Unsafe Locations Research Articles

Capturing what statistics miss: Mapping unsafe places and victimization experiences in the City of Granada, Spain

This research assesses safety perceptions and maps unsafe places and victimization experiences of both women and men university students in public spaces throughout Granada city, Spain. Survey data from 383 participants were analyzed, with 413 unsafe places mapped. Statistically, significant gender disparities were found, with women reporting greater insecurity, particularly at night, and experiencing higher frequencies of victimization, notably sexual violence. Spatially, the innovative Perceived Insecurity Points Score (PIPS) emphasizes findings by integrating environmental factors (EF), social factors (SF) and victimization experiences (V), offering a comprehensive assessment of how these factors overlap and influence individuals' experiences. Men identified significantly fewer unsafe locations than women, with only a third acknowledging their existence. Meanwhile, women reported a higher frequency of victimization incidents, particularly involving sexual harassment. The work captures what is often overlooked in official statistics: broader forms of unwanted behavior pose a significant threat to women, extending the shadow of the “hypothesis of sexual assault”.

Mission Specification Patterns for Mobile Robots: Providing Support for Quantitative Properties

With many applications across domains as diverse as logistics, healthcare, and agriculture, service robots are in increasingly high demand. Nevertheless, the designers of these robots often struggle with specifying their tasks in a way that is both human-understandable and sufficiently precise to enable automated verification and planning of robotic missions. Recent research has addressed this problem for the functional aspects of robotic missions through the use of <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">mission specification patterns</i> . These patterns support the definition of robotic missions involving, for instance, the patrolling of a perimeter, the avoidance of unsafe locations within an area, or reacting to specific events. Our paper introduces a catalog of <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">QUantitAtive RoboTic mission spEcificaTion patterns</i> (QUARTET) that tackles the complementary and equally important challenge of specifying the reliability, performance, resource usage, and other key quantitative properties of robotic missions. Identified using a methodology that included the analysis of 73 research papers published in 17 leading software engineering and robotics venues between 2014–2021, our 22 QUARTET patterns are defined in a tool-supported domain-specific language. As such, QUARTET enables: (i) the precise definition of quantitative robotic-mission requirements and (ii) the translation of these requirements into probabilistic reward computation tree logic (PRCTL), supporting their formal verification and automated planning of robotic missions. We demonstrate the applicability of QUARTET by showing that it supports the specification of over 95% of the quantitative robotic mission requirements from a systematically selected set of recent research papers, of which 75% can be automatically translated into PRCTL for the purposes of verification through model checking and mission planning.

Exploiting Surrogate Safety Measures and Road Design Characteristics towards Crash Investigations in Motorway Segments

High quality data on road crashes, road design characteristics, and traffic are typically required to predict crash frequency. Surrogate Safety Measures (SSMs) are an alternative category of indicators that can be used in road safety analyses in order to quantify various unsafe traffic events. The objective of this research is to exploit road geometry data and SSMs toward various road crash investigations in motorway segments. To that end, for this analysis, a database containing data on injury and property-damage-only crashes, road design characteristics, and SSMs of 668 segments was compiled and utilized. The results of the developed negative binomial regression model revealed that crash frequency is positively correlated with the average annual daily traffic volume, the length of the segment, harsh accelerations, and harsh braking. Moreover, four distinct clusters representing crash risk levels of the examined segments emerged from the hierarchical clustering procedure, ranging from more risk-prone, potentially unsafe locations to more safe locations. These four clusters also formed the response variable classes of a random forest model. This classification model used various road geometry data and SSMs as predictors and achieved high classification performance for all classes, averaging more than 88% correct classification rates.

