WorldWideScience

Sample records for mesl demonstration road

  1. Resource Roads demonstration project : final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2009-07-15

    British Columbia's vast network of resource roads are considered to be amongst the most dangerous, high-risk workplaces in the province. Resource roads, also known as industrial roads, forest service roads, or petroleum development roads, present several unique safety challenges as workplaces. They are built for the purpose of access, egress and transport of materials, resources, equipment and people. However, the lack the same diligence of enforcement and a consistent design, construction, maintenance and standard for use as public highways or municipal roads. There are also safety challenges related to public use of resource roads. This report presented a project, called ResourceRoads by WorkSafe BC that focused on the organization and implementation of a management structure that would provide a system of coordination and a process of compliance for the users of the defined road systems. The project was based on information gathered in two forest districts of Prince George and the South Peace Forest Districts. A committee consisting of the actual owner of the road and other users was formed. The report presented a history of British Columbia's resource road system, and discussed resource roads as industrial workplaces and worksites, as well as resource road fatality statistics. The demonstration project was outlined in terms of project leadership; scope; strategic objectives; project purpose; performance objectives; project communication; demonstration areas; and project stages. Project fundamentals and project findings were also presented along with recommendations and responses to the Auditor General report and the Forest Safety Ombudsman report. It was concluded that potential uses of new technologies for resource road vehicles should be reviewed. tabs., figs.

  2. Demonstrating a correlation between the maturity of road safety practices and road safety incidents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amador, Luis; Willis, Christopher Joseph

    2014-01-01

    The objective of this study is to demonstrate a correlation between the maturity of a country's road safety practices and road safety incidents. Firstly, data on a number of road injuries and fatalities for 129 countries were extracted from the United Nations Global Status on Road Safety database. These data were subdivided according to road safety incident and accident causation factors and normalized based on vehicular fleet (per 1000 vehicles) and road network (per meter of paved road). Secondly, a road safety maturity model was developed based on an adaptation of the concept of process maturity modeling. The maturity of countries with respect to 10 road safety practices was determined through the identification of indicators recorded in the United Nations Global Status of Road Safety Database. Plots of normalized road safety performance of the 129 countries against their maturity scores for each road safety practice as well as an aggregation of the road safety practices were developed. An analysis of variance was done to determine the extent of the correlation between the road safety maturity of the countries and their performance. In addition, a full Bayesian analysis was done to confirm the correlation of each of the road safety practices with injuries and fatalities. Regression analysis for fatalities, injuries, and combined accidents identified maturity with respect to road safety practices associated with speed limits and use of alternative modes as being the most significant predictors of traffic fatalities. A full Bayesian regression confirms that there is a correlation between the maturity of road safety practices and road safety incidents. Road safety practices associated with enforcement of speed limits and promotion of alternative modes are the most significant road safety practices toward which mature countries have concentrated their efforts, resulting in a lower frequency of fatalities, injury rates, and property damage accidents. The authors

  3. Adli Muhasebecilik Mesleği ve Aklama Suçuyla Mücadele

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Murat KASAP

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available Günümüz dünyasında son yıllarda küreselleşme ile birlikte bilişim teknolojilerinin kullanımıyla ekonomik nitelikteki suçlarda önemli düzeyde artışlar olmuştur. Buna bağlı olarak da aklama suçu gibi finansal nitelikte suçlar da önemli düzeyde artmıştır. Türkiye’de aklama ile ilgili suçlarla mücadelede polis etkin görev almaktadır. Ancak aklama sucuyla etkin bir mücadele yapılabilmesi için profesyonel desteğe ihtiyaç bulunmaktadır. Diğer bir ifadeyle sadece iyi ekonomi, finans, muhasebe bilgisinin yanında iyi düzeyde hukuk bilgisi de bu suçların tespiti ve önlenmesinde önemlidir. ABD’de başta olmak üzere etkinliği artan adli muhasebecilik mesleği, aklama suçunun tespiti ve önlenmesinde önemli bir role sahiptir. Çünkü adli muhasebeciler, aklama suçuyla ilgili ihtiyaç duyulan dava desteği danışmanlığı, araştırmacı muhasebecilik ve bilirkişi desteklerini sağlayabilecek yeterliliktedir.

  4. Road surface erosion on the Jackson Demonstration State Forest: results of a pilot study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brian Barrett; Rosemary Kosaka; David. Tomberlin

    2012-01-01

    This paper presents results of a 3 year pilot study of surface erosion on forest roads in the Jackson Demonstration State Forest in California’s coastal redwood region. Ten road segments representing a range of surface, grade, and ditch conditions were selected for the study. At each segment, settling basins with tipping buckets were installed to measure...

  5. Automatic Road Centerline Extraction from Imagery Using Road GPS Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chuqing Cao

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Road centerline extraction from imagery constitutes a key element in numerous geospatial applications, which has been addressed through a variety of approaches. However, most of the existing methods are not capable of dealing with challenges such as different road shapes, complex scenes, and variable resolutions. This paper presents a novel method for road centerline extraction from imagery in a fully automatic approach that addresses the aforementioned challenges by exploiting road GPS data. The proposed method combines road color feature with road GPS data to detect road centerline seed points. After global alignment of road GPS data, a novel road centerline extraction algorithm is developed to extract each individual road centerline in local regions. Through road connection, road centerline network is generated as the final output. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our proposed method can rapidly and accurately extract road centerline from remotely sensed imagery.

  6. Road profile estimation of city roads using DTPS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Qi; McDaniel, J. Gregory; Sun, Nian X.; Wang, Ming L.

    2013-04-01

    This work presents a non-destructive and non-contact acoustic sensing approach for measuring road profile of road and bridge deck with vehicles running at normal speed without stopping traffic. This approach uses an instantaneous and real-time dynamic tire pressure sensor (DTPS) that can measure dynamic response of the tire-road interaction and increases the efficiency of currently used road profile measuring systems with vehicle body-mounted profilers and axle-mounted accelerometers. In this work, a prototype of real-time DTPS system has been developed and demonstrated on a testing van at speeds from 5 to 80 miles per hour (mph). A data analysis algorithm has been developed to remove axle dynamic motions from the measured DTPS data and to find the transfer function between dynamic tire pressure change and the road profile. Field test has been performed to estimate road profiles. The road profile resolution is approximately 5 to 10 cm in width and sensitivity is 0. 3 cm for the height road surface features at driving speeds of 5 to 80 mph.

  7. Road user behaviour changes following a self-explaining roads intervention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mackie, Hamish W; Charlton, Samuel G; Baas, Peter H; Villasenor, Pablo C

    2013-01-01

    The self-explaining roads (SER) approach uses road designs that evoke correct expectations and driving behaviours from road users to create a safe and user-friendly road network. Following the implementation of an SER process and retrofitting of local and collector roads in a suburb within Auckland City, lower speeds on local roads and less variation in speed on both local and collector roads were achieved, along with a closer match between actual and perceived safe speeds. Preliminary analyses of crash data shows that the project has resulted in a 30% reduction crash numbers and an 86% reduction in crash costs per annum, since the road changes were completed. In order to further understand the outcomes from this project, a study was carried out to measure the effects of the SER intervention on the activity and behaviour of all road users. Video was collected over nine separate days, at nine different locations, both before and after SER construction. Road user behaviour categories were developed for all potential road users at different location types and then used to code the video data. Following SER construction, on local roads there was a relatively higher proportion of pedestrians, less uniformity in vehicle lane keeping and less indicating by motorists along with less through traffic, reflecting a more informal/low speed local road environment. Pedestrians were less constrained on local roads following SER construction, possibly reflecting a perceptually safer and more user-friendly environment. These behaviours were not generally evident on collector roads, a trend also shown by the previous study of speed changes. Given that one of the objectives of SER is to match road user behaviour with functionally different road categories, the road user behaviour differences demonstrated on different road types within the SER trial area provides further reinforcement of a successful SER trial. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Invasive Brown Treesnake movements at road edges indicate road-crossing avoidance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siers, Shane R.; Savidge, Julie S; Reed, Robert N.

    2014-01-01

    Roads have significant impacts on the dispersal of wildlife. Although this poses a threat to the abundance and diversity of desirable flora and fauna, it also affords some opportunity for enhancing control of invasive species. Roads are the most common terrain features that may affect the rate of landscape-scale movements of invasive Brown Treesnakes (Boiga irregularis) throughout Guam. We radio tracked 45 free-ranging Brown Treesnakes in close proximity to two roads in Guam and recorded instances where daily relocations of snakes spanned roads. Then we reconstructed observed movement histories with randomized turning angles, which served as a useful null hypothesis for assessing the effect of roads or road edge habitat on Brown Treesnake movement patterns. Random walk simulations demonstrated that Brown Treesnakes crossed these roads at a rate far lower than would be expected if snake movement was random with respect to roads and road edge habitat. We discuss two alternative hypotheses for these results: 1) habitat gaps posed by roads physically or behaviorally restrict snake movement; or 2) road edges provide preferred foraging habitat from which snakes are reluctant to depart. Because roads often form the boundaries of jurisdictional and management units, the effects of roads on the movement of invasive Brown Treesnakes will influence the prospects for success of future landscape-level suppression efforts.

  9. The smart grid research network: Road map for Smart Grid research, development and demonstration up to 2020

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Troi, A. [Technical Univ. of Denmark. DTU Electrical Engineering, DTU Risoe Campus, Roskilde (Denmark); Noerregaard Joergensen, B. [Syddansk Univ. (SDU), Odense (Denmark); Mahler Larsen, E. [Technical Univ. of Denmark. DTU Electrical Engineering, Kgs. Lyngby (Denmark)] [and others

    2013-01-15

    This road map is a result of part-recommendation no. 25 in 'MAIN REPORT - The Smart Grid Network's recommendations', written by the Smart Grid Network for the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Building in October 2011. This part-recommendation states: ''Part-recommendation 25 - A road map for Smart Grid research, development and demonstration It is recommended that the electricity sector invite the Ministry to participate in the creation of a road map to ensure that solutions are implemented and coordinated with related policy areas. The sector should also establish a fast-acting working group with representatives from universities, distribution companies and the electric industry, in order to produce a mutual, binding schedule for the RDD of the Smart Grid in Denmark. Time prioritisation of part-recommendation: 2011-2012 Responsibility for implementation of part-recommendation: Universities, along with relevant electric-industry actors, should establish a working group for the completion of a consolidated road map by the end of 2012.'' In its work on this report, the Smart Grid Research Network has focused particularly on part-recommendations 26, 27 and 28 in 'MAIN REPORT - The Smart Grid Network's recommendations', which relate to strengthening and marketing the research infrastructure that will position Denmark as the global hub for Smart Grid development; strengthening basic research into the complex relationships in electric systems with large quantities of independent parties; and improved understanding of consumer behaviour and social economics. Naturally the work has spread to related areas along the way. The work has been conducted by the Smart Grid Research Network. (Author)

  10. Construction of Three-Dimensional Road Surface and Application on Interaction between Vehicle and Road

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lu Yongjie

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The quantitative description is given to three-dimensional micro and macro self-similar characteristics of road surface from the perspective of fractal geometry using FBM stochastic midpoint displacement and diamond-square algorithm in conjunction with fractal characteristics and statistical characteristics of standard pavement determined by estimation method of box-counting dimension. The comparative analysis between reconstructed three-dimensional road surface spectrum and theoretical road surface spectrum and correlation coefficient demonstrate the high reconstruction accuracy of fractal reconstructed road spectrum. Furthermore, the bump zone is taken as an example to reconstruct a more arbitrary 3D road model through isomorphism of special road surface with stochastic road surface model. Measurement is taken to assume the tire footprint on road surface to be a rectangle, where the pressure distribution is expressed with mean stiffness, while the contact points in the contact area are replaced with a number of springs. Two-DOF vehicle is used as an example to analyze the difference between three-dimensional multipoint-and-plane contact and traditional point contact model. Three-dimensional road surface spectrum provides a more accurate description of the impact effect of tire on road surface, thereby laying a theoretical basis for studies on the dynamical process of interaction of vehicle-road surface and the road friendliness.

  11. Gender Stereotypes among Road Users

    OpenAIRE

    Kabalevskaya, Alexandra I.

    2013-01-01

    This article analyzes the mechanism of stereotyping as exemplified by gender stereotypes of road users. Gender stereotypes are not only viewed as an a priori image of a percept, but also examined ‘in action’ — at the very moment of their actualization with road users. In the paper we have identified the content of road users’ gender stereotypes; analyzed the behaviour of male and female drivers, pinpointing a number of gender-specific behavioural features; demonstrated that male and female dr...

  12. Gender stereotypes among road users

    OpenAIRE

    Dontsov, Alexander; Kabalevskaya, Alexandra

    2013-01-01

    This article analyzes the mechanism of stereotyping as exemplified by gender stereotypes of road users. Gender stereotypes are not only viewed as an a priori image of a percept, but also examined ‘in action’ at the very moment of their actualization with road users. In the paper we have identified the content of road users’ gender stereotypes; analyzed the behaviour of male and female drivers, pinpointing a number of gender-specific behavioural features; demonstrated that male and female driv...

  13. Putting road safety awareness into practice

    CERN Multimedia

    2003-01-01

    To round off the series of articles and posters published as part of its road safety awareness campaign, CERN is organising two information and demonstration open days on 23 and 25 September. Can you brake in time ? Did you know that you are 21 times more at risk of being killed if you are not wearing a seat belt in the event of your car rolling over? All your questions on road safety will be answered at two special days that are being organized on 23 and 25 September. You will also be able to test your reflexes and your knowledge by taking part in demonstrations. The CERN Management attaches high priority to an improvement in safety standards on the Laboratory's roads. These two open days have been arranged to round off the road safety awareness and highway courtesy campaign which was launched last year. They are intended to provide us with an opportunity, through a more "hands-on" approach, of heightening our awareness of the risks associated with road traffic, of the legislation in force, and above all t...

  14. Solar Thermal energy strategic road-map

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hafner, Bernd; Godin, Olivier; Villier, Dominique; Petit, J.F.; Demangeon, Elsa; Laplagne, Valerie; Loyen, Richard; Mugnier, Daniel; Filloux, Alain; Frichet, Jean-Claude; Aubert, Elisabeth; Cherepanova, Margarita; Guilmin, Audrey; Dicostanzo, Catherine; Papillon, Philippe; Caccavelli, Dominique; Cholin, Xavier; Leger, Emmanuel; Gevaudan, Alain; Coulaud, Celine; Morlot, Rodolphe; Khebchache, Bouzid; Parrouffe, Jean-Michel; Clement, Daniel; Tonnet, Nicolas

    2012-11-01

    The French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) manages a fund dedicated to new energy technologies. Since 2008 this fund has funded 'research demonstrators' to implement testing of technologies that are in an experimental stage, between research and industrial deployment. ADEME coordinates a group of experts who are charged with drawing up a strategic road-map prior to each Call for Expressions of Interest. The aims of the solar thermal road-map are: - to highlight the industrial, technological, environmental and societal issues at stake; - to elaborate coherent, consistent and shared visions of the technologies and/or socio-technical systems outlined in the road-map; - to underscore the technological, organisational and socioeconomic barriers and bottlenecks to be overcome in order to achieve these visions; - to link priority research topics to a timetable of goals for technology availability and deployment that is consistent with the stated objectives; - to give priority to research needs and research demonstrators that will serve as the basis for: 1 - calls for expression of interest issued by the Research Demonstrators Fund, 2 - the research programming process at ADEME and more broadly at the Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR) and the Comite strategique national sur la recherche sur l'energie. Research priorities and needs for demonstrators are determined by the intersection of visions and bottlenecks. They also take into account industrial and research capacity in France. The road-maps may also refer to exemplary research demonstrators abroad that are in the forefront of technological progress, and make recommendations regarding industrial policy. These road-maps are the result of collective work by a group of experts appointed by the Steering Committee (Comite de pilotage, COPIL) of the Research Demonstrators Fund for new energy technologies. The members of this group are actors in research, drawn from industry, research bodies and research

  15. Beden Eğitimi ve Spor Öğretmeni Adaylarının Öğretmenlik Mesleğine İlişkin Öz-Yeterlik İnançlarının İncelenmesi Investigate Of Teacher’s Self Efficacy Beliefs Of Physical Education And Sport Teacher Canditate’s

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Makbule BAŞBAY

    2013-09-01

    teaching profession and the attitude towards theprofession. Öğretmen öz-yeterlik inancı öğretmenlerin mesleki başarısını önemli ölçüde etkileyen etmenler arasındadır. Öğretmen öz-yeterliği beden eğitimi ve spor öğretmenleri için de en az diğer alanlar kadar önemlidir çünkü genel eğitimin tamamlayıcısı ve ayrılmaz bir parçası olan beden eğitimi aynı zamanda kişiliğin de eğitimidir. Bir öğretmenin sahip olduğu yeterliklerin oluşturulmasında en belirleyici rolü öğretmenin hizmet öncesi eğitimi oynamaktadır. Bu araştırmayla, beden eğitimi ve spor öğretmeni adaylarının öz-yeterlik inanç düzeylerini bazı değişkenlere göre incelemek ve öğretmen öz-yeterlik inançlarıyla öğretmenlik mesleğine ilişkin tutumlar arasındaki ilişkiyi ortaya koymak amaçlanmaktadır. Araştırmanın örneklemini, farklı coğrafi bölgelerden 10 devlet üniversitesinde, 1. ve 4. sınıfta öğrenim gören toplam 558 beden eğitimi ve spor öğretmeni adayı oluşturmaktadır. Öğretmen adaylarına kişisel bilgi formu, öğretmenlik mesleğine ilişkin öz-yeterlik ölçeği ve öğretmenlik mesleğine yönelik tutum ölçeği uygulanmıştır. Bulgulara göre, beden eğitimi ve spor öğretmeni adaylarının öz-yeterlik inançlarının “oldukça yeterli” düzeyde olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Cinsiyete, sınıf düzeyine, anne eğitim düzeyine, spor branşının türüne göre öğretmen adaylarının öz-yeterlik inançlarının farklılaşmadığı, ancak bölümü isteyerek seçme, baba eğitim düzeyi, düzenli spor yapma durumlarına göre anlamlı farklılıklar olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Öğretmenlik mesleğine ilişkin öz-yeterlik inancıyla, mesleğe ilişkin tutum arasında ise orta düzeyde pozitif bir ilişki olduğu görülmüştür.

  16. Superfund Technology Evaluation Report: SITE Program Demonstration Test Shirco Pilot-Scale Infrared Incineration System at the Rose Township Demode Road Superfund Site Volume I

    Science.gov (United States)

    The Shirco Pilot-Scale Infrared Incineration System was evaluated during a series of seventeen test runs under varied operating conditions at the Demode Road Superfund Site located in Rose Township, Michigan. The tests sought to demonstrate the effectiveness of the unit and the t...

  17. Optimal policies for aggregate recycling from decommissioned forest roads.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, Matthew; Sessions, John

    2008-08-01

    To mitigate the adverse environmental impact of forest roads, especially degradation of endangered salmonid habitat, many public and private land managers in the western United States are actively decommissioning roads where practical and affordable. Road decommissioning is associated with reduced long-term environmental impact. When decommissioning a road, it may be possible to recover some aggregate (crushed rock) from the road surface. Aggregate is used on many low volume forest roads to reduce wheel stresses transferred to the subgrade, reduce erosion, reduce maintenance costs, and improve driver comfort. Previous studies have demonstrated the potential for aggregate to be recovered and used elsewhere on the road network, at a reduced cost compared to purchasing aggregate from a quarry. This article investigates the potential for aggregate recycling to provide an economic incentive to decommission additional roads by reducing transport distance and aggregate procurement costs for other actively used roads. Decommissioning additional roads may, in turn, result in improved aquatic habitat. We present real-world examples of aggregate recycling and discuss the advantages of doing so. Further, we present mixed integer formulations to determine optimal levels of aggregate recycling under economic and environmental objectives. Tested on an example road network, incorporation of aggregate recycling demonstrates substantial cost-savings relative to a baseline scenario without recycling, increasing the likelihood of road decommissioning and reduced habitat degradation. We find that aggregate recycling can result in up to 24% in cost savings (economic objective) and up to 890% in additional length of roads decommissioned (environmental objective).

  18. Driving and off-road impairments underlying failure on road testing in Parkinson's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Devos, Hannes; Vandenberghe, Wim; Tant, Mark; Akinwuntan, Abiodun E; De Weerdt, Willy; Nieuwboer, Alice; Uc, Ergun Y

    2013-12-01

    Parkinson's disease (PD) affects driving ability. We aimed to determine the most critical impairments in specific road skills and in clinical characteristics leading to failure on a road test in PD. In this cross-sectional study, certified driving assessment experts evaluated specific driving skills in 104 active, licensed drivers with PD using a standardized, on-road checklist and issued a global decision of pass/fail. Participants also completed an off-road evaluation assessing demographic features, disease characteristics, motor function, vision, and cognition. The most important driving skills and off-road predictors of the pass/fail outcome were identified using multivariate stepwise regression analyses. Eighty-six (65%) passed and 36 (35%) failed the on-road driving evaluation. Persons who failed performed worse on all on-road items. When adjusted for age and gender, poor performances on lateral positioning at low speed, speed adaptations at high speed, and left turning maneuvers yielded the best model that determined the pass/fail decision (R(2) = 0.56). The fail group performed poorer on all motor, visual, and cognitive tests. Measures of visual scanning, motor severity, PD subtype, visual acuity, executive functions, and divided attention were independent predictors of pass/fail decisions in the multivariate model (R(2) = 0.60). Our study demonstrated that failure on a road test in PD is determined by impairments in specific driving skills and associated with deficits in motor, visual, executive, and visuospatial functions. These findings point to specific driving and off-road impairments that can be targeted in multimodal rehabilitation programs for drivers with PD. © 2013 Movement Disorder Society.

  19. Gender Stereotypes among Road Users

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kabalevskaya, Alexandra I.

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available This article analyzes the mechanism of stereotyping as exemplified by gender stereotypes of road users. Gender stereotypes are not only viewed as an a priori image of a percept, but also examined ‘in action’ — at the very moment of their actualization with road users. In the paper we have identified the content of road users’ gender stereotypes; analyzed the behaviour of male and female drivers, pinpointing a number of gender-specific behavioural features; demonstrated that male and female driving differ from each other in terms of speed, intensity and roughness; and identified the conditions and mechanisms underlying the actualization of gender stereotypes. Based on video and audio materials, we have found that drivers’ gender-specific behavioural features are perceivable to road users: such features trigger the actualization of gender stereotypes as attributive schemes, which determine the interaction between road users, while also laying the foundation for gender stereotypes.

  20. Drawing Road Networks with Mental Maps.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Shih-Syun; Lin, Chao-Hung; Hu, Yan-Jhang; Lee, Tong-Yee

    2014-09-01

    Tourist and destination maps are thematic maps designed to represent specific themes in maps. The road network topologies in these maps are generally more important than the geometric accuracy of roads. A road network warping method is proposed to facilitate map generation and improve theme representation in maps. The basic idea is deforming a road network to meet a user-specified mental map while an optimization process is performed to propagate distortions originating from road network warping. To generate a map, the proposed method includes algorithms for estimating road significance and for deforming a road network according to various geometric and aesthetic constraints. The proposed method can produce an iconic mark of a theme from a road network and meet a user-specified mental map. Therefore, the resulting map can serve as a tourist or destination map that not only provides visual aids for route planning and navigation tasks, but also visually emphasizes the presentation of a theme in a map for the purpose of advertising. In the experiments, the demonstrations of map generations show that our method enables map generation systems to generate deformed tourist and destination maps efficiently.

  1. The road safety audit and road safety inspection.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    2007-01-01

    A road safety audit (RSA) and a road safety inspection (RSI) are used to test the safety level of the road infrastructure. The RSA tests the design of new roads or the reconstruction of existing roads, whereas the RSI is used for testing existing roads. An RSA, therefore, aims to 'improve' the road

  2. A tool for safety evaluations of road improvements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peltola, Harri; Rajamäki, Riikka; Luoma, Juha

    2013-11-01

    Road safety impact assessments are requested in general, and the directive on road infrastructure safety management makes them compulsory for Member States of the European Union. However, there is no widely used, science-based safety evaluation tool available. We demonstrate a safety evaluation tool called TARVA. It uses EB safety predictions as the basis for selecting locations for implementing road-safety improvements and provides estimates of safety benefits of selected improvements. Comparing different road accident prediction methods, we demonstrate that the most accurate estimates are produced by EB models, followed by simple accident prediction models, the same average number of accidents for every entity and accident record only. Consequently, advanced model-based estimates should be used. Furthermore, we demonstrate regional comparisons that benefit substantially from such tools. Comparisons between districts have revealed significant differences. However, comparisons like these produce useful improvement ideas only after taking into account the differences in road characteristics between areas. Estimates on crash modification factors can be transferred from other countries but their benefit is greatly limited if the number of target accidents is not properly predicted. Our experience suggests that making predictions and evaluations using the same principle and tools will remarkably improve the quality and comparability of safety estimations. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Elk responses to humans in a densely roaded area

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mark A . Rumble; Lakhdar Benkobi; R. Scott Gamo

    2005-01-01

    Despite several studies that demonstrate general responses of elk (Cervus elaphus) to roads and people, land management agencies continue to struggle with management of offhighway vehicles, recreation, and roads. The Black Hills National Forest has a greater road density (3.2 km/km2) than any other national forest. We used Global Positioning System (...

