Road Reserves Research Articles

Maintenance of Roads Implemented under the Roads 2000 Strategy in Central Kenya

Road maintenance is an integral component of the low-volume sealed roads provision process, the type and cost of which are influenced significantly by decisions made during the preceding planning, design, and construction phases. Low-volume sealed roads are particularly sensitive to the whims of the physical environment so timely and effective control of their deterioration becomes the key challenge to the management of road maintenance. In Kenya, the Kenya Roads Board (KRB) holds the mandate for funding, oversight, and coordination of road maintenance, rehabilitation, and development through the optimum utilisation of resources for a sustainable road network. Each year, KRB finances the maintenance of the road network through the Kenya Roads Board Fund (KRBF). The Fund is distributed among the road agencies charged with maintenance. KRB reviews, individually, the Annual Road Works Programmes (ARWPs) submitted by Road Agencies and consolidate these ARWPs into an Annual Public Roads Programme (APRP). This study aimed at assessing the level and prioritisation of maintenance of the completed and handed-over projects under the Roads 2000 strategy. The condition of the carriageway was assessed, as well as the resilience and adaptation measures in place to respond to climate change. For climate resilience, data such as erosion, problematic soils, drainage from the road and its near environment as well as from outside the road reserve, instability of embankments and cuttings, construction issues and maintenance problems were collected using a standard form for rating against each data type. The assessment conducted on the performance of the side drainage showed that the majority of the roads have side drainage with inadequate depths and are not free-flowing. The high roughness values obtained, which were deduced to be as a result of distresses such as rutting and potholes, were concluded to be as a result of inadequate and untimely maintenance of the surface of the road. The recommended maintenance strategy should be such that interventions for the defects such as cracks, potholes, and edge breaks, among others are carried out as soon as they are identified. It was observed that all the roads surveyed did not have adequate adaptability measures for climate resilience. It was recommended that the Annual Road Inventory and Conditional Survey (ARICS) incorporates the collection of additional data in the assessment on issues that touch on climate resilience, the assessment of which should inform the implementation of appropriate adaptation techniques to improve the climate resilience of the completed roads, and more so the low volume sealed roads

"More a Matter for Medical Men": The King's Road Reserve Relocation and Public Health in Early 20th-Century Sydney, Nova Scotia.

The forced removal and relocation of the King's Road Reserve in Sydney, Nova Scotia, between 1915 and 1926 is a key example of how settlers used public health discourses to dispossess Indigenous lands in Canada. At the turn of the twentieth century, non-Indigenous Sydney residents lobbied the government to remove the Mi'kmaw reserve, which was located in an expanding downtown core. They justified this removal by arguing that Mi'kmaq were public health threats to themselves and their white neighbours. Ottawa responded to this case, and other cases across Canada, by implementing section 49A of the Indian Act in 1911. This amendment allowed settlers to request an Exchequer Court trial to rule on urban reserve relocations if land surrenders could not be obtained. The King's Road Reserve relocation has yet to be examined with a medical lens. Doing so illuminates the centrality of medical expert testimony during this particular episode of twentieth-century colonialism.

