Road Operation Research Articles

Legal regulation of responsibility for violation of traffic rules in Ukraine

The article is devoted to the study of legal regulation of responsibility for violation of traffic rules in Ukraine. Analyzing official statistics, it can be stated that the number of traffic accidents has decreased significantly in recent years compared to previous years. But despite this, almost every day the news is full of information about road accidents that have fatal consequences. In such a situation, it is simply dangerous to count on the professionalism of drivers, the serviceability of vehicles, the responsibility of pedestrians, and the safety of the transport infrastructure. Currently, it does not matter who you are - a pedestrian, a driver, or a passenger - every road user must understand the importance and necessity of following the rules of the road. Very often, the main incentive for compliance with such rules of conduct by all road users is the normatively established responsibility for their violation. The normative-legal regulation of responsibility for violation of traffic rules aims to protect social relations in the field of ensuring road traffic safety and fixes the following types: civil, administrative, criminal.
 The issue of legal regulation of responsibility for violations of traffic rules in Ukraine plays a significant role because it has significant potential for improving the quality of life of citizens, developing the country's economy by implementing the fundamental goal of legal regulation of road safety - reducing the number of road accidents and saving the lives of Ukrainian citizens.
 The peculiarity of civil liability for violation of traffic rules is compensation for damage caused by the use of vehicles, which is a source of increased danger.
 Administrative responsibility for violation of traffic rules consists in applying fines to road users for violation of the mentioned rules, operation of transport and roads.
 Criminal liability in the field of road traffic safety arises if, during the use of a vehicle, a danger to life, human health, property, environmental safety, public safety, rights and legitimate interests of citizens, enterprises, institutions, organizations is created.

Geotechnical conditions of in-field road design in northern territories of Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (Tomsk)

The Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District is the largest hydrocarbon resource base, supplying up to 300–330 billion m3/year of gas and up to 10–15 million t/year of liquid hydrocarbons. Mineral extraction is accompanied by the development of engineering infrastructure, namely: cluster pads, oil storage tanks, pumping stations and automobile roads that link both within and between sites. The area is unique in terms of complexity of geotechnical conditions due to permafrost soils in particular in the upper open-cast. The assessment of geotechnical conditions of the field development as well as adverse processes, hazards, risks and impacts on designed, constructed and operating roads to the cluster pads is undoubtedly relevant.Purpose: The evaluation of geotechnical conditions of design, construction and operation of in-field roads in the Severo-Komsomolsk field.Methodology/approach: The analysis and generalisation of materials of geotechnical surveys for design and construction documentation of the cluster pad 11 in the Severo-Komsomolsk oilfield, performed by AO "TomskNIPIneft". Determination of composition and physical properties of undisturbed soils taken when equipping observation posts, performed in the Laboratory of Ground Science and Soil Engineering, TSUAB.Research findings: Natural and geotechnical conditions of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District includes areas with hard frozen soil and areas with complete or partial absence of permafrost soils. In the first case, the subgrade design envisages that the upper permafrost horizon is not lower than the embankment bottom and remains at this level during the entire period of the road operation. In the second case, the design implies preliminary thawing of frozen soil lenses and road drainage prior to the subgrade construction. In the first case, the position of perennially frozen soils is evaluated by the appropriate embankment height, when non-cemented road-building materials are used, and by arranging heat-insulating layers (peat, polystyrene foam, hard frozen soil) with their thermotechnical calculation. The first principle implies the subgrade construction only in winter. To prevent deformation of embankment slopes, it is recommended to build peat benches fixed with a geosynthetic material. Land reclamation in the road construction zone should be avoided to prevent erosion of the soil cover.

Adequacy of a road design model to a real object in the context of digital transformation

The relevance of combining BIM information modeling technology and digital twin technology into the SIM-AD information modeling system for managing the construction and operation of roads throughout the life cycle is substantiated. The key provision of this new digital technology is to provide bidirectional communication between a real physical object and a virtual object - its digital model. Throughout the life cycle of a highway, a large amount of information is developed and stored, however, due to its disunity and insufficient level of intellectual support, asset management decisions are not always adequate and timely. One of the hard-to-solve problems of automating the design of transport facilities is the complexity of a formalized description of the processes of interaction between elements of a road structure and changing natural and climatic factors at a linear facility. The developed scheme for including the method of spatial zoning of the road route based on complex engineering surveys in SIM-AD allows you to create a digital twin model with the decomposition of the object into design and technological modules, which more reliably take into account the influence of natural polystructures on the elements of the road structure. Digital twin instance models are designed to record the current state of the operated object and environmental parameters based on sensors installed in the same type of linear and lumped design and technological modules. Systematic diagnostics and accumulation of statistical information on the mutual influence of building elements and environmental factors will serve as the basis for planning effective measures at the stages of maintenance, repair and reconstruction of roads.