Analysis of Flooding Vulnerability in Informal Settlements Literature: Mapping and Research Agenda

The United Nations (UN) emphasizes the necessity of reducing the social and material losses imposed by water disasters, with an emphasis on protecting the most vulnerable social groups to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs). Several objectives outlined under the SDGs including Goals 1, 11, and 13 concentrate on minimizing vulnerability to disasters and boosting resilience to extreme occurrences. Flooding is an increasingly challenging problem facing cities today, with consequences mostly felt in marginalized communities. Residents of informal settlements are particularly susceptible to the effects of flooding given that they are compelled to live in the most unsafe locations, such as floodplains. This study reviews the current status of flooding research from empirical perspectives globally and in South Africa through systematic literature and bibliometric analysis of 249 peer-reviewed articles on flooding, with a focus on informal settlements. We detect groups of keywords and major research themes. Our analysis shows that studies on flood modeling in informal settlements are inadequate. We synthesized the research to present a body of knowledge on floods in informal settlements. Future research prospects are identified in areas of upgrading housing and infrastructures, policies, integrating indigenous knowledge, and local participation.

Study and Realization of an Alarm System by Coded Laser Barrier Analyzed by the Wavelet Transform

This article introduces the study and realization of the laser barrier alarm system, after the laser is obtained by an electronic card, the wireless control system is connected to the control room to announce the application in real time, and the laser is used in many applications fields, from industry to medicine, in this article on the basis of Industrial applications such as laser barrier. It uses an alarm system to detect and deter intruders. Basic security includes protecting the perimeter of a military base or a safety distance in unsafe locations or near a government location. The first stage secures surrounding access points such as doors and windows; The second stage consists of internal detection with motion detectors that monitor movements, In this article, we adopt the embodiment of a coded laser barrier that is transmitted between two units, processes the signal, compares the agreed conditions, and to be high accuracy, we suggest using wavelet transmission to process the received signal and find out the frequencies that achieve alarm activation considering that the transmitted signal They are pulses, but after analysis with a proposed algorithm, we can separate the unwanted frequencies generated by the differential vibrations in order to arrive at a practically efficient system.

Placing Perceptions of Unsafety: Examining Spatial Concentrations and Temporal Patterns of Unsafe Locations at Micro-Places

ObjectivesTo explore the extent to which unsafe locations are concentrated to micro-places within the city of Malmö, Sweden, and whether there is a temporal stability in these micro-places over time.MethodsInformation on unsafe locations is obtained from an open-ended item across three waves of a random sample community survey. Reported unsafe locations are geocoded as polygon, polyline, and point features and merged with a 200 by 200-m grid-cell network using both unadjusted and weighted counts.ResultsThe results suggest that unsafe locations are concentrated to a small share of grid-cells using different metrics. There are also signs of spatial clustering and a temporal stability of unsafe locations over time.ConclusionsAs unsafe locations are concentrated to a small share of micro-places the results have important implications for both theory and practice. However, further research exploring unsafety and fear of crime at micro-places is highly warranted.

Crime Prevention through Environmental Design: A Case Study of Thammasat University Rangsit Campus

Crime is considered as one of the major social problems in Thailand that causes huge impacts to society. In order for a crime to occur, three elements must coincide; desire, ability, and opportunity. Therefore, crime prevention method can be done by reducing crime opportunity as other factors; desire and ability cannot be controlled by an external party. According to the Royal Thai Police (2019), the demographic data indicated that Pathum Thani is the second most unsafe district in the Bangkok and Metropolitan Region (BMR) after Bangkok. The researcher, therefore, chose a part of Thammasat University Rangsit campus which consists of a residential, recreational and commercial zone as the study area for this research. Mapping and overlay analysis are used as an analytical tool to identify an unsafe location. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used to identify both physical and non-physical attributes associated with such unsafe locations. The results of the analysis illustrate that the area at the back of the main stadium is the most unsafe place when considering physical and non-physical attributes. On the other hands, considering user’s experiences, the area around Laan Payanak are seen to be the most unsafe place as well as is known of being a crime location. According to our survey, the correspondents strongly agree that lighting illumination on pedestrian walkway contributes to their feeling of fear for crime the most. The result from the AHP also shows that users choose the lighting issue as the first priority as well. Recommendations for urban design guideline for crime prevention include (1) changing the pedestrian lights to allow better lighting and visibility of the users (2) encouraging more activities on the area of Laan Payanak to crowd the area, giving more security to people in the area (3) providing gate, operation time sign at every entrance to control the accessibility of each area and route, and (4) providing emergency equipment and information for self-help or calling for help.