  4. Case study: the Argentina Road Safety Project: lessons learned for the decade of action for road safety, 2011-2020.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raffo, Veronica; Bliss, Tony; Shotten, Marc; Sleet, David; Blanchard, Claire

    2013-12-01

    This case study of the Argentina Road Safety Project demonstrates how the application of World Bank road safety project guidelines focused on institution building can accelerate knowledge transfer, scale up investment and improve the focus on results. The case study highlights road safety as a development priority and outlines World Bank initiatives addressing the implementation of the World Report on Road Traffic Injury's recommendations and the subsequent launch of the Decade of Action for Road Safety, from 2011-2020. The case study emphasizes the vital role played by the lead agency in ensuring sustainable road safety improvements and promoting the shift to a 'Safe System' approach, which necessitated the strengthening of all elements of the road safety management system. It summarizes road safety performance and institutional initiatives in Argentina leading up to the preparation and implementation of the project. We describe the project's development objectives, financing arrangements, specific components and investment staging. Finally, we discuss its innovative features and lessons learned, and present a set of supplementary guidelines, both to assist multilateral development banks and their clients with future road safety initiatives, and to encourage better linkages between the health and transportation sectors supporting them.

  5. Assessing impacts of roads: application of a standard assessment protocol

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duniway, Michael C.; Herrick, Jeffrey E.

    2013-01-01

    Adaptive management of road networks depends on timely data that accurately reflect the impacts those systems are having on ecosystem processes and associated services. In the absence of reliable data, land managers are left with little more than observations and perceptions to support management decisions of road-associated disturbances. Roads can negatively impact the soil, hydrologic, plant, and animal processes on which virtually all ecosystem services depend. The Interpreting Indicators of Rangeland Health (IIRH) protocol is a qualitative method that has been demonstrated to be effective in characterizing impacts of roads. The goal of this study were to develop, describe, and test an approach for using IIRH to systematically evaluate road impacts across large, diverse arid and semiarid landscapes. We developed a stratified random sampling approach to plot selection based on ecological potential, road inventory data, and image interpretation of road impacts. The test application on a semiarid landscape in southern New Mexico, United States, demonstrates that the approach developed is sensitive to road impacts across a broad range of ecological sites but that not all the types of stratification were useful. Ecological site and road inventory strata accounted for significant variability in the functioning of ecological processes but stratification based on apparent impact did not. Analysis of the repeatability of IIRH applied to road plots indicates that the method is repeatable but consensus evaluations based on multiple observers should be used to minimize risk of bias. Landscape-scale analysis of impacts by roads of contrasting designs (maintained dirt or gravel roads vs. non- or infrequently maintained roads) suggests that future travel management plans for the study area should consider concentrating traffic on fewer roads that are well designed and maintained. Application of the approach by land managers will likely provide important insights into

  6. Characterizing on-road driving performance in individuals with traumatic brain injury who pass or fail an on-road driving assessment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stolwyk, Renerus J; Charlton, Judith L; Ross, Pamela E; Bédard, Michel; Marshall, Shawn; Gagnon, Sylvain; Gooden, James R; Ponsford, Jennie L

    2018-01-15

    To characterise on-road driving performance in individuals with traumatic brain injury who fail on-road driving assessment, compared with both those who pass assessment and healthy controls, and the injury and cognitive factors associated with driving performance. Cross-sectional. Forty eight participants with traumatic brain injury (Age M = 40.50 SD = 14.62, 77% male, post-traumatic amnesia days M = 28.74 SD =27.68) and 48 healthy matched controls completed a standardised on-road driving assessment in addition to cognitive measures. Individuals with traumatic brain injury who passed on-road driving assessment performed no differently from controls while individuals with traumatic brain injury who failed the assessment demonstrated significantly worse driving performance relative to controls across a range of driving manoeuvres and error types including observation of on-road environment, speed control, gap selection, lane position, following distance and basic car control. Longer time post-injury and reduced visual perception were both significantly correlated with reduced driving skills. This exploratory study indicated that drivers with traumatic brain injury who failed on-road assessment demonstrated a heterogeneous pattern of impaired driving manoeuvres, characterised by skill deficits across both operational (e.g., basic car control and lane position) and tactical domains (e.g., following distance, gap selection, and observation) of driving. These preliminary findings can be used for implementation of future driving assessments and rehabilitation programs. Implications for rehabilitation Clinicians should be aware that the majority of individuals with traumatic brain injury were deemed fit to resume driving following formal on-road assessment, despite having moderate to very severe traumatic brain injuries. Drivers with traumatic brain injury who failed an on-road assessment demonstrated a heterogeneous pattern of impaired skills including errors

  7. Trajectory of a road vehicle during road maintenance

    OpenAIRE

    Stachová Darina

    2017-01-01

    Consider a vehicle moving on a road whose usage over time creates an uneven surface on the road. Road unevenness that we encounter on surface communications often arises as a consequence of dynamical effects of moving vehicles, of weather changes, and due to road construction works. This article concerns with mathematical modeling of the trajectory of a road vehicle moving on such a surface during the course of road maintenance.

  8. Learning Road Safety Skills in the Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Freddy Jackson; Gillard, Duncan

    2009-01-01

    This case study demonstrates the effectiveness of a classroom based learning programme in the acquisition of road safety skills. The participant, a child with severe learning disabilities, was taught road safety behaviours in the classroom with the aid of photograph cards. When he had mastered these skills in the classroom, he returned to the…

  9. The importance of accurate road data for spatial applications in public health: customizing a road network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laraia Barbara A

    2009-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Health researchers have increasingly adopted the use of geographic information systems (GIS for analyzing environments in which people live and how those environments affect health. One aspect of this research that is often overlooked is the quality and detail of the road data and whether or not it is appropriate for the scale of analysis. Many readily available road datasets, both public domain and commercial, contain positional errors or generalizations that may not be compatible with highly accurate geospatial locations. This study examined the accuracy, completeness, and currency of four readily available public and commercial sources for road data (North Carolina Department of Transportation, StreetMap Pro, TIGER/Line 2000, TIGER/Line 2007 relative to a custom road dataset which we developed and used for comparison. Methods and Results A custom road network dataset was developed to examine associations between health behaviors and the environment among pregnant and postpartum women living in central North Carolina in the United States. Three analytical measures were developed to assess the comparative accuracy and utility of four publicly and commercially available road datasets and the custom dataset in relation to participants' residential locations over three time periods. The exclusion of road segments and positional errors in the four comparison road datasets resulted in between 5.9% and 64.4% of respondents lying farther than 15.24 meters from their nearest road, the distance of the threshold set by the project to facilitate spatial analysis. Agreement, using a Pearson's correlation coefficient, between the customized road dataset and the four comparison road datasets ranged from 0.01 to 0.82. Conclusion This study demonstrates the importance of examining available road datasets and assessing their completeness, accuracy, and currency for their particular study area. This paper serves as an example for assessing

  10. Safer Roads: Comparisons Between Road Assessment Program and Composite Road Safety Index Method

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohd Razelan Intan Suhana

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In most countries, crash statistics have becoming very crucial in evaluating road’s safety level. In Malaysia, these data are very important in deciding crash-prone areas known as black spot where specific road improvements plan will be proposed. However due to the unavailability of reliable crash data in many developing countries, appropriate road maintenance measures are facing great troubles. In light of that, several proactive methods in defining road’s safety level such as Road Assessment Program (RAP have emerged. This research aim to compare two proactive methods that have been tested in Malaysian roads ; road assessment program and road environment risk index which was developed based on composite index theory in defining road’s safety level. Composite road environment risk index was combining several crucial environment indicators, assigning weight and aggregating the individual index together to form a single value representing the road’s safety level. Based on the results, it can be concluded that both road assessment program and composite road environment risk index are contradicted in six different ways such as type of speed used, type of analysis used and their final outcomes. However, with an aim to promote safer roads, these two methods can be used concurrently as the outcomes in both methods seems to fulfil each other’s gap very well.

  11. Road-Killed Animals as Resources for Ecological Studies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adams, Clark E.

    1983-01-01

    Summarizes 19 literature sources identifying road-killed vertebrates and frequency of kill by numbers. Examples of how these animals can be incorporated into curricula (integrating biology, society, people, and values) are given, followed by an illustrated example of how a road-killed raccoon's skull demonstrated a human/wildlife interaction prior…

  12. Trauma on rural roads: the role of a peripheral hospital.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Street, J T

    2012-02-03

    Road accident trauma is a leading cause of death and serious morbidity among healthy young adults in the developed world. The Irish Republic has the third worst road safety record in the EU. In studying the unique demographics of rural road accidents, our aim was to provide information essential to the future development of trauma care in Ireland. Our figures highlight the inadequacies of data received by the National Roads Authority, illustrate the resource impact of road trauma on a peripheral hospital, and demonstrate the need for similar studies in the rationalisation of trauma care as we approach the next millennium.

  13. Intermediate Volatility Organic Compound Emissions from On-Road Gasoline Vehicles and Small Off-Road Gasoline Engines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Yunliang; Nguyen, Ngoc T; Presto, Albert A; Hennigan, Christopher J; May, Andrew A; Robinson, Allen L

    2016-04-19

    Dynamometer experiments were conducted to characterize the intermediate volatility organic compound (IVOC) emissions from a fleet of on-road gasoline vehicles and small off-road gasoline engines. IVOCs were quantified through gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis of adsorbent samples collected from a constant volume sampler. The dominant fraction (>80%, on average) of IVOCs could not be resolved on a molecular level. These unspeciated IVOCs were quantified as two chemical classes (unspeciated branched alkanes and cyclic compounds) in 11 retention-time-based bins. IVOC emission factors (mg kg-fuel(-1)) from on-road vehicles varied widely from vehicle to vehicle, but showed a general trend of lower emissions for newer vehicles that met more stringent emission standards. IVOC emission factors for 2-stroke off-road engines were substantially higher than 4-stroke off-road engines and on-road vehicles. Despite large variations in the magnitude of emissions, the IVOC volatility distribution and chemical characteristics were consistent across all tests and IVOC emissions were strongly correlated with nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHCs), primary organic aerosol and speciated IVOCs. Although IVOC emissions only correspond to approximately 4% of NMHC emissions from on-road vehicles over the cold-start unified cycle, they are estimated to produce as much or more SOA than single-ring aromatics. Our results clearly demonstrate that IVOCs from gasoline engines are an important class of SOA precursors and provide observational constraints on IVOC emission factors and chemical composition to facilitate their inclusion into atmospheric chemistry models.

  14. Verification of road databases using multiple road models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ziems, Marcel; Rottensteiner, Franz; Heipke, Christian

    2017-08-01

    In this paper a new approach for automatic road database verification based on remote sensing images is presented. In contrast to existing methods, the applicability of the new approach is not restricted to specific road types, context areas or geographic regions. This is achieved by combining several state-of-the-art road detection and road verification approaches that work well under different circumstances. Each one serves as an independent module representing a unique road model and a specific processing strategy. All modules provide independent solutions for the verification problem of each road object stored in the database in form of two probability distributions, the first one for the state of a database object (correct or incorrect), and a second one for the state of the underlying road model (applicable or not applicable). In accordance with the Dempster-Shafer Theory, both distributions are mapped to a new state space comprising the classes correct, incorrect and unknown. Statistical reasoning is applied to obtain the optimal state of a road object. A comparison with state-of-the-art road detection approaches using benchmark datasets shows that in general the proposed approach provides results with larger completeness. Additional experiments reveal that based on the proposed method a highly reliable semi-automatic approach for road data base verification can be designed.

  15. Prototype road weather performance management tool : installation instructions & user manual.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-07-20

    This document is the Installation Instructions and User Manual for the Road Weather Performance Management (RW-PM) Tool developed for the project on Development and Demonstration of a Prototype Road Weather Performance Management Application that Use...

  16. Vision Sensor-Based Road Detection for Field Robot Navigation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Keyu Lu

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Road detection is an essential component of field robot navigation systems. Vision sensors play an important role in road detection for their great potential in environmental perception. In this paper, we propose a hierarchical vision sensor-based method for robust road detection in challenging road scenes. More specifically, for a given road image captured by an on-board vision sensor, we introduce a multiple population genetic algorithm (MPGA-based approach for efficient road vanishing point detection. Superpixel-level seeds are then selected in an unsupervised way using a clustering strategy. Then, according to the GrowCut framework, the seeds proliferate and iteratively try to occupy their neighbors. After convergence, the initial road segment is obtained. Finally, in order to achieve a globally-consistent road segment, the initial road segment is refined using the conditional random field (CRF framework, which integrates high-level information into road detection. We perform several experiments to evaluate the common performance, scale sensitivity and noise sensitivity of the proposed method. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method exhibits high robustness compared to the state of the art.

  17. Strabo's roads

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bekker-Nielsen, Tønnes

    2017-01-01

    in the Geography, and the world-view, of Strabo. Strabo did not take much interest in roads as artefacts or monuments, in the technology of road construction, or in the mythological and historical background of individual roads. He is primarily interested in roads from a functional point of view. For the general......To ancient geographers, roads were important not only as arteries of communication, but also as sources of information, since mileages measured along the Roman highways were among the very few precise distances available to the ancient geographer. This chapter explores the place of roads...... or the statesman, roads provide routes of communication; for the systematic geographer, they provide measured distances and directions. Through case studies of Spain, Gaul, Italy, Greece and Anatolia, this chapter attempts to reach a better understanding of the place of roads in Strabo’s universe, especially two...

  18. Prototype road weather performance management tool : project report : draft report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-09-30

    This report is the Project Report for the Road Weather Performance Management (RW-PM) Tool developed for the project on Development and Demonstration of a Prototype Road Weather Performance Management Application that Uses Connected Vehicle Data (RW-...

  19. The hybrid electric vehicle revolution, off road

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wood, B.E. [ePower Technologies (United States)

    2004-07-01

    In this presentation the author presents concepts and details of hybrid vehicles in general, including their benefits, then describes off-road hybrid vehicles. Hybrid vehicles have been experimented with for over a century. Demonstrator vehicles include a diesel-electric tractor, an electric lawn tractor, a hybrid snow thrower, and a hybrid wheel loader. A duty cycle for the loader is shown with battery-assisted acceleration, and regenerative braking. Both of these keep the size of the engine small, the loads on it less variable, thus improving fuel economy. A hybrid excavator and its duty cycle is shown. A fuel cell lift truck that is currently in design is illustrated. The author then describes the possibilities of the hydrogen economy where sourcing and infrastructure are yet to be demonstrated on a commercial scale. The author predicts that off-road hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will be commercially viable five years before on-road applications. The author predicts hydrogen sourced from biogas, photovoltaics, and wind power. tabs, figs.

  20. A combined road weather forecast system to prevent road ice formation in the Adige Valley (Italy)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Di Napoli, Claudia; Piazza, Andrea; Antonacci, Gianluca; Todeschini, Ilaria; Apolloni, Roberto; Pretto, Ilaria

    2016-04-01

    meteorological forecasts from ECMWF numerical prediction model. Overnight RST minima have then been estimated automatically in nowcast mode. In this presentation we show and discuss results and performances for the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 winter seasons. Using evaluation indexes we demonstrate that combining METRo and Reuter's models into one single forecast system improves bias and accuracy by about 0.5°C. This study is supported by the LIFE11 ENV/IT/000002 CLEAN-ROADS project. The project aims to assess the environmental impact of salt de-icers in Trentino mountain region by supporting winter road management operations with meteorological information. [1] Thornes J.E. and Stephenson D.B., Meteorological Applications, 8:307 (2001) [2] Reuter H., Tellus, 3:141 (1951) [3] Crevier L.P. and Delage Y., Journal of applied meteorology, 40:2026 (2001) [4] Pretto I. et al., SIRWEC 2014 conference proceedings, ID:0019 (2014)

  1. An approach to accidents modeling based on compounds road environments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fernandes, Ana; Neves, Jose

    2013-04-01

    The most common approach to study the influence of certain road features on accidents has been the consideration of uniform road segments characterized by a unique feature. However, when an accident is related to the road infrastructure, its cause is usually not a single characteristic but rather a complex combination of several characteristics. The main objective of this paper is to describe a methodology developed in order to consider the road as a complete environment by using compound road environments, overcoming the limitations inherented in considering only uniform road segments. The methodology consists of: dividing a sample of roads into segments; grouping them into quite homogeneous road environments using cluster analysis; and identifying the influence of skid resistance and texture depth on road accidents in each environment by using generalized linear models. The application of this methodology is demonstrated for eight roads. Based on real data from accidents and road characteristics, three compound road environments were established where the pavement surface properties significantly influence the occurrence of accidents. Results have showed clearly that road environments where braking maneuvers are more common or those with small radii of curvature and high speeds require higher skid resistance and texture depth as an important contribution to the accident prevention. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Is road safety management linked to road safety performance?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Papadimitriou, Eleonora; Yannis, George

    2013-10-01

    This research aims to explore the relationship between road safety management and road safety performance at country level. For that purpose, an appropriate theoretical framework is selected, namely the 'SUNflower' pyramid, which describes road safety management systems in terms of a five-level hierarchy: (i) structure and culture, (ii) programmes and measures, (iii) 'intermediate' outcomes'--safety performance indicators (SPIs), (iv) final outcomes--fatalities and injuries, and (v) social costs. For each layer of the pyramid, a composite indicator is implemented, on the basis of data for 30 European countries. Especially as regards road safety management indicators, these are estimated on the basis of Categorical Principal Component Analysis upon the responses of a dedicated road safety management questionnaire, jointly created and dispatched by the ETSC/PIN group and the 'DaCoTA' research project. Then, quasi-Poisson models and Beta regression models are developed for linking road safety management indicators and other indicators (i.e. background characteristics, SPIs) with road safety performance. In this context, different indicators of road safety performance are explored: mortality and fatality rates, percentage reduction in fatalities over a given period, a composite indicator of road safety final outcomes, and a composite indicator of 'intermediate' outcomes (SPIs). The results of the analyses suggest that road safety management can be described on the basis of three composite indicators: "vision and strategy", "budget, evaluation and reporting", and "measurement of road user attitudes and behaviours". Moreover, no direct statistical relationship could be established between road safety management indicators and final outcomes. However, a statistical relationship was found between road safety management and 'intermediate' outcomes, which were in turn found to affect 'final' outcomes, confirming the SUNflower approach on the consecutive effect of each layer

  3. ANALYSIS OF GROUP MAINTENANCE STRATEGY -ROAD PAVEMENT AND SEWERAGE PIPES-

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tanimoto, Keishi; Sugimoto, Yasuaki; Miyamoto, Shinya; Nada, Hideki; Hosoi, Yoshihiko

    Recently, it is critical to manage deteriorating sewerage and road facilities efficiently and strategically. Since the sewerage pipes are mostly installed under road pavement, the works for the replacement of the sewerage pipes are partially common to the works for the road. This means that the replacement cost can be saved by coordinating the timing of the replacements by sewerage pipe and road pavement. The purpose of the study is to develop the model based on Markov decision process to derive the optimal group maintenance policy so as to minimize lifecycle cost. Then the model is applied to case study area and demonstrated to estimate the lifecycle cost using statistical data such as pipe replacement cost, road pavement rehabilitation cost, and state of deterioration of pipes and road pavement.

  4. Distributed road assessment system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beer, N. Reginald; Paglieroni, David W

    2014-03-25

    A system that detects damage on or below the surface of a paved structure or pavement is provided. A distributed road assessment system includes road assessment pods and a road assessment server. Each road assessment pod includes a ground-penetrating radar antenna array and a detection system that detects road damage from the return signals as the vehicle on which the pod is mounted travels down a road. Each road assessment pod transmits to the road assessment server occurrence information describing each occurrence of road damage that is newly detected on a current scan of a road. The road assessment server maintains a road damage database of occurrence information describing the previously detected occurrences of road damage. After the road assessment server receives occurrence information for newly detected occurrences of road damage for a portion of a road, the road assessment server determines which newly detected occurrences correspond to which previously detected occurrences of road damage.

  5. Prototype road weather performance management (RWPM) tool installation instructions & user manual.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-07-20

    This document is the Installation Instructions and User Manual for the Road Weather Performance Management (RW-PM) Tool developed for the project on Development and Demonstration of a Prototype Road Weather Performance Management Application that Use...

  6. Hierarchical graph-based segmentation for extracting road networks from high-resolution satellite images

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alshehhi, Rasha; Marpu, Prashanth Reddy

    2017-04-01

    Extraction of road networks in urban areas from remotely sensed imagery plays an important role in many urban applications (e.g. road navigation, geometric correction of urban remote sensing images, updating geographic information systems, etc.). It is normally difficult to accurately differentiate road from its background due to the complex geometry of the buildings and the acquisition geometry of the sensor. In this paper, we present a new method for extracting roads from high-resolution imagery based on hierarchical graph-based image segmentation. The proposed method consists of: 1. Extracting features (e.g., using Gabor and morphological filtering) to enhance the contrast between road and non-road pixels, 2. Graph-based segmentation consisting of (i) Constructing a graph representation of the image based on initial segmentation and (ii) Hierarchical merging and splitting of image segments based on color and shape features, and 3. Post-processing to remove irregularities in the extracted road segments. Experiments are conducted on three challenging datasets of high-resolution images to demonstrate the proposed method and compare with other similar approaches. The results demonstrate the validity and superior performance of the proposed method for road extraction in urban areas.

  7. AN INVESTIGATION ON THE FOREST ROAD PLANNING AND ROAD GROUND

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hafız Hulusi ACAR

    2001-01-01

    Full Text Available It is required that the capital used for construction of road must be technical, economical and used in its location. For this reason, the projects must be prepared for forest roads and all operations belong to roads must be guided according to these projects. In this investigation, available forest road network plan and constructed forest roads were investigated at the point of view technical and forest transportation. After this, it were studied to reach the highest exploitation rate as can as possible. Available forest road density were found as 11.9 m/ha in forest areas for Yesiltepe District. In this condition, exploitation rate was 78 %. After that, optimum forest road network were planned and road density were reached to 22 m/ha and exploitation rate to 86 %. Directed sample method were used from taking soil sample methods and samples were took in mixed system. According to results of the experiments, available forest roads were found in a good degree at the point of view endurance, pressing and transportation capacity. With these results, it is aimed to reach higher exploitation rate with given attention to landslide areas during planning of forest roads on the mountain areas such as Black Sea Region. For this reason, required importance must be given to planning of truck and logging roads. Ground analysis must be done and took care before during planning process of forest road network.

  8. Road Detection by Using a Generalized Hough Transform

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Weifeng Liu

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Road detection plays key roles for remote sensing image analytics. Hough transform (HT is one very typical method for road detection, especially for straight line road detection. Although many variants of Hough transform have been reported, it is still a great challenge to develop a low computational complexity and time-saving Hough transform algorithm. In this paper, we propose a generalized Hough transform (i.e., Radon transform implementation for road detection in remote sensing images. Specifically, we present a dictionary learning method to approximate the Radon transform. The proposed approximation method treats a Radon transform as a linear transform, which then facilitates parallel implementation of the Radon transform for multiple images. To evaluate the proposed algorithm, we conduct extensive experiments on the popular RSSCN7 database for straight road detection. The experimental results demonstrate that our method is superior to the traditional algorithms in terms of accuracy and computing complexity.

  9. Miscellaneous Roads

    Data.gov (United States)

    Minnesota Department of Natural Resources — This data set contains roadway centerlines for miscellanous roads, a catch-all category for all road types not present in the other DNR derived products. These road...

  10. Batteries for electric road vehicles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goodenough, John B; Braga, M Helena

    2018-01-15

    The dependence of modern society on the energy stored in a fossil fuel is not sustainable. An immediate challenge is to eliminate the polluting gases emitted from the roads of the world by replacing road vehicles powered by the internal combustion engine with those powered by rechargeable batteries. These batteries must be safe and competitive in cost, performance, driving range between charges, and convenience. The competitive performance of an electric car has been demonstrated, but the cost of fabrication, management to ensure safety, and a short cycle life have prevented large-scale penetration of the all-electric road vehicle into the market. Low-cost, safe all-solid-state cells from which dendrite-free alkali-metal anodes can be plated are now available; they have an operating temperature range from -20 °C to 80 °C and they permit the design of novel high-capacity, high-voltage cathodes providing fast charge/discharge rates. Scale-up to large multicell batteries is feasible.

