Road User Behaviour Research Articles

Law enforcement role in reducing road crashes

Three thousand people, including 500 children, are killed every day on the world’s roads. These amounts to 1.2 million deaths a year .In addition more than 50 million people are seriously injured; many are disabled for life. According to WHO reports, the number of road crashes fatalities will increase worldwide by 60% by 2020. Road crashes represent a major social cost to most societies, and their management has thus been a high priority. Efforts in management have been at the levels of both prevention (via education, enforcement and engineering) and cure (via the hospital and insurance systems). A large proportion of road traffic crashes are as a result of road-user behavior and more specifically, crashes occur because of the decisions taken by road users to disobey or break the road rules, commonly referred to as human error. Crashes rates and compliance are inversely related. Law enforcement agencies like the traffic police come up with strategies including use of penalties to ensure road rules are obeyed and compliance improves. Good traffic law enforcement is essential for road safety .The main objective of law enforcement is road safety – achieved by deterring road users from committing offences, which are related to road crashes and injuries. Police activities should primarily serve as deterrence for drivers inclined to commit traffic offences through increasing road users’ perception of the risk of being caught. Consistent deterrence strategies, which typically comprise highly visible police or camera activity can bring about lasting changes in road user behavior and, as a consequence, changes in road users’ attitudes which reinforce these behavioral changes. It is generally accepted that enforcement influences driving behavior through two processes: general deterrence and specific deterrence. Enforcement of road rules should be aimed primarily at causing general deterrence because then it is not necessary for police to catch and punish road users for them to be encouraged to obey the rules. To result in general deterrence, enforcement should be: accompanied by publicity, unpredictable and difficult to avoid, a mix of highly visible and less visible activities, and continued over a long period of time. Targeted and appropriate legislation that is consistently enforced and well understood by the public is a critical component of successful enforcement. An appropriate penalty system also needs to be in place. In many cases road users do not obey traffic laws and regulations because they do not know them .yet, even when people know the rules they do not obey them .while public education programs are important in informing the general public – especially if new laws and regulations are introduced – enforcement is important if some level of compliance is to be achieved. It should be recognized that not all enforcement should involve punishment. Some enforcement activity can be aimed at offering positive feedback, or reward, or offering education and courses in improved driving, rather than a fine. To maximize the road safety benefit, enforcement should be aimed at road rule violations that have been proven to increase the likelihood or severity of crashes. Safety benefits can be further increased through intelligence led policing. In road rule enforcement, intelligence led policing involves the use of data (for example, data on when and where crashes are occurring, data on severity factors such as not using seatbelts or helmets, or data on causal factors such as speeding or drink driving) to focus enforcement on the times and places that present the greatest risk.

Road safety management - The need for a systematic approach

To achieve significant improvements, there is a need for a systematic approach in Road Safety Management. The first step of such approach is to define the burden of road casualties in the country. Part of defining the burden is the monetary valuation of the prevention of a fatality accident. Such “values of statistical life” are derived in a number of countries, however, there is a large variation among these. Interestingly, a negative correlation seems to exist between the monetary valuation of a statistical life and the road safety situation of a country, namely, countries with low “values of statistical life” have poor road safety situation and vice versa. The next step is to get commitment from decision makers. There is an accumulated knowledge among road safety scientist on what strategies and measures are the most efficient, but without commitment from decision makers, these will not will not be realized. A good example to illustrate this is the case of France, when the President of the country “suddenly” became “… absolutely horrified that French roads are the most dangerous in Europe…”, and ordered tough road safety measures resulting in unpreceded improvements in France’s road safety situation. With the commitment of decision makers, a Road Safety Policy can be established. One example for such policy is the Vision Zero in Sweden, whose parliament passed the Road Traffic Safety Bill on Vision Zero in 1997. Another example is the “Sustainable safety” policy in the Netherlands. Another crucial issue is the creation of a responsible body for road safety on the national level. A National Road Safety Committee/Commission should include the relevant departments, and most importantly be chaired by a committed person, respected by all parties. Before jumping to road safety actions and countermeasures, road safety problems should be identified in a systematic way. When presenting the road safety situation for a country or region, often used risk values build on the number of casualties related to some exposure measure. Some of these exposure measures (number of motor vehicles or motor vehicle kilometres) give a wrong depiction of the situation as they neglect the existence of pedestrians and bicyclists who carry the casualty burden of motorised traffic. To be able to make informed decisions on road safety measures based on accident statistics, we need exposure data for all road user types. Access to exposure data allows us to perform the so called 3-dimensional analysis of road safety problems. The dimensions “exposure” (person-kilometres per year), “risk” (number of injury accidents per person-kilometres per year) and “consequence” (number of killed per number of injury accidents per year) help us to get a good picture of the character of the road safety problems. However, even if this kind of approach gives a good tool for knowledge-based road safety work, several problems exist with using only accidents to analyse the road safety situation; the most obvious of them is that many accidents are never reported. The less the injury severity, the lower the reporting grade. The conclusion from this is that we need to combine Police register with Hospital register on traffic injuries. What’s more, to analyse the traffic safety situation, we also should use non-accident based Safety Performance Indicators. With knowledge of the pattern of road safety problems, Road Safety Targets can be formulated. The targets should embrace targets for road user behaviour, road infrastructure, vehicles and rescue services. A road safety vision without quantified targets will not be effective. Only countermeasures with known effectiveness should be applied. There is an accumulated experience of effectiveness of a large number of road safety countermeasures published in the Handbook of Road Safety Measures. Finally, a very important issue – most often neglected after the introduction of a countermeasure - Monitoring of performance. Data on Safety Performance Indicators should be collected continuously and their status should be followed-up yearly and in the event of deviation from the target, relevant measures should bel applied promptly.