A scoping review of female drowning: an underexplored issue in five high-income countries

BackgroundDrowning is a significant public health issue, with females accounting for one third of global drowning deaths. The rate of female drowning has not decreased within high-income countries and presentations to hospital have increased. This scoping review aimed to explore adult female unintentional drowning, including risk factors, clinical treatment and outcomes of females hospitalised for drowning.MethodsA systematic search of the literature following the PRISMA-ScR framework was undertaken. The databases OVID MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, OVID Emcare, Web of Science, Informit and Scopus were accessed. Study locations of focus were Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Studies from January 2003 to April 2019 were included. The quality of evidence of included studies was assessed using GRADE guidelines.ResultsThe final search results included 14 studies from Australia (n = 4), Canada (n = 1), New Zealand (n = 1), United States (n = 6), United Kingdom (n = 1), and one study reporting data from both Australia and United States. Nine studies reported risk factors for female drowning including age, with the proportion of female drowning incidence increasing with age. Although females are now engaging in risk-taking behaviours associated with drowning that are similar to males, such as consuming alcohol and swimming in unsafe locations, their exposure to risky situations and ways they assess risk, differ. Females are more likely to drown from accidental entry into water, such as in a vehicle during a flood or fall into water. This review found no evidence on the clinical treatment provided to females in hospital after a drowning incident, and only a small number of studies reported the clinical outcomes of females, with inconsistent results (some studies reported better and some no difference in clinical outcomes among females).ConclusionAdult females are a group vulnerable to drowning, that have lacked attention. There was no single study found which focused solely on female drowning. There is a need for further research to explore female risk factors, the clinical treatment and outcomes of females hospitalised for drowning. This will not only save the lives of females, but also contribute to an overall reduction in drowning.

Model of emergence evacuation route planning with contra flow and zone scheduling in disaster evacuation

Evacuation is characterized by rapid movement of people in unsafe locations or disaster sites to safer locations. The traffic management strategy for commonly used evacuations is the use of Shoulder-Lane, contra flowing traffic and gradual evacuation. Contra flowhas been commonly used in traffic management by changing traffic lanes during peak hours. To implement the contra flowoperation, there are two main problems that must be decided, namely optimal contraflow lane configuration problem (OCLCP) and optimal contraflow scheduling. Within the OCSP there are two approaches that can be used: zone scheduling and flow scheduling. Problem of contra flow and zone scheduling problem is basically an emergence evacuation route planning (EERP) issue. This research will discuss EERP with contraflow and zone scheduling which can guarantee the movement of people in disaster area to safe area in emergency situation.

Model of emergence evacuation route planning with contra flow and zone scheduling in disaster evacuation

Evacuation is characterized by rapid movement of people in unsafe locations or disaster sites to safer locations. The traffic management strategy for commonly used evacuations is the use of Shoulder-Lane, contraflowing traffic and gradual evacuation. Contra-flow has been commonly used in traffic management by changing traffic lanes during peak hours. To implement the contra-flow operation, there are two main problems that must be decided, namely Optimal Contraflow Lane Configuration Problem (OCLCP) and Optimal Contraflow Scheduling. Within the OCSP there are two approaches that can be used: zone scheduling and flow scheduling. Problem of Contra Flow and Zone Scheduling Problem is basically an Emergence Evacuation Route Planning (EERP) issue. This research will discuss EERP with ContraFlow and Zone Scheduling which can guarantee the movement of people in disaster area to safe area in emergency situation.