  11. Roads at risk - the impact of debris flows on road network reliability and vulnerability in southern Norway

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meyer, Nele Kristin; Schwanghart, Wolfgang; Korup, Oliver

    2014-05-01

    Norwegian's road network is frequently affected by debris flows. Both damage repair and traffic interruption generate high economic losses and necessitate a rigorous assessment of where losses are expected to be high and where preventive measures should be focused on. In recent studies, we have developed susceptibility and trigger probability maps that serve as input into a hazard calculation at the scale of first-order watersheds. Here we combine these results with graph theory to assess the impact of debris flows on the road network of southern Norway. Susceptibility and trigger probability are aggregated for individual road sections to form a reliability index that relates to the failure probability of a link that connects two network vertices, e.g., road junctions. We define link vulnerability as a function of traffic volume and additional link failure distance. Additional link failure distance is the extra length of the alternative path connecting the two associated link vertices in case the network link fails and is calculated by a shortest-path algorithm. The product of network reliability and vulnerability indices represent the risk index. High risk indices identify critical links for the Norwegian road network and are investigated in more detail. Scenarios demonstrating the impact of single or multiple debris flow events are run for the most important routes between seven large cities in southern Norway. First results show that the reliability of the road network is lowest in the central and north-western part of the study area. Road network vulnerability is highest in the mountainous regions in central southern Norway where the road density is low and in the vicinity of cities where the traffic volume is large. The scenarios indicate that city connections that have their shortest path via routes crossing the central part of the study area have the highest risk of route failure.

  12. Viability of a New Road Infrastructure with Heterogeneous Users in Madrid Access

    OpenAIRE

    Pedro Cantos-Sanchez; Rafael Moner-Colonques; Jose J. Sempere-Monerris; Oscar Alvarez

    2008-01-01

    This paper explores the importance of heterogeneity in value of time when assessing the viability of a new road infrastructure to alleviate congestion problems. The Spanish government has developed a congestion pricing demonstration entering Madrid city centre, where road users have to choose between a free but highly congested road and a priced free-flowing road. We consider a continuum of users who differ in their value of time. Users dislike congestion and this is more so the more a user v...

  13. Road Service Performance Based On Integrated Road Design Consistency (IC) Along Federal Road F0023

    OpenAIRE

    Zainal Zaffan Farhana; Prasetijo Joewono; Musa Wan Zahidah

    2017-01-01

    Road accidents are one of the world’s largest public health and injury prevention problems. In Malaysia, the west coast area of Malaysia been stated as the highest motorcycle fatalities and road accidents are one of the factors that cause of death and injuries in this country. The most common fatal accident is between a motorcycle and passenger car. The most of the fatal accidents happened on Federal roads with 44 fatal accidents reported, which is equal to 29%. Lacks of road geometric design...

  14. Predictability by recognizable road design. [previously called: Recognizable road design.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    2007-01-01

    One of the Sustainable Safety principles is that a road should have a recognizable design and a predictable alignment. If this is the case, road users know how they are expected to behave and what they can expect from other road users, so that crashes may be prevented. For roads to be recognizable,

  15. Road analysis: a tool for cost-effective rehabilitation measures for Finnish roads

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roimela, Petri; Salmenkaita, Seppo; Maijala, Pekka; Saarenketo, Timo

    2000-04-01

    Public funding for road network maintenance has decreased 30% during the last few years in Finland. Reduced resources, together with the current rehabilitation strategies, will in the long term result in increasing deterioration of the Finnish road network. For this reason road rehabilitation funding should be focused more specifically on those roads and road sections requiring measures and these measures should be optimized to ensure that only the specific problem structure will be repaired. Roadscanners Oy, in cooperation with the Finnish National Road Administration (Finnra), has developed a new and effective Road Analysis technique to survey the condition of roads and road networks. Road Analysis is based on the integrated analysis of the measured data collected from the road under survey. The basic survey methods used in Road Analysis include Ground Penetrating Data (GPR), falling weight deflectometer (FWD), roughness and rutting measurements, pavement distress mapping and GPS-positioning, as well as reference drilling based on preliminary GPR data analysis. The collected road survey data is processed, interpreted, analyzed and classified using Road Doctor software, specifically developed for this purpose. GPR measurements in road analysis are carried out using a 400 MHz ground-coupled antenna and a 1.0 GHz horn antenna. Horn antenna data is used to measure the thickness of the pavement and base course layers, as well as to evaluate their quality based on their dielectric properties. The 400 MHz ground-coupled data is used to estimate the thickness of the pavement structure and embankment. Ground-coupled antenna data is used for subgrade quality estimations and in evaluating the causes of subgrade- related frost defects. GPR data also provides important location information about special structures, such as steel reinforcements, cables and pipelines. Road Analysis includes a classification of the critical elements affecting the lifetime of the road: (1

  16. Road pricing and road safety : possible effects on road safety of 23 variants of road pricing.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Eenink, R.G. Dijkstra, A. Wijnen, W. & Janssen, S.T.M.C.

    2007-01-01

    The Nouwen Committee (National Platform Paying Differently for Mobility) advised the Cabinet in 2005 about the introduction of a system of road pricing. Part of this advice consisted of a calculation of the expected road safety effects of such a system. In a letter to the Minister of Transport, SWOV

  17. Road Service Performance Based On Integrated Road Design Consistency (IC Along Federal Road F0023

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zainal Zaffan Farhana

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Road accidents are one of the world’s largest public health and injury prevention problems. In Malaysia, the west coast area of Malaysia been stated as the highest motorcycle fatalities and road accidents are one of the factors that cause of death and injuries in this country. The most common fatal accident is between a motorcycle and passenger car. The most of the fatal accidents happened on Federal roads with 44 fatal accidents reported, which is equal to 29%. Lacks of road geometric designs consistency where the drivers make mistakes errors due to the road geometric features causes the accident kept rising in Malaysia. Hence, models are based on operating speed to calculate design consistency of road. The profiles were obtained by continuous speed profile using GPS data. The continuous operating speed profile models were plotted based on operating speed model (85th percentile. The study was conduct at F0023 from km 16 until km 20. The purpose of design consistency is to know the relationship between the operating speed and elements of geometric design on the road. As a result, the integrated design consistency motorcycle and cars along a segment at F0023, the threshold shows poor design quality for motorcycles and cars.

  18. Recent developments and current policy issues in road pricing in the US and Canada

    OpenAIRE

    Lindsey, Robin

    2005-01-01

    The United States and Canada lag Europe and Singapore in implementing road pricing on a large scale. But the two countries have shown interest in tolling roads as a way to curb congestion and to generate revenues. The US is funding congestion pricing demonstration projects through its Value Pricing Pilot Program, and Canada has examined new ways to charge for road use and to finance road construction and maintenance. This paper reviews the current state of road pricing and funding...

  19. Road safety performance indicators for the interurban road network.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Yannis, G. Weijermars, W.A.M. Gitelman, V. Vis, M. Chazirisa, A. Papadimitriou, E. & Lima Azevedo, C.

    2013-01-01

    Various road safety performance indicators (SPIs) have been proposed for different road safety research areas, mainly as regards driver behaviour (e.g. seat belt use, alcohol, drugs, etc.) and vehicles (e.g. passive safety); however, no SPIs for the road network and design have been developed. The

  20. How effective is road mitigation at reducing road-kill? A meta-analysis

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rytwinski, Trina; Soanes, Kylie; Jaeger, Jochen A.G.; Fahrig, Lenore; Findlay, C.S.; Houlahan, Jeff; Ree, van der Rodney; Grift, van der Edgar A.

    2016-01-01

    Road traffic kills hundreds of millions of animals every year, posing a critical threat to the populations of many species. To address this problem there are more than forty types of road mitigation measures available that aim to reduce wildlife mortality on roads (road-kill). For road planners,

  1. CLEAN-ROADS project: air quality considerations after the application of a novel MDSS on winter road maintenance activities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pretto, Ilaria; Malloci, Elisa; Tonidandel, Gabriele; Benedetti, Guido; Di Napoli, Claudia; Piazza, Andrea; Apolloni, Roberto; Cavaliere, Roberto

    2016-04-01

    With this poster we present the environmental benefit on air quality derived by the application of the CLEAN-ROADS pilot project. The CLEAN-ROADS project addresses the problem of the environmental pollution caused by de-icing salts during winter road maintenance activities in the Province of Trento (Italy). A demonstrative Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) has been developed in order to improve the intervention procedures of the road management service. Specifically it aims to optimize the efficiency of how available resources (e.g., salt consumption) are currently used while guaranteeing the current level of road safety. The CLEAN-ROADS project has been tested and validated on a test area located in a valley bottom (Adige Valley), where the highest optimization margins are to be expected. The project supports current road maintenance practices, which has proved to be reliable and accurate, with a new scalable and energy-efficient road monitoring system. This system is based on a network of road weather stations (road weather information system, RWIS) installed on the test route. It is capable to collect real-time data about the road conditions and to perform short-term and now-cast road weather forecasts, which actively integrate weather data and bulletins covering the target area [1]. This poster presents the results obtained from a three-year monitoring activity with the aim to (1) determine the impact of de-icing salts on air quality and (2) quantify the improvements obtained by the application of the CLEAN-ROADS project on air quality. The Ambient Air Quality and Cleaner Air for Europe Directive (2008/50/EC) states that contributions to exceedances of particulate matter PM10 limit values that are attributable to road winter salting may be subtracted when assessing compliance with air quality limit values, once provided that reasonable measures have been taken to lower concentrations [2]. As the de-icing salts used in road maintenance are mainly based

  2. Joint road safety operations in tunnels and open roads

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adesiyun, Adewole; Avenoso, Antonio; Dionelis, Kallistratos; Cela, Liljana; Nicodème, Christophe; Goger, Thierry; Polidori, Carlo

    2017-09-01

    The objective of the ECOROADS project is to overcome the barrier established by the formal interpretation of the two Directives 2008/96/EC and 2004/54/EC, which in practice do not allow the same Road Safety Audits/Inspections to be performed inside tunnels. The projects aims at the establishment of a common enhanced approach to road infrastructure and tunnel safety management by using the concepts and criteria of the Directive 2008/96/CE on road infrastructure safety management and the results of related European Commission (EC) funded projects. ECOROADS has already implemented an analysis of national practices regarding Road Safety Inspections (RSI), two Workshops with the stakeholders, and an exchange of best practices between European tunnel experts and road safety professionals, which led to the definition of common agreed safety procedures. In the second phase of the project, different groups of experts and observers applied the above common procedures by inspecting five European road sections featuring both open roads and tunnels in Belgium, Albania, Germany, Serbia and Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. This paper shows the feedback of the 5 joint safety operations and how they are being used for a set of - recommendations and guidelines for the application of the RSA and RSI concepts within the tunnel safety operations.

  3. Spatial-temporal patterns in Mediterranean carnivore road casualties: Consequences for mitigation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grilo, C.; Bissonette, J.A.; Santos-Reis, M.

    2009-01-01

    Many carnivores have been seriously impacted by the expansion of transportation systems and networks; however we know little about carnivore response to the extent and magnitude of road mortality, or which age classes may be disproportionately impacted. Recent research has demonstrated that wildlife-vehicle-collisions (WVC) involving carnivores are modulated by temporal and spatial factors. Thus, we investigated road mortality on a guild of small and medium-sized carnivores in southern Portugal using road-kill data obtained from a systematic 36 months monitoring period along highways (260 km) and national roads (314 km) by addressing the following questions: (a) which species and age class are most vulnerable to WVC? (b) are there temporal and/or spatial patterns in road-kill? and (c) which life-history and/or spatial factors influence the likelihood of collisions? We recorded a total of 806 carnivore casualties, which represented an average of 47 ind./100 km/year. Red fox and stone marten had the highest mortality rates. Our findings highlight three key messages: (1) the majority of road-killed individuals were adults of common species; (2) all carnivores, except genets, were more vulnerable during specific life-history phenological periods: higher casualties were observed when red fox and stone marten were provisioning young, Eurasian badger casualties occurred more frequently during dispersal, and higher Egyptian mongoose mortality occurred during the breeding period; and (3) modeling demonstrated that favorable habitat, curves in the road, and low human disturbance were major contributors to the deadliest road segments. Red fox carcasses were more likely to be found on road sections with passages distant from urban areas. Conversely, stone marten mortalities were found more often on national roads with high of cork oak woodland cover; Egyptian mongoose and genet road-kills were found more often on road segments close to curves. Based on our results, two key

  4. How Effective Is Road Mitigation at Reducing Road-Kill? A Meta-Analysis

    OpenAIRE

    Rytwinski, Trina; Soanes, Kylie; Jaeger, Jochen A. G.; Fahrig, Lenore; Findlay, C. Scott; Houlahan, Jeff; van der Ree, Rodney; van der Grift, Edgar A

    2016-01-01

    Road traffic kills hundreds of millions of animals every year, posing a critical threat to the populations of many species. To address this problem there are more than forty types of road mitigation measures available that aim to reduce wildlife mortality on roads (road-kill). For road planners, deciding on what mitigation method to use has been problematic because there is little good information about the relative effectiveness of these measures in reducing road-kill, and the costs of these...

  5. Tire-road noise: an experimental study of tire and road design parameters

    OpenAIRE

    Bekke, Dirk; Wijnant, Ysbrand H.; Weegerink, Thijs; de Boer, Andries

    2013-01-01

    It is widely known that road traffic noise has negative influences on human health. Hence, as tire-road noise is considered to be the most dominant cause of road traffic noise above 30-50 km/h, a lot of research is performed by the two involving industries: road authorities/manufacturers and tire manufacturers. Usually, the parameters influencing exterior tire-road noise are often examined separately, whereas it is the tire-road interaction which obviously causes the actual noise. An integral...

  6. How Effective Is Road Mitigation at Reducing Road-Kill? A Meta-Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rytwinski, Trina; Soanes, Kylie; Jaeger, Jochen A G; Fahrig, Lenore; Findlay, C Scott; Houlahan, Jeff; van der Ree, Rodney; van der Grift, Edgar A

    2016-01-01

    Road traffic kills hundreds of millions of animals every year, posing a critical threat to the populations of many species. To address this problem there are more than forty types of road mitigation measures available that aim to reduce wildlife mortality on roads (road-kill). For road planners, deciding on what mitigation method to use has been problematic because there is little good information about the relative effectiveness of these measures in reducing road-kill, and the costs of these measures vary greatly. We conducted a meta-analysis using data from 50 studies that quantified the relationship between road-kill and a mitigation measure designed to reduce road-kill. Overall, mitigation measures reduce road-kill by 40% compared to controls. Fences, with or without crossing structures, reduce road-kill by 54%. We found no detectable effect on road-kill of crossing structures without fencing. We found that comparatively expensive mitigation measures reduce large mammal road-kill much more than inexpensive measures. For example, the combination of fencing and crossing structures led to an 83% reduction in road-kill of large mammals, compared to a 57% reduction for animal detection systems, and only a 1% for wildlife reflectors. We suggest that inexpensive measures such as reflectors should not be used until and unless their effectiveness is tested using a high-quality experimental approach. Our meta-analysis also highlights the fact that there are insufficient data to answer many of the most pressing questions that road planners ask about the effectiveness of road mitigation measures, such as whether other less common mitigation measures (e.g., measures to reduce traffic volume and/or speed) reduce road mortality, or to what extent the attributes of crossing structures and fences influence their effectiveness. To improve evaluations of mitigation effectiveness, studies should incorporate data collection before the mitigation is applied, and we recommend a

  7. How Effective Is Road Mitigation at Reducing Road-Kill? A Meta-Analysis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Trina Rytwinski

    Full Text Available Road traffic kills hundreds of millions of animals every year, posing a critical threat to the populations of many species. To address this problem there are more than forty types of road mitigation measures available that aim to reduce wildlife mortality on roads (road-kill. For road planners, deciding on what mitigation method to use has been problematic because there is little good information about the relative effectiveness of these measures in reducing road-kill, and the costs of these measures vary greatly. We conducted a meta-analysis using data from 50 studies that quantified the relationship between road-kill and a mitigation measure designed to reduce road-kill. Overall, mitigation measures reduce road-kill by 40% compared to controls. Fences, with or without crossing structures, reduce road-kill by 54%. We found no detectable effect on road-kill of crossing structures without fencing. We found that comparatively expensive mitigation measures reduce large mammal road-kill much more than inexpensive measures. For example, the combination of fencing and crossing structures led to an 83% reduction in road-kill of large mammals, compared to a 57% reduction for animal detection systems, and only a 1% for wildlife reflectors. We suggest that inexpensive measures such as reflectors should not be used until and unless their effectiveness is tested using a high-quality experimental approach. Our meta-analysis also highlights the fact that there are insufficient data to answer many of the most pressing questions that road planners ask about the effectiveness of road mitigation measures, such as whether other less common mitigation measures (e.g., measures to reduce traffic volume and/or speed reduce road mortality, or to what extent the attributes of crossing structures and fences influence their effectiveness. To improve evaluations of mitigation effectiveness, studies should incorporate data collection before the mitigation is applied, and we

  8. How Effective Is Road Mitigation at Reducing Road-Kill? A Meta-Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rytwinski, Trina; Soanes, Kylie; Jaeger, Jochen A. G.; Fahrig, Lenore; Findlay, C. Scott; Houlahan, Jeff; van der Ree, Rodney; van der Grift, Edgar A

    2016-01-01

    Road traffic kills hundreds of millions of animals every year, posing a critical threat to the populations of many species. To address this problem there are more than forty types of road mitigation measures available that aim to reduce wildlife mortality on roads (road-kill). For road planners, deciding on what mitigation method to use has been problematic because there is little good information about the relative effectiveness of these measures in reducing road-kill, and the costs of these measures vary greatly. We conducted a meta-analysis using data from 50 studies that quantified the relationship between road-kill and a mitigation measure designed to reduce road-kill. Overall, mitigation measures reduce road-kill by 40% compared to controls. Fences, with or without crossing structures, reduce road-kill by 54%. We found no detectable effect on road-kill of crossing structures without fencing. We found that comparatively expensive mitigation measures reduce large mammal road-kill much more than inexpensive measures. For example, the combination of fencing and crossing structures led to an 83% reduction in road-kill of large mammals, compared to a 57% reduction for animal detection systems, and only a 1% for wildlife reflectors. We suggest that inexpensive measures such as reflectors should not be used until and unless their effectiveness is tested using a high-quality experimental approach. Our meta-analysis also highlights the fact that there are insufficient data to answer many of the most pressing questions that road planners ask about the effectiveness of road mitigation measures, such as whether other less common mitigation measures (e.g., measures to reduce traffic volume and/or speed) reduce road mortality, or to what extent the attributes of crossing structures and fences influence their effectiveness. To improve evaluations of mitigation effectiveness, studies should incorporate data collection before the mitigation is applied, and we recommend a

  9. Road Network Selection Based on Road Hierarchical Structure Control

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    HE Haiwei

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available A new road network selection method based on hierarchical structure is studied. Firstly, road network is built as strokes which are then classified into hierarchical collections according to the criteria of betweenness centrality value (BC value. Secondly, the hierarchical structure of the strokes is enhanced using structural characteristic identification technique. Thirdly, the importance calculation model was established according to the relationships among the hierarchical structure of the strokes. Finally, the importance values of strokes are got supported with the model's hierarchical calculation, and with which the road network is selected. Tests are done to verify the advantage of this method by comparing it with other common stroke-oriented methods using three kinds of typical road network data. Comparision of the results show that this method had few need to semantic data, and could eliminate the negative influence of edge strokes caused by the criteria of BC value well. So, it is better to maintain the global hierarchical structure of road network, and suitable to meet with the selection of various kinds of road network at the same time.

  10. Road pricing policy implementation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vonk Noordegraaf, D.M.

    2016-01-01

    Urban areas suffer from the negative externalities of road transport like congested road networks, air pollution and road traffic accidents. A measure to reduce these negative externalities is road pricing, meaning policies that impose direct charges on road use (Jones and Hervik, 1992). Since the

  11. Effect of the Road Environment on Road Safety in Poland

    Science.gov (United States)

    Budzynski, Marcin; Jamroz, Kazimierz; Antoniuk, Marcin

    2017-10-01

    Run-off-road accidents tend to be very severe because when a vehicle leaves the road, it will often crash into a solid obstacle (tree, pole, supports, front wall of a culvert, barrier). A statistical analysis of the data shows that Poland’s main roadside hazard is trees and the severity of vehicles striking a tree in a run-off-road crash. The risks are particularly high in north-west Poland with many of the roads lined up with trees. Because of the existing rural road cross-sections, i.e. having trees directly on road edge followed immediately by drainage ditches, vulnerable road users are prevented from using shoulders and made to use the roadway. With no legal definition of the road safety zone in Polish regulations, attempts to remove roadside trees lead to major conflicts with environmental stakeholders. This is why a compromise should be sought between the safety of road users and protection of the natural environment and the aesthetics of the road experience. Rather than just cut the trees, other road safety measures should be used where possible to treat the hazardous spots by securing trees and obstacles and through speed management. Accidents that are directly related to the road environment fall into the following categories: hitting a tree, hitting a barrier, hitting a utility pole or sign, vehicle rollover on the shoulder, vehicle rollover on slopes or in ditch. The main consequence of a roadside hazard is not the likelihood of an accident itself but of its severity. Poland’s roadside accident severity is primarily the result of poor design or operation of road infrastructure. This comes as a consequence of a lack of regulations or poorly defined regulations and failure to comply with road safety standards. The new analytical model was designed as a combination of the different factors and one that will serve as a comprehensive model. It was assumed that it will describe the effect of the roadside on the number of accidents and their consequences

  12. eRoads

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Connolly, David

    vehicles enable more renewable electricity to be integrated onto the electricity grid. This is particularly evident in 2050, since the price of fossil fuels increases while the price of renewable electricity and batteries decreases. Finally, the electric road scenarios can facilitate more reductions......This study compares electric roads with oil (petrol and diesel) and battery electric vehicles, using Denmark as a case study. Electric roads can reduce the cost of electric vehicles by supplying them with electricity directly from the road rather than via a battery for long-distance journeys....... In this paper, an electric road scenario is compared to both an oil and battery electric vehicle scenario using the 2010 Danish energy system, but for two sets of costs: one set based on historical costs from the year 2010 and one based on projected costs for the year 2050. The results indicate that electric...

  13. Estimating road transport fuel consumption in Ecuador

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sierra, Jaime Cevallos

    2016-01-01

    Road transport is one of the sectors with highest energy consumptions in the planet, with large dependence of fossil fuels, and contribution for global greenhouse gas emissions. Although, Latin America is not a high-energy consumer, its share in global consumption is expected to grow, especially in the transportation sector. This make essential for developing countries the adoption of better policies to identify the vehicle groups with largest fuel demands. The present study describes the VKT technique to disaggregate road transport energy consumption by vehicle type, applied to the road transportation system of Ecuador. It also describes the procedures performed to estimate the variables required to run the model, and some of the practical applications that be used to create public policies. Results show as the biggest fuel consumers the heavy-duty freight cargo, followed by light duty vehicles. The estimation of greenhouse gas emissions evidence that road transport released 14.3 million tons of CO_2 in 2012. When fuel consumption is compared by it costs, it can be confirmed that Ecuadorean Government covered, through subsidies, for 68% of the annual fuel costs of national road transport, demonstrating the importance of restructuring these expenditures in order to achieve an efficient road transport system. - Highlights: •The vehicle-kilometers traveled has been estimated from local info. •The fuel economy has been calculated from national and international data. •The groups with higher fuel consumption has been located. •The fuel-type dependency has been estimated for each vehicle group. •Greenhouse gas emission, and fuel costs, has been estimated for local road transport.

  14. Mapping, Navigation, and Learning for Off-Road Traversal

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Konolige, Kurt; Agrawal, Motilal; Blas, Morten Rufus

    2009-01-01

    The challenge in the DARPA Learning Applied to Ground Robots (LAGR) project is to autonomously navigate a small robot using stereo vision as the main sensor. During this project, we demonstrated a complete autonomous system for off-road navigation in unstructured environments, using stereo vision......, online terrain traversability learning, visual odometry, map registration, planning, and control. At the end of 3 years, the system we developed outperformed all nine other teams in final blind tests over previously unseen terrain.......The challenge in the DARPA Learning Applied to Ground Robots (LAGR) project is to autonomously navigate a small robot using stereo vision as the main sensor. During this project, we demonstrated a complete autonomous system for off-road navigation in unstructured environments, using stereo vision...

  15. [Prevention of road accidents in the road haulage field].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosso, G L; Zanelli, R; Corino, P; Bruno, S

    2007-01-01

    Every year many traffic accidents with fatal outcomes occur in our Country. According to the recent indications of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, the Piedmont region has financed the plan: Prevention of road accidents in the road haulage field. The aims of the plan are to stimulate transport companies to the target of road safety and to improve and enforce sanitary surveillance, in order to improve the safety on road haulage and to prevent traffic injuries. the plan foresees, over a period of two years, a few encounters with all the interested parties (companies, police forces, labour unions etc). During those encounters we have to give a questionnaire for evaluating the companies' knowledge about the problem and we have to choose a common plan with the aim of improving road safety. The Piedmont regional plan recalls the need to increase the attention to numerous and diversified hazards for safety on road haulage. It also imposes the choice of measures that include: risk assessment, health education, technical and environmental prevention, sanitary surveillance and clinical interventions (diagnosis and rehabilitation of occupational accidents).