The Zebra Crossing Game – Using game theory to explain a discrepancy between road user behaviour and traffic rules

In Norway, cyclists are allowed to cycle on pavements, and urban paths are often designated for use by both cyclists and pedestrians. Crossings between pavements/paths and the roadway are normally marked as zebra crossings. At these crossings, the law treats cyclists and pedestrians differently: whereas cyclists must give way to road traffic, the road traffic must give way to pedestrians.On encountering road traffic at these crossings, a cyclist has three options: give way (a); cycle over the zebra crossing (and risk a collision) (b); or (c) force the drivers to yield by dismounting and walking over the zebra crossing (c). The approaching driver has two choices: drive on as the law suggests (x) or give way to the cyclist (y). The solutions prescribed by the traffic rules are a/x or c/y. However, on applying game theory to this situation, it can be shown that neither of these solutions are in perfect equilibrium, and the game theoretic solution to the game is in fact b/y, i.e. that the cyclists cycle over the zebra crossing and the cars yield, contrary to what the traffic rule prescribes. Thus, according to game theoretic reasoning one would expect the normal solution in road traffic to be that drivers yield to cyclists in zebra crossings.In order to test this, we studied crossing behaviour at three zebra crossings, two crossings where cyclists approached from the pavement and one crossing where cyclists came from a combined cycle and walking path. We found that rather than aligning with traffic rules, the actual crossing behaviour aligned with the solution generated by game theory. The results show that game theoretic modelling can be a valuable tool to understand road user interaction. Better understanding and ability to predict road user interactions could help to improve traffic safety.

Analyses of pedestrian behavior on mid-block unsignalized crosswalk comparing Chinese and German cases

A large number of pedestrian fatalities are caused by the vehicle-pedestrian accidents. The application of new theory and technological approaches may hold great potential to reduce the accident frequency and severity for pedestrians. Considered the different driving cultures between China and Germany, the adaptation of such application in new market triggers an “intercultural comparison” related to the road user behavior and traffic safety. Field traffic data have been collected by video recording and image processing at unsignalized mid-block crosswalks both in Beijing, China and Munich, Germany. Centered Vehicle-Pedestrian conflict situation, pedestrian speed performance in different pedestrian categories and walking phases, pedestrian waiting behavior related to waiting decision choice and waiting time, pedestrian gap acceptance were statistically analyzed for understanding the pedestrian behavior in the conflict process. Intercultural comparisons were made between China and Germany. The research results addressed how the conflict participants (pedestrians only) behave differently and would hopefully be the impetus for further intercultural analyses from urban traffic side.