Environmental and public health risks of urban agriculture in Kisumu city, Kenya

Kenya's blueprint on national development (Vision 2030) is based on the principles of sustainable development and it has prioritized agriculture to drive economic development. The current Kenya’s Constitution (2010) provides for the right to a clean and healthy environment as well as to food of good quality. The aim of this study was to determine the environmental and public health risks of crops grown in the privately- owned land within Kisumu City, Kenya. This study was premised on the assumption that farm produce from privately – owned land is relatively safe as they are less predisposed to municipal wastes, waste water and exhaust fumes. Therefore, the study was carried out in privately-owned land away from road reserves and storm water from rivers, roads and built up urban areas. This study assessed concentrations of Lead, Zinc, Copper, Cadmium, Iron, and Chromium in 5 leafy vegetables; 2 root crops; and 1 fruit crop. The study involved a sample of 24 edible tissues of crops (5 leafy vegetables - vigna sinensis, chlorophytum comosum, crotolariabrevidens, amaranthus and kales; 2 root crops (dioscorea and Manihot esculenta), and 1 fruit crop (Carica papaya) and 24 soil samples. The results of this study show that there are low traces of heavy metals in the crops and those found in the soils, vegetables and fruits are within the WHO/FAO permissible standards. The highest concentrations of Pb, Zn, Cu, and Fe were found in carica papaya (0.303ppm) crotolariabrevidens (8.167ppm), crotolariabrevidens (13.6ppm), and amarantus (6.637ppm) respectively. The concentrations of Pb, Zn, CU, Fe, and Cr in the soils were, respectively, 0.313ppm, 0.359ppm, 0.054ppm, 123.093ppm and 0.049ppm, while the WHO/FAO standards for Pb, Zn, Cu, Fe, and Cr in soil are 100ppm, 300ppm, 100ppm, 50,000ppm, and 100ppm respectively. WHO/FAO limits for Pb, Cd, Cr, Zn, and Cu in vegetables and fruits are 0.5, 0.2, 1.2, 1.5, and 2.0 respectively. No traces of cadmium and chromium were found in the sampled crops. So, farm produce from such parcels of land are safe for human consumption. The results of the study indicate that it is possible to undertake safe urban farming on privately – owned land in the City for the benefit of the residents. So, necessary measures should be taken by the City authority to promote urban farming, including land use zoning and control of waste disposal into the farms. Other measures include regular monitoring of urban farming for quality and safety concerns. Key words: Urban, agriculture, Kisumu, City, Kenya, environmental, public, health, risk

Planning for non-motorised transport: Provision of footpaths as public spaces in Kisii town, Kenya

Walking in urban areas is regarded as healthy, cheap, and pollution free. It is influenced by variables such as the availability of safe footpaths, rights-of-way, condition of roads, patterns of land use, and safety. However, unsatisfactory provision of footpaths continues to attract global attention because of their centrality to sustainable urban mobility and safety. This article used a correlational research design to investigate if the residential building developments in the seven neighbourhoods of Kisii town, Kenya, comply with the planning standard that regulates pedestrian footpaths. It was guided by the public interest theory of regulation that justifies spatial planning through development control. A structured observation checklist, satellite image and photography were used to collect primary data. The analysis relied on a one-sample t-test, GIS, and Pearson’s bivariate correlation. Research findings showed that most of the residential developments failed to observe the two metres planning standard. Compliance generally declined by a mean of 0.3 metres, thus negating the development control principles of access and safety in the use of footpaths as public spaces. The problem was exacerbated by developments that intruded on road reserves, thus reducing the widths of footpaths, the inability of the County Government of Kisii to effectively undertake development control, and the failure to prioritise the provision of footpaths when awarding tenders for the construction and maintenance of roads. As a case study, this article enlightens the academic community, policymakers, and practitioners in the construction industry on how compliance with the standards used in regulating footpaths may be evaluated through a triangulation of statistical and spatial approaches, a gap that hitherto existed in the town-planning literature.

DETERMINATION OF THE COST COMPONENT IN THE SOCIAL COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS OF ROAD PROJECTS IN SOUTH AFRICA

The article deals with the preferred approach to determine the cost component in the social cost-benefit analysis (SCBA) of road projects in South Africa. The article is in four parts. The first part, the introduction, provides the reasons why investment cost should be identified as a single cost entity in the SCBA of a road project, regardless of the criteria according to which a project is adjudicated. The second part discusses the principles that guide the determination of the social opportunity costs (SOC) of road projects. The third part identifies the two items that form the cost component of the SCBA of road projects; the SOC of (i) the land required to accommodate the road reserve, and (ii) the construction of the road. The cost component of the latter is sub-divided into labour, plant, equipment, fuel, materials, and normal profit. The section also details a recommended procedure to convert the financial budget of a road construction project to an estimate of its SOC. The fourth section draws some conclusions from the study.