  16. Children Road Safety Training with Augmented Reality (AR) [Demo

    OpenAIRE

    Lugmayr, Artur; Tsang, Joyce; Williams, Toby; Lim, Casey X; Teo, Yeet Yung; Farmer, Matthew

    2018-01-01

    Children killed or seriously injured through road accidents can be avoided through an appropriate safety training. Through play and engagement children learn and understand hazards at i.e. railway stations, bus stops, crossings, school zones, train stations, footpaths, or while cycling. We developed a rapid prototype of an Augmented Reality (AR) safety training proof-of-concept demonstrator for a scaled real-world model of dangerous road hazards. Two scenarios have been picked to give childre...

  17. All-terrain vehicle fatalities on paved roads, unpaved roads, and off-road: Evidence for informed roadway safety warnings and legislation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Denning, Gerene M; Jennissen, Charles A

    2016-05-18

    All-terrain vehicles (ATVs) are designed for off-highway use only, and many of their features create increased risk with roadway travel. Over half of all ATV-related fatalities occur on roadways, and nonfatal roadway crashes result in more serious injuries than those off the road. A number of jurisdictions have passed or have considered legislation allowing ATVs on public roadways, sometimes limiting them to those unpaved, arguing that they are safe for ATVs. However, no studies have determined the epidemiology of ATV-related fatalities on different road surface types. The objective of the study was to compare ATV-related deaths on paved versus unpaved roads and to contrast them with off-road fatalities. Retrospective descriptive and multivariable analyses were performed using U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission fatality data from 1982 through 2012. After 1998, ATV-related deaths increased at twice the rate on paved versus unpaved roads. Still, 42% of all roadway deaths during the study period occurred on unpaved surfaces. States varied considerably, ranging from 18% to 79% of their ATV-related roadway deaths occurring on unpaved roads. Paved road crashes were more likely than those on unpaved surfaces to involve males, adolescents and younger adults, passengers, and collisions with other vehicles. Both the pattern of other vehicles involved in collisions and which vehicle hit the other were different for the 2 road types. Alcohol use was higher, helmet use was lower, and head injuries were more likely in paved versus unpaved roadway crashes. However, head injuries still occurred in 76% of fatalities on unpaved roads. Helmets were associated with lower proportions of head injuries among riders, regardless of road surface type. Relative to off-road crashes, both paved and unpaved roads were more likely to involve collisions with another vehicle. The vast majority of roadway crashes, however, did not involve a traffic collision on either paved or unpaved roads

  18. Using endemic road features to create self-explaining roads and reduce vehicle speeds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Charlton, Samuel G; Mackie, Hamish W; Baas, Peter H; Hay, Karen; Menezes, Miguel; Dixon, Claire

    2010-11-01

    This paper describes a project undertaken to establish a self-explaining roads (SER) design programme on existing streets in an urban area. The methodology focussed on developing a process to identify functional road categories and designs based on endemic road characteristics taken from functional exemplars in the study area. The study area was divided into two sections, one to receive SER treatments designed to maximise visual differences between road categories, and a matched control area to remain untreated for purposes of comparison. The SER design for local roads included increased landscaping and community islands to limit forward visibility, and removal of road markings to create a visually distinct road environment. In comparison, roads categorised as collectors received increased delineation, addition of cycle lanes, and improved amenity for pedestrians. Speed data collected 3 months after implementation showed a significant reduction in vehicle speeds on local roads and increased homogeneity of speeds on both local and collector roads. The objective speed data, combined with residents' speed choice ratings, indicated that the project was successful in creating two discriminably different road categories. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Road safety performance indicators for the interurban road network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yannis, George; Weijermars, Wendy; Gitelman, Victoria; Vis, Martijn; Chaziris, Antonis; Papadimitriou, Eleonora; Azevedo, Carlos Lima

    2013-11-01

    Various road safety performance indicators (SPIs) have been proposed for different road safety research areas, mainly as regards driver behaviour (e.g. seat belt use, alcohol, drugs, etc.) and vehicles (e.g. passive safety); however, no SPIs for the road network and design have been developed. The objective of this research is the development of an SPI for the road network, to be used as a benchmark for cross-region comparisons. The developed SPI essentially makes a comparison of the existing road network to the theoretically required one, defined as one which meets some minimum requirements with respect to road safety. This paper presents a theoretical concept for the determination of this SPI as well as a translation of this theory into a practical method. Also, the method is applied in a number of pilot countries namely the Netherlands, Portugal, Greece and Israel. The results show that the SPI could be efficiently calculated in all countries, despite some differences in the data sources. In general, the calculated overall SPI scores were realistic and ranged from 81 to 94%, with the exception of Greece where the SPI was relatively lower (67%). However, the SPI should be considered as a first attempt to determine the safety level of the road network. The proposed method has some limitations and could be further improved. The paper presents directions for further research to further develop the SPI. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Energy-saving quality road lighting with colloidal quantum dot nanophosphors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erdem, Talha; Kelestemur, Yusuf; Soran-Erdem, Zeliha; Ji, Yun; Demir, Hilmi Volkan

    2014-12-01

    Here the first photometric study of road-lighting white light-emitting diodes (WLEDs) integrated with semiconductor colloidal quantum dots (QDs) is reported enabling higher luminance than conventional light sources, specifically in mesopic vision regimes essential to street lighting. Investigating over 100 million designs uncovers that quality road-lighting QD-WLEDs, with a color quality scale and color rendering index ≥85, enables 13-35% higher mesopic luminance than the sources commonly used in street lighting. Furthermore, these QD-WLEDs were shown to be electrically more efficient than conventional sources with power conversion efficiencies ≥16-29%. Considering this fact, an experimental proof-of-concept QD-WLED was demonstrated, which is the first account of QD based color conversion custom designed for street lighting applications. The obtained white LED achieved the targeted mesopic luminance levels in accordance with the road lighting standards of the USA and the UK. These results indicate that road-lighting QD-WLEDs are strongly promising for energy-saving quality road lighting.

  1. Road density

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — Road density is generally highly correlated with amount of developed land cover. High road densities usually indicate high levels of ecological disturbance. More...

  2. Road accident rates: strategies and programmes for improving road traffic safety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goniewicz, K; Goniewicz, M; Pawłowski, W; Fiedor, P

    2016-08-01

    Nowadays, the problem of road accident rates is one of the most important health and social policy issues concerning the countries in all continents. Each year, nearly 1.3 million people worldwide lose their life on roads, and 20-50 million sustain severe injuries, the majority of which require long-term treatment. The objective of the study was to identify the most frequent, constantly occurring causes of road accidents, as well as outline actions constituting a basis for the strategies and programmes aiming at improving traffic safety on local and global levels. Comparative analysis of literature concerning road safety was performed, confirming that although road accidents had a varied and frequently complex background, their causes have changed only to a small degree over the years. The causes include: lack of control and enforcement concerning implementation of traffic regulation (primarily driving at excessive speed, driving under the influence of alcohol, and not respecting the rights of other road users (mainly pedestrians and cyclists), lack of appropriate infrastructure and unroadworthy vehicles. The number of fatal accidents and severe injuries, resulting from road accidents, may be reduced through applying an integrated approach to safety on roads. The strategies and programmes for improving road traffic should include the following measures: reducing the risk of exposure to an accident, prevention of accidents, reduction in bodily injuries sustained in accidents, and reduction of the effects of injuries by improvement of post-accident medical care.

  3. Tire-road noise: an experimental study of tire and road design parameters

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bekke, Dirk; Wijnant, Ysbrand H.; Weegerink, Thijs; de Boer, Andries

    2013-01-01

    It is widely known that road traffic noise has negative influences on human health. Hence, as tire-road noise is considered to be the most dominant cause of road traffic noise above 30-50 km/h, a lot of research is performed by the two involving industries: road authorities/manufacturers and tire

  4. Road traffic injury on rural roads in Tanzania: measuring the effectiveness of a road safety program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zimmerman, Karen; Jinadasa, Deepani; Maegga, Bertha; Guerrero, Alejandro

    2015-01-01

    Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are a major public health burden, especially in low- and middle-income countries. There is limited data on RTIs in low-volume, rural African settings. This study attempted to survey all individuals living in households within 200 m of two low-volume rural roads in Tanzania and to collect data on RTIs. Local communities and users of the Bago to Talawanda road (intervention site) and Kikaro to Mihuga road (control site) were targeted and received an intensive program of road safety measures tailored using the crash characteristics of the baseline sample. Demographic data on all household members were collected, and those individuals who suffered an RTI in the previous 3 months had comprehensive information collected about the crash characteristics and the socioeconomic impact. The follow-up data collection occurred nine months after the baseline data were collected. The majority of crashes that caused an RTI involved a motorcycle (71%) and the majority of victims were male (82%) with an average age of 27. Injuries to the legs (55%) were most common and the average length of time away from normal activity was 27 (±33) days. RTI incidence at the intervention site increased during the course of the study (incidence before vs. incidence after) and was unchanged in the community control (incidence before vs. incidence after). The incidence of RTIs in the low-volume rural setting is unacceptably high and most commonly associated with motorcycles. The change in incidence is unreliable due to logistic restraints of the project and more research is needed to quantify the impact of various RTI prevention strategies in this setting. This study provides insight into road traffic injuries on low-volume rural roads, areas where very little research has been captured. Additionally, it provides a replicable study design for those interested in collecting similar data on low-volume rural roads.

  5. Gravel roads management : volume 1, gravel roads management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    This report establishes procedures for managing dirt and gravel roads, with a primary focus on smaller agencies, such as Wyoming counties, that must manage their roads with very limited resources. The report strives, first, to guide and assist smalle...

  6. Sustainable road safety: a new (?) neighbourhood road pattern that saves VRU lives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, Vicky Feng; Lovegrove, Gord

    2012-01-01

    Both the UN (2007) and World Health Organizations (2004) have declared the enormous social and economic burden imposed on society by injuries due to road collisions as a major global problem. While the road safety problem is not new, this prominent global declaration sends an important signal of frustration regarding progress to date on reducing road collisions. It is clear that governments, communities, businesses and the public must discover ways of reducing this burden, especially as it relates to vulnerable road users (VRUs), typically meaning pedestrian and bicyclist road users. Recent comparisons of global VRU collisions statistics suggest that, in addition to mixed land use density, the layout of neighbourhood roads plays a vital role in the encouragement of walkable, safe and quiet, yet accessible and sustainable communities. The purpose of this paper was to: The Dutch Sustainable Road Safety (SRS) Program has produced a number of innovative land use and transportation initiatives for vehicular road users as well as non-vehicular VRUs. Following from the Dutch initiatives, these new 3-way offset, and fused grid neighbourhood patterns appear to not only have positive effects in encouraging mode split (i.e. increasing walking and bicycling, and transit), slowing traffic, and reducing energy consumption and GHG emissions; but also, to hold potential to improve road safety. To test the road safety hypothesis, UBCO researchers evaluated the level of road safety relative to five neighbourhood patterns - grid, culs-de-sac, and Dutch Sustainable Road Safety (SRS) (or limited access), 3-way offset, and fused grid networks. Analysis using standard transportation planning methodology revealed that they would maintain both mobility and accessibility. Analysis using standard road safety analysis methodology further revealed that these 3-way offset, and fused grid patterns would significantly improve road safety levels by as much as 60% compared to prevalent patterns (i

  7. Road Closures

    Data.gov (United States)

    Montgomery County of Maryland — This is an up to date map of current road closures in Montgomery County.This dataset is updated every few minutes from the Department of Transportation road closure...

  8. Assessing the 'system' in safe systems-based road designs: using cognitive work analysis to evaluate intersection designs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cornelissen, M; Salmon, P M; Stanton, N A; McClure, R

    2015-01-01

    While a safe systems approach has long been acknowledged as the underlying philosophy of contemporary road safety strategies, systemic applications are sparse. This article argues that systems-based methods from the discipline of Ergonomics have a key role to play in road transport design and evaluation. To demonstrate, the Cognitive Work Analysis framework was used to evaluate two road designs - a traditional Melbourne intersection and a cut-through design for future intersections based on road safety safe systems principles. The results demonstrate that, although the cut-through intersection appears different in layout from the traditional intersection, system constraints are not markedly different. Furthermore, the analyses demonstrated that redistribution of constraints in the cut-through intersection resulted in emergent behaviour, which was not anticipated and could prove problematic. Further, based on the lack of understanding of emergent behaviour, similar design induced problems are apparent across both intersections. Specifically, incompatibilities between infrastructure, vehicles and different road users were not dealt with by the proposed design changes. The importance of applying systems methods in the design and evaluation of road transport systems is discussed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Performance of Roads In Seismic Conditions: A Theoretical And Experimental Study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pratico, Filippo Giammaria

    2008-01-01

    As is well known, the role of the road network during and after an earthquake is of paramount relevance. In the light of the above, the main goal of the paper has been confined to the analyses of road performance in seismic conditions, as a result of intrinsic (structural and functional conditions, redundancy, etc.) and extrinsic (loads, flows, etc.) characteristics. Such interaction has been analysed for the area of Reggio Calabria and Messina Strait, through 28 equations and a number of models and simulations. Analyses proved that redundancy is a key-factor, able to affect the overall performance of the road network. Simulations demonstrated that in the long term road serviceability could be partly compromised, but accident risk, due to speed limitations, could result decreased

  10. Where and how are roads endangering mammals in Southeast Asia's forests?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clements, Gopalasamy Reuben; Lynam, Antony J; Gaveau, David; Yap, Wei Lim; Lhota, Stanislav; Goosem, Miriam; Laurance, Susan; Laurance, William F

    2014-01-01

    Habitat destruction and overhunting are two major drivers of mammal population declines and extinctions in tropical forests. The construction of roads can be a catalyst for these two threats. In Southeast Asia, the impacts of roads on mammals have not been well-documented at a regional scale. Before evidence-based conservation strategies can be developed to minimize the threat of roads to endangered mammals within this region, we first need to locate where and how roads are contributing to the conversion of their habitats and illegal hunting in each country. We interviewed 36 experts involved in mammal research from seven Southeast Asian countries to identify roads that are contributing the most, in their opinion, to habitat conversion and illegal hunting. Our experts highlighted 16 existing and eight planned roads - these potentially threaten 21% of the 117 endangered terrestrial mammals in those countries. Apart from gathering qualitative evidence from the literature to assess their claims, we demonstrate how species-distribution models, satellite imagery and animal-sign surveys can be used to provide quantitative evidence of roads causing impacts by (1) cutting through habitats where endangered mammals are likely to occur, (2) intensifying forest conversion, and (3) contributing to illegal hunting and wildlife trade. To our knowledge, ours is the first study to identify specific roads threatening endangered mammals in Southeast Asia. Further through highlighting the impacts of roads, we propose 10 measures to limit road impacts in the region.

  11. Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı Öğretmeni Adaylarının Öğretmenlik Mesleğine Yönelik Yeterlilik Algıları ve Tutumları Üzerine Bir Araştırma Qualification Perception Of The Turkish Language And Literature Education Teacher Candidates And Attitudes To Teaching Occupation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cem ERDEM

    2012-12-01

    teacher candidates' interests to the profession,attitudes towards the teaching profession is high, however, ıt has beenidentified that they are insufficient in terms of special field knowledgeand vocational knowledge. A meaningful difference was identified inteacher candidates’ attitude points and the perception level ofvocational competence in only sex and mother profession variables. Thefact that the courses are raised that enables teacher candidates’development in terms of pedagogic skills and special field knowledge isthought to affect their vocational competence perceptions positively. Meslek kavramı özellikle uzmanlaşmanın önemli olduğu iş kollarında sosyokültürel ve ekonomik olarak yeri yadsınamayacak bir ihtisas alanı olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Bu bağlamda her meslek kolu kendine özgü unsurları bünyesinde bulundurmakta ve çalışanlarını da bu unsurlara uyum sağlamaya zorlamaktadır. Toplumun her aşamada yapılandırılması ve bireylere belli değerlerin aktarılmasında öğretmenlik mesleğinin önemli bir yeri olduğu açıktır. Öğretmen adaylarının mesleğe yönelik tutumları ve mesleki yeterlilik algılarına yönelik tespitler, öğretmen yetiştirme programının da değerlendirilebilmesine imkân vermesi bakımından önemlidir. Bu çalışmada, Türk dili ve edebiyatı öğretmeni adaylarının mesleki yeterlilik algıları ve öğretmenlik mesleğine ilişkin tutumları incelenmiştir. Araştırma, genel tarama modelinin bir türü olan ilişkisel tarama modeli ile gerçekleştirilmiştir. Çalışmadaki veriler, beşli likert tipinde 22 maddeden oluşan anket aracılığıyla toplanmıştır. Araştırma, 2011-2012 eğitim öğretim yılında güz döneminde Gazi Üniversitesi Türk dili ve edebiyatı öğretmenliği bölümü dördüncü sınıf öğrencileri ve tezsiz yüksek lisans programında öğrenim görmekte olan 137'si kız (%80,6, 33'ü (%19,4 erkek olmak üzere toplam 170 öğrenciden al

  12. Explicit and implicit processes in behavioural adaptation to road width.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lewis-Evans, Ben; Charlton, Samuel G

    2006-05-01

    The finding that drivers may react to safety interventions in a way that is contrary to what was intended is the phenomenon of behavioural adaptation. This phenomenon has been demonstrated across various safety interventions and has serious implications for road safety programs the world over. The present research used a driving simulator to assess behavioural adaptation in drivers' speed and lateral displacement in response to manipulations of road width. Of interest was whether behavioural adaptation would occur and whether we could determine whether it was the result of explicit, conscious decisions or implicit perceptual processes. The results supported an implicit, zero perceived risk model of behavioural adaptation with reduced speeds on a narrowed road accompanied by increased ratings of risk and a marked inability of the participants to identify that any change in road width had occurred.

  13. A Lightweight Radio Propagation Model for Vehicular Communication in Road Tunnels.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammad Ahsan Qureshi

    Full Text Available Radio propagation models (RPMs are generally employed in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs to predict path loss in multiple operating environments (e.g. modern road infrastructure such as flyovers, underpasses and road tunnels. For example, different RPMs have been developed to predict propagation behaviour in road tunnels. However, most existing RPMs for road tunnels are computationally complex and are based on field measurements in frequency band not suitable for VANET deployment. Furthermore, in tunnel applications, consequences of moving radio obstacles, such as large buses and delivery trucks, are generally not considered in existing RPMs. This paper proposes a computationally inexpensive RPM with minimal set of parameters to predict path loss in an acceptable range for road tunnels. The proposed RPM utilizes geometric properties of the tunnel, such as height and width along with the distance between sender and receiver, to predict the path loss. The proposed RPM also considers the additional attenuation caused by the moving radio obstacles in road tunnels, while requiring a negligible overhead in terms of computational complexity. To demonstrate the utility of our proposed RPM, we conduct a comparative summary and evaluate its performance. Specifically, an extensive data gathering campaign is carried out in order to evaluate the proposed RPM. The field measurements use the 5 GHz frequency band, which is suitable for vehicular communication. The results demonstrate that a close match exists between the predicted values and measured values of path loss. In particular, an average accuracy of 94% is found with R2 = 0.86.

  14. Road rage and road traffic accidents among commercial vehicle drivers in Lahore, Pakistan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shaikh, M A; Shaikh, I A; Siddiqui, Z

    2012-04-01

    Road rage and road traffic accidents increase the burden of morbidity and mortality in a population. A cross-sectional survey with convenience sampling was conducted among commercial vehicle drivers in Lahore, Pakistan (n = 901) to record their behaviours/experiences regarding road rage and road traffic accidents. Respondents were asked about incidents of shouting/cursing/rude gestures or threats to physically hurt the person/vehicle, by others or themselves, in the previous 24 hours or 3 months, and their involvement in road traffic accidents in the previous 12 months. Auto-rickshaw drivers were significantly more likely to report various road rage experiences/behaviours and involvement in accidents compared with bus and wagon drivers. A total of 112 respondents (12.4%) reported being involved in a road traffic accident in the previous 12 months but traffic police did not record the accident in 52.7% of cases. The results of this study underline the need to improve road safety in Pakistan.

  15. ENHANCEMENT OF ROAD SAFETY THROUGH MORE EFFECTIVE ROAD AND TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tomasz SZCZURASZEK

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available To make the policy aimed at mitigating the risk of road incidents more effective, Poland should see the introduction of the more efficient road and traffic management. In November 2008 the European Parliament and the European Council published the Directive on "infrastructure safety management" which provides guidance on the procedures for carrying impact assessments of traffic safety, traffic safety audits, safety management on the road network and monitoring traffic safety in Member States. In this article, the authors have proposed a systemic approach to road and traffic management, involving the implementation of consistent procedures that should include regular revisions of roads, eliminating hazardous sites, speed management, as well as the approval and implementation of traffic organization designs.

  16. A Modelling Framework for estimating Road Segment Based On-Board Vehicle Emissions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lin-Jun, Yu; Ya-Lan, Liu; Yu-Huan, Ren; Zhong-Ren, Peng; Meng, Liu Meng

    2014-01-01

    Traditional traffic emission inventory models aim to provide overall emissions at regional level which cannot meet planners' demand for detailed and accurate traffic emissions information at the road segment level. Therefore, a road segment-based emission model for estimating light duty vehicle emissions is proposed, where floating car technology is used to collect information of traffic condition of roads. The employed analysis framework consists of three major modules: the Average Speed and the Average Acceleration Module (ASAAM), the Traffic Flow Estimation Module (TFEM) and the Traffic Emission Module (TEM). The ASAAM is used to obtain the average speed and the average acceleration of the fleet on each road segment using FCD. The TFEM is designed to estimate the traffic flow of each road segment in a given period, based on the speed-flow relationship and traffic flow spatial distribution. Finally, the TEM estimates emissions from each road segment, based on the results of previous two modules. Hourly on-road light-duty vehicle emissions for each road segment in Shenzhen's traffic network are obtained using this analysis framework. The temporal-spatial distribution patterns of the pollutant emissions of road segments are also summarized. The results show high emission road segments cluster in several important regions in Shenzhen. Also, road segments emit more emissions during rush hours than other periods. The presented case study demonstrates that the proposed approach is feasible and easy-to-use to help planners make informed decisions by providing detailed road segment-based emission information

  17. Wildlife friendly roads: the impacts of roads on wildlife in urban areas and potential remedies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riley, Seth P D; Brown, Justin L.; Sikich, Jeff A.; Schoonmaker, Catherine M.; Boydston, Erin E.

    2014-01-01

    Roads are one of the most important factors affecting the ability of wildlife to live and move within an urban area. Roads physically replace wildlife habitat and often reduce habitat quality nearby, fragment the remaining habitat, and cause increased mortality through vehicle collisions. Much ecological research on roads has focused on whether animals are successfully crossing roads, or if the road is a barrier to wildlife movement, gene flow, or functional connectivity. Roads can alter survival and reproduction for wildlife, even among species such as birds that cross roads easily. Here we examine the suite of potential impacts of roads on wildlife, but we focus particularly on urban settings. We report on studies, both in the literature and from our own experience, that have addressed wildlife and roads in urban landscapes. Although road ecology is a growing field of study, relatively little of this research, and relatively few mitigation projects, have been done in urban landscapes. We also draw from the available science on road impacts in rural areas when urban case studies have not fully addressed key topics.

  18. Visibility of road markings on wet road surfaces : a literature study.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schreuder, D.A.

    1981-01-01

    The English version of B 14153 is presented. Road markings, notably lane markers, are often only poorly visible when the road is wet. This is particularly a problem at night on unlit roads. A study is made of whether a solution for this problem can be found on the basis of the known, published

  19. Access road reclamation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Manson, T.; Blok, M.

    1997-01-01

    A general review of the measures involved in restoring abandoned access road sites in British Columbia was presented. Permits and licences are needed for the use of crown land for roads used by the petroleum and natural gas industry for exploration activities. However, the regulatory framework for road site reclamation is not well developed. The nature of access road reclamation is very site-specific. Some of the issues that are considered for all reclamation projects include slope stability, water control, revegetation, soil rehabilitation, access management and monitoring. The primary objective of reclaiming access road sites is to return the site to conditions that are equal or better than pre-disturbance conditions. Restoration measures must be approved by BC Environment and by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans where federal fisheries responsibilities are involved. 54 refs., 5 tabs., 3 figs

  20. Armenia - Rural Road Rehabilitation

    Data.gov (United States)

    Millennium Challenge Corporation — The key research questions guiding our design of the RRRP evaluation are: • Did rehabilitating roads affect the quality of roads? • Did rehabilitating roads improve...

  1. An innovative road marking quality assessment mechanism using computer vision

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kuo-Liang Lin

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Aesthetic quality acceptance for road marking works has been relied on subjective visual examination. Due to a lack of quantitative operation procedures, acceptance outcome can be biased and results in great quality variation. To improve aesthetic quality acceptance procedure of road marking, we develop an innovative road marking quality assessment mechanism, utilizing machine vision technologies. Using edge smoothness as a quantitative aesthetic indicator, the proposed prototype system first receives digital images of finished road marking surface and has the images processed and analyzed to capture the geometric characteristics of the marking. The geometric characteristics are then evaluated to determine the quality level of the finished work. System is demonstrated through two real cases to show how it works. In the end, a test comparing the assessment results between the proposed system and expert inspection is conducted to enhance the accountability of the proposed mechanism.