Road safety in Kuwait: Results from a Recent Survey

The aim of this paper is to investigate and analyse the safety and increasing accident rate problems in Kuwait. A review of relevant literature has been carried out, then a questionnaire has been piloted and implemented to collect data. The main survey was carried out in 2013. 810 distributed questionnaires resulted in the return of 430 completed questionnaires. Data is limited due to time constraints. RESULTS show that socio economic factors, attitudes and work commitment factors all contribute to the behaviour of road users in Kuwait. There is very little knowledge of modelling and analysing factors that affect drivers' behaviour towards safety in Kuwait. Keywords: Traffic safety in Kuwait, attitudes to road safety, socio economic characteristics, attitudinal surveys Language: en

Assessing specific deterrence effects of increased speeding penalties using four measures of recidivism

Traffic law enforcement sanctions can impact on road user behaviour through general and specific deterrence mechanisms. The manner in which specific deterrence can influence recidivist behaviour can be conceptualised in different ways. While any reduction in speeding will have road safety benefits, the ways in which a ‘reduction’ is determined deserves greater methodological attention and has implications for countermeasure evaluation more generally. The primary aim of this research was to assess the specific deterrent impact of penalty increases for speeding offences in Queensland, Australia, in 2003 on two cohorts of drivers detected for speeding prior to and after the penalty changes were investigated. Since the literature is relatively silent on how to assess recidivism in the speeding context, the secondary research aim was to contribute to the literature regarding ways to conceptualise and measure specific deterrence in the speeding context. We propose a novel way of operationalising four measures which reflect different ways in which a specific deterrence effect could be conceptualised: (1) the proportion of offenders who re-offended in the follow up period; (2) the overall frequency of re-offending in the follow up period; (3) the length of delay to re-offence among those who re-offended; and (4) the average number of re-offences during the follow up period among those who re-offended. Consistent with expectations, results suggested an absolute deterrent effect of penalty changes, as evidenced by significant reductions in the proportion of drivers who re-offended and the overall frequency of re-offending, although effect sizes were small. Contrary to expectations, however, there was no evidence of a marginal specific deterrent effect among those who re-offended, with a significant reduction in the length of time to re-offence and no significant change in the average number of offences committed. Additional exploratory analyses investigating potential influences of the severity of the index offence, offence history, and method of detection revealed mixed results. Access to additional data from various sources suggested that the main findings were not influenced by changes in speed enforcement activity, public awareness of penalty changes, or driving exposure during the study period. Study limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed with a view to promoting more extensive evaluations of penalty changes and better understanding of how such changes may impact on motorists’ perceptions of enforcement and sanctions, as well as on recidivist behaviour.

Evaluation of connected vehicle impact on mobility and mode choice

Connected vehicle is emerging as a solution to exacerbating congestion problems in urban areas. It is important to understand the impacts of connected vehicle on network and travel behavior of road users. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the impact of connected vehicle on the mode choice and mobility of transportation networks. An iterative methodology was used in this paper where demands for various modes were modified based on the changes in travel time between each origin-destination (OD) pair caused by introduction of connected vehicle. Then a traffic assignment was performed in a micro-simulation model, which was able to accurately simulate vehicle-to-vehicle communication. It is assumed that vehicles are equipped with a dynamic route guidance technology to choose their own route using real-time traffic information obtained through communication. The travel times obtained from the micro-simulation model were compared with a base scenario with no connected vehicle. The methodology was tested for a portion of Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In order to quantify changes in mode share with changes in travel time associated with each OD pair, mode choice models were developed for auto, transit, cycling and pedestrians using data mainly from the Transportation Tomorrow Survey. The impact of connected vehicle on mode choice was evaluated for different market penetrations of connected vehicle. The results of this study show that average travel times for the whole auto mode will generally increase, with the largest increase from connected vehicles. This causes an overall move away from the auto mode for high market penetrations if a dynamic route guidance algorithm is implemented.

A61 Integrated research design for sustainable cities: Te Ara Mua – Future Streets