LOW ALTITUDE PHOTOGRAMMETRY FOR URBAN ROAD MAPPING

Road connection has high impact on the city development. It helps boost the economic environment along the road. Therefore, it is important to maintain and divide by their traffic flow and road reserve well to determine the privilege of maintenance and budget contribution for every year. Road opens up the relation of intercity and urban as it gives the impact of development along the road. To manage road over the country, geometry data of road is needed for decision making and project well management. The primary data is usually contributed by field technical support persons, such as surveyor, engineer, and others for conventional method of survey, image along the road, computer aid drawing (cad data) as built drawing or topographical plan, and others. This study proposes an urban road mapping with optimal flight parameter and flying low for detail texture acquisition of feature. It ensures the high efficiency, low cost, short cycle, strong maneuverability, convenient operation, and others of a product. The objective of the project is to determine the optimal flight parameter in mapping out a road feature inside the road reserve with detailed digital orthophoto model (DOM) and digital elevation model (DEM). The flight parameters of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and requirements for focal length effectiveness, flight planning preparation, image lap percentage, UAV altitude, and ground control point (GCP) distribution setup were outlined. The study investigated the effect of different focal length effects, GCP shape-based network (pyramid square-, square-, and linear-based networks), UAV altitude (90m, 65m, and 35m), and end lap percentage of image (90%, 80%, and 70%) on the photogrammetry-derived product. The 95m and 65m altitudes gave the lowest root mean square error (RMSE) value (±5cm horizontal and ±8cm vertical). In addition, 80% consistently showed the lowest RMSE for all end lap percentage options. Meanwhile, the pyramid square-based network recovered a total of 40% accuracy higher than square- and linear-based networks. This study could help the local authorities to implement smart road maintenance within their region.

Development Control on Urban Road Reserves in Kenya: A Case Study on Compliance with Planning Standards

Development Control on Urban Road Reserves in Kenya: A Case Study on Compliance with Planning Standards

Drop-off and Pick-up Zone in Selected Primary School in Selangor

Statistics from Royal Malaysian Police (RMP) show that there were 259 accidents that occurred in school areas. One of the facilities to improve school children safety in school area is drop-off and pick-up zone. Drop-off and pick-up zone in school zone is defined as an area beyond the road reserve or within the school boundary that is dedicated for dropping off and picking up school children by private vehicles, vans and school buses. The study objectives are to identify the availability of designated Drop-Off and Pick-Up (D&P), to assess the utilization of designated D&P and to determine the trend of dropping off student within the selected primary school zone in Selangor. From the study it was found that out of 30 schools, D&P are only available at 11 schools. In terms of utilization of D&P at these schools, 52% of the observed school children used this facility. At school with D&P also the remaining school children were picked up by their vehicles outside the D&P area with 31% at nearside of the school and 17% at the far side of the school. In this study, it shows that the D&P utilization for dropping and picking up school children can be further increase if parents/bus drivers do not wait in D&P. With the high and the effective D&P utilization, it will lower the risk of school children involved in an accident while crossing the road.

Cheaters and removalists: the influence of soil disturbance on ant–seed interactions in roadside vegetation

Myrmecochory is an important mutualistic interaction, where ants provide seed dispersal services for many plant species. We examined the influence of soil disturbances associated with roadworks activity on ant–seed interactions in roadside environments in south-eastern Australia. In the study landscape, minor rural road reserves often provide critical habitat for endangered species and woodland ecosystems. We conducted seed-depot experiments to quantify the extent of ant–seed removal, and identified the contribution of different ant species to seed removal and elaiosome consumption (cheating) interactions, in disturbed and non-disturbed roadside zones. Twenty-six ant species were recorded interacting with seeds; however, only a few species were responsible for dispersing most seeds. We found soil disturbance and roadside width influenced observed ant–seed interactions, which was largely explained by individual species habitat and behavioural traits. Iridomyrmex purpureus removed a higher proportion of seeds in soil disturbed zones, while Rhytidoponera metallica carried out more seed removals in narrow roadsides. R. metallica and Melophorus bruneus typically carried out seed removals (only), while Monomorium and Pheidole spp. almost exclusively carried out cheating behaviours. These results highlight the complex nature of ant–plant interactions is association with novel soil disturbance regimes, where ants perform a critical seed dispersal service for myrmecochorous roadside vegetation.