  2. Where Does Road Salt Go - a Static Salt Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, C. W.; Liu, F.; Moriarty, V. W.

    2017-12-01

    Each winter, more than 15 million tons of road salt is applied in the United States for the de-icing purpose. Considerable amount of chloride in road salt flows into streams/drainage systems with the snow melt runoff and spring storms, and eventually goes into ecologically sensitive low-lying areas in the watershed, such as ponds and lakes. In many watersheds in the northern part of US, the chloride level in the water body has increased significantly in the past decades, and continues an upward trend. The environmental and ecological impact of the elevated chloride level can no longer be ignored. However although there are many studies on the biological impact of elevated chloride levels, there are few investigations on how the spatially distributed road salt application affects various parts of the watershed. In this presentation, we propose a static road salt model as a first-order metric to address spacial distribution of salt loading. Derived from the Topological Wetness Index (TWI) in many hydrological models, this static salt model provides a spatial impact as- sessment of road salt applications. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the static model, National Elevation Dataset (NED) of ten-meter resolution of Lake George watershed in New York State is used to generate the TWI, which is used to compute a spatially dis- tributed "salt-loading coefficient" of the whole watershed. Spatially varying salt applica- tion rate is then aggregated, using the salt-loading coefficients as weights, to provide salt loading assessments of streams in the watershed. Time-aggregated data from five CTD (conductivity-temperature-depth) sensors in selected streams are used for calibration. The model outputs and the sensor data demonstrate a strong linear correlation, with the R value of 0.97. The investigation shows that the static modeling approach may provide an effective method for the understanding the input and transport of road salt to within watersheds.

  3. Willingness to use mobile application for smartphone for improving road safety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cardamone, Angelo Stephen; Eboli, Laura; Forciniti, Carmen; Mazzulla, Gabriella

    2016-01-01

    In the last few years mobile devices have reached a large amount of consumers in both developed and high-growth world economies. In 2013, 97% of the Italian population owns a mobile phone, and 62% owns a smartphone. Application software for mobile devices is largely proposed to consumers, and several mobile applications were oriented toward the improvement of road safety and road accident risk reduction. In this paper, we describe the results of a survey oriented to preventively investigate on the willingness to receive and/or to give information about road condition by means of mobile devices. Road users were informed about the characteristics of a mobile application, and then they were invited to complete a questionnaire. Experimental data were used for capturing road user attitudes toward the use of the smartphone to improve road safety, and to establish the preferences for the different features of the proposed mobile application. To this end, we choose to use the ordered probit model methodology. We demonstrate that the adopted methodology accounts for the differential impacts of the willingness to receive and/or to give information about road conditions on the overall willingness to receive and/or to give information through an application software for mobile devices.

  4. Road identification for its-integrated systems of automotive active safety

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. Ivanov

    2005-04-01

    Full Text Available The paper discusses several aspects of active safety control for automotive application. Particular emphasis is placed on the fuzzy logic determination of friction properties of a tyre-road contact. An example of vehicle control systems equipped with off-board sensors of road roughness, temperature, moisture and rain intensity demonstrates the implementation of this approach. The paper proposes conceptual solutions for preventive active safety control applied to vehicles which are integrated in an intelligent transportation system.

  5. Performance Comparison of Geobroadcast Strategies for Winding Roads

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Edgar Talavera

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Vehicle-to-X (V2X communications allow real-time information sharing between vehicles and Roadside Units (RSUs. These kinds of technologies allow for the improvement of road safety and can be used in combination with other systems. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS are an example and can be used along with V2X communications to improve performance and enable Cooperative Systems. A key element of vehicular communications is that the information transmitted through the network is always linked to a GPS position related to origin and destination (GeoNetworking protocol in order to adjust the data broadcast to the dynamic road environment needs. In this paper, we present the implementation and development of Institute for Automobile Research (INSIA V2X communication modules that follow the European vehicular networking standards in a close curve in a winding road where poor visibility causes a risk to the safety of road users. The technology chosen to support these communications is ETSI ITS-G5, which has the capability to enable specific services that support GeoNetworking protocols, specifically the Geobroadcast (GBC algorithm. These functionalities have been implemented and validated in a real environment in order to demonstrate the performance of the communication devices in real V2V (Vehicle-to-Vehicle and V2I (Vehicle-to-Infrastructure situations. GBC messages are also compared with two different configurations of emission area. A comparison with/without RSU modules in critical areas of the road with previous knowledge of the road cartography has also been made.

  6. When Dijkstra Meets Vanishing Point: A Stereo Vision Approach for Road Detection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yigong; Su, Yingna; Yang, Jian; Ponce, Jean; Kong, Hui

    2018-05-01

    In this paper, we propose a vanishing-point constrained Dijkstra road model for road detection in a stereo-vision paradigm. First, the stereo-camera is used to generate the u- and v-disparity maps of road image, from which the horizon can be extracted. With the horizon and ground region constraints, we can robustly locate the vanishing point of road region. Second, a weighted graph is constructed using all pixels of the image, and the detected vanishing point is treated as the source node of the graph. By computing a vanishing-point constrained Dijkstra minimum-cost map, where both disparity and gradient of gray image are used to calculate cost between two neighbor pixels, the problem of detecting road borders in image is transformed into that of finding two shortest paths that originate from the vanishing point to two pixels in the last row of image. The proposed approach has been implemented and tested over 2600 grayscale images of different road scenes in the KITTI data set. The experimental results demonstrate that this training-free approach can detect horizon, vanishing point, and road regions very accurately and robustly. It can achieve promising performance.

  7. Antisideslip and Antirollover Safety Speed Controller Design for Vehicle on Curved Road

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guo Lie

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available When the drivers cannot be aware of the existing of forthcoming curved roads and fail to regulate their safety speeds accordingly, sideslip or rollover may occur with high probability. The antisideslip and antirollover control of vehicle on curved road in automatic highway systems is studied. The safety speed warning system is set before entering the curved road firstly. The speed adhesion control is adopted to shorten the braking distance while decelerating and to guarantee the safety speed. The velocity controller when decelerating on the straight path and the posture controller when driving on curved road are designed, respectively, utilizing integral backstepping technology. Simulation results demonstrate that this control system is characterized by quick and precise tracking and global stability. Consequently, it is able to avoid the dangerous operating conditions, such as sideslip and rollover, and guarantee the safety and directional stability when driving on curved road.

  8. Fleet size estimation for spreading operation considering road geometry, weather and traffic

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Steven I-Jy Chien

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available Extreme weather conditions(i.e. snow storm in winter time have caused significant travel disruptions and increased delay and traffic accidents. Snow plowing and salt spreading are the most common counter-measures for making our roads safer for motorists. To assist highway maintenance authorities with better planning and allocation of winter maintenance resources, this study introduces an analytical model to estimate the required number of trucks for spreading operation subjective to pre-specified service time constraints considering road geometry, weather and traffic. The complexity of the research problem lies in dealing with heterogeneous road geometry of road sections, truck capacities, spreading patterns, and traffic speeds under different weather conditions and time periods of an event. The proposed model is applied to two maintenance yards with seven road sections in New Jersey (USA, which demonstrates itself fairly practical to be implemented, considering diverse operational conditions.

  9. Road mapping in industrial companies: Experience; El Roadmapping en la industria: Experiencias

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Goenaga-Larranaga, J. M.; Phaal, R.

    2010-07-01

    From its origins in the US electronics sector in the 1970s, technology road mapping has been adapted (and adopted) widely, for many different innovation, strategy and policy applications. Communication is commonly cited as one of the key benefits of road mapping, particularly in terms of the process that brings different organizational perspectives together, with the road map providing a common visual language. There is significant demand for methods that are agile, in the sense of being rapid, flexible and effective to apply, focused on strategic decisions and actions. Fast-start road mapping workshop techniques enable key strakeholders to address strategic issues efficiently using the visual structure of road maps to capture, discuss, prioritize, explore and communicate. This paper presents the learning from a set of five diverse applications of the fast-start approach in the Basque country, which demonstrate the agility of the technique. (Author) 8 refs.

  10. Road Infrastructure Safety Management in Poland

    Science.gov (United States)

    Budzynski, Marcin; Jamroz, Kazimierz; Kustra, Wojciech; Michalski, Lech; Gaca, Stanislaw

    2017-10-01

    The objective of road safety infrastructure management is to ensure that when roads are planned, designed, built and used road risks can be identified, assessed and mitigated. Road transport safety is significantly less developed than that of rail, water and air transport. The average individual risk of being a fatality in relation to the distance covered is thirty times higher in road transport that in the other modes. This is mainly because the different modes have a different approach to safety management and to the use of risk management methods and tools. In recent years Poland has had one of the European Union’s highest road death numbers. In 2016 there were 3026 fatalities on Polish roads with 40,766 injuries. Protecting road users from the risk of injury and death should be given top priority. While Poland’s national and regional road safety programmes address this problem and are instrumental in systematically reducing the number of casualties, the effects are far from the expectations. Modern approaches to safety focus on three integrated elements: infrastructure measures, safety management and safety culture. Due to its complexity, the process of road safety management requires modern tools to help with identifying road user risks, assess and evaluate the safety of road infrastructure and select effective measures to improve road safety. One possible tool for tackling this problem is the risk-based method for road infrastructure safety management. European Union Directive 2008/96/EC regulates and proposes a list of tools for managing road infrastructure safety. Road safety tools look at two criteria: the life cycle of a road structure and the process of risk management. Risk can be minimized through the application of the proposed interventions during design process as reasonable. The proposed methods of risk management bring together two stages: risk assessment and risk response occurring within the analyzed road structure (road network, road

  11. Road safety analysis on Achmad Yani frontage road Surabaya

    Science.gov (United States)

    Machsus; Prayogo, I.; Chomaedhi; Hayati, D. W.; Utanaka, A.

    2017-11-01

    This research discusses road safety analysis on the operation of frontage road on the west side of Achmad Yani Road Surabaya. This research began by conducting survey on secondary data of traffic accidents. In addition, primary data survey was conducted to obtain traffic data, geometric road data, and other supporting data at the study site along the west side frontage of Ahmad Yani Road Surabaya. Devices used in this research include camera, handy cam, speed gun, counters of vehicles, rolling meter, computer and others. In outline, the stages to conduct this research are divided into 4 stages, namely 1.the preparation stage, 2.data collection and processing, 3. analysis and discussion, and 4. conclusion. The results of this study showed that the accident characteristics of the frontage road are (i) 3 accidents occured per month, (ii) motorcycles was accounted for the largest proportion of accidents which amounted to 74.6 percent, (iii) there were 3 accident victims per month, and (iv) material losses per month worths 1.2 million. The accident rate in 2016 was 0.04 crashes per one million vehicle travels per kilometer, while during 2 months in 2017 it was 0.15 accidents per one million vehicle travels per kilometer. Black spot area of accident is located on Sta 2 + 800 to 2 + 900 which is in front of Graha Pena building and DBL Arena. The high rate of accidents is influenced by the speed of the vehicle which 85 percentile exceeds the speed limit of 40km per hour.

  12. Assessing Road Traffic Expression

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fábio Silva

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Road traffic is a problem which is increasing in cities with large population. Unrelated to this fact the number of portable and wearable devices has also been increasing throughout the population of most countries. With this advent, the capacity to monitor and register data about people habits and locations as well as more complex data such as intensity and strength of movements has created an opportunity to contribute to the general wealth and comfort within these environments. Ambient Intelligence and Intelligent Decision Making processes can benefit from the knowledge gathered by these devices to improve decisions on everyday tasks such as deciding navigation routes by car, bicycle or other means of transportation and avoiding route perils. The concept of computational sustainability may also be applied to this problem. Current applications in this area demonstrate the usefulness of real time system that inform the user of certain conditions in the surrounding area. On the other hand, the approach presented in this work aims to describe models and approaches to automatically identify current states of traffic inside cities and use methods from computer science to improve overall comfort and the sustainability of road traffic both with the user and the environment in mind. Such objective is delivered by analyzing real time contributions from those mobile ubiquitous devices to identifying problematic situations and areas under a defined criteria that have significant influence towards a sustainable use of the road transport infrastructure.

  13. Road Accidents and Road Fatalities in Denmark from 1968 to 2004

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Orozova-Bekkevold, Ivanka; Hels, Tove; Bernhoft, Inger Marie

    2008-01-01

    The purpose of this article is to describe the road accidents and road fatalities in Denmark in the period 1968-2004. Only accidents registered by the police were used. Crude and gender & age specific fatality rates (counts per 1,000,000 inhabitants) were estimated for all road users...... and for bicyclists. The accident and fatality rates have decreased by around 70% from 1968 to 2004, while the motorisation rate has increased by approximately 90%. The sharpest decrease in the fatality rate was observed among the youngest (below 18 years old) and the older (above 64) road users. Gender related...... and actions targeted to improve road safety have indeed led to a significant reduction in injury accidents and fatalities. Further research and more detailed data, especially on traffic volume and individual exposure are necessary in order to investigate properly a causal relation between the number...

  14. Density and diversity of OpenStreetMap road networks in China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yingjia Zhang

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available OpenStreetMap is a geographic information platform designed to provide real-time updates and user-generated content related to its freely available global map, and it is one of the most widely used examples of volunteered geographic information, a technique associated with so-called neogeography. This paper, based on the data from China’s OpenStreetMap road network in May 2014, taking 340 prefecture-level cities in China as its study area, presents the geometric-related (road density and attribute-related (type diversity spatial patterns of the OpenStreetMap road network, and explores their relationship. The results are as follows. (1 The distribution of OpenStreetMap road density in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Macao predominantly obeys a “positive skewness distribution”. OpenStreetMap data for eastern China shows a higher overall and circular structure. In central China, there are noticeable discrepancies in the road density, whereas in western China, the road density is low. (2 The OpenStreetMap road diversity shows a normal distribution. The spatial pattern for the so-called “Hu Huanyong line” was broken by the effect of diplomatic and strategic factors, showing a high diversity along the peripheral border, coastal cities, and core inland cites. (3 China’s OpenStreetMap is partitioned into four parts according to road density and diversity: high density and high diversity; low density and low diversity; high density and low diversity; and low density high diversity. (4 The OpenStreetMap geographical information-collection process and mechanism were analyzed, demonstrating that the road density reflects the preponderance of traffic in the real world. OpenStreetMap road diversity reflects the road-related geographic information demand and value, and it also reflects the interests of users toward to OpenStreetMap geographical information.

  15. Road safety in practice

    CERN Multimedia

    2003-01-01

    On the 23 and 25 September come and test your driving skills and your reflexes on the two days of road safety in practice! To conclude the poster and article campaign on this topic which started last year, CERN now comes to the practical part with demonstrations, like a spectacular overturning test, information stands, where you can meet safety personnel from France, Switzerland and CERN, and discussions & debates. Come to ... ... the Meyrin site on 23 September: - From 8:30 hrs, stands and demonstrations on the parking site Cèdres, behind the Restaurant no. 1. - From 9:30 hrs, discussions and debates in the main auditorium. ... the Prévessin site on 25 September: - From 8:30 hrs, stands and demonstrations on the parking site of the building 866. - From 14:00 hrs, discussions and debates in the AB auditorium, building 864.

  16. Residential proximity to major roads and placenta/birth weight ratio.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yorifuji, Takashi; Naruse, Hiroo; Kashima, Saori; Murakoshi, Takeshi; Tsuda, Toshihide; Doi, Hiroyuki; Kawachi, Ichiro

    2012-01-01

    Exposure to air pollution has been demonstrated to increase the risk of preterm birth and low birth weight. We examined whether proximity to major roads (as a marker of exposure to air pollution) is associated with increased placenta/birth weight ratio (as a biomarker of the placental transport function). Data on parental characteristics and birth outcomes were extracted from the database maintained by a major hospital in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. We restricted the analysis to mothers who delivered liveborn single births from 1997 to 2008 (n = 14,189). Using geocoded residential information, each birth was classified according to proximity to major roads. We examined the association between proximity to major roads and the placenta/birth weight ratio, using multiple linear regression. Proximity to major roads was associated with higher placenta/birth weight ratio. After adjusting for potential confounders, living within 200 m of a major road increased the ratio by 0.48% (95% CI = 0.15 to 0. 80). In addition, proximity to major roads was associated with lower placenta weight and birth weight. These observed associations were stronger among participants living closer to major roads. Exposure to traffic-related air pollution is associated with higher placenta/birth weight ratio. Impaired placental oxygen and nutrient transport function might be a mechanism for explaining the observed association between air pollution and low birth weight as well as preterm birth. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. Epidemiologic study of road traffic injuries by road user type characteristics and road environment in Iran: a community-based approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hatamabadi, Hamidreza; Vafaee, Reza; Hadadi, Mashyaneh; Abdalvand, Ali; Esnaashari, Hamidreza; Soori, Hamid

    2012-01-01

    Crash injuries in traffic accidents are affected by a variety of factors. In this study we analyzed road user type information based on different contributing factors. Data from all of the road traffic victims on a road extending from the east of the city of Tehran to Mazandaran province were included prospectively over a one-year period (May 2008 to May 2009). Data collected included the crash time, patient's age and sex, road user category, helmet or seat belt use, anatomical site of injury, Injury Severity Score (ISS), and mortality. Prevalence and cross-tabulations were included in the analysis. There were 433 patients, of whom 345 were hospitalized and 33 died either before or after arriving at the hospital. Sixty-nine percent of injured patients were vehicle occupants. Mean and median of ISS were higher for pedestrians, who accounted for 49 percent of the deaths. Head injury was the most common injury and injury to upper and lower extremities was the most common cause of admission. A significant difference in lower extremity injuries between vehicle occupants and nonoccupants was found. Sex and age group did not have a significant effect on mortality. Mortality was significantly higher in pedestrians (P road user type. Because pedestrians are the most vulnerable road users, stricter legislation and law enforcement should be used to protect them. Greater protection can also be reached by holding effective public awareness campaigns on how to use different roads safely. On the other hand, because rear seat passengers are at the same risk for road traffic injuries as front seat passengers, employment of newer laws and preventive measures targeting this group of occupants can prevent many road traffic injuries (RTIs).

  18. Use of fatal real-life crashes to analyze a safe road transport system model, including the road user, the vehicle, and the road.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stigson, Helena; Krafft, Maria; Tingvall, Claes

    2008-10-01

    To evaluate if the Swedish Road Administration (SRA) model for a safe road transport system, which includes the interaction between the road user, the vehicle, and the road, could be used to classify fatal car crashes according to some safety indicators. Also, to present a development of the model to better identify system weakness. Real-life crashes with a fatal outcome were classified according to the vehicle's safety rating by Euro NCAP (European Road Assessment Programme) and fitment of ESC (Electronic Stability Control). For each crash, the road was also classified according to EuroRAP (European Road Assessment Programme) criteria, and human behavior in terms of speeding, seat belt use, and driving under the influence of alcohol. Each crash was compared with the model criteria, to identify components that might have contributed to fatal outcome. All fatal crashes where a car occupant was killed that occurred in Sweden during 2004 were included: in all, 215 crashes with 248 fatalities. The data were collected from the in-depth fatal crash data of the Swedish Road Administration (SRA). It was possible to classify 93% of the fatal car crashes according to the SRA model. A number of shortcomings in the criteria were identified since the model did not address rear-end or animal collisions or collisions with stationary/parked vehicles or trailers (18 out of 248 cases). Using the further developed model, it was possible to identify that most of the crashes occurred when two or all three components interacted (in 85 of the total 230 cases). Noncompliance with safety criteria for the road user, the vehicle, and the road led to fatal outcome in 43, 27, and 75 cases, respectively. The SRA model was found to be useful for classifying fatal crashes but needs to be further developed to identify how the components interact and thereby identify weaknesses in the road traffic system. This developed model might be a tool to systematically identify which of the components are

  19. Vulnerability analysis methods for road networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bíl, Michal; Vodák, Rostislav; Kubeček, Jan; Rebok, Tomáš; Svoboda, Tomáš

    2014-05-01

    Road networks rank among the most important lifelines of modern society. They can be damaged by either random or intentional events. Roads are also often affected by natural hazards, the impacts of which are both direct and indirect. Whereas direct impacts (e.g. roads damaged by a landslide or due to flooding) are localized in close proximity to the natural hazard occurrence, the indirect impacts can entail widespread service disabilities and considerable travel delays. The change in flows in the network may affect the population living far from the places originally impacted by the natural disaster. These effects are primarily possible due to the intrinsic nature of this system. The consequences and extent of the indirect costs also depend on the set of road links which were damaged, because the road links differ in terms of their importance. The more robust (interconnected) the road network is, the less time is usually needed to secure the serviceability of an area hit by a disaster. These kinds of networks also demonstrate a higher degree of resilience. Evaluating road network structures is therefore essential in any type of vulnerability and resilience analysis. There are a range of approaches used for evaluation of the vulnerability of a network and for identification of the weakest road links. Only few of them are, however, capable of simulating the impacts of the simultaneous closure of numerous links, which often occurs during a disaster. The primary problem is that in the case of a disaster, which usually has a large regional extent, the road network may remain disconnected. The majority of the commonly used indices use direct computation of the shortest paths or time between OD (origin - destination) pairs and therefore cannot be applied when the network breaks up into two or more components. Since extensive break-ups often occur in cases of major disasters, it is important to study the network vulnerability in these cases as well, so that appropriate

  20. DİJİTALLEŞME SÜRECİNDE KÜRESEL MUHASEBE MESLEĞİNİN YENİDEN ŞEKİLLENMESİNE BAKIŞ

    OpenAIRE

    TÜRKER, Masum

    2018-01-01

    İş dünyası; dijitalleşme sürecindeki yenilikler, yapay zekanın kullanılma derecesindeki artış düzeyi ve megatrendlerdeki gelişmeler ile baş edebilmek için iş yapısını ve yöntemlerini geliştiriyor.İş dünyasının gelişen yeni yapısına karşılık muhasebe mesleğinin önderleri de muhasebe mesleğinin geleceğiniküresel düzeyde şekillendirmek için düşünmek, tasarlamak ve yaratıcı olmak sorumluluğu içinde çalışmalarınıyürütüyorlar. Muhasebe mesleğinde çözüm üreten küresel liderlik; hem finansal raporlam...

  1. Overload road damage model

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Roux, MP

    2005-03-01

    Full Text Available Not only do overloaded vehicles pose an increased safety risk on the road (reduced stability and braking efficiency etc.), but they also accelerate the rate of deterioration of the road network and increase road maintenance costs, which in turn...

  2. [Risk factors for road traffic injury in agricultural vehicle drivers].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cui, M J; Chen, Y; Li, Y; Hu, J; Zhang, X J

    2017-08-20

    Objective: To examine the risk factors for road traffic injury in agricultural vehicle drivers. Methods: A total of 103 drivers (who had suffered agricultural vehicle road traffic injury within the past year based on the road traffic injury registrar from the Traffic Management Bureau) who were involved in the annual agricultural vehicle inspection from December 2014 to January 2015 were randomly sampled from the Yixing Agricultural Vehicle Station as the case group for this study. Based on a 1∶2 assignment ratio and matched for sex, age, and education, a total of 206 drivers who had not suffered any agricultural vehicle road traffic injury within the past year were selected as the control group. The general information, vehicle information, driving information, driving behavior, and accident details of the agricultural vehicle drivers were analyzed. Results: The incidence rate of road traffic injury was 7.24% given the 103 agricultural vehicle drivers who had suffered agricultural vehicle road traffic injury in the past year. Univariate logistic regression analysis showed that drinking, debt, pressure, history of car accident, history of drunk driving, smoking and phone use during driving, fatigue driving, and driving with illness were the risk factors for road traffic injury in agricultural vehicle drivers ( OR =2.332, 2.429, 19.778, 5.589, 8.517, 2.125, 3.203, 10.249 and 5.639, respectively) . Multivariate logistic regression analysis also demonstrated that pressure, history of car accident, history of drunk driving, fatigue driving, and driving with illness were the risk factors for road traffic injury in agricultural vehicle drivers ( OR =12.139, 11.184, 6.729, 5.939, and 6.544, respectively) . Conclusion: Pressure, history of car accident, history of drunk driving, fatigue driving, and driving with illness are the major risk factors for road traffic injury in agricultural vehicle drivers.

  3. The impact of road improvements on road safety and related characteristics

    OpenAIRE

    Francis John Gichaga

    2017-01-01

    This paper presents the historical and cultural background relating to road improvement and road safety characteristics in Kenya, a developing country in East Africa. Some who come from low-developed areas of developing countries often take time to comprehend the modern transportation infrastructure, especially roads, and have difficulty assimilating and customizing the same to their culturally tailored modes. This paper discusses two case studies: one on the socio-economic impact followin...