Abstract Background Designing walking and cycling back into urban communities may be most effective at achieving a sustained shift from car trips to walking and cycling. Such a shift could deliver substantial benefits for mitigating climate change, public health, social and health inequities, and economic resilience. There is a lack of robust evidence about what designs successfully result in these integrated benefits and are generalizable. Aims • Assess the integrated public health, social and climate outcomes of retrofitting urban suburbs for walking and cycling Investigate the process and intervention design necessary for these outcomes to contribute to hauora Māori and Pacific wellbeing and reduce inequities • Identify and disseminate a generalizable process for community design that brings community, policy-makers and research together. Methods Future Streets is a trans-disciplinary investigation of a street redesign intervention using a randomised controlled before-after study design. Two suburbs in Auckland were chosen based on similar urban form, socio-demographic characteristics and size. We combined best evidence with a participatory design process to develop the infrastructure intervention. Public forums, qualitative interviews and focus groups with schoolchildren underpinned the intervention design. Random sample quantitative surveys and pedometers; injury reporting; traffic speed and mode usage counts have provided baseline data on physical activity, travel patterns, sense of security, social connection, road user behaviour and injury. These measures will be repeated 2 years later at the same time of year. Simulation modelling will explore wider implementation of the intervention in Auckland and New Zealand cities. Results This paper presents the novel methods involved in the study and intervention design. We have completed the initial qualitative research, the participatory intervention design and the baseline surveys, safety and physical activity measurements. The intervention infrastructure will be built in the summer 2014-15. Conclusions Despite having the potential to be most effective at achieving desired outcomes, urban infrastructure intervention studies are rare internationally because they are extremely difficult to do. Successful partnerships with transport agencies to undertake epidemiological research needs to build on long-standing relationships. Epidemiological studies of urban infrastructure interventions are high risk as local government infrastructure plans are subject to governance, funding and strategic shifts. Demonstrating the value of robust evidence, and communicating methodological design in clear and convincing ways is crucial to the success of such projects. Relationships between research and local government expose tensions between designing interventions likely to demonstrate effectiveness and generalizable cost effectiveness.

A84 Collisions between pedal cyclists and heavy vehicles: an in depth analysis of fatalities in London

Abstract Background Cycling is promoted in London to improve health and encourage more sustainable travel. However, the perceived safety of cycling is a major reason given by people not to cycle. Despites people’s concerns about the safety of cycling relatively few cyclists are injured and therefore there is limited information about the factors that contribute to their collisions. However, because of their severity, fatal collisions are subject to in-depth investigation by the police and provide an opportunity to learn more about causal factors. In London between 2007–2011 there were 79 fatal and life threatening collisions involving cyclists of which 53 were available for analysis. Over half of these fatal collisions involved heavy goods vehicles, large vans and buses. This paper presents findings of a systematic analysis of collisions involving cyclists and large, heavy vehicles focusing on the interaction between road users, infrastructure and vehicle characteristics and the implications for countermeasures. Methods The study involved a case review of 53 pedal cycle fatalities in London. The method involved six stages: • Formation of the expert research group • Data retrieval • Protocol development (check with stakeholder group for completeness of data sources) • Case collection and quality control (develop coding glossary) • Case reviews and countermeasure development • Linking countermeasure development to evidence of effectiveness Results The most common characteristics of the infrastructure associated with fatal collisions involving bicycles and heavy vehicles were the lack of integration of cycling facilities with the wider traffic environment and road narrowing. These characteristics created conflict points between cyclists and other vehicles. The most common vehicle characteristics associated with collisions were related to the driver’s vision of the cyclist and the cyclist being dragged under the wheels of vehicle. The most common characteristics of road user behaviour associated with collisions were the positioning of the cyclist in relation to vehicle where the cyclist typically moved forward to the left side of the truck whilst it was stationary or moving into position at a junction. This placed the cyclist in a zone of potential conflict with the vehicle where it was inherently more difficult for the truck driver to see the cyclist. Conclusions There is a paucity of evidence on the effectiveness on countermeasures to reduce collisions between cyclists and truck drivers. This study suggests that countermeasures should focus on reducing conflict points between road users, improving truck drivers vision of cyclists and training drivers and cyclists with regard to positioning especially at junctions.

A theoretical perspective on road safety communication campaigns

This paper proposes a theoretical perspective on road safety communication campaigns, which may help in identifying the conditions under which such campaigns can be effective. The paper proposes that, from a theoretical point of view, it is reasonable to assume that road user behaviour is, by and large, subjectively rational. This means that road users are assumed to behave the way they think is best. If this assumption is accepted, the best theoretical prediction is that road safety campaigns consisting of persuasive messages only will have no effect on road user behaviour and accordingly no effect on accidents. This theoretical prediction is not supported by meta-analyses of studies that have evaluated the effects of road safety communication campaigns. These analyses conclude that, on the average, such campaigns are associated with an accident reduction. The paper discusses whether this finding can be explained theoretically. The discussion relies on the distinction made by many modern theorists between bounded and perfect rationality. Road user behaviour is characterised by bounded rationality. Hence, if road users can gain insight into the bounds of their rationality, so that they see advantages to themselves of changing behaviour, they are likely to do so. It is, however, largely unknown whether such a mechanism explains why some road safety communication campaigns have been found to be more effective than others.