Space, Place, and Agency in the Roe 8 Highway Protest, Western Australia

The struggle to save the Beeliar Wetlands, an urban remnant bushland in Perth, Western Australia, demonstrates elements of both urban social and urban environmental movements. At the end of 2016, 30 years of objection to the continuation of the Roe Highway development (Roe 8) culminated in months of intense protest leading up to a state election and a cessation of work in 2017. During the long-running campaign, protestors fought to preserve high-conservation-value bushland that was contained in the planned road reserve. At the heart of this dispute were competing spatial uses. This article will analyze four protest actions from the dispute using Henri Lefebvre’s concept of the production of space, and will demonstrate that the practices of protest gave those fighting to preserve Roe 8 the agency to reinscribe meaning to the natural uses of the Beeliar Wetlands over and against the uses privileged by the state.

Occupational Safety and Health Hazards in the Informal Non-food Manufacturing Sector in Kampala City, Uganda

The informal non-food manufacturing sector is an engine of growth and development in both developed and developing countries. This particular sector is unregulated and unregistered in official government statistics. It is a heterogeneous sector found in open places, road reserves and marginal lands. However the sector is faced with occupational safety and health hazards without preventive measures. The study assessed occupational safety and health hazards in the informal non-food manufacturing sector in Kampala City, Uganda. The study adopted a cross sectional survey design that involved both qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques. A total of 424 firms were sampled from the 6 clusters of the informal sector. Primary and secondary sources using questionnaires, checklists and interview guide were used in data collection. Various types of hazards inherent in the informal non-food manufacturing sector in Kampala that included; physical, chemical, mechanical, biological, ergonomic and psychosocial hazards were identified. There are a lot of hazards in the informal non-food manufacturing sector with inadequate preventive measures. Hence the urgent need to address the situation by creation of awareness, training, and provision of OSH regulations, inspection and enforcement by the relevant regulatory agency as well as proactive multi-media strategies to improve the situation.

Urban Land Use Conflict in Expansion Areas of Wolayta Sodo Town, Snnpr, Ethiopia

The previous studies on urban land use conflicts indicated that extensive negative effects on economic, social, spatial and ecological development, especially in peri-urban areas. The study assessed the causes and effects of urban land use conflicts in peri-urban areas and its measures to prevent in Wolayta Sodo town. The survey design method was employed as a case study approach targeting in peri-urban areas households or landowners population. From the total nineteen administrative kebeles of the town, eight kebeles selected as clusters and from which five kebeles randomly selected. Questionnaires were to 357 households administered from each cluster selected by simple random sampling techniques. Focus group discussions were employed with town municipality and sub-city, and local chief and police. Additionally, key informant interviewee addressed with regional, zonal, and Wolayta Sodo town municipality Urban Development and Housing department. Spatial data collected from field survey, and satellite imagery. Purposefully three types of urban land use conflict selected and analyzed. Data analysis tools were MS-excel, Likert scale and GIS software. The finding shows that the dumping soil on the road reserve, land encroachment, boundary dispute, and land grabbing were frequently occurred. Also, the finding indicated that land usufruct right conflicts and degradation of road access were prevailed in expansion areas of the town. The major causes for an urban land use conflicts in the area were lack of land ownership documents, double allocation of urban plots, inadequate compensation for landholders and their children’s inheritance rights, poor land governance, and forcibly expropriating. The other causes are inadequate planning and non-implementation of planning regulations, and lack of public participation in urban development agenda. The effects were social, environmental, and economical to the society. Therefore, the study recommends immediate adequate planning, public awareness and implementation measures, creating an efficient and effective land management system, professional ethics and policing, and paradigm shift on issues related to land uses.Keywords: land use conflicts, peri-urban, preventions, resolutionDOI: 10.7176/JRDM/52-01