  4. Road dust emissions from paved roads measured using different mobile systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pirjola, Liisa; Johansson, Christer; Kupiainen, Kaarle; Stojiljkovic, Ana; Karlsson, Hans; Hussein, Tareq

    2010-12-01

    Very few real-world measurements of road dust suspension have been performed to date. This study compares two different techniques (referred to as Sniffer and Emma) to measure road dust emissions. The main differences between the systems are the construction of the inlet, different instruments for recording particulate matter (PM) levels, and different loads on the wheel axes (the weight of Sniffer was much higher than that of Emma). Both systems showed substantial small-scale variations of emission levels along the road, likely depending on-road surface conditions. The variations observed correlated quite well, and the discrepancies are likely a result of variations in dust load on the road surface perpendicular to the driving direction that cause variations in the measurements depending on slightly different paths driven by the two vehicles. Both systems showed a substantial influence on the emission levels depending on the type of tire used. The summer tire showed much lower suspension than the winter tires (one nonstudded and one studded). However, the relative importance of the nonstudded versus studded tire was rather different. For the ratio of studded/nonstudded, Emma shows higher values on all road sections compared with Sniffer. Both techniques showed increased emission levels with increasing vehicle speed. When the speed increased from 50 to 80 km hr(-1), the relative concentrations increased by 30-170% depending on the tire type and dust load. However, for road sections that were very dirty, Sniffer showed a much higher relative increase in the emission level with the nonstudded tire. Sniffer's absolute concentrations were mostly higher than Emma's. Possible reasons for the differences are discussed in the paper. Both systems can be used for studying relative road dust emissions and for designing air quality management strategies.

  5. Characteristics of public roads operation

    OpenAIRE

    Pryimak, V.; Kyiashko, I.

    2009-01-01

    Characteristics of public roads operation have been considered and factors influencing TEC of public roads that go via urban areas have been determined. There have been revealed contradictions in the normative-legal base concerning maintenance of public roads and municipal roads that merge into them.

  6. PHOTOGRAMMETRIC TECHNIQUES FOR ROAD SURFACE ANALYSIS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. A. Knyaz

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The quality and condition of a road surface is of great importance for convenience and safety of driving. So the investigations of the behaviour of road materials in laboratory conditions and monitoring of existing roads are widely fulfilled for controlling a geometric parameters and detecting defects in the road surface. Photogrammetry as accurate non-contact measuring method provides powerful means for solving different tasks in road surface reconstruction and analysis. The range of dimensions concerned in road surface analysis can have great variation from tenths of millimetre to hundreds meters and more. So a set of techniques is needed to meet all requirements of road parameters estimation. Two photogrammetric techniques for road surface analysis are presented: for accurate measuring of road pavement and for road surface reconstruction based on imagery obtained from unmanned aerial vehicle. The first technique uses photogrammetric system based on structured light for fast and accurate surface 3D reconstruction and it allows analysing the characteristics of road texture and monitoring the pavement behaviour. The second technique provides dense 3D model road suitable for road macro parameters estimation.

  7. Future Road Density

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — Road density is generally highly correlated with amount of developed land cover. High road densities usually indicate high levels of ecological disturbance. More...

  8. MODERN CONDITIONS OF ROAD FACILITIES AND INTERNATIONAL AUTOMOTIVE TRANSPORTATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. M. Tsarenkova

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available For analysis of technical and economic conditions of automotive roads and determination of reserves for improvement of financial situation and usage of capital in road facilities operational efficiency of road facilities and automotive freight-traffic services that provide significant currency receipt for Republic budget. The main ways for higher export of construction services are involvement of road facilities enterprises in this activity and introduction of highly-productive technologies in their operation. The paper demonstrates an importance of non-conventional sources of investment attractions such as leasing which is used for renovation of capital assets and invests resources in the basic capital on the return basis in the natural form. For application of new technologies and modern technique it is justifiable to establish joint road-construction enterprises with foreign sub-contractors. The paper reveals main reasons of profit increase due to operation and services of road branch.

  9. Challenges of raising road maintenance funds in developing countries: An analysis of road tolling in Zimbabwe

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    T. C. Mbara

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available The condition of Zimbabwe's roads has been declining due to insufficient maintenance and rehabilitation. Year on year, budget allocations have compared unfavourably with funding considered adequate to maintain highway networks and conduct modest construction work. Road infrastructure shortcomings have manifested themselves in the form of high vehicle operating costs and rampant potholes, leading to a decline in road safety and a deterioration of service levels for those who use roads to deliver goods or connect to international markets. In order to try and stop this vicious cycle of decline, the Government of Zimbabwe, on 8 August 2009, introduced a new policy of road-user charges, which involved the setting-up of 22 toll gates on the trunk road network. The overall objective was to raise revenue in order to close the funding gap, blamed for declining road quality. Although alternative methods of financing road maintenance have been debated for years, a generally accepted understanding is that road users should pay costs for road provisioning. This paper assesses the implementation of a road tolling system in Zimbabwe and describes matters relating to, inter alia, implementation strategy, initial performance outcomes and sustainability.

  10. Gravel roads management : volume 2, gravel roads management : implementation guide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-10-01

    This report establishes procedures for managing dirt and gravel roads, with a primary focus on smaller agencies, such as Wyoming counties, that must manage their roads with very limited resources. The report strives, first, to guide and assist smalle...

  11. Gravel roads management : volume 3, gravel roads management : programming guide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    This report establishes procedures for managing dirt and gravel roads, with a primary focus on smaller agencies, such as Wyoming counties, that must manage their roads with very limited resources. The report strives, first, to guide and assist smalle...

  12. VT Road Centerline

    Data.gov (United States)

    Vermont Center for Geographic Information — (Link to Metadata)(User Guide)(Symbology layer files: aotclass_only.lyr aotclass_surfacetyp.lyr)The Vermont Road Centerline data layer (TransRoad_RDS) contains all...

  13. RoADS: A road pavement monitoring system for anomaly detection using smart phones

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Seraj, Fatjon; van der Zwaag, B.J.; Dilo, Arta; Luarasi, Tamara; Havinga, Paul J.M.; Atzmueller, Martin; Chin, Alvin; Janssen, Frederik; Schweizer, Immanuel; Trattner, Christoph

    2016-01-01

    Monitoring the road pavement is a challenging task. Authorities spend time and finances to monitor the state and quality of the road pavement. This paper investigate road surface monitoring with smartphones equipped with GPS and inertial sensors: accelerometer and gyroscope. In this study we

  14. RoADS: A road pavement monitoring system for anomaly detection using smart phones

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Seraj, Fatjon; van der Zwaag, B.J.; Dilo, Arta; Luarasi, Tamara; Havinga, Paul J.M.

    2014-01-01

    Monitoring the road pavement is a challenging task. Authorities spend time and finances to monitor the state and quality of the road pavement. This paper investigate road surface monitoring with smartphones equipped with GPS and inertial sensors: accelerometer and gyroscope. In this study we

  15. Performance standards of road safety management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Čabarkapa Milenko R.

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Road safety management controlling means the process of finding out the information whether the road safety is improving in a measure to achieve the objectives. The process of control consists of three basic elements: definition of performances and standards, measurement of current performances and comparison with the set standards, and improvement of current performances, if they deviate from the set standards. The performance standards of road safety management system are focused on a performances measurement, in terms of their design and characteristics, in order to support the performances improvement of road safety system and thus, ultimately, improve the road safety. Defining the performance standards of road safety management system, except that determines the design of the system for performances measurement, directly sets requirements whose fulfillment will produce a road safety improvement. The road safety management system, based on the performance standards of road safety, with a focus on results, will produce the continuous improvement of road safety, achieving the long-term 'vision zero', the philosophy of road safety, that human life and health take priority over mobility and other traffic objectives of the road traffic.

  16. Estimation of Road Friction Coefficient in Different Road Conditions Based on Vehicle Braking Dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, You-Qun; Li, Hai-Qing; Lin, Fen; Wang, Jian; Ji, Xue-Wu

    2017-07-01

    The accurate estimation of road friction coefficient in the active safety control system has become increasingly prominent. Most previous studies on road friction estimation have only used vehicle longitudinal or lateral dynamics and often ignored the load transfer, which tends to cause inaccurate of the actual road friction coefficient. A novel method considering load transfer of front and rear axles is proposed to estimate road friction coefficient based on braking dynamic model of two-wheeled vehicle. Sliding mode control technique is used to build the ideal braking torque controller, which control target is to control the actual wheel slip ratio of front and rear wheels tracking the ideal wheel slip ratio. In order to eliminate the chattering problem of the sliding mode controller, integral switching surface is used to design the sliding mode surface. A second order linear extended state observer is designed to observe road friction coefficient based on wheel speed and braking torque of front and rear wheels. The proposed road friction coefficient estimation schemes are evaluated by simulation in ADAMS/Car. The results show that the estimated values can well agree with the actual values in different road conditions. The observer can estimate road friction coefficient exactly in real-time and resist external disturbance. The proposed research provides a novel method to estimate road friction coefficient with strong robustness and more accurate.

  17. Road grip test in Arjeplog

    OpenAIRE

    Engström, Niclas; Andrén, Henrik; Nybacka, Mikael; Fransson, Lennart; Larsson, Roland

    2008-01-01

    The Swedish road administration sees a need to improve the road grip estimation capacity for the Swedish road system. The challenge is to find methods to measure road grip fast and reliable. There where six different system types at the tests in Arjeplog, three continuous, two system measuring road grip through deceleration and one system based on GPS and accelerometers. Two system types used air craft runway tires. The other systems used either studded winter tires or friction winter tires. ...

  18. Conceptual design and analysis of roads and road construction machinery for initial lunar base operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sines, Jeffrey L.; Banks, Joel; Efatpenah, Keyanoush

    1990-01-01

    Recent developments have made it possible for scientists and engineers to consider returning to the Moon to build a manned lunar base. The base can be used to conduct scientific research, develop new space technology, and utilize the natural resources of the Moon. Areas of the base will be separated, connected by a system of roads that reduce the power requirements of vehicles traveling on them. Feasible road types for the lunar surface were analyzed and a road construction system was designed for initial lunar base operations. A model was also constructed to show the system configuration and key operating features. The alternate designs for the lunar road construction system were developed in four stages: analyze and select a road type; determine operations and machinery needed to produce the road; develop machinery configurations; and develop alternates for several machine components. A compacted lunar soil road was selected for initial lunar base operations. The only machinery required to produce this road were a grader and a compactor. The road construction system consists of a main drive unit which is used for propulsion, a detachable grader assembly, and a towed compactor.

  19. Roads Near Streams

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — Roads are a source of auto related pollutants (e.g. gasoline, oil and other engine fluids). When roads are near streams, rain can wash these pollutants directly into...

  20. Road pricing, air pollution and external costs; Road pricing, luftforurening og eksternalitetsomkostninger

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Solvang Jensen, S.; Ketzel, M. (Aarhus Univ., Danmarks Miljoeundersoegelser, Afd. for Atmosfaerisk Miljoe, Roskilde (Denmark)); Skou Andersen, M. (Aarhus Univ., Danmarks Miljoeundersoegelser, Afd. for Systemanalyse, Roskilde (Denmark))

    2010-06-15

    The objective of this assessment is to improve the foundation for decision-making about introduction of a road pricing system that aims to reduce the health impacts and social costs of traffic-related air pollution. The analysis focuses on how road emissions, air quality, population exposure, and social costs of air pollution depend on geography (different city sizes and rural areas) and time of the day (rush hours versus non-rush hours). A review of Danish studies related to road pricing has also been carried out to assess the expected effect of road pricing on traffic performance (km travelled), vehicle composition and speed that are factors affecting air pollution. (LN)

  1. Road safety and road traffic accidents in Saudi Arabia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mansuri, Farah A.; Al-Zalabani, Abdulmohsen H.; Zalat, Marwa M.; Qabshawi, Reem I.

    2015-01-01

    Objectives: To identify the changing trends and crucial preventive approaches to road traffic accidents (RTAs) adopted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) over the last 2.5 decades, and to analyze aspects previously overlooked. Methods: This systematic review was based on evidence of RTAs in KSA. All articles published during the last 25 years on road traffic accident in KSA were analyzed. This study was carried out from December 2013 to May 2014 in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, Taibah University, Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah, KSA. Results: Road traffic accidents accounted for 83.4% of all trauma admissions in 1984-1989, and no such overall trend was studied thereafter. The most frequently injured body regions as reported in the latest studies were head and neck, followed by upper and lower extremities, which was found to be opposite to that of the studies reported earlier. Hospital data showed an 8% non-significant increase in road accident mortalities in contrast to police records of a 27% significant reduction during the years 2005-2010. Excessive speeding was the most common cause reported in all recent and past studies. Conclusion: Disparity was common in the type of reporting of RTAs, outcome measures, and possible causes over a period of 2.5 decade. All research exclusively looked into the drivers’ faults. A sentinel surveillance of road crashes should be kept in place in the secondary and tertiary care hospitals for all regions of KSA. PMID:25828277

  2. Road traffic noise: self-reported noise annoyance versus GIS modelled road traffic noise exposure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Birk, Matthias; Ivina, Olga; von Klot, Stephanie; Babisch, Wolfgang; Heinrich, Joachim

    2011-11-01

    self-reported road traffic noise annoyance is commonly used in epidemiological studies for assessment of potential health effects. Alternatively, some studies have used geographic information system (GIS) modelled exposure to road traffic noise as an objective parameter. The aim of this study was to analyse the association between noise exposure due to neighbouring road traffic and the noise annoyance of adults, taking other determinants into consideration. parents of 951 Munich children from the two German birth cohorts GINIplus and LISAplus reported their annoyance due to road traffic noise at home. GIS modelled road traffic noise exposure (L(den), maximum within a 50 m buffer) from the noise map of the city of Munich was available for all families. GIS-based calculated distance to the closest major road (≥10,000 vehicles per day) and questionnaire based-information about family income, parental education and the type of the street of residence were explored for their potential influence. An ordered logit regression model was applied. The noise levels (L(den)) and the reported noise annoyance were compared with an established exposure-response function. the correlation between noise annoyance and noise exposure (L(den)) was fair (Spearman correlation r(s) = 0.37). The distance to a major road and the type of street were strong predictors for the noise annoyance. The annoyance modelled by the established exposure-response function and that estimated by the ordered logit model were moderately associated (Pearson's correlation r(p) = 0.50). road traffic noise annoyance was associated with GIS modelled neighbouring road traffic noise exposure (L(den)). The distance to a major road and the type of street were additional explanatory factors of the noise annoyance appraisal.

  3. Decomposing road freight energy use in the United Kingdom

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sorrell, Steve; Lehtonen, Markku; Stapleton, Lee; Pujol, Javier; Champion, Toby

    2009-01-01

    Applying the techniques of decomposition analysis we estimate the relative contribution of ten variables (termed 'key ratios') plus GDP to the change in UK road freight energy use over the period 1989-2004 inclusive. The results are best interpreted as an estimate of the percentage growth in energy consumption that would have resulted from the change in the relevant factor (e.g. length of haul) had the other factors remained unchanged. The results demonstrate that the main factor contributing to the decoupling of UK road freight energy consumption from GDP was the decline in the value of domestically manufactured goods relative to GDP. Over the period 1989-2004 this largely offset the effect of increases in GDP on road freight energy consumption. While the decline in domestic manufacturing was to some extent displaced by increases in imports, the net effect of these supply factors, together with shifts in the commodity mix, has been to reduce UK road freight energy consumption by 30.1%. The net effect on global carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions is likely to be somewhat less beneficial, since many freight movements associated with the manufacture of imported goods have simply been displaced to other countries.

  4. FEATURES ROAD SAFETY AUDIT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. Abramova

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Development of the road network, increasing motorization of the population significantly increase the risk of accidents. Experts in the field of traffic are developing methods to reduce the probability of accidents. The ways of solving the problems of road safety audit at various stages of the «life» of roads are considered.

  5. Road salt application planning tool for winter de-icing operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trenouth, William R.; Gharabaghi, Bahram; Perera, Nandana

    2015-05-01

    Road authorities, who are charged with the task of maintaining safe, driveable road conditions during severe winter storm events are coming under increasing pressure to protect salt vulnerable areas (SVAs). For the purpose of modelling urban winter hydrology, the temperature index method was modified to incorporate ploughing and salting considerations and was calibrated using winter field data from two sites in Southern Ontario and validated using data collected from a section of Highway 401 - Canada's busiest highway. The modified temperature index model (MTIM) accurately predicted salt-induced melt (R2 = 0.98 and 0.99, RMSE = 19.9 and 282.4 m3, CRM = -0.003 and 0.006 for calibration and validation sites respectively), and showed a demonstrable ability to calculate the Bare Pavement Regain Time (BPRT). The BPRT is a key factor on road safety and the basis for many winter maintenance performance standards for different classes of highways. Optimizing salt application rate scenarios can be achieved using the MTIM with only two meteorological forecast inputs for the storm event - readily available on-line through the Road Weather Information System (RWIS) - and can serve as a simple yet effective tool for winter road maintenance practitioners seeking to optimize salt application rates for a given storm event in salt vulnerable areas.

  6. Research on Large-Scale Road Network Partition and Route Search Method Combined with Traveler Preferences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    De-Xin Yu

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Combined with improved Pallottino parallel algorithm, this paper proposes a large-scale route search method, which considers travelers’ route choice preferences. And urban road network is decomposed into multilayers effectively. Utilizing generalized travel time as road impedance function, the method builds a new multilayer and multitasking road network data storage structure with object-oriented class definition. Then, the proposed path search algorithm is verified by using the real road network of Guangzhou city as an example. By the sensitive experiments, we make a comparative analysis of the proposed path search method with the current advanced optimal path algorithms. The results demonstrate that the proposed method can increase the road network search efficiency by more than 16% under different search proportion requests, node numbers, and computing process numbers, respectively. Therefore, this method is a great breakthrough in the guidance field of urban road network.

  7. Identifying unstable sites on logging roads

    Science.gov (United States)

    R. M. Rice; J. Lewis

    1986-01-01

    Logging roads are an important source of forestry-related erosion. The amount of erosion on a forest road is determined by the interaction between how the road is constructed and maintained and the environment in which it is built. The roads in this study were constructed with large bulldozers, and most excavated material was sidecast. The roads studied were...

  8. [Exploratory study of road safety in Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire in Republic of the Congo].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Batala Mpondo, Georges; Bouanga, Marianne; Saya, Yvette Marie Clarisse; Maurice, Pierre; Burigusa, Guillaume

    2014-01-01

    Although road accidents in the Congo are reaching alarming levels (2,720 accidents in 2010 and 3,126 accidents in 2011), especially with the massive arrival of "Jakarta" mopeds, no evaluation has been conducted to identify and understand the factors responsible for this problem. This article reports the results of an exploratory study conducted in Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire based on information collected from existing documents and by semidirective questionnaire of people from various sectors able to elucidate the problem of road safety. Using William Haddon's matrix, the parameters investigated were : road user behaviour ; environmental and technological factors ; characteristics of road accident victims ; quality of care ; intervention times and organization of prevention. This study demonstrated the absence of a road safety policy in Congo. It also showed that the main factors responsible for road accidents are behavioural (failure to wear safety belts, failure to comply with road signs, fatigue, use of a telephone while driving, etc.), followed by environmental and technological factors (insufficient traffic lights, absence of sidewalks, disorganized occupation of roads, general state of vehicles). This study shows that, in order to improve road safety in the Congo, it is essential to promote the development of national road safety policies and an action plan, intervention on the determinants of road accidents, and a change of road user behaviours (compulsory use of safety belts, ban on the use of a telephone and smoking while driving, etc.). Effective organization of the management of road accident victims and allocation of a budget to implement a road safety policy are also necessary.

  9. TRUPACT-I over-the-road test

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Glass, R.E.; Gwinn, K.W.

    1987-10-01

    The TRUPACT-I was subjected to an over-the-road test to determine the package response to normal road environments. This test consisted of six road events: a rough primary road, a railroad grade crossing, an asphalt primary road, a concrete primary road, a bridge approach, and a rough secondary road. The package was instrumented with four vertical accelerometers to determine the package response to road vibration and shock. The results are given in the form of time histories, spectral densities, root mean square, and maximum accelerations for all accelerometers during each event. The results indicated that the railroad grade crossing produced the maximum average vertical accelerations. The maximum accelerations for all events were less than 1 g, and the root mean square loads remained below 0.25 g. 4 refs., 57 figs., 7 tabs

  10. Road deaths in the Netherlands. [Previously known as: Road fatalities in The Netherlands.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    2011-01-01

    This fact sheet outlines the development of the number of road deaths in the Netherlands since 1950. After a rise in the 1950s and 1960s, the number of road deaths in the Netherlands has shown a gradual decline since 1973. In 2016, there were 629 road deaths in the Netherlands. After the years of

  11. What is vision Hampton Roads?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    What is Vision Hampton Roads? : Vision Hampton Roads is... : A regionwide economic development strategy based on the collective strengths of all : localities of Hampton Roads, created with the input of business, academia, nonprofits, : government,...

  12. A Study on the Influence of Speed on Road Roughness Sensing: The SmartRoadSense Case

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giacomo Alessandroni

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available SmartRoadSense is a crowdsensing project aimed at monitoring the conditions of the road surface. Using the sensors of a smartphone, SmartRoadSense monitors the vertical accelerations inside a vehicle traveling the road and extracts a roughness index conveying information about the road conditions. The roughness index and the smartphone GPS data are periodically sent to a central server where they are processed, associated with the specific road, and aggregated with data measured by other smartphones. This paper studies how the smartphone vertical accelerations and the roughness index are related to the vehicle speed. It is shown that the dependence can be locally approximated with a gamma (power law. Extensive experimental results using data extracted from SmartRoadSense database confirm the gamma law relationship between the roughness index and the vehicle speed. The gamma law is then used for improving the SmartRoadSense data aggregation accounting for the effect of vehicle speed.

  13. The ethanol heavy-duty truck fleet demonstration project

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1997-06-01

    This project was designed to test and demonstrate the use of a high- percentage ethanol-blended fuel in a fleet of heavy-duty, over-the- road trucks, paying particular attention to emissions, performance, and repair and maintenance costs. This project also represents the first public demonstration of the use of ethanol fuels as a viable alternative to conventional diesel fuel in heavy-duty engines.

  14. Road Infrastructure and Road User’s Satisfactions: A Case Study of Motorway Route 7, Thailand

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Suanmali Suthathip

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The development of tourism in Thailand relies on the development of appropriate infrastructure. Road access is the key infrastructure issue for tourist destinations throughout Thailand. Each year Thailand has welcomed over 15 million travelers, accounted approximately 7% of GDP. To support tourist activities, variety types of transportation modes have designed. However, road transportation is one of the most effective modes that connect most places together. Beside high-standard vehicles, road is another mechanism that derive comfort and safety of travelling. For this reason, Motorway networks were initiated and constructed to support high speed traffic with high safety and standard. Motorway route 7 is one of major motorway networks that lies between major cities and tourist landmarks. To raise the road standard could be the key to support tourist industry and economic growth. The road developments may not be precise and accurate without knowing the needs from road users’. Therefore, a questionnaire is developed and distributed to 890 randomly selected road users along Motorway route 7. Factor analysis and t-test are employed to analyze the factors affecting road users’ satisfaction and to compare the satisfaction level between both inbound and outbound travelers.

  15. A Progressive Buffering Method for Road Map Update Using OpenStreetMap Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Changyong Liu

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Web 2.0 enables a two-way interaction between servers and clients. GPS receivers become available to more citizens and are commonly found in vehicles and smart phones, enabling individuals to record and share their trajectory data on the Internet and edit them online. OpenStreetMap (OSM makes it possible for citizens to contribute to the acquisition of geographic information. This paper studies the use of OSM data to find newly mapped or built roads that do not exist in a reference road map and create its updated version. For this purpose, we propose a progressive buffering method for determining an optimal buffer radius to detect the new roads in the OSM data. In the next step, the detected new roads are merged into the reference road maps geometrically, topologically, and semantically. Experiments with OSM data and reference road maps over an area of 8494 km2 in the city of Wuhan, China and five of its 5 km × 5 km areas are conducted to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the method. It is shown that the OSM data can add 11.96% or a total of 2008.6 km of new roads to the reference road maps with an average precision of 96.49% and an average recall of 97.63%.

  16. Louisiana ESI: ROADS (Road Lines)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This data set contains the state maintained primary and secondary road network of Louisiana. Vector lines in the data set represent Interstates, U.S. Highways, and...

  17. The safe road transport system approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vollpracht Hans-Joachim

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available More than 1,24 million people die each year on the worlds roads and between 20 to 50 million suffer from nonfatal injuries. The UN Road Safety Collaboration Meetings under the leadership of WHO developed the Programme for the Decade of Actions for road safety taking nations into the responsibility of improving their accident figures by the five pillars of a national Road Safety Policy, safer Roads, safer Vehicles, safer Road Users and Post Crash Care. It is this Safe System Approach that takes into consideration the land use, infrastructure and transport planning, road user’s abilities and limitations and the close cooperation of all governmental and none governmental stakeholders involved.