The relationship between religion and the on-road behaviour of adolescents in Iran

Iran has a high traffic fatality rate and a substantial proportion of those killed on the road are adolescents. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between dimensions of religiosity and the on-road behaviour of adolescents as pedestrians, cyclists and other non-driving activities. A total of 1111 students attending secondary schools in Tehran (Iran) completed the Adolescent Road User Behaviour Questionnaire (ARBQ) and the Duke University Religion Index (DUREL). This study found that adolescents who participated less often in private religious activities were more likely to be: male, have relatives or friends who had been killed in a road collision, previously involved in a road crash themselves and engaged more often in dangerous playing on the road. Adolescents reporting higher levels of religious attendance and intrinsic religiosity were more likely to be: male, without a traffic accident history, younger, from public schools, studying at schools in large urban areas and more frequently engaged in planned protective behaviours. Adolescents with higher involvement in intrinsic religiosity tended to be those: without an accident history, who did not have relatives or friends that had been killed in a crash and who engaged less frequently in unsafe road crossing behaviour. The findings of this study indicate that the different dimensions of religiousness are related to adolescents’ behaviour on the road. Thus, it appears that religion may have a role to play in improving the road safety of adolescents in Iran.

Behavior Analysis Using a Multilevel Motion Pattern Learning Framework

The increasing availability of video data, through existing traffic cameras or dedicated field data collection, and the development of computer vision techniques pave the way for the collection of massive data sets about the microscopic behavior of road users. Analysis of such data sets helps in understanding normal road user behavior and can be used for realistic prediction of motion and computation of surrogate safety indicators. A multilevel motion pattern learning framework was developed to enable automated scene interpretation, anomalous behavior detection, and surrogate safety analysis. First, points of interest (POIs) were learned on the basis of the Gaussian mixture model and the expectation maximization algorithm and then used to form activity paths (APs). Second, motion patterns, represented by trajectory prototypes, were learned from road users' trajectories in each AP by using a two-stage trajectory clustering method based on spatial then temporal (speed) information. Finally, motion prediction relied on matching at each instant partial trajectories to the learned prototypes to evaluate potential for collision by using computing indicators. An intersection case study demonstrates the framework's ability in many ways: it helps reduce the computation cost up to 90%; it cleans the trajectory data set from tracking outliers; it uses actual trajectories as prototypes without any pre- and postprocessing; and it predicts future motion realistically to compute surrogate safety indicators.

Status, Trends and Problems of the Road Safety Field in Bulgaria

The report touches on the road safety performance in the past few years, road user behaviour related problems in the country and the indicative priorities for measures, actions and campaigns that are laid in the National strategy for improvement of the road traffic safety in Bulgaria 2011-2020.

The road user behaviour of school students in Iran

The present study developed a Persian version of the Adolescent Road User Behaviour Questionnaire (ARBQ) and investigated the psychometric properties of the scale in a sample of school students in the province of Tehran (Iran). In total 1111 adolescents completed the Persian version of the ARBQ. Exploratory factor analysis, using the shortened 21-item version of the scale revealed the presence of three reliable factors which were also supported using confirmatory factor analysis.According to this research, engagement in dangerous playing in the road was significantly higher among males, residents of large urban areas, students from private schools, students in the south of Tehran, those who reported relatives or friends had been killed in a road crash and those with a personal history of road accidents. Moreover, older adolescents, those who reported relatives or friends having been killed in a road crash and those with a traffic accident history reported higher involvement in unsafe crossing behaviour. Females, older adolescents, residents of small urban areas, students from schools in small urban areas and those with an accident history also reported less frequent engagement in planned protective behaviours.This study confirms that the ARBQ is a useful framework for investigating adolescents’ on-road behaviours in Iran. This research also showed that adolescents put themselves at risk by engaging in hazardous behaviours. As is the case in most countries, this study revealed the need for interventions, such as education and enforcement to improve the on-road safety culture amongst Iranian adolescents.