Modelling of the Radiant Heat Flux and Rate of Spread of Wildfire within the Urban Environment

One approach to increase community resilience to wildfire impacts is the enhancement of residential construction standards in an effort to provide protective shelters for families within their own homes. Current wildfire models reviewed in this study assume fire growth is unrestricted by vegetation fuel bed geometry; the head fire has attained a quasi-steady rate of spread; and the shielding effects of urban development are ignored. As a result, radiant heat flux may be significantly overestimated for small vegetation fires in road reserves, urban parklands, and similar scenarios. This paper proposes two new models to address this issue, and utilises two case studies for comparison against existing approaches. The findings are significant as this is the first study to analyse these factors from a fire engineering perspective, and to demonstrate that the use of landscape scale or siege wildfire models may not be appropriate within the urban context. The development of enhanced wildfire models will have a significant impact on town planning and construction practices in areas prone to wildfires, as well as firefighting suppression efforts when these events occur.

A Comparative Analysis of Social Service Provision and Accessibility in Regularised Settlements in Tanzania

Social service provision and accessibility play a great role in ensuring city de-velopment in both developed and developing countries with emerging econo-mies, Tanzania inclusive. This paper provides a comparative study on the situation, arguments and criticisms of three planned neighborhoods, whereby in those cases, local communities were involved in settlement upgrading through land regularization in Tanzania. The discussion centered on comparing the social infrastructure service provision and the levels of accessibility of neighborhood residents to roads, waste disposal, water and electricity supply. Similarly, the paper highlights the role of neighborhood leaders in ensuring social service provision, accessibility levels, reasons for connections, and the correlation between source of water and electricity supply as well as inferential statistics for the effects of the land regularization on the access to social services. We find that local leadership determines provision and accessibility of infrastructures in an area where informal settlement upgrading project takes place. Location differences of neighborhoods and proximity to the infrastructure service influence business growth, home improvement, service payments, and residents’ mindset change in the neighborhood land development processes. We also found that conditions set for provision of social services include: availability of permanent building structure, land ownership, affordability level, household agreement, offering land for public use and freedom from the road reserve. Local Authority sets guidelines for service provision and helps meet with the local community and thus, shows the recognized role of community involvement in settlement upgrading projects. Furthermore, the role of planning institutions and differences is highlighted. The study concludes that community involvement and local leadership championship in informal settlement upgrading are vital elements for the success of the program and towards ensuring development control, coordination and sustainability once the project ends.

Fatal cyclist crashes in Australia

Objectives: The number of casualty road crashes in Australia has steadily reduced over the past few decades; however, a concurrent reduction has not been achieved for crashes involving cyclists. This has resulted in a disproportionate overrepresentation of cyclists in fatal injury statistics. This article explores the contributing factors and injury mechanisms among coronial reported fatal cyclist crashes in Australia.Methods: The National Coronial Information System (NCIS) is a remote data entry and retrieval system containing detailed coronial information managed by the Victorian Department of Justice and Regulation. All coroner-reported closed cases involving a cyclist fatality in Australia from 2006 to 2015 were extracted from the database. In total, 336 cases in the NCIS database involving a cyclist fatality that occurred within the road reserve throughout Australia were identified and extracted for analysis.Variables in the analyses included age, gender, mechanism of injury, medical cause of death, time of incident, modes of transport involved, speed limit, road geometry, police narratives, and toxicology reports.The NCIS data were supplemented with spatial information using the geographic coordinates of the crash. Geographic information was utilized to gather information regarding various location characteristics such as speed limits and road geometry.Descriptive analysis techniques were performed on the data to examine key variables. Analyses also included cross-tabulation and Pearson’s chi-squared tests (χ2) for comparison of variables collected. All analyses were undertaken at a level of significance (α) of .05. Effect size was assessed using Cramer’s V statistic (φc).Results: The majority of fatal outcome crashes occurred in New South Wales (27.4%), followed by Victoria (25.9%) and Queensland (22.0%), and the majority involved male cyclists aged between 35 and 64 years. Those aged between 18 and 34 years were the next most frequent group of fatally injured cyclists. Helmet use was reported in 62.2% of cases. When reported, 19.6% of cyclists were not wearing a helmet at the time of the incident. The presence of alcohol was detected in 14.6% of postmortem examinations and illicit drugs including tetrahydrocannabinol, opioids, and methamphetamine were identified in 17.6% of cases. Analysis of the road characteristics identified a relatively even split between crashes that occurred in low speed environments (60 km/h and below; 51.2%) and higher speed environments (48.8%). Crash counterparts commonly involved light vehicles (31.3%) and heavy vehicles (38.4%), with approximately one quarter (23.8%) being single-vehicle crashes (i.e., bicycle only).Analyses of injury information identified that cyclists most commonly sustained multiple injuries (38.8%). Injuries to the head (31.3%), chest (4.8%), neck (3.4%), and brain (2.0%) were also commonly reported.Conclusions: The findings provide insight into key contributing factors and injury characteristics of fatal cyclist crashes in Australia and can inform and guide the development of effective infrastructure designs and strategies to reduce cyclist trauma.