ЗАХОДИ З ПОКРАЩЕННЯ ЕКОЛОГІЧНОГО СТАНУ ДОВКІЛЛЯ У ЗОНІ ВПЛИВУ АВТОМОБІЛЬНИХ ДОРІГ

Introduction. In the context of the modern development of the automotive industry and the road sector as a whole, the level of technogenic load on the environment from the operation of the road complex is increasing. Therefore, measures to minimize the negative impact of the operation of roads are becoming increasingly important. Problem Statement. Unlike the countries of the European Union, Ukraine has not properly developed the provision of environmentally friendly technologies, the introduction of regulatory and legal support for the mandatory integration of environmental policy into other documents containing the principles of state, sectoral regional and local development, the introduction of approaches to environmental, socio-economic development planning, the elimination of the dependence of economic growth on the increased use of natural resources and increased environmental pollution, the formation of a system of environmental protection from the impact of roads - these principles are the basis for the development and implementation of a set of measures to ensure environmental safety in the road sector. Purpose. To determine the level of environmental safety of the entire road complex, to identify changes in the environmental legislation of Ukraine, and to analyze the strategy of the state environmental policy of Ukraine.

VEHICLE TRACKING AND SPEED ESTIMATION FROM UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES USING SEGMENTATION-INITIALISED TRACKERS

Abstract. We propose an effective vehicle tracker and speed estimation method from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) videos that can be deployed on UAV-embedded edge devices. Our tracker uses segmentation-derived vehicle regions to initialise a MOSSE tracker. This enables road operators to make multipurpose use of segmentation outputs while still being able to track the vehicles across frames. The vehicle speed is estimated using flight parameters derived from the UAV's flight computer and the vehicle displacement across frames. We trained CABiNet on the UAVid urban segmentation benchmark dataset and finetuned it on a dataset collected at our study site. A mean Intersection over Union (mIoU) of 0.73 was obtained for the vehicle class. Our segmentation-initialised MOSSE tracker was evaluated on the VisDrone Multi-Object Tracking (MOT) benchmark dataset and compared against traditional methods that utilise object regions for tracker initialisation. Our approach yielded a Multi-Object Tracking Precision (MOTP) of 0.872 compared to 0.830 when using YOLOv4. Our vehicle speed estimations approach was evaluated using a privately collected ground truth vehicle speed dataset. Our approach yielded a Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) between 3.42 and 16.12 km/hr across different flight configurations. Finally, our approach was deployed on an NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX edge device and could be executed at 8 Frames Per Second (FPS). The results indicate that our approach is a simple yet fast alternative to traditional tracking methods while producing multipurpose segmentation information.

The place of comprehensive environmental and analytical assessment of the impact of the "CRE" system on environmental components in the EIA procedure

Problem. The operation of highways has a wide and multi-component impact on all components of the environment. Environmental Impact Assessment of roads is crucial for assessing the potential environmental consequences of road construction and operation. It is advisable to conduct this assessment based on a systemic analysis using a hierarchical structure for a comprehensive evaluation of the impact of the "CRE" system on the environment. Goal. The goal is to present the results of a comprehensive ecological-analytical assessment of the impact of roads on environment, which can be effectively used in the EIA procedure. Methodology. The 'CRE' system was analyzed using system analysis. Prioritization and weight coefficients for each element of the hierarchy were determined using expert-analytical assessments with the use of the MAI software complex. For a rapid assessment of the impact of road operation on the state of environment and the accumulation of heavy metals (HM) in vegetation and roadside soils, natural measurements and atomic absorption spectrometry methods were employed. Results. The expert-analytical research results revealed the contributions of each component within the complex hierarchical structure. Accumulation of HM in the roadside areas, including pollution of vegetation and soil, exceeding the permissible levels, was confirmed. Rank series were constructed: accumulation of HM in vegetation and soil samples, vegetation according to the property of accumulation of different HM in them. Originality. The study proposed a comprehensive assessment of the impact of road operation on the components of environment through an ecological-analytical evaluation of the developed hierarchical 'CRE' structure, resulting in the determination of weight coefficients and priorities of each element in the hierarchy's contribution to the environmental impact through expert-analytical assessment using the T. Saaty AНР method. Practical value. Using the proposed systematic approach in the EIA procedure for roads at every stage of their life cycle can improve control quality and the effectiveness of environmental protection measures, reducing environmental impact.