  18. Final report : Alberta renewable diesel demonstration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2009-02-15

    The Alberta renewable diesel demonstration (ARDD) was a demonstration project aimed at providing information and operating experience to stakeholders in the diesel fuel industry. The demonstration took renewable diesel from the lab to the road, providing hands-on experience at 2 and 5 per cent blends (B2 in winter and B5 in shoulder and summer seasons). The ARDD fleet consisted of 59 vehicles running on two types of renewable diesel, notably fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) and hydrogenated-derived renewable diesel (HDRD). This report was a summary of the observations of the ARDD. The report provided a general account of the project scope, methods and observations employed in a multi-stakeholder, real-world demonstration of low-level renewable diesel fuels in challenging winter conditions. The purpose of the report was to provide feedback to stakeholders regarding the use of renewable diesel fuels in Canada's on-road diesel fuel market and to confirm the operability of low level renewable diesel blends under the specific conditions tested ensuring full and continuous compliance with CAN/CGSB 3.520. The report discussed Canada's fuel distribution system in western Canada; the blending facility; blending techniques; fuel retail locations; fuel properties; fuel handling; fuel selection; and fuel testing. It was concluded that the ARDD demonstrated that B2 blends of canola methyl ester and 2 per cent blends of hydrogenation derived renewable diesel were fully operable in winter conditions in the study area when cloud points were adjusted to meet CAN/CGSB requirements. 4 refs., 15 tabs., 20 figs., 2 appendices.

  19. Environmental and Human Health Impacts of Spreading Oil and Gas Wastewater on Roads.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tasker, T L; Burgos, W D; Piotrowski, P; Castillo-Meza, L; Blewett, T A; Ganow, K B; Stallworth, A; Delompré, P L M; Goss, G G; Fowler, L B; Vanden Heuvel, J P; Dorman, F; Warner, N R

    2018-06-19

    Thirteen states in the United States allow the spreading of O&G wastewaters on roads for deicing or dust suppression. In this study, the potential environmental and human health impacts of this practice are evaluated. Analyses of O&G wastewaters spread on roads in the northeastern, U.S. show that these wastewaters have salt, radioactivity, and organic contaminant concentrations often many times above drinking water standards. Bioassays also indicated that these wastewaters contain organic micropollutants that affected signaling pathways consistent with xenobiotic metabolism and caused toxicity to aquatic organisms like Daphnia magna. The potential toxicity of these wastewaters is a concern as lab experiments demonstrated that nearly all of the metals from these wastewaters leach from roads after rain events, likely reaching ground and surface water. Release of a known carcinogen (e.g., radium) from roads treated with O&G wastewaters has been largely ignored. In Pennsylvania from 2008 to 2014, spreading O&G wastewater on roads released over 4 times more radium to the environment (320 millicuries) than O&G wastewater treatment facilities and 200 times more radium than spill events. Currently, state-by-state regulations do not require radium analyses prior to treating roads with O&G wastewaters. Methods for reducing the potential impacts of spreading O&G wastewaters on roads are discussed.

  20. Reflection properties of road surfaces. Contribution to OECD Scientific Expert Group AC4 on Road Surface Characteristics.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schreuder, D.A.

    1983-01-01

    Photometric characteristics of road surfaces are dealt with. Representation of reflection properties in public lighting; quality criteria of road lighting installations; classification of road surfaces; the relation between reflection characteristics and other properties of road pavements in public

  1. Industrial wind. Strategic Road-map

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Therond, Pierre-Guy; Le Tirant, Alain; Vergnet, Marc; Hita-Perona, Sebastien; Bonnefond, Thierry; Guignard, Jean-Philippe; Roudil, Jean-Philippe; Villageois, Jean-Remy; Meyronneinc, Jean-Paul; Hua, Xavier; Herlaut, Fabienne; Maurel, Olivier; Boulnois, Renald; Lapeyre, Dominique; Mairet, Franck; Bongrain, Marie-Pierre; Kariniotakis, Georges; Rapin, Marc

    2012-06-01

    Since 2010, the ADEME has been managing four programmes within the scope of 'Future Investments'. Groups of research experts from various industrial fields, research bodies and research programming and financing agencies are responsible, within the scope of collective works, for producing strategic road-maps. These are used to launch Calls for Expressions of Interest (CEI). With regard to wind energy, the purpose of this road-map is to: - Highlight the industrial, technological, environmental and societal challenges encountered in the development of 'Industrial Wind'; - Draw up middle and long-term coherent, shared visions of the socio-technical systems or technologies in question; - Identify the technological, organisational, environmental and socio-economic obstacles, and therefore initiate (or pursue) the development of high-performance and economically viable technologies; - Promote the research, development and demonstration requirements ('technological demonstrators' to validate innovative technological solutions), experimentation requirements and technology platforms to be deployed ('pilot' projects to be tested under real circumstances: 'pre-commercial' unit prototypes then 'pre-commercial pilot farms') to improve the competitiveness of offers and companies within this sector, to reach the ambitious objectives set within the framework of the Grenelle Environnement and to promote and support the development of a French wind energy industry. These needs can then act as a basis for: - drawing up CEIs; - programming research within the ADEME and other institutions such as the Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR - French National Research Agency), the Comite strategique national sur la recherche energie (French national strategic committee for energy research) and the Alliance nationale de coordination de la recherche pour l'energie (ANCRE - French national alliance for the coordination of energy research). These research and experimentation priorities

  2. Road safety audits: The way forward

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Labuschagne, FJJ

    2010-08-01

    Full Text Available The South African Road Safety Manual (SARSM) was published in 1999 and includes guidelines on road safety audits (RSA). The development of SARSM was a proactive process for improving the road environment with respect to road safety but was never...

  3. Large Gaps in Canopy Reduce Road Crossing by a Gliding Mammal

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rodney van der Ree

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available Roads and traffic reduce landscape connectivity and increase rates of mortality for many species of wildlife. Species that glide from tree to tree may be strongly affected by roads and traffic if the size of the gap between trees exceeds their gliding capability. Not only are wide roads likely to reduce crossing rates, but mortality may also be increased if gliders that do cross have poor landing opportunities. The road-crossing behavior of 47 squirrel gliders (Petaurus norfolcensis was investigated in southeast Australia using radio-tracking. The proportion of gliders crossing one or both roadways of a freeway where trees were present or absent from the center median was compared to that at single-lane country roads (control. The proportion of gliders crossing the road at control sites (77% was similar to the proportion that crossed one or both roadways at the freeway with trees in the median (67%, whereas only a single male (6% crossed the freeway where trees were absent from the median. The frequency of crossing for each individual was also similar at control sites and freeway sites with trees in the median. The almost complete lack of crossing at sites where trees were absent from the median was attributed to the wider gap in canopy (50 - 64 m vs. 5 - 13 m at sites with trees in the median. This suggests that traffic volume, up to 5,000 vehicles per day on each roadway, and the other characteristics of the freeway we studied are not in themselves complete deterrents to road crossing by squirrel gliders. This study demonstrates that retaining and facilitating the growth of tall trees in the center median of two-way roads may mitigate the barrier effect of roads on gliders, thus contributing positively to mobility and potentially to connectivity. This information will be essential for the assessment of road impacts on gliding species using population viability models.

  4. Cyclists’ Anger As Determinant of Near Misses Involving Different Road Users

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Víctor Marín Puchades

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Road anger constitutes one of the determinant factors related to safety outcomes (e.g., accidents, near misses. Although cyclists are considered vulnerable road users due to their relatively high rate of fatalities in traffic, previous research has solely focused on car drivers, and no study has yet investigated the effect of anger on cyclists’ safety outcomes. The present research aims to investigate, for the first time, the effects of cycling anger toward different types of road users on near misses involving such road users and near misses in general. Using a daily diary web-based questionnaire, we collected data about daily trips, bicycle use, near misses experienced, cyclist’s anger and demographic information from 254 Spanish cyclists. Poisson regression was used to assess the association of cycling anger with near misses, which is a count variable. No relationship was found between general cycling anger and near misses occurrence. Anger toward specific road users had different effects on the probability of near misses with different road users. Anger toward the interaction with car drivers increased the probability of near misses involving cyclists and pedestrians. Anger toward interaction with pedestrians was associated with higher probability of near misses with pedestrians. Anger toward cyclists exerted no effect on the probability of near misses with any road user (i.e., car drivers, cyclists or pedestrians, whereas anger toward the interactions with the police had a diminishing effect on the occurrence of near misses’ involving all types of road users. The present study demonstrated that the effect of road anger on safety outcomes among cyclists is different from that of motorists. Moreover, the target of anger played an important role on safety both for the cyclist and the specific road users. Possible explanations for these differences are based on the difference in status and power with motorists, as well as on the potential

  5. Emerging research methods and their application to road safety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tarko, Andrew; Boyle, Linda Ng; Montella, Alfonso

    2013-12-01

    The study of road safety has seen great strides over the past few decades with advances in analytical methods and research tools that allow researchers to provide insights into the complex interactions of the driver, vehicle, and roadway. Data collection methods range from traditional traffic and roadway sensors to instrumented vehicles and driving simulators, capable of providing detailed data on both the normal driving conditions and the circumstances surrounding a safety critical event. In September 2011, the Third International Conference on Road Safety and Simulation was held in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, which was hosted by the Purdue University Center for Road Safety and sponsored by the Transportation Research Board and its three committees: ANB20 Safety Data, Analysis and Evaluation, AND30 Simulation and Measurement of Vehicle and Operator Performance, and ABJ95 Visualization in Transportation. The conference brought together two hundred researchers from all over the world demonstrating some of the latest research methods to quantify crash causality and associations, and model road safety. This special issue is a collection of 14 papers that were presented at the conference and then peer-reviewed through this journal. These papers showcase the types of analytical tools needed to examine various crash types, the use of naturalistic and on-road data to validate the use of surrogate measures of safety, and the value of driving simulators to examine high-risk situations. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Parameterizing road construction in route-based road weather models: can ground-penetrating radar provide any answers?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hammond, D S; Chapman, L; Thornes, J E

    2011-01-01

    A ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey of a 32 km mixed urban and rural study route is undertaken to assess the usefulness of GPR as a tool for parameterizing road construction in a route-based road weather forecast model. It is shown that GPR can easily identify even the smallest of bridges along the route, which previous thermal mapping surveys have identified as thermal singularities with implications for winter road maintenance. Using individual GPR traces measured at each forecast point along the route, an inflexion point detection algorithm attempts to identify the depth of the uppermost subsurface layers at each forecast point for use in a road weather model instead of existing ordinal road-type classifications. This approach has the potential to allow high resolution modelling of road construction and bridge decks on a scale previously not possible within a road weather model, but initial results reveal that significant future research will be required to unlock the full potential that this technology can bring to the road weather industry. (technical design note)

  7. Assessment of Road Infrastructures Pertaining to Malaysian Experience

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Samsuddin Norshakina

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Road Infrastructures contribute towards many severe accidents and it needs supervision as to improve road safety levels. The numbers of fatalities have increased annually and road authority should seriously consider conducting programs or activities to periodically monitor, restore of improve road infrastructure. Implementation of road safety audits may reduce fatalities among road users and maintain road safety at acceptable standards. This paper is aimed to discuss the aspects of road infrastructure in Malaysia. The research signifies the impact of road hazards during the observations and the impact of road infrastructure types on road accidents. The F050 (Jalan Kluang-Batu Pahat road case study showed that infrastructure risk is closely related with number of accident. As the infrastructure risk increase, the number of road accidents also increase. It was also found that different road zones along Jalan Kluang-Batu Pahat showed different level of intersection volume due to number of road intersection. Thus, it is hoped that by implementing continuous assessment on road infrastructures, it might be able to reduce road accidents and fatalities among drives and the community.

  8. Tools for road infrastructure safety management in poland

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kustra Wojciech

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Road safety can be improved by implementing principles of road safety infrastructure management (RIS on the network of European roads as adopted in the Directive. The document recommends that member states should use tried and tested tools for road safety management such as: road safety impact assessment (RIA, road safety audit (RSA, safety management on existing road networks including road safety ranking (RSM and road safety inspection (RSI. The objective of the methods is to help road authorities to take rational decisions in the area of road safety and road infrastructure safety and understand the consequences occurring in the particular phases of road life cycle. To help with assessing the impact of a road project on the safety of related roads, a method was developed for long-term forecasts of accidents and accident cost estimation as well as a risk classification to identify risks that are not acceptable risks. With regard to road safety audits and road safety inspection, a set of principles was developed to identify risks and the basic classification of mistakes and omissions.

  9. Roads at risk: traffic detours from debris flows in southern Norway

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meyer, N. K.; Schwanghart, W.; Korup, O.; Nadim, F.

    2015-05-01

    Globalisation and interregional exchange of people, goods, and services has boosted the importance of and reliance on all kinds of transport networks. The linear structure of road networks is especially sensitive to natural hazards. In southern Norway, steep topography and extreme weather events promote frequent traffic disruption caused by debris flows. Topographic susceptibility and trigger frequency maps serve as input into a hazard appraisal at the scale of first-order catchments to quantify the impact of debris flows on the road network in terms of a failure likelihood of each link connecting two network vertices, e.g. road junctions. We compute total additional traffic loads as a function of traffic volume and excess distance, i.e. the extra length of an alternative path connecting two previously disrupted network vertices using a shortest-path algorithm. Our risk metric of link failure is the total additional annual traffic load, expressed as vehicle kilometres, because of debris-flow-related road closures. We present two scenarios demonstrating the impact of debris flows on the road network and quantify the associated path-failure likelihood between major cities in southern Norway. The scenarios indicate that major routes crossing the central and north-western part of the study area are associated with high link-failure risk. Yet options for detours on major routes are manifold and incur only little additional costs provided that drivers are sufficiently well informed about road closures. Our risk estimates may be of importance to road network managers and transport companies relying on speedy delivery of services and goods.

  10. Low-cost rural surface alternatives : demonstration project : [tech transfer summary].

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-06-01

    Identify the most effective and economical methods for preventing or : mitigating freeze-thaw damage to granular surfaced roads in seasonally : cold regions : Construct demonstration test sections using several stabilization : methods recomme...

  11. The impact of roads on the demography of grizzly bears in Alberta.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John Boulanger

    Full Text Available One of the principal factors that have reduced grizzly bear populations has been the creation of human access into grizzly bear habitat by roads built for resource extraction. Past studies have documented mortality and distributional changes of bears relative to roads but none have attempted to estimate the direct demographic impact of roads in terms of both survival rates, reproductive rates, and the interaction of reproductive state of female bears with survival rate. We applied a combination of survival and reproductive models to estimate demographic parameters for threatened grizzly bear populations in Alberta. Instead of attempting to estimate mean trend we explored factors which caused biological and spatial variation in population trend. We found that sex and age class survival was related to road density with subadult bears being most vulnerable to road-based mortality. A multi-state reproduction model found that females accompanied by cubs of the year and/or yearling cubs had lower survival rates compared to females with two year olds or no cubs. A demographic model found strong spatial gradients in population trend based upon road density. Threshold road densities needed to ensure population stability were estimated to further refine targets for population recovery of grizzly bears in Alberta. Models that considered lowered survival of females with dependant offspring resulted in lower road density thresholds to ensure stable bear populations. Our results demonstrate likely spatial variation in population trend and provide an example how demographic analysis can be used to refine and direct conservation measures for threatened species.

  12. The impact of roads on the demography of grizzly bears in Alberta.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boulanger, John; Stenhouse, Gordon B

    2014-01-01

    One of the principal factors that have reduced grizzly bear populations has been the creation of human access into grizzly bear habitat by roads built for resource extraction. Past studies have documented mortality and distributional changes of bears relative to roads but none have attempted to estimate the direct demographic impact of roads in terms of both survival rates, reproductive rates, and the interaction of reproductive state of female bears with survival rate. We applied a combination of survival and reproductive models to estimate demographic parameters for threatened grizzly bear populations in Alberta. Instead of attempting to estimate mean trend we explored factors which caused biological and spatial variation in population trend. We found that sex and age class survival was related to road density with subadult bears being most vulnerable to road-based mortality. A multi-state reproduction model found that females accompanied by cubs of the year and/or yearling cubs had lower survival rates compared to females with two year olds or no cubs. A demographic model found strong spatial gradients in population trend based upon road density. Threshold road densities needed to ensure population stability were estimated to further refine targets for population recovery of grizzly bears in Alberta. Models that considered lowered survival of females with dependant offspring resulted in lower road density thresholds to ensure stable bear populations. Our results demonstrate likely spatial variation in population trend and provide an example how demographic analysis can be used to refine and direct conservation measures for threatened species.

  13. Ranking EU progress on road safety : 11th road safety Performance Index (PIN) report.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Adminaite, D. Jost, G. Stipdonk, H. & Ward, H.

    2017-01-01

    In 2010, the European Union renewed its commitment to improve road safety by setting a target of reducing road deaths by 50% by 2020, compared to 2010 levels. This target followed an earlier target set in 2001 to halve road deaths by 2010. Since 2014, progress has virtually ground to a halt. 2016

  14. 30 CFR 816.151 - Primary roads.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Primary roads. 816.151 Section 816.151 Mineral... roads. Primary roads shall meet the requirements of section 816.150 and the additional requirements of this section. (a) Certification. The construction or reconstruction of primary roads shall be certified...

  15. Along the Grand Trunk Road: The Photography of Raghubir Singh

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chaya Chandrasekhar

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available For more than two millennia, the historic Grand Trunk Road, the busy thoroughfare that extends some 1500 miles through north India and Pakistan served as the main artery of South Asia. It was also the gateway through which waves of immigrants, travelers, and invaders entered the subcontinent. As a result, a great deal of diversity and tolerance marks the road. Between 1988 and 1991, Raghubir Singh (1942-1999, one of India’s renowned documentary photographers, traveled and photographed the Indian stretch of the Road. Ninety-six photographs from his journeys appear in the publication, 'The Grand Trunk Road: A Passage Through India '(1995. Singh used the pictorial style of street photography that he is known for to capture everyday life along the path. Further, he emphasized the tremendous diversity he witnessed along the road through the selections he made for inclusion in the book and the specific manner in which he arranged many of them. By underscoring the heterogeneity, Singh provided a critical visual commentary of the political climate in India during the 1980s and early nineties. This period coincided with the rise of Hindu nationalism, which aimed to erase the subcontinent’s diverse past and promote instead the idea of a homogenous/Hindu India. By documenting the road in his uniquely pictorial style and arranging the photographs in his book to draw attention to the differences and tolerance witnessed along the path, Singh demonstrated that India was not a monolithic culture as the politics of the time claimed, but a rich interwoven fabric of many varied strands.

  16. Road Anomalies Detection System Evaluation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Silva, Nuno; Shah, Vaibhav; Soares, João; Rodrigues, Helena

    2018-06-21

    Anomalies on road pavement cause discomfort to drivers and passengers, and may cause mechanical failure or even accidents. Governments spend millions of Euros every year on road maintenance, often causing traffic jams and congestion on urban roads on a daily basis. This paper analyses the difference between the deployment of a road anomalies detection and identification system in a “conditioned” and a real world setup, where the system performed worse compared to the “conditioned” setup. It also presents a system performance analysis based on the analysis of the training data sets; on the analysis of the attributes complexity, through the application of PCA techniques; and on the analysis of the attributes in the context of each anomaly type, using acceleration standard deviation attributes to observe how different anomalies classes are distributed in the Cartesian coordinates system. Overall, in this paper, we describe the main insights on road anomalies detection challenges to support the design and deployment of a new iteration of our system towards the deployment of a road anomaly detection service to provide information about roads condition to drivers and government entities.

  17. Road design, human behaviour, and road accidents : towards a `learning design community'. Paper presented at the international conference `Road safety in Europe', Birmingham, England, September 9-11, 1996.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wegman, F.C.M.

    1996-01-01

    This paper discusses a number of unsolved problems in the field of road design (i.e. geometric design), human behaviour and road safety, particularly concerning the operationalisation of the existing design principles for a safe road network in terms of concrete road design in existing

  18. An index for estimating the potential metal pollution contribution to atmospheric particulate matter from road dust in Beijing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Hongtao; Shao, Yaping; Yin, Chengqing; Jiang, Yan; Li, Xuyong

    2016-04-15

    The resuspension of road dust from street surfaces could be a big contributor to atmospheric particulate pollution in the rapid urbanization context in the world. However, to date what its potential contribution to the spatial pattern is little known. Here we developed an innovative index model called the road dust index (RIatmospheric suspended particles. The factors were ranked and weighted based on road dust characteristics (the amounts, grain sizes, and mobilities of the road dust, and the concentrations and toxicities of metals in the road dust). We then applied the RIatmospheric suspended particles. The results demonstrated that the road dust in urban areas has higher potential risk of metal to atmospheric particles than that in rural areas. The RIatmospheric suspended particles and for controlling atmospheric particulate pollution caused by road dust emissions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. The Development of child road safety competence : the new approach tо road safety education

    OpenAIRE

    Vilkonis, Rytis

    2005-01-01

    The education and information are the strategies of the Road safety. However, some of the documents and scientific findings revealed the chaotic, desultory and theoretically groundless Road safety education and it can be stated that Road safety education system in Lithuania is still being established. The shortage of the theoretical and empirical base of Road safety education is slowing down the process of the system development. Aim of the research is to disclose the assumptions for developm...

  20. Road crash costs.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    2010-01-01

    Road crashes result in all kinds of social costs, such as medical costs, production loss, human losses, property damage, settlement costs and costs due to congestion. Studies into road crash costs and their trends are carried out quite regularly. In 2009, the costs amounted to € 12.5 billion, or

  1. Tyre and road wear prediction

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lupker, H.A.

    2003-01-01

    Both tyre wear and road polishing are complex phenomenon, which are obviously strongly related; the energy that polishes the road is the energy that wears the tyre. The both depend non-linearly on numerous parameters, like materials used, vehicle and road usage, environmental conditions (i.e.

  2. 30 CFR 817.151 - Primary roads.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Primary roads. 817.151 Section 817.151 Mineral... roads. Primary roads shall meet the requirements of § 817.150 and the additional requirements of this section. (a) Certification. The construction or reconstruction of primary roads shall be certified in a...

  3. Technology Road-map Update for Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2014-01-01

    This Technology Road-map Update provides an assessment of progress made by the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) in the development of the six systems selected when the original Technology Road-map was published in 2002. More importantly, it provides an overview of the major R and D objectives and milestones for the coming decade, aiming to achieve the Generation IV goals of sustainability, safety and reliability, economic competitiveness, proliferation resistance and physical protection. Lessons learnt from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident are taken into account to ensure that Generation IV systems attain the highest levels of safety, with the development of specific safety design criteria that are applicable across the six systems. Accomplishing the ten-year R and D objectives set out in this new Road-map should allow the more advanced Generation IV systems to move towards the demonstration phase. (authors)

  4. In–Service Road Safety Audits

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Mendoza–Díaz

    2009-04-01

    Full Text Available A road safety audit is a formal analysis that seeks to guarantee that an existing or future road fulfills optimal safety criteria, conducted by a team of experts who se members are independent of the road project. It can be carried out in one, several or all of the stages of the project (planning, design, construction, before opening the road to traffic, and operation. The development and implementation of a road safety audit process is one of the strategies that have been applied in Mexico in recent years to reduce road accidents and their associated consequences. The objective of this work is to present the procedures that have been developed and applied in Mexico, as well as the benefits and problems that have been encountered. The application of those procedures to a specific case is also shown. Emphasis is made in the audit of high ways in the operation stage, which is the type that greater application and development has had in Mexico.

  5. Road weather information for travelers : improving road weather messages and dissemination methods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Road Weather Management Program (RWMP) recently completed a study titled Human Factors Analysis of Road Weather Advisory and Control Information (Publication No. FHWAJPO- 10-053). The goal of the study was to...