Conservation of saline patches in Central Otago needs better recognition of physical processes to secure future habitats

ABSTRACTSaline soils are scattered within multiple inland basins in the semi-arid, rain shadow areas of the South Island, New Zealand. Competing land use activities in agriculture, mining, viticulture and human habitation have led to a strong decline in saline soils to an estimated < 1% of their original distribution. Small areas of ‘new’ (decades old) salinity have arisen at some highly modified sites but these are poorly understood in relation to older saline soils. Recent information from fine-scale geological surveys and geochemical analysis of substrates at two Department of Conservation scientific reserves in Central Otago, with specialist saline flora, is presented in a short synthesis. The goal is to amend existing viewpoints on plant–substrate interactions at what are abandoned gold mine sites. The current surface conditions at Springvale Reserve and Chapman Road Reserve, near Alexandra, which have developed acute salinity during the last 100 years since mining ceased, are outlined. The process of salt accumulation at each site is also clarified and seeks to rectify previous views on local salt source. The new geological data can inform conservation management of the sites, to better address the overall decline of saline habitat for indigenous plant species. A new adaptive management approach is proposed for each reserve that essentially harnesses effects of physical processes, to secure botanical values in the near future.

Factors Influencing the Growth of Floriculture. A case study of Kinondoni Municipality, Dar es Salaam city in Tanzania

A study to evaluate the factors influencing the growth of floriculture and its contribution to the community livelihoods was conducted in Dar es Salaam city, using Kinondoni Municipality as a case study. Specifically, the study intended to (i) explore the influential factors for the growth of floriculture in the case study (ii) examine the socio-economic contribution of floriculture to the local community livelihoods (iii) identify the challenges facing the floriculture and (iv) suggest remedies towards the challenges. Simple random and purposive sampling techniques were used to get a total of 60 respondents. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative approaches to collect data. Data were collected through observations, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The results of the study show that income generation, availability of open spaces (road reserves), shortage of other employment opportunities, high demand, environmental conservation are the main factors for growth of the floriculture. Low markets, shortage of the water supply services, informality, the eruption of pests and diseases and a shortage of working tools were revealed as significant challenges facing the floricultural business. To improve this business, it suggested that the government must recognize floriculture as a business. It should provide more support in terms of the improvements of the water supply services, provision subsidy, aids and loans of the low conditionality to the smallholder farmers.

The Disposition of the Ladies: Mi’kmaw Women and the Removal of the King’s Road Reserve, Sydney, Nova Scotia

In the late nineteenth century, politically powerful residents of Sydney, Nova Scotia, launched a campaign to remove from King’s Road a small Mi’kmaw community that refused to surrender its urban tract and move outside of the city. An Indian Act amendment of 1911 made possible a federal Exchequer Court hearing, which, after gathering testimony from witnesses in support of and opposed to relocation, was empowered to decide the fate of the King’s Road Reserve. This paper highlights the court’s transcript to explore twentieth-century colonialism as it unfolded in an urban setting. It considers how formative negative stereotypes of First Nations femininity were in the shaping of a colonial policy that assumed that Indians—particularly women—were a detriment to urban progress.