A Case Study on Detection of Cavity in Urban Roads Using 3D Ground Penetrating Radar

In recent years, urban roads collapse accidents often occur, which seriously threatens the safety of people’s lives and property and the order of urban operation, and has a huge social impact. Therefore, it is very necessary to carry out road cavity detection and eliminate the hidden dangers of road operation safety. Three dimensional ground penetrating radar (GPR) technology is a new technology developed in recent years. At present, it has been widely used in road detection. This paper briefly introduces the process of urban roads detection using 3D GPR, and introduces an example of cavity detection. The results show that the effect of 3D GPR in road cavity detection is remarkable, which is worth popularizing.

A Study on the Research on road operation management system architecture design for cooperative traffic control support and spatial data processing

A Study on the Research on road operation management system architecture design for cooperative traffic control support and spatial data processing

Mechanical Properties and Neural Network Prediction of Cement Fly Ash-Enhanced Roadbed Soil in Seasonal Frozen Zones Under Short-Term Curing

The freezing and thawing of roadbed soils in seasonal frozen zones can cause uneven settlement and other road problems, which puts road operation at risk. This paper focuses on the rapid construction of expressways and analyzes the effects of using fly ash and cement as modifiers on the physical properties and chemical composition of subgrade soil. The study found that cement admixtures can improve soil mechanical attributes and frost resistance, while also increasing the degree of fly ash hydration. And the freeze-thaw cycle process can enhance the mechanical characteristics of soils with higher cement admixture content. This is due to the development of hydrates in cement fly ash-enhanced soils during freeze?thaw cycles, resulting in a denser interior structure. The use of neural network prediction analysis showed that using ANN4-10-3 to forecast soil mechanical property parameters can produce superior results. Therefore, it is recommended to use cement fly ash-enhanced soil for roadbed construction in seasonal freezing areas, and neural network can be used to predict soil mechanical parameters.

Introduction of a new index to assess pavement functional condition

AbstractFor most countries, the construction of the road network is completed to a great extent. As a result, the road operators have focused on the management of the current road constructions. The pavement management systems have been the determinative answer to the above need finding the optimal and more efficient solution which minimizes the maintenance cost. In this context, the present paper aims at the development of an index that assesses sections of road networks based both on the pavement essential demands and surface characteristics. This project presents a model for the rating of highway sections taking into consideration criteria and sub-criteria related to the pavement function. The developed model has been formed based on the opinion of a group of experts. The technique of the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) has been used to mathematically analyze the above opinions and manipulate uncertainty and subjectivity. This method ends up by calculating the weights of significance which are the factors of the index equation. The index is composed in combination with the variables which have come up from the regular measurements of pavement characteristics assessing the pavement functional condition. The results are compared to those of the regular AHP highlighting the degree of influence by the uncertainty of experts’ judgments in some factors of the index. Furthermore, the suitability and ease in the fitting of the FAHP method are verified in pavement management problems. In this project data related to the checks on surface characteristics in the National Highway Network are displayed.

Discussion on Construction Technology of Road Subgrade in Civil Engineering

With the rapid development of cities, more and more new roads are built in various civil engineering projects. Subgrade construction is the core of road engineering system. Only by comprehensively ensuring the quality of road subgrade can the road performance be effectively improve and the development of urban construction be ensured. The quality of subgrade determines the traffic capacity of urban roads and plays a decisive role in the safety and stability of traffic. This article mainly analyzes the problems of road subgrade construction in civil engineering, and comprehensively puts forward countermeasures, so as to effectively improve the subgrade construction quality and ensure the smooth operation of roads.

Road-Side Unit Anomaly Detection

Actors of the Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) generate various amounts of data. Useful information on various issues such as anomalies, failures, road profiles, etc., could be revealed from the analysis of these data. The analysis, could be managed by operators and vehicles, and its output could be very helpful for future decision making. In this study, we collected real data extracted from road operators. We analyzed these streams in order to verify whether abnormal behaviors could be observed in the data. Our main target was a very sensitive C-ITS failure, which is when a road-side unit (RSU) experiences transmission failure. The detection of such failure is to be achieved by end users (vehicles), which in turn would inform road operators which would then recover the failure. The data we analyzed were collected from various roads in Europe (France, Germany, and Italy) with the aim of studying the RSUs’ behavior. Our mechanism offers compelling results regarding the early detection of RSU failures. We also proposed a new C-ITS message dedicated to raise alerts to road operators when required.