School‐wide positive behavioral interventions and supports in Dutch elementary schools: Exploring effects

AbstractIn 2009, School‐Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) was introduced in the Netherlands to support schools in creating safe learning environments. In this longitudinal study, we explored effects of SWPBIS on student outcomes in the Netherlands. Fidelity of implementation of SWPBIS has been associated with improved student outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine the relation between changes in fidelity and student outcomes. A total of 66 elementary schools (n = 14,256 students) were followed for 3 years (2015–2018). We collected yearly data on fidelity, social safety (consisting of students' social well‐being, general feeling of safety, harassment, prevalence of unsafe locations in and around schools), behavior incidents, and additional behavioral support. Using repeated measures analysis of variances, we saw an increase in fidelity scores and a decline in the percentage of students stating there were unsafe locations in and around school. Multiple regression analyses showed that changes in fidelity were related to changes in both students' social well‐being and the number of behavior incidents. Limitations were discussed, such as the absence of comparison schools not implementing SWPBIS, and schools at different stages of implementation, and we accounted for missing data.

An Investigation of Functional Communication Training and Schedule Thinning Using a Multiple Schedule on Elopement to Access Stereotypy.

Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who engage in stereotypy may also emit a prior, temporally contiguous, high-risk response to access stereotypic behaviors. For example, the participant in this study who was diagnosed with ASD engaged in a chained response that included elopement, often in unsafe locations, to access light switch flipping. Previous research indicates that functional communication training (FCT) with delay fading is a viable approach to reduce chained problem behavior. In this study, we extended previous research by (a) evaluating the generalized effect of FCT and schedule thinning using multiple schedule technology for an automatically maintained chained response, and (b) evaluating whether intervention effects maintained in the participant's optimal context. Results for the participant suggested that FCT with schedule thinning mitigated high-risk chained responding across settings and discrimination training using a multiple schedule assessment effectively signaled available and unavailable times for the participant to emit the chained response which matched the participant's natural schedule parameters.

An iterative k-means clustering approach for identification of bicycle impediments in an urban traffic network

The bicycle has many positive effects; however, bicyclists are more vulnerable than users of other transport modes, and the number of bicycle related injuries and fatalities are too high. We present a clustering analysis aiming to support the identification of the locations of bicyclists' perceived unsafety in an urban traffic network, so-called bicycle impediments. In particular, we present an iterative k-means clustering approach, which in contrast to standard k-means clustering, enables to remove outliers and solitary points from the data set. In our study, we used data collected by bicyclists travelling in the city of Lund, Sweden, where each data point defines a location and time of a bicyclist's perceived unsafety. The results of our study show that 1) clustering is a useful approach in order to support the identification of perceived unsafe locations for bicyclists in an urban traffic network and 2) it might be beneficial to combine different types of clustering to support the identification process. Furthermore, using the adjusted Rand index, our results indicate high robustness of our iterative k-means clustering approach.

UAV Integration in Current Construction Safety Planning and Monitoring Processes: Case Study of a High-Rise Building Construction Project in Chile

The majority of construction fatalities and accidents in Chile occur in high-rise building construction projects that also suffer from an insufficient number of safety managers on-site. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and their generated aerial visual contents have the potential to help the limited number of safety managers in such projects to quickly and properly inspect the inaccessible, hard-to-reach, or unsafe locations on the site and to enhance their safety assessment of those projects. In this study, a case study approach was adopted to investigate how UAV technology and their generated aerial visual contents might affect the current approach of conducting safety planning and monitoring in a high-rise building construction site in Chile with a limited number of safety managers. The case study involved three steps: (1) understanding the current safety planning and monitoring process in a high-rise construction project, (2) investigating how UAV-related tasks and generated visual contents could be integrated into the current process, and (3) assessment of how such UAV integration might affect the current safety planning and monitoring process. The outcome of the case study provided a detailed overview of the new steps required to integrate UAVs in the current safety planning and monitoring process and concluded that adoption of UAV technology had enhanced identification and assessment of hazards in the high-rise project. Hazards associated with unsafe acts and conditions at height (e.g., missing guardrails or safety nets around unprotected edges or openings and loose or unsecured material at height) were the most common types of hazards identified using the UAV in this case study. Safety managers in the project also rated aerial videos captured by the UAV as the most useful type of data for their safety planning and monitoring tasks. The UAV also significantly reduced the amount of time required for safety managers to conduct their site visit walkthroughs on the project site.