Comparison of the effects of different percutaneous endoscopic removal of nucleus pulposus by vertebral plate gap into the road in the treatment of L5 and S1 lumbar intervertebral disc protrusion

Objective To compare the clinical effect of different percutaneous endoscopic removal of nucleus pulposus vertebral plate gap into the road in the treatment of L5 and S1 lumbar intervertebral disc protrusion. Methods 120 cases with lumbar intervertebral disc protrusion in our hospital were randomly divided into group A and group B, 60 cases in each group.Group A was given the intervertebral foramen mirror vertebral plate gap into the way, group B was given the posterior intervertebral disc mirror reserves the yellow ligament treatment.The operation time, number of perspective, intraoperative blood loss, length of incision, visual analogue scale (VAS), hospitalization days, Oswestey disability index (ODI) before and after surgery were compared between two groups. The curative effect was evaluated by the Macnab criteria. Results The operation time, number of perspectives, intraoperative blood loss, surgical incision length, VAS score, hospitalization days in group A were (58.69±5.26)min, (2.56±0.52)times, (80.23±20.45)mL, (1.63±0.33)cm, (2.95±0.77)points, (4.98±0.84)d, respectively, those in group B were (60.36±5.31)min, (2.55±0.48)times, (75.69±2.96)mL, (1.56±0.21)cm, (2.98±0.69)points, (5.01±0.86)d, the differences between the two groups were not significant (all P>0.05). Immediate postoperation and postoperative 3 months, the ODI scores of group A were (36.96±10.58)points, (9.26±0.23)points, (6.35±0.44)points, respectively, and those of group B were (37.02±9.85)points, (9.42±0.65)points, (6.30±0.39)points, immediately after operation, postoperative 3 months, the ODI scores of the two groups were lower than before operation, compared with immediate postoperation, the ODI scores of postoperative 3 months were significantly reduced, the difference was statistically significant (P 0.05). The excellent rate of group A was 90.00%, which of group B was 91.67%, the difference between the two groups was not obvious (P>0.05). Conclusion Intervertebral foramen mirror the vertebral plate gap into the road and posterior intervertebral disc mirror reserves are yellow ligament in treatment of L5 and S1 lumbar intervertebral disc protrusion will achieve good operation effect, no obvious difference was found between the two methods, before undergoing surgery for the patients' individual condition and indications for judgment, and to choose appropriate surgical method. Key words: Intervertebral disk displacement; Discectomy, percutaneous; Surgical procedures, minimally invasive

Predicting casualty-accident count by highway design standards compliance

Abstract Compliance to standard has been the main doctrine in highway design, but its relationship with accident count has not been widely scrutinized. One of the key programs in road safety in Indonesia is road-worthiness test which assesses the compliance of a road to national design specifications and criteria. In light of current improvements in the crash data system in Indonesia, this study is carried out to develop a model to predict the accident count per type of crashes and to identify significant road features based on their compliance to a national standard. 272,200 km of arterial road in East Java North Corridor (EJNC) is selected as case study and 2012–2014 crash data is analyzed. Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial (ZINB) Model is preferred to develop crash prediction model with significant variables. This study has several findings. First, the constant values of the prediction model are relatively close to the average number of accident which implies that the mere compliance to current standard cannot warrant the safeness of Indoensian highways. Second, the number of median opening per unit length and disturbance level to pedestrian and road reserve area are the features that having positive relationships with total accident count. Meanwhile, the ROW disturbance, conformance of intersection and of road marking also show significant value but negative relationship with total accident count. Third, significant variables for each type of crash may have different sign. For example, in right angle crash, median width has positive relation with the number of accident, while in run off and rear end crash, median width compliance is shown to have negative relation.