JUSTIFICATION OF THE ACCURACY OF GEODESIC WORKS DURING THE INSPECTION OF THE BRIDGE IN RIVNE

Bridges are important structures for the safe operation of roads, railways and pedestrian areas. The purpose of this work is to substantiate the accuracy of geodetic works during the inspection of bridges. There are no requirements for the accuracy of such works in state construction standards. The relevance of this problem consists in the fact that it is necessary to perform any geodetic work with optimal accuracy, which, on the one hand, excludes excessive costs for geodetic equipment, and on the other, guarantees the safe functioning of the engineering structure. Based on such calculations, it is possible to choose geodetic equipment with appropriate characteristics and select measurement methods. Three options for calculating the required accuracy of geodetic measurements are considered: by the deviation of the top of the piles from the design position in the plan, by the deviation of the top of the bridge supports from the vertical and by the limit deflection of the beams-slabs of the bridge floor. As values for the marginal errors of geodetic work, it is suggested to choose the smaller value of the three options. The developed method was tested during the survey of the bridge is on Joliot Curie Street in Rivne. Based on the calculation results, the ground survey method chosen using the free station method with an electronic reflectorless total station Leica TCR 405 ultra, which provides the necessary accuracy and is the most economical. All elements of the bridge have been coordinated and the geodesy survey of the upper part of the bridge and the surrounding area has been carry out. According to the results of geodetic works, the tilts of the column-piles, the deflections of the longitudinal load-bearing beams-panels were calculated, and the plan of the top of the bridge was constructed. So, the geodetic work performed provided a high-quality examination of the bridge and allowed construction engineers to formulate the measures necessary for the further safe operation of this bridge structure. The scientific novelty and practical significance of this work consists in the fact that a methodology has been developed for substantiating the accuracy of geodetic works during the inspection of bridge structures, which guarantees the safe functioning of the bridge structure.

Road Asset Management System and Operation and Maintenance of World Bank-Funded Roads in Lira City, Uganda

Purpose: This study examined the contribution of road asset management to the operations and maintenance of World Bank funded roads in Lira City East division. Specifically, the study focussed on the effect of data collection, data management; and data analysis on operation and maintenance of World Bank funded roads in Lira City East division.
 Methodology: The study adopted a cross-sectional study design, which employed a mixed methods approach of both quantitative and qualitative methods. The study population consisted of 82 respondents, which involved political leaders, technical staff and city development forum (CDF) members of Lira City East division. Both the Simple random sampling technique and purposive sampling technique were used to select a sample of 71 participants. The researcher adopted Self-Administered Questionnaires to collect quantitative data and an interview guide to collect qualitative data. Both descriptive statistics, and inferential statistics were used to analyse numerical data. Content analysis was used to analyse qualitative data.
 Findings: The findings revealed a statistically significant positive relationship between road asset management and the operation and maintenance of World Bank funded roads. Further, it was revealed that data collection, data management and data analysis yield a significant effect on operation and maintenance of World Bank funded roads in Lira City East division.
 Unique contribution to theory, policy and practice: The study concluded that road asset management significantly affects operation and maintenance of World Bank funded roads in Lira City East division. It is encouraged that, for proper functionality and operations of world bank funded roads in Lira City division, the authorities of Lira City east division should do periodic inspection of all the roads, engage knowledgeable personnel in the collection of data on the conditions of all the road assets so that it can be used as a basis of decision making during the development of work plan and budgets for road maintenance. This study contributes an original and empirical-evidence of the contribution of road asset management on the operation and maintenance of roads in Lira City East division.

Prospecter l’acceptation située d’une technologie en contexte professionnel – une étude qualitative exploratoire sur l’exploitation de la route

This paper proposes to prospect the future activity of road operation professionals in relation to cooperative intelligent transport systems in three phases that use the dimensions of situated acceptance as a reading framework. We propose a protocol that can be used to prospect future activity before confronting the technology with its future users. This protocol starts with the analysis of the technological functionalities, continues with an analysis of the current activity and ends with a confrontation of the two. The application of this protocol has enabled us to highlight, at each stage, complementary elements useful for anticipating the impacts of the technology and their acceptability by the actors involved. We will conclude this article by discussing the role of this methodological proposal in a more global approach to the transformation of work in relation to technology, to be used in association with simulation workshops, for example.