Perceived traffic risk for cyclists: The impact of near miss and collision experiences

Though the percentage of people bicycling for transportation rose during the last decade, with an average increase in bicycle commuting of 47% (Flusche, 2012), still only 1% of all U.S. trips are made by bike (Flusche, 2010). Research suggests that people’s concern regarding the risk of bicycling near traffic—namely the risk of being hit by a car—remain a significant barrier to widespread cycling. However, research has not disaggregated traffic risk to expose its many aspects and how they may affect bicyclists with differing skill levels, experiences, and behaviors. This study begins to address this gap in our understanding. Elaborating on results from an internet survey, this study examined various aspects of traffic risk among 406 potential and current bicyclists in the San Francisco Bay Area. The data indicate that perceived traffic risk negatively influences the decision to bicycle for potential and occasional bicyclists, although the influence decreases with cycling frequency. Additionally, cycling frequency seems to heighten awareness of traffic risk, particularly for cyclists who have experienced “near misses” or collisions. In particular, near misses were found to be (a) much more common than collisions and (b) more strongly associated than collisions with perceived traffic risk. The findings suggest that efforts targeting road user behaviors and roadway designs associated with these near misses could mitigate perceived and actual traffic risk for bicyclists, and thereby eventually help achieve higher cycling ridership.

Motorcyclists’ Perceptions and Experiences of Riding and Risk and Their Advice for Safety

Objective: To examine the knowledge, observations, and perceptions of motorcycle riders on the risks of on-road motorcycling and potential safety measures to give insight and guidance in developing policies, programs, and legislation to improve the safety of motorcyclists.Methods: Individual and focus group interviews were conducted with dealers and a cross section of motorcyclists from selected regions across New Zealand. The interviews were analyzed and coded to identify common themes and diverse perspectives on why people rode motorcycles, riders’ perceptions on risk, and possible safety strategies for on-road motorcycling.Findings and Discussion: Motorcycling has major benefits for riders, although most riders perceived that the risks could be severe and they were susceptible to injury. Their observations on the threats and barriers to safety focused on 3 components: the rider, the motorcycle, and the environment. Risks included inexperience, not riding to the conditions, choice of motorcycle, protective clothing and conspicuity, and speed. The underlying risk of being on 2 wheels was accentuated by the availability of high-power motorcycles. The threats perceived in the environment included the behavior of other road users, especially car drivers, and the poor road conditions and surrounds encountered.Conclusions: Riders identified risks that have been recognized in the road safety literature as well as risks for which there are no engineering or scientific solutions. To effectively increase motorcyclist safety, recognition of the commonalities and the differences between motorcyclists’ perspectives and proposed strategies is needed. This approach is more likely to engage riders and thus support positive behavior change among riders and drivers.

Explaining Chile's Traffic Fatality and Injury Reduction for 2000–2012

Objectives: The objective of the current study is to determine the contribution of Chile's 2005 traffic law reform, police enforcement, and road investment infrastructure to the reduction of traffic fatalities and severe injuries from 2000 to 2012.Methods: Analyses based on structural equation models were carried out using a unique database merging aggregate administrative data from several Chilean public institutions. The sample was balanced (13 regions, over 13 years; N = 169). Dependent variables were rates of traffic fatality (total, drivers, passengers, and pedestrians), severe injuries, and total number of crashes per vehicle fleet. Independent variables were (1) traffic law reform, (2) police enforcement, and (3) road infrastructure investment. Oil prices, alcohol consumption, proportion of male population 15–24 years old, unemployment, years’ effects and regions’ effects, and lagged dependent variables were entered as control variables.Results: Empirical estimates from the structural equation models suggest that the enactment of the traffic law reform is significantly associated with a 7% reduction of pedestrian fatalities. This association is entirely mediated by the positive association the law had with increasing police enforcement and reducing alcohol consumption. In turn, police enforcement is significantly associated with a direct decrease in total fatalities, driver fatalities, passenger fatalities, and pedestrian fatalities by 17%, 18%, 8%, and 60%, respectively. Finally, road infrastructure investment is significantly associated with a direct reduction of 11% in pedestrian fatalities, and the number of total crashes significantly mediates the effect of road infrastructure investment on the reduction of severe injuries. Tests of sensitivity indicate these effects and their statistical significance did not vary substantively with alternative model specifications.Conclusions: Results suggest that traffic law reform, police enforcement, and road infrastructure investment have complex interwoven effects that can reduce both traffic fatalities and severe injuries. Though traffic reforms are ultimately designed to change road user behaviors at large, it is also important to acknowledge that legislative changes may require institutional changes—that is, intensification of police enforcement—and be supported by road infrastructure investment, in order to effectively decrease traffic fatalities and injuries. Furthermore, depending on how road safety measures are designed, coordinated, and implemented, their effects on different types of road users vary. The case of Chile illustrates how the diffusion of road safety practices globally promoted by the World Health Organization and World Bank, particularly in 2004, can be an important influence to enhance national road safety practices.