  6. How long do the dead survive on the road? Carcass persistence probability and implications for road-kill monitoring surveys.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sara M Santos

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Road mortality is probably the best-known and visible impact of roads upon wildlife. Although several factors influence road-kill counts, carcass persistence time is considered the most important determinant underlying underestimates of road mortality. The present study aims to describe and model carcass persistence variability on the road for different taxonomic groups under different environmental conditions throughout the year; and also to assess the effect of sampling frequency on the relative variation in road-kill estimates registered within a survey. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Daily surveys of road-killed vertebrates were conducted over one year along four road sections with different traffic volumes. Survival analysis was then used to i describe carcass persistence timings for overall and for specific animal groups; ii assess optimal sampling designs according to research objectives; and iii model the influence of road, animal and weather factors on carcass persistence probabilities. Most animal carcasses persisted on the road for the first day only, with some groups disappearing at very high rates. The advisable periodicity of road monitoring that minimizes bias in road mortality estimates is daily monitoring for bats (in the morning and lizards (in the afternoon, daily monitoring for toads, small birds, small mammals, snakes, salamanders, and lagomorphs; 1 day-interval (alternate days for large birds, birds of prey, hedgehogs, and freshwater turtles; and 2 day-interval for carnivores. Multiple factors influenced the persistence probabilities of vertebrate carcasses on the road. Overall, the persistence was much lower for small animals, on roads with lower traffic volumes, for carcasses located on road lanes, and during humid conditions and high temperatures during the wet season and dry seasons, respectively. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: The guidance given here on monitoring frequencies is particularly relevant to provide

  7. How long do the dead survive on the road? Carcass persistence probability and implications for road-kill monitoring surveys.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santos, Sara M; Carvalho, Filipe; Mira, António

    2011-01-01

    Road mortality is probably the best-known and visible impact of roads upon wildlife. Although several factors influence road-kill counts, carcass persistence time is considered the most important determinant underlying underestimates of road mortality. The present study aims to describe and model carcass persistence variability on the road for different taxonomic groups under different environmental conditions throughout the year; and also to assess the effect of sampling frequency on the relative variation in road-kill estimates registered within a survey. Daily surveys of road-killed vertebrates were conducted over one year along four road sections with different traffic volumes. Survival analysis was then used to i) describe carcass persistence timings for overall and for specific animal groups; ii) assess optimal sampling designs according to research objectives; and iii) model the influence of road, animal and weather factors on carcass persistence probabilities. Most animal carcasses persisted on the road for the first day only, with some groups disappearing at very high rates. The advisable periodicity of road monitoring that minimizes bias in road mortality estimates is daily monitoring for bats (in the morning) and lizards (in the afternoon), daily monitoring for toads, small birds, small mammals, snakes, salamanders, and lagomorphs; 1 day-interval (alternate days) for large birds, birds of prey, hedgehogs, and freshwater turtles; and 2 day-interval for carnivores. Multiple factors influenced the persistence probabilities of vertebrate carcasses on the road. Overall, the persistence was much lower for small animals, on roads with lower traffic volumes, for carcasses located on road lanes, and during humid conditions and high temperatures during the wet season and dry seasons, respectively. The guidance given here on monitoring frequencies is particularly relevant to provide conservation and transportation agencies with accurate numbers of road

  8. Risk assessment on an Argentinean road with a dynamic traffic simulator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Voumard, Jérémie; Baumann, Valérie; Jaboyedoff, Michel; Derron, Marc-Henri; Penna, Ivanna

    2014-05-01

    The National Route 7 in Argentina is one of the most important corridors crossing the Andean Cordillera. It concentrates most of the traffic related to the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), it also connects Mendoza city (the fourth most populated in Argentina) with Santiago de Chile (the Chile capital city), and is used by tourists to access to the Aconcagua National park, Puente del Inca natural monument, skiing resorts, and to local displacements for the villages along the Mendoza valley. The road crosses the Andes through the Mendoza river valley at an elevation between 2'000 and 3'000 m. The traffic (2500 vehicles/day) is composed of motorcycles, cars and pickup trucks, trucks without trailer, buses, and semi-trailer trucks. Debris flows developed along tributaries of the Mendoza River, and due to remobilization of talus materials, impact frequently the road, causing traffic disruptions, bridges damages, etc. Rock falls detached from highly fractured outcrops also impact frequently the road, causing sometimes casualties. The aim of this study is to evaluate risk along sections of the National Road 7 develop along the Mendoza river, using a dynamic traffic simulator based on MATLAB© routine. The dynamic traffic simulator developed for natural hazards events on roads consider different scenarios based on traffic speeds, vehicle types, interactions types, road properties and natural processes. Here we show that vehicle types and traffic variations may influence the risk estimation. The analyzed risk on several critical sections of the National Route 7 demonstrates that risk may significantly increase: 1) on sinuous sections, steep sections and because of road conditions changes (exit of tunnel, bridges, road width, etc.) because of decreasing vehicle speed, particularly with semi-trailer trucks; 2) when an event, such a debris flow, occurs and generates a vehicle tailback increasing their duration presence in the risk area.

  9. Defogging of road images using gain coefficient-based trilateral filter

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, Dilbag; Kumar, Vijay

    2018-01-01

    Poor weather conditions are responsible for most of the road accidents year in and year out. Poor weather conditions, such as fog, degrade the visibility of objects. Thus, it becomes difficult for drivers to identify the vehicles in a foggy environment. The dark channel prior (DCP)-based defogging techniques have been found to be an efficient way to remove fog from road images. However, it produces poor results when image objects are inherently similar to airlight and no shadow is cast on them. To eliminate this problem, a modified restoration model-based DCP is developed to remove the fog from road images. The transmission map is also refined by developing a gain coefficient-based trilateral filter. Thus, the proposed technique has an ability to remove fog from road images in an effective manner. The proposed technique is compared with seven well-known defogging techniques on two benchmark foggy images datasets and five real-time foggy images. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach is able to remove the different types of fog from roadside images as well as significantly improve the image's visibility. It also reveals that the restored image has little or no artifacts.

  10. Solutions to Improve Road Circulation in the Pitesti City Based on Analysis-Diagnostics of Road Traffic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vîlcan, A.; Neagu, E.; Badarau Suster, H.; Boroiu, A. A.

    2017-10-01

    Road traffic congestion has become a daily phenomenon in the central area of Pitesti in the peak traffic periods. In order to achieve the mobility plan of Pitesti, an important stage is the diagnostic analysis of the road traffic. For this purpose, the urban road network was formalized through a graph containing the most important 40 intersections and traffic measurements were made at all these intersections and on the main roads connecting the peri-urban area. The data obtained by traffic macrosimulation confirmed the overloading of the street network during peak traffic hours and the analyzes made for various road traffic organization scenarios have shown that there are sustainable solutions for urban mobility only if the road network is fundamentally reconfigured (a belt outside the city and a median ring). Thus, the necessity of realizing the road passage in the Prundu neighbourhood and the finishing of the city belt by realizing the “detour West” of the city is argued. The importance of the work is that it brings scientific arguments for the realization of these road infrastructure projects, integrated in the urban mobility plan, which will base the development strategy of the Pitesti municipality.

  11. 25 CFR 265.3 - Roads prohibited.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Roads prohibited. 265.3 Section 265.3 Indians BUREAU OF... ON INDIAN RESERVATIONS § 265.3 Roads prohibited. (a) Within the boundaries of this officially... highways, roads, truck trails, work roads, and all other types of ways constructed to make possible the...

  12. Opportunities of forest roads usage as emergency access road for natural disaster

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Can Vatandaşlar

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available This study was carried out to examine the applicability of forest roads as emergency access and evacuation corridor for an alternative to motorways following a prospective earthquake in İstanbul. For this purpose, various disaster scenarios were created in the district of Beykoz and the shortest routes between critical points were determined through network analysis in Geographic Information System (GIS. Results indicated that access was possible between Beykoz city center and shelter, hospital, fire station, disaster management center, and military area via forest roads even if motorways became unusable. However, distance generally got longer and time of arrival increased on the routes of forest road. The increase in time of arrival was attributed to decrease in average cruising speed in addition to the increase in distance. This limitation can be overcome by enhancing the geometric standards of forest roads and completing superstructure operations. Results are important for revealing that forest roads can be used in other fields besides forestry activities, they can strengthen decision support system of managers, and enable first aid crew to reach the scene in the minimal time.

  13. Noise Costs from Road Transport

    Science.gov (United States)

    Margorínová, Martina; Trojanová, Mária; Decký, Martin; Remišová, Eva

    2018-06-01

    Building and improving road infrastructure in Slovakia is currently influenced by the amount of state funding. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the effectiveness of each proposed solution of road project, which is based on life-cycle costs. Besides capital costs, social costs are also important, which valued the negative impacts due to road construction and operation on road users, the environment, and the population living in the affected area. Some components of social costs have shortcomings in quantifying and valuating, which need to be resolved. The one of important components which affects human health and the value of an area, and have some shortcomings are noise costs. Improvement of this component will lead to more accurate valuation of economic efficiency of roads.

  14. Roads Data Conflation Using Update High Resolution Satellite Images

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abdollahi, A.; Riyahi Bakhtiari, H. R.

    2017-11-01

    Urbanization, industrialization and modernization are rapidly growing in developing countries. New industrial cities, with all the problems brought on by rapid population growth, need infrastructure to support the growth. This has led to the expansion and development of the road network. A great deal of road network data has made by using traditional methods in the past years. Over time, a large amount of descriptive information has assigned to these map data, but their geometric accuracy and precision is not appropriate to today's need. In this regard, the improvement of the geometric accuracy of road network data by preserving the descriptive data attributed to them and updating of the existing geo databases is necessary. Due to the size and extent of the country, updating the road network maps using traditional methods is time consuming and costly. Conversely, using remote sensing technology and geographic information systems can reduce costs, save time and increase accuracy and speed. With increasing the availability of high resolution satellite imagery and geospatial datasets there is an urgent need to combine geographic information from overlapping sources to retain accurate data, minimize redundancy, and reconcile data conflicts. In this research, an innovative method for a vector-to-imagery conflation by integrating several image-based and vector-based algorithms presented. The SVM method for image classification and Level Set method used to extract the road the different types of road intersections extracted from imagery using morphological operators. For matching the extracted points and to find the corresponding points, matching function which uses the nearest neighborhood method was applied. Finally, after identifying the matching points rubber-sheeting method used to align two datasets. Two residual and RMSE criteria used to evaluate accuracy. The results demonstrated excellent performance. The average root-mean-square error decreased from 11.8 to 4.1 m.

  15. 24 CFR 1710.210 - Roads.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 24 Housing and Urban Development 5 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Roads. 1710.210 Section 1710.210... (INTERSTATE LAND SALES REGISTRATION PROGRAM) LAND REGISTRATION Reporting Requirements § 1710.210 Roads. (a) State the estimated cost to the developer of the proposed road system. (b) If the developer is to...

  16. 14 CFR 151.89 - Roads.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Roads. 151.89 Section 151.89 Aeronautics... AID TO AIRPORTS Project Programming Standards § 151.89 Roads. (a) Federal-aid Airport Program funds may not be used to resolve highway problems. Only those airport entrance roads that are definitely...

  17. 24 CFR 1710.110 - Roads.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 24 Housing and Urban Development 5 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Roads. 1710.110 Section 1710.110... (INTERSTATE LAND SALES REGISTRATION PROGRAM) LAND REGISTRATION Reporting Requirements § 1710.110 Roads. (a) Access to the subdivision. (1) Is access to the subdivision provided by public or private roads? What...

  18. Kilburn High Road Revisited

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cristina Capineri

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Drawing on John Agnew’s (1987 theoretical framework for the analysis of place (location, locale and sense of place and on Doreen Massey’s (1991 interpretation of Kilburn High Road (London, the contribution develops an analysis of the notion of place in the case study of Kilburn High Road by comparing the semantics emerging from Doreen Massey’s interpretation of Kilburn High Road in the late Nineties with those from a selection of noisy and unstructured volunteered geographic information collected from Flickr photos and Tweets harvested in 2014–2015. The comparison shows how sense of place is dynamic and changing over time and explores Kilburn High Road through the categories of location, locale and sense of place derived from the qualitative analysis of VGI content and annotations. The contribution shows how VGI can contribute to discovering the unique relationship between people and place which takes the form given by Doreen Massey to Kilburn High Road and then moves on to the many forms given by people experiencing Kilburn High Road through a photo, a Tweet or a simple narrative. Finally, the paper suggests that the analysis of VGI content can contribute to detect the relevant features of street life, from infrastructure to citizens’ perceptions, which should be taken into account for a more human-centered approach in planning or service management.

  19. Road Nail: Experimental Solar Powered Intelligent Road Marking System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Samardžija, Dragan; Teslić, Nikola; Todorović, Branislav M.; Kovač, Erne; Isailović, Đorđe; Miladinović, Bojan

    2012-03-01

    Driving in low visibility conditions (night time, fog or heavy precipitation) is particularly challenging task with an increased probability of traffic accidents and possible injuries. Road Nail is a solar powered intelligent road marking system of wirelessly networked signaling devices that improve driver safety in low visibility conditions along hazardous roadways. Nails or signaling devices are autonomous nodes with capability to accumulate energy, exchange wireless messages, detect approaching vehicles and emit signalization light. We have built an experimental test-bed that consists of 20 nodes and a cellular gateway. Implementation details of the above system, including extensive measurements and performance evaluations in realistic field deployments are presented. A novel distributed network topology discovery scheme is proposed which integrates both sensor and wireless communication aspects, where nodes act autonomously. Finally, integration of the Road Nail system with the cellular network and the Internet is described.

  20. PROPOSAL OF VOIVODESHIP ROAD SAFETY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tomasz SZCZURASZEK

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available The article presents a proposal of the ‘GAMBIT KUJAWSKO-POMORSKI’ Road Safety Improvement Programme. The main idea of the Programme is to establish and initiate systems that will be responsible for the most important areas of activity within road safety, including road safety control, supervision, and management systems in the whole Voivodeship. In total, the creation and start of nine such systems has been proposed, namely: the Road Safety Management, the Integrated Road Rescue Service, the Personnel Continuing Education, the Hazardous Road Behaviour Monitoring, the Social Education for Safe Behaviour on Road, the Teaching Personnel Improvement, the Area Development and Planning Process Improvement, the Road Infrastructure Design Quality Improvement, and the Road and Traffic Management Process Efficiency Improvement. The basic aim of each system has been discussed as well as the most important tasks implemented as its part. The Road Safety Improvement Programme for the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship presented in this article is a part of the National Road Safety Programme 2013-2020. Moreover, it is not only an original programme in Poland, but also a universal project that may be adapted for other voivodeships as well.

  1. Road map for photovoltaic electricity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2011-02-01

    This road map aims at highlighting industrial, technological and social challenges, at elaborating comprehensive visions, at highlighting technological locks, and at outlining research needs for the photovoltaic sector. It considers the following sector components: preparation of photo-sensitive materials, manufacturing of photovoltaic cells, manufacturing of photovoltaic arrays, design and manufacturing of electric equipment to control photovoltaic arrays and to connect them to the grid. It highlights the demand for photovoltaic installations, analyzes the value chain, proposes a vision of the sector by 2050 and defines target for 2020, discusses needs for demonstration and experimentation

  2. Do roads reduce painted turtle (Chrysemys picta populations?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexandra Dorland

    Full Text Available Road mortality is thought to be a leading cause of turtle population decline. However, empirical evidence of the direct negative effects of road mortality on turtle population abundance is lacking. The purpose of this study was to provide a strong test of the prediction that roads reduce turtle population abundance. While controlling for potentially confounding variables, we compared relative abundance of painted turtles (Chrysemys picta in 20 ponds in Eastern Ontario, 10 as close as possible to high traffic roads (Road sites and 10 as far as possible from any major roads (No Road sites. There was no significant effect of roads on painted turtle relative abundance. Furthermore, our data do not support other predictions of the road mortality hypothesis; we observed neither a higher relative frequency of males to females at Road sites than at No Road sites, nor a lower average body size of turtles at Road than at No Road sites. We speculate that, although roads can cause substantial adult mortality in turtles, other factors, such as release from predation on adults and/or nests close to roads counter the negative effect of road mortality in some populations. We suggest that road mitigation for painted turtles can be limited to locations where turtles are forced to migrate across high traffic roads due, for example, to destruction of local nesting habitat or seasonal drying of ponds. This conclusion should not be extrapolated to other species of turtles, where road mortality could have a larger population-level effect than on painted turtles.

  3. Do roads reduce painted turtle (Chrysemys picta) populations?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dorland, Alexandra; Rytwinski, Trina; Fahrig, Lenore

    2014-01-01

    Road mortality is thought to be a leading cause of turtle population decline. However, empirical evidence of the direct negative effects of road mortality on turtle population abundance is lacking. The purpose of this study was to provide a strong test of the prediction that roads reduce turtle population abundance. While controlling for potentially confounding variables, we compared relative abundance of painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) in 20 ponds in Eastern Ontario, 10 as close as possible to high traffic roads (Road sites) and 10 as far as possible from any major roads (No Road sites). There was no significant effect of roads on painted turtle relative abundance. Furthermore, our data do not support other predictions of the road mortality hypothesis; we observed neither a higher relative frequency of males to females at Road sites than at No Road sites, nor a lower average body size of turtles at Road than at No Road sites. We speculate that, although roads can cause substantial adult mortality in turtles, other factors, such as release from predation on adults and/or nests close to roads counter the negative effect of road mortality in some populations. We suggest that road mitigation for painted turtles can be limited to locations where turtles are forced to migrate across high traffic roads due, for example, to destruction of local nesting habitat or seasonal drying of ponds. This conclusion should not be extrapolated to other species of turtles, where road mortality could have a larger population-level effect than on painted turtles.

  4. Emissions of road dust by winter tyres and the contributions of different road dust sources in road side particle samples; Talvirenkaiden poelypaeaestoet ja eri katupoelylaehteiden osuudet kadunvarrella keraetyissae hiukkasnaeytteissae

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kupiainen, K.; Pirjola, L.; Ritola, R.; Stojiljkovic, A.; Malinen, A.

    2013-09-01

    material deposited on the road surface. Resuspension is detected in street conditions throughout the year, but the seasonal variation is high. The measurements conducted in early April represented the situation at high resuspension levels. Emissions were 15-20-fold greater than during low resuspension conditions. No significant differences in the emission levels of the different winter tires were detected. Initial conditions of the resuspension were so high that the increment emissions from pavement wear by studs were not detectable. At low resuspension conditions, still approximately 50 -60 percent of the studded tyre's overall emissions were explained by resuspension. The remaining 40 - 50 percent was accounted to the pavement wear by studs. Reducing the number of studs per tyre reduced also the PM{sub 10} emission. The tyre that complied with the new studded tyre requirements that will enter into force in July 2013 reduced the emissions by 10 - 28 percent. The results obtained in low resuspension conditions demonstrate that studded tires increase the formation of dust compared to non-studded tires. Tire wear was observed to change its particulate emissions significantly. Increasing tread wear reduced the tyre's PM{sub 10} emissions. Tyre wear resulted in changes in both resuspension and pavement wear emissions. Further studies on factors affecting the PM10 emissions of worn tires should be conducted. (orig.)

  5. EDITORIAL ROAD SAFETY IN KENYA

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    data for the purpose of legal prosecution and insurance claims. The accident data P41 form filled at the Police Stations are collated and forwarded to the Roads Department, Ministry of Roads and Public. Works for further processing and analysis (1, 12). The. Roads Department analyses the information in order to determine:.

  6. Future Roads Near Streams

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — Roads are a source of auto related pollutants (e.g. gasoline, oil and other engine fluids). When roads are near streams, rain can wash these pollutants directly into...

  7. Analysis of travel patterns between road and transit-oriented development areas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, S.; Park, D.; Lee, C.

    2010-01-01

    Rapid economic growth has caused severe traffic congestion and air pollution in the Seoul metropolitan area (SMA). As a consequence, traffic demand management (TDM) policies have been implemented to mitigate traffic congestion in the region. This study analyzed travel patterns that occurred as a result of transport policy changes in Seoul between 1996 and 2002. General travel pattern changes in the SMA were compared with the travel patterns of regions with car-oriented road construction policies and public transit-invested regions. Results of the study showed that investment in road construction had no significant impact on reducing traffic congestion. The modal shift to public transit modes caused a reduction in the number of cars on roads. The study demonstrated that transit-oriented policies can be used to overcome severe traffic congestion. 7 refs., 7 tabs., 6 figs.

  8. [Road Extraction in Remote Sensing Images Based on Spectral and Edge Analysis].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Wen-zhi; Luo, Li-qun; Guo, Zhou; Yue, Jun; Yu, Xue-ying; Liu, Hui; Wei, Jing

    2015-10-01

    Roads are typically man-made objects in urban areas. Road extraction from high-resolution images has important applications for urban planning and transportation development. However, due to the confusion of spectral characteristic, it is difficult to distinguish roads from other objects by merely using traditional classification methods that mainly depend on spectral information. Edge is an important feature for the identification of linear objects (e. g. , roads). The distribution patterns of edges vary greatly among different objects. It is crucial to merge edge statistical information into spectral ones. In this study, a new method that combines spectral information and edge statistical features has been proposed. First, edge detection is conducted by using self-adaptive mean-shift algorithm on the panchromatic band, which can greatly reduce pseudo-edges and noise effects. Then, edge statistical features are obtained from the edge statistical model, which measures the length and angle distribution of edges. Finally, by integrating the spectral and edge statistical features, SVM algorithm is used to classify the image and roads are ultimately extracted. A series of experiments are conducted and the results show that the overall accuracy of proposed method is 93% comparing with only 78% overall accuracy of the traditional. The results demonstrate that the proposed method is efficient and valuable for road extraction, especially on high-resolution images.

  9. Knowledge of commercial bus drivers about road safety measures in Lagos, Nigeria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okafor Ifeoma, P; Odeyemi Kofoworola, A; Dolapo Duro, C

    2013-01-01

    Road traffic injuries have persisted as a serious public health problem and much of the health burden is in developing countries. Over-speeding, poor enforcement of traffic regulations and commuter buses have been highly implicated in road traffic injuries in developing countries. The aim of this study was to determine drivers' knowledge of selected road safety measures, i.e. the pre-requisites for driver's license, road signs and speed limits. This was a cross-sectional study carried out in Lagos, Nigeria. Simple random sampling was used to select the two motor parks used for the study and all the consenting commercial minibus drivers operating within the parks (407) were included in the study. Data was collected with a pre-tested, structured, interviewer-administered questionnaire and analyzed with epi-info statistical software. Two hundred and sixty-one (64.1%) of them knew that Visual Acuity test should be done before obtaining driver's license and 53.8% knew the correct minimum age for obtaining driver's license. Only 1% of the drivers had correct knowledge of the driver's license authorities in Nigeria. The drivers had poor knowledge of road signs (59.0%) and poor knowledge of maximum speed limits (100%). The oldest, least educated and least experienced drivers had the poorest level of knowledge. The drivers demonstrated poor knowledge of road safety measures. There is need for driver education to improve their knowledge.

  10. Road Maintenance in Africa: Approaches and Perspectives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M Mostafa Hassan

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available In Africa, roads are the dominant mode of passenger and freight transport, for which the need is growing rapidly. It is noticeable that most of the African countries do not do enough to ensure the sustainability of road infrastructure as it has been widely reported that roads are affected, to varying degrees, by premature deterioration. Most of the African countries have adopted institutional reforms, notably entailing the creation of road funds and road agencies, and made significant progress on road maintenance. However, many challenges remain to be addressed in all of them to ensure appropriate maintenance. Although spending on road maintenance has increased over time in all African countries it remains insufficient to cover the needs. Poorly maintained roads constrain mobility, significantly raise vehicle operating costs, increase accident rates and their associated human and property costs, and aggravate isolation, poverty, poor health, and illiteracy in rural communities. This paper focuses, in particular, on road maintenance in some African countries considering types of road maintenance and the different approaches aiming at a comparison to reflect on similarities and differences.

  11. Road Maintenance in Africa: Approaches and Perspectives

    Science.gov (United States)

    M, Mostafa Hassan

    2018-06-01

    In Africa, roads are the dominant mode of passenger and freight transport, for which the need is growing rapidly. It is noticeable that most of the African countries do not do enough to ensure the sustainability of road infrastructure as it has been widely reported that roads are affected, to varying degrees, by premature deterioration. Most of the African countries have adopted institutional reforms, notably entailing the creation of road funds and road agencies, and made significant progress on road maintenance. However, many challenges remain to be addressed in all of them to ensure appropriate maintenance. Although spending on road maintenance has increased over time in all African countries it remains insufficient to cover the needs. Poorly maintained roads constrain mobility, significantly raise vehicle operating costs, increase accident rates and their associated human and property costs, and aggravate isolation, poverty, poor health, and illiteracy in rural communities. This paper focuses, in particular, on road maintenance in some African countries considering types of road maintenance and the different approaches aiming at a comparison to reflect on similarities and differences.

  12. Rapid road repair vehicle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mara, Leo M.

    1998-01-01

    Disclosed is a rapid road repair vehicle capable of moving over a surface to be repaired at near normal posted traffic speeds to scan for and find an the high rate of speed, imperfections in the pavement surface, prepare the surface imperfection for repair by air pressure and vacuum cleaning, applying a correct amount of the correct patching material to effect the repair, smooth the resulting repaired surface, and catalog the location and quality of the repairs for maintenance records of the road surface. The rapid road repair vehicle can repair surface imperfections at lower cost, improved quality, at a higher rate of speed than was was heretofor possible, with significantly reduced exposure to safety and health hazards associated with this kind of road repair activities in the past.

  13. Competitiveness in Road Transport

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Borgström, Benedikte; Gammelgaard, Britta; Bruun, Poul

    Road transport is an important sector, connecting time and space of production and consumption. Its market conditions has changed. The EU single market implementation has increased price pressure due to supply of low cost road freight transport from counties with lower cost structures. Changes...... in the market also encourage strategic development of some road hauliers into providers of unique services. Such road haulier strategic development contributes to efficiency and effectiveness in basically all business sectors of EU. Little research is available of such strategic and operational management....... In this paper we will explore that knowledge gap and analyze what value proposition(s) and capabilities can transform potential cost disadvantages of acting in a market that includes both high- and low-cost-country actors? And in conceptual terminology, how are capabilities deployed and developed to construct...

  14. An Evaluation of Forest Road Standards and Road Gradients in Turkey in View of FAO Criteria and Some EU Practