1,720,981 research outputs found
Evaluation of Post-license Advanced Driver Training in Italy
Full text linkAbstractPost-license advanced driver training addresses different categories of road users such as: novice drivers, professional drivers, company employers and recidivists. These training courses can be carried out on-track or on the road. On-track courses allow participants to gain knowledge on driving physics and experience limits in a safe road environment. On-road courses are more focused on hazard perception and situation awareness.Although extensive research has been done in this field, knowledge of the effects of these courses on road accident risk remains unclear. Previous evaluation of on-track courses did not always show a positive effect on crash rate. For example, post-license training focused on mastery of driving skills can lead to an increase of accident risk, especially on young males.However, research identified several factors that may enhance the effectiveness of driving training. In Europe a new framework for driver education and training has been proposed based on a safe driver hierarchical model (the GADGET model) and the development of a strategy for continuous learning.According to this framework, an evaluation study of on-track post-license advanced driver training has been undertaken in Italy with the main goal of assessing the safety effects of these courses and identifying training aspects to be improved. Besides crash rate, the study aims at assessing also driver behavior, knowledge of risks, self-evaluation and training quality.This paper presents the results of the possible effects of advanced driver training on driving behavior, considering in particular the number and type of violations. For each driver, data on age, gender and driving violations history were extracted from the platform and the national violations database.Three cases were addressed through a before-after analysis with control group. Case 1 considers all drivers who attended an ADT course. Case 2 aimed at understanding the effects of the courses on a specific target group: the traffic violators. Case 3 is similar to Case 2, however the control group was selected in a way that drivers characteristics and the violation rate was similar to the violation rate of the treatment group in the before period.The significance of the differences highlighted was assessed through appropriate statistical tests (i.e. paired t-test and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test).The study showed in general a higher propensity to commit traffic violations after attending an ADT course. These results are in contrast to what expected and show the necessity to diversify the training classes according to the different needs of participants
Smeed's law and expected road fatality reduction: An assessment of the Italian case
No full textIntroduction Smeed's law defines the functional relationship existing between the fatality rate and the motorization rate. While focusing on the Italian case and based on the Smeed's law, the study assesses the possibility for Italy of reaching the target of halving the number of road fatalities by 2020, in light of the evolving socio-economic situation. Method A Smeed's model has been calibrated based on the recorded Italian data. The evolution of the two indicators, fatality and motorization rates, has been estimated using the predictions of the main parameters (population, fleet size and fatalities). Those trends have been compared with the natural decreasing trend derived from the Smeed's law. Results Nine scenarios have been developed showing the relationship between the fatality rate and the motorization rate. In case of a limited increase (logistic regression) of the vehicle fleet and according to the estimated evolution of the population, the path defined by motorization and fatality rate is very steep, diverging from the estimated confidence interval of the Smeed's model. In these scenarios the motorization rate is almost constant during the decade. Conclusions In the actual economic context, a limited development of the vehicle fleet is more plausible. In these conditions the target achievement of halving the number of fatalities in Italy may occur only in case of a structural break (i.e., the introduction of highly effective road safety policies). Practical application The proposed tools can be used both to evaluate retrospectively the effectiveness of road safety improvements and to assess if a relevant effort is needed to reach the established road safety targets. © 2015 National Safety Council and Elsevie
A methodology to assess pedestrian crossing safety
Full text linkPurpose: The safety level of a pedestrian crossing is affected by infrastructure characteristics and vehicular and pedestrian traffic level. This paper presents a methodology that allows assessing the safety level of a pedestrian crossing, regulated or not by traffic light, in an urban area according to the features of the crossing. Methods: A hierarchical structure representing factors influencing crossing safety has been developed and the relative contributions of each factor were calculated using AHP method. A composite index for crossing safety and specific indexes for main aspects included in the assessment have been developed. Results: Main assessment aspects are: Spatial and Temporal Design, Day-time and Night-time Visibility and Accessibility. Night-time Visibility resulted to have the higher weight (about 41%). Conclusion: Developed indexes allow ranking of pedestrian crossings and assigning intervention priorities, highlighting the aspects which are to be enhanced. The methodology has been used for the evaluation of 215 pedestrian crossings in 17 European cities for the Pedestrian Crossing Assessment Project co-financed by FIA Foundation. © 2010 The Author(s)
Advancements in Road Safety Management Analysis
Full text linkRoad Safety Management (RSM) can be briefly defined as the tasks of preparing and implementing road safety policies. Many studies have been carried out on RSM, trying to identify success factors and reference best practice examples, but the complexity of the subject and the difficulty of quantitative data collection make it difficult a clear and comprehensive understanding. According to the EC-funded DACOTA research project, the weakest components of RSM systems in Europe are policy implementation and funding and the lack of knowledge-based road safety policy making.