A framework for and empirical study of algorithms for traffic assignment

Traffic congestion is an issue in most cities worldwide. Transportation engineers and urban planners develop various traffic management projects in order to solve this issue. One way to evaluate such projects is traffic assignment (TA). The goal of TA is to predict the behaviour of road users for a given period of time (morning and evening peaks, for example). Once such a model is created, it can be used to analyse the usage of a road network and to predict the impact of implementing a potential project. The most commonly used TA model is known as user equilibrium, which is based on the assumption that all drivers minimise their travel time or generalised cost. In this study, we consider the static deterministic user equilibrium TA model.The constant growth of road networks and the need of highly precise solutions (required for select link analysis, network design, etc.) motivate researchers to propose numerous methods to solve this problem. Our study aims to provide a recommendation on what methods are more suitable depending on available computational resources, time and requirements on the solution. In order to achieve this goal, we implement a flexible software framework that maximises the usage of common code and, hence, ensures comparison of algorithms on common ground. In order to identify similarities and differences of the methods, we analyse groups of algorithms that are based on common principles. In addition, we implement and compare several different methods for solving sub-problems and discuss issues related to accumulated numerical errors that might occur when highly accurate solutions are required.

Using the Event Analysis of Systemic Teamwork (EAST) to explore conflicts between different road user groups when making right hand turns at urban intersections

Collisions between different types of road users at intersections form a substantial component of the road toll. This paper presents an analysis of driver, cyclist, motorcyclist and pedestrian behaviour at intersections that involved the application of an integrated suite of ergonomics methods, the Event Analysis of Systemic Teamwork (EAST) framework, to on-road study data. EAST was used to analyse behaviour at three intersections using data derived from an on-road study of driver, cyclist, motorcyclist and pedestrian behaviour. The analysis shows the differences in behaviour and cognition across the different road user groups and pinpoints instances where this may be creating conflicts between different road users. The role of intersection design in creating these differences in behaviour and resulting conflicts is discussed. It is concluded that currently intersections are not designed in a way that supports behaviour across the four forms of road user studied. Interventions designed to improve intersection safety are discussed.Practitioner Summary: Intersection safety currently represents a key road safety issue worldwide. This paper presents a novel application of a framework of ergonomics methods for studying differences in road user behaviour at intersections. The findings support development of interventions that consider all road users as opposed to one group in isolation.

Naturalistic Flying Studies

Measuring the performance of operators, and how they interact with complex systems is a key issue in identifying risks and improving safety. Naturalistic studies in some transport domains, chiefly road driving, have yielded significant advances in our understanding of road user behavior and road safety. Naturalistic studies of flying are only starting to develop around the world. This discussion panel focuses on the challenges and opportunities presented by “naturalistic flying studies”, in which pilot behavior is automatically recorded continuously by video, GPS, accelerometers and other sensors. Data acquisition systems for recording pilot behavior in light aircraft are now available, at reasonable cost. This panel will facilitate the sharing of experiences across road and aviation domains of this relatively new data collection and analysis method, and the building of collaborations with, and learning from, naturalistic human factors investigations in these and other domains. Naturalistic flying studies can provide a unique range of information including: exposure data; quantification of risk; the nature and rate of system violations; accident and incident data; normative data by age, experience and operator state; the opportunity to validate simulator, performance and self-reported data; and the ability to evaluate the relative efficacy of new equipment, procedures and safety interventions (see Regan et al 2013). Considering the capabilities of naturalistic human factors investigations, panelists will reflect on the priority research areas for naturalistic flying studies and the unique opportunities they present for aviation safety. Issues that may distinguish the aviation context from other domains in which naturalistic studies have been conducted will also be considered.