On the use of clustering analysis for identification of unsafe places in an urban traffic network

Abstract As an alternative to the car, the bicycle is considered important for obtaining more sustainable urban transport. The bicycle has many positive effects; however, bicyclists are more vulnerable than users of other transport modes, and the number of bicycle related injuries and fatalities are too high. We present a clustering analysis aiming to support the identification of the locations of bicyclists’ perceived unsafety in an urban traffic network, so-called bicycle impediments. In particular, we used an iterative k-means clustering approach, which is a contribution of the current paper, and DBSCAN. In contrast to standard k-means clustering, our iterative k-means clustering approach enables to remove outliers from the data set. In our study, we used data collected by bicyclists travelling in the city of Lund, Sweden, where each data point defines a location and time of a bicyclist’s perceived unsafety. The results of our study show that 1) clustering is a useful approach in order to support the identification of perceived unsafe locations for bicyclists in an urban traffic network and 2) it might be beneficial to combine different types of clustering to support the identification process.

Determining risk-based safety thresholds through naturalistic driving patterns using trajectory data on expressways

The present research work is initiated, probing for safety levels, evolving as an outcome of analysis of micro-level interactions due to naturalistic vehicular movements on Indian expressways. The research work reported here, devised a micro-level parameter, namely instant perception time (IPT) as a safety measure, which is a function of vehicular interactions. As a step towards deriving IPT, video-graphic surveys were conducted and traffic data was collected on two intercity Indian expressways. As a part of this work, first microscopic trajectory data was developed for capturing naturalistic driving behavior under heterogeneous traffic environment. Thereafter, hysteresis plots were developed between leader-follower pairs using relative speed and spacing between the vehicles. By means of the developed hysteresis plots, a novel approach for identification and quantifying chances of rear-end crashes using follower’s Instantaneous perception time (IPT), is proposed in the present study. To study the IPT approach under different flow conditions, well-calibrated and validated simulation model is also developed using real trajectory data collected for the prevailing traffic conditions observed on the study sections. From the obtained IPTs using simulation model, three cluster ranges are delineated pertaining to different levels of risks of crashes. The cluster-analysis suggests that the least values of space-headway (m) and IPT (s) (space headway < 10.91 m, IPT < 5.61 s) at a given location shows most severe chances of rear-end collision. While, lower to moderate values indicate (with thresholds: space headway in the range 10.91–18.5 m; IPT 5.61–11.91 s), whereas higher values of IPT (more than 12 s) suggest the least chances of rear-end collision. The methodological approach, results and findings thus developed under naturalistic driving environment, presented here can be very useful in understanding the operational deficiencies of traffic streams, road geometry, coupled with safety assessment of traffic streams on uninterrupted roadway facilities. Furthermore, traffic control or geometry improvement related decisions can also be taken at different unsafe locations using IPT as a risk measure to enhance safety.

