcen. The methodology adopted consists of combining the International Road Assessment Program (iRAP) and the multiple linear regression method to obtain a simplified analytical model, which allows the prediction of road risk for each section of 100 m. The results obtained showed a 98% correlation between the model values and the real values obtained by the iRAP approach. As a complement to the iRAP method, this approach facilitates the anticipatory assessment of road risks by road safety auditors. Eventually, this tool will support and guide auditors to be acquainted with the recent trends in the domain of road safety.

Comparison of CNN-Based Models for Pothole Detection in Real-World Adverse Conditions: Overview and Evaluation

Potholes pose a significant problem for road safety and infrastructure. They can cause damage to vehicles and present a risk to pedestrians and cyclists. The ability to detect potholes in real time and with a high level of accuracy, especially under different lighting conditions, is crucial for the safety of road transport participants and the timely repair of these hazards. With the increasing availability of cameras on vehicles and smartphones, there is a growing interest in using computer vision techniques for this task. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have shown great potential for object detection tasks, including pothole detection. This study provides an overview of computer vision algorithms used for pothole detection. Experimental results are then used to evaluate the performance of the latest CNN-based models for pothole detection in different real-world road conditions, including rain, sunset, evening, and night, as well as clean conditions. The models evaluated in this study include both conventional and the newest architectures from the region-based CNN (R-CNN) and You Only Look Once (YOLO) families. The YOLO models demonstrated a faster detection response and higher accuracy in detecting potholes under clear, rain, sunset, and evening conditions. R-CNN models, on the other hand, performed better in the worse-visibility conditions at night. This study provides valuable insights into the performance of different CNN models for pothole detection in real road conditions and may assist in the selection of the most appropriate model for a specific application.

REVIEW OF MODIFYING THE INDICATORS OF ROAD SAFETY SYSTEM

The new vision of road safety issue is based on a systematic approach called a “safe system’. This approach has been applied recently in some developed countries and resulted in a significant reduction in road fatalities. Alternatively, it is necessary to develop an index to use not only in assessing the size of the road safety problem but also to monitor the intermediate outcome of its operational performance. This paper aims to review the modified indicators of the operational performance of road safety systems based on the fundamentals of the ‘safe system’ vision. A methodology is presented to choose comprehensive, measurable, and independent indicators, which are relevant to the new vision and can be used to predict the conditions of the problem and enable actions to be taken to prevent road crashes from happening. In this methodology, the main indicators of road safety are classified into thematic indicators and individual indicators. These indicators are subjected to evaluation according to measurability, comprehensiveness, and availability of data. The final set of indicators is grouped into three thematic groups; safer road mobility, safer road user behavior, and safer vehicle. Based on the evaluation of the suggested indicators, it is concluded that the iRAP star rating is the most comprehensive, measurable, and dependent indicator to reflect the safer mobility indicator. Speeding, using a protective system, consuming psychoactive substances, and using a mobile phone while driving are chosen as safer road user behavior indicators. The EuroNCAP is chosen as the safer vehicle indicator.