The main objective of the research, undertaken within the FERSI's working group on Road Safety Management (RSM), is to better investigate in several European countries those two RSM key functions: funding and research. Particularly the study aims at 1) exploring the existing structures, processes and factors affecting funding and research performances; 2) defining an assessment framework able to measure single country performances with reference to the efficiency and effectiveness of road safety funding and research, possibly shifting from a qualitative to a more quantitative approach.
Based on the available knowledge on these two topics (research and funding), an assessment framework is defined and a set of qualitative and quantitative indicators for funding and research performance measurement is proposed. A desk analysis aiming at collecting available data useful to estimate the proposed indicators is conducted and a preliminary analysis with this subset of indicators is undertaken. A subset of research indicators (bibliometric) are used to estimate road safety research outputs performance of a country in terms of productivity and quality of research and international collaboration activities. Preliminary results show a positive correlation among them, even if the linear correlation turns to be not so strong. Countries are ranked on the basis of a composite index of all the three indicators
Aggregated analysis of in-depth accident causation data
No full textData collected from in-depth road accident investigations are very informative and may contain more than 500 accident-related variables for a single investigated case. These data may be used to get a more detailed knowledge on accident and injury causation associated with a specific accident scenario. However, due to their complexity, studies using in-depth data at aggregated levels are not common. The objective of this paper is to propose a methodology to analyse aggregated accident causation charts in order to highlight strong and weak relationships between crash causes and pre-crash scenarios. These relationships can be taken into account when developing or assessing new road safety measures (e.g. in-vehicle systems). The methodology has been applied to an in-depth accident dataset derived from the European project SafetyNet. Four different pre-crash scenarios associated with the accident scenario 'vehicles encountering something while remaining in their lane' have been investigated. Even if generalization of these results should be done with care because of database representativeness issues, the methodology is promising, highlighting, for example, a well-defined causation pattern related to vehicles striking a vehicle in rear-end accidents
Active Mobility Assessment in the City of Bamenda
Full text linkEmbarking on active mobility strategies, by promoting cycling and walking as transport modes in combination with public transport to facilitate longer distances can greatly influence cities’ livability. Active mobility forms part of Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning. The inadequacy of sidewalks, which include narrow, uneven, obstructed, or even absent walkways, poses significant challenges and safety risks for pedestrians, who are among the most vulnerable road users. The study aimed at examining the active mobility infrastructure in the city of Bamenda and identifying the various barriers involved. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through survey, inspection, interviews as well as secondary data sources. A sample size of 250 was used to represent the population of the focus area and considering the parameters on the checklist used, the average adequacy, which represents the qualitative score of the active mobility infrastructure for the six areas surveyed, was rated at 6.31 percent. Walking is the mode of travel predominantly used in the city of Bamenda as almost half of the total daily trips (48.8%) are made on foot in combination with taxi but unfortunately, initiatives have focused on roads and intersections meant for motorist travel and not on a systematic diagnosis of active mobility, especially sidewalk safety. The roads in the city are poorly designed with streetlights, pedestrian crossings and sidewalks visibly absent or partially obstructed by permanent obstacles and street vendors. Traffic safety is the leading factor, with a significant influence of 82.0% on active mobility. Good health is another important factor influencing the preference for walking or cycling, with a score of 70.40%. Thus, traffic safety and good health are interconnected factors that significantly influence the preference for walking or cycling in Bamenda. Consequently, pedestrian infrastructure need urgent improvement while cycling facilities are still to be conceived and implemented in the city by the policymakers. Thus, active mobility reduces reliance on private vehicles, alleviates traffic congestion, contributing to a more sustainable transportation system by lowering greenhouse gas emissions and reducing air pollution
The role of Insurance companies to road traffic safety in Cameroon
Full text linkAbstract: Although road safety is generally based on the areas of prevention, there has been an increasing emphasis on the relationship between insurance, road accidents and road safety. This study was designed to investigate the role of insurance companies to road safety in Cameroon. A sample survey data was used to examine the participation of insurance companies to road safety in Cameroon. The qualitative data analysis carried out revealed that Cameroonian insurance companies’ are mostly involved in compensating road victims as way to promote road safety, which is their businesses and their primary objectives are not to reduce road accidents, but however, driver training (the insured), education and publicity and to a lesser extent traffic law enforcement were carried out by to improve road safety. The bonus malus system was identified to be an ineffective policy in promoting road safety due to the instability of the insured. This study has revealed the many different ways by which Cameroon insurance companies could be involved in road safety and in particular the potential benefits of taking part in road safety issues. Consequently, there is an urgent need for active participation of these companies. The usage-based insurance policies appear to be the best ‘good practice’ recommended to Cameroon insurance companies in terms of the level of challenge