Mapping the Landscape of Support and Safety Among Sexual Minority Women and Gender Non-conforming Individuals: Perceptions After the 2016 US Presidential Election

As part of a larger online survey, we conducted an Internet-based study that included both qualitative and quantitative data from a national non-probability sample to examine how sexual minority women and gender non-conforming individuals described their experiences and concerns after the 2016 election. The current study explores responses in relation to local social and political climates. Quantitative analysis of survey responses (N = 969) examined changes in participant concerns relative to state policy context (number of positive policies offering equal rights and protections for LGBTQ communities) and size of community (e.g., urban and rural). Analysis of narrative responses to open-ended questions (n = 605) explored experiences and perceptions of safety and support relative to geographic location. Quantitative analyses showed no difference in levels of concern by size of community of residence and greater concerns among participants in higher equality states compared to those in negative equality states. Qualitative analyses revealed two broad categories of themes: perceptions of safety and support in the state, region or local context (safe havens and hostile locations), and strategies for navigating in the current or changing local social and political landscapes (hunkering down in safe places and with safe people, increasing vigilance and evasion, fleeing unsafe locations, and paving the road to a better future). Findings underscore the broad impact of national elections on perception of safety and civil rights at all levels of the social and political environments.

Robust acquisition at GPS receivers in unsafe locations using complex wavelet transform

Growing importance of Global Positioning System (GPS) applications in various fields, leads many researches to the security of GPS systems and investigation of eventual perturbations in them. One of the most important intentional interferences is spoofing. This work presents an anti-spoofing method based on complex wavelet transform (CWT). Fake satellites are omitted and then understrength satellites due to spoofing are identified. The results of investigation suggest that the proposed CWT based estimation and extraction method is better than relatively simple wavelet transform. The suggested filter is applied in the Intermediate Frequency signal. Cross-validation technique is used for automatically identifying wavelet signal layers. The proposed method has been implemented on different collected datasets. Software GPS Receiver has been used to implement and validate the developed anti-spoofing technique because it is more flexible and economical compared with usual hardware receivers.

Neurological injuries from skateboards in paediatric and adolescent populations: injury types and severity

Skateboarding is a popular recreation among children and adolescents. Injuries that result in presentation to emergency departments are varied including head injuries. The study aims to assess the type and severity of neurological damage to the brain and spine in children from injuries incurred while using a skateboard. After obtaining Ethics approval, a retrospective case review was performed of all admissions to all Brisbane, Australia public hospital neurosurgery departments of children 18 years and less who experienced injuries to the brain and spine for the years 2010-2014. There were 51 skateboard-related admissions over the study period of which 94% were male. The mean age was 14.3 years. The Injury Severity Score (ISS) ranged from 1 to 38 with a mean of 11.4. A total of 70.5% of the ISS scores fell within the minor or moderate categories and 29.5% fell within the serious and severe categories. There were no ISS scores in the critical category. A total of 16 skull vault fractures and 14 skull base fractures were recorded. There were 13 extradural haematomas of which five were evacuated by craniotomy and one of whom experienced hemiplegia. There was a spinal cord injury with paraplegia. A range of other neurological complications occurred. There were no deaths. Uncommon but serious neurological morbidity accompanies skateboard use. Concerns remain about the level of helmet use and choice of unsafe locations for skateboarding.

Long-Range Dependence of Traffic Flow and Speed of a Motorway: Dynamics and Correlation with Historical Incidents

Speed and flow of vehicles tend to have several effects on the dynamics of a transport system. Fluctuations of these variables can implicate congestion, can lower predictability, and may even catalyze crashes. A concept of fractal theory called the Hurst exponent—a measure of the long-range dependence (LRD) of a time series—was used to understand the fluctuations in flow and speed of a motorway in Sydney, Australia. The spatial and temporal variation of the LRD for flow ( Hflow) and speed ( Hspeed) at several monitor sites is discussed. Furthermore, the effects of number of lanes on flow and speed predictability are explored. It was observed that the flow predictability of two-lane sections was significantly lower when compared with three-lane and four-lane sections. Conversely, the speed predictability of four-lane sections was considerably higher than that of two-lane and three-lane sections. Finally, traffic congestion was defined with regard to the LRD of speed, and its correlation with historical incident rates was measured. It was ascertained that monitor sites with a historically high proportion of large Hspeedwere correlated with unsafe locations. This study could lead to many applications of fractal analysis on highways and urban traffic.