Cybersecurity regulatory challenges for connected and automated vehicles – State-of-the-art and future directions

The technological advancements of Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) are outpacing the current regulatory regime, potentially resulting in a disconnect between legislators, technology, and CAV stakeholders. Although many studies explore the regulatory requirements of operations of CAVs, studies on regulatory challenges specific to the cybersecurity of CAVs are also emerging and receiving lots of attention among researchers and practitioners. However, studies providing an up-to-date synthesis and analysis on CAVs regulatory requirements specific to cyber-risk reduction or mitigation are almost non-existent in the literature. This study aims to overcome this limitation by presenting a comprehensive overview of the role of key Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) stakeholders in CAV's cybersecurity. These stakeholders include road operators, service providers, automakers, consumers, repairers, and the general public.The outcome of this review is an in-depth synthesis of CAV-based ITS stakeholders by visualising their scope in developing a Cybersecurity Regulatory Framework (CRF). The study demonstrated the compliance requirements for ITS communication service providers, regulatory standards for CAVs automakers, policy readiness for CAVs customers and the general public who interact with CAVs, and the role of the CAVs Network Operator Centre in regulating CAVs data flow. Moreover, the study illuminates several critical pathways necessary in future for synthesizing and forecasting the legal landscape of CAV-based transportation systems to integrate the regulatory framework for CAV stakeholders. The paper's findings and conclusions would assist policymakers in developing a comprehensive CRF.

Enhancing Risk Assessment in Toll Road Operations: A Hybrid Rough Delphi-Rough DEMATEL Approach

This study aims to identify significant risks and their relationship to the successful operation of the Trans-Sumatra toll road in Indonesia. The research utilizes the Delphi and DEMATEL methods, along with rough set analysis, to identify and evaluate 28 risks associated with toll road operations in Sumatra. The research identifies 13 dominant risks, including policy changes, government intervention, inflation, financial distress, fluctuation of interest rate, fluctuation of currency, high cost of maintenance, low volume of traffic, competitive routes, overloading vehicles, many infrastructure defects, and natural disasters. In this case, natural disasters, inflation, and vehicles with excessive loads are the most dominant cause factors because those risks have the highest cause value based on the cause-effect diagram. Furthermore, the prominence diagram reveals that income risk, policy changes, and financial distress have notable implications for operational activities. The study presents a MCDM risk assessment approach that incorporates rough set analysis, providing a comprehensive understanding of the critical risk relationship factors for toll road operations. By integrating rough set analysis, this research contributes to the field of toll road operations and risk assessment. The identified risks and their relationships serve as a foundation for developing effective strategies for toll road operational management. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2023-09-09-03 Full Text: PDF

Mobility Data for a Safer and Greener Transport

Traffic network operators are using several channels to share their traffic related data, on one hand because of legal obligation, on the other hand to ensure a higher level of service for their customers. Of course, the value chain, and the provided content will change a lot with the emerge of connected and automated driving, or with the spread of Mobility-as-a-Service solutions and Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) related data sharing in the near future. This paper gives a comprehensive overview of the current practice in Hungary, introducing the ways of distributing multimodal traffic related information, some existing services that were implemented based on these automatic data channels. The paper also gives an overview on the ongoing transition towards automatic data provision and how the regular road operators’ role change to digital road operators, furthermore the European harmonisation process that was started in the framework of the Napcore project.

How a Game Theoretic Approach Can Minimize the Cost of Train Passenger Services: An Intermodal Competition between Rail and Road Transport

Game theory models provide very powerful tools for evaluating strategies that are beneficial to both rail and road operators competing for passengers on parallel routes. This study examines how game theory can help rail operators who are incurring losses on passenger transport to identify strategies that can minimise costs, using the methodology of dual linear programming to analyse strategies. In identifying the best strategies for minimising costs for the railway operator, the best strategies for maximising profits for the road operators are also identified. The game model is set up between two passenger transport operators (rail and road) and is based on the income earned by the road operators from passengers. This study illustrates the following: how the strategies of the two competitors (rail and road) are determined; the formation of the payoff matrix and the presentation of the mathematical problem for the two competitors; and the results and verification of the best strategies for both competitors. The Leonid Hurwicz criterion was used to verify the optimal strategies.

An Investigation of the Influence on Compacted Snow Hardness by Density, Temperature and Punch Head Velocity

The density, temperature, and punch head velocity are dominant factors to the variation of the compacted snow hardness measured by penetrometers. This effect is essential to the construction and operation of compacted snow roads. The Improved Motor-driven Snow Penetrometers (IMSP) are utilized in this research to control the penetration speed and measure the true cone hardness during snow penetration. This study employs a multi-method approach combining orthogonal experiments and the Support Vector Regression (SVR) technique to analyze the effects of these three factors on snow hardness. The results of this investigation indicate that, under identical conditions, density is positively correlated with the hardness of compacted snow, and its sensitivity and significance to the compacted snow hardness are the greatest. Temperature and penetration speed have an effect on hardness, which cannot be completely ignored. The hardness of snow close to its melting point, regardless of its density, decreases significantly at high penetration rates. This study investigates the factors that influence the hardness of compacted snow and provides substantial technical support for the design, construction, and maintenance of snow roads.