and level of priority, in addition to its safety and insurance benefit
CTLup Srl
No full textLA SOCIETA' HA PER OGGETTO LA PROGETTAZIONE, SVILUPPO E COMMERCIALIZZAZIONE
DI PROGRAMMI INFORMATICI(SOFTWARE) INNOVATIVI AD ALTO VALORE TECNOLOGICO,
AVENTI NATURA DI APPLICAZIONI WEB, APPLICAZIONI PER DISPOSITIVI, MOBILI E NON,
SOFTWARE PER SISTEMI INTEGRATI; PROGETTAZIONE, GESTIONE E CONSULENZA PER
CREAZIONE E COMMERCIALIZZAZIONE DI HARDWARE E SOFTWARE INNOVATIVO AD ALTO
VALORE TECNOLOGICO; CONSULENZA E RICERCA NEL SETTORE DELLE TECNOLOGIE
DELL'INFORMATICA AD ALTO VALORE TECNOLOGICO; SERVIZI INFORMATICI E TELEMATICI
INNOVATIVI, HOSTING, HOUSING, MESSAGGISTICA INTEGRATA, DOMINI E FORNITURA DI
SERVIZI APPLICATIVI( ASP); ASSISTENZA TECNICA, MANUTENZIONE E FORMAZIONE
CONNESSA AI PRODOTTI INFORMATICI INNOVATIVI AD ALTO VALORE TECNOLOGICO
SVILUPPATI DALL' AZIENDA; LA SOCIETA' PUO' SVOLGERE ALTRESI' ATTIVITA' DI
ASSISTENZA, CONSULENZA E FORMAZIONE INERENTI, A TITOLO ESEMPLIFICATIVO E NON
ESAUSTIVO I SETTORI DEI TRASPORTI, DELLA MOBILITA', DELL' URBANISTICA, DELLA
SICUREZZA STRADALE E AD ESSI AFFINI
Management of Road Infrastructure Safety
Full text linkAbstractRoad Infrastructure Safety Management (RISM) refers to a set of procedures that support a road authority in decision making related to the improvement of safety on a road network. Some of these procedures can be applied to existing infrastructure, thus enabling a reactive approach; and other procedures are used in early stages of a project's life-cycle allowing a proactive approach. The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the most well-known procedures and present a series of recommendations for successful road infrastructure safety management. The work described in the paper was completed by the IRTAD sub-working group on Road Infrastructure Safety Management and presented in detail in the respective Report.The methodology followed on this purpose included the description of the most consolidated RISM procedures, the analysis of the use of RISM procedures worldwide and the identification of possible weaknesses and barriers to their implementation, the provision of good practice examples and the contribution to the scientific assessment of procedures.Specifically, the following RISM procedures were considered: Road Safety Impact Assessment (RIA), Efficiency Assessment Tools (EAT), Road Safety Audit (RSA), Network Operation (NO), Road Infrastructure Safety Performance Indicators (SPI), Network Safety Ranking (NSR), Road Assessment Programs (RAP), Road Safety Inspection (RSI), High Risk Sites (HRS) and In-depth Investigation. Each procedure was described along with tools and data needed for its implementation as well as relevant common practices worldwide. A synthesis summarizing the key information for each procedure was also drafted.Based on a survey on 23 IRTAD member countries from worldwide, the lack of resources or tools is the most commonly stated reason for not applying a RISM procedure. This has been frequently found mainly in European countries. Another common reason is the absence of recommendations/guidelines, especially for SPI, RAP, RSI and RSA. This highlights the importance of the presence of some legislation regulating the application of the procedures. Lack of data was found important mainly for SPI, HRS and EAT.Good practices of road infrastructure safety management have been explored in order to find solutions to the issues highlighted by the survey and provide examples about how these issues have been overcome in some countries. Specifically, issues related to data, legal framework, funding, knowledge, tools and dealing with more RISM procedures were addressed.Finally, nine key messages and six recommendations for better Road Infrastructure Safety Management were developed based on the conclusions made
Self-Reported Speed Compliance and Drivers Speeding Behaviour in Cameroon
Full text linkSpeeding is a significant global issue, with disparities in speed and safety outcomes between low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and high-income countries (HICs). This study aims to address speed research gaps in LMICs by examining the prevalence of self-reported speeding and factors influencing drivers’ speeding behavior using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). An online survey involving 387 anonymous drivers was conducted in Yaoundé. Results showed that all drivers reported exceeding speed limits, with 81% exceeding them by 5 km/h, 12% by 10 km/h, and 7% by more than 10 km/h in urban areas. On highways, 54% reported exceeding the limit by more than 10 km/h. Age, driver’s license, and gender showed significant associations with speed limit non-compliance. This study’s results suggest that the TPB can be useful in assessing speeding behavior, as the inclusion of TPB variables led to a more than 50% proportionate increase in speeding behavior variance. Structural equation modeling revealed attitude towards speeding as the strongest predictor of speeding intention, along with certain demographics indirectly influencing speeding behavior through speeding intention. Perceived behavioral control and speeding intention directly influenced speeding behavior. These findings emphasize the potential of interventions targeting attitude, intentions, and perceived behavioral control to modify speeding behavior and improve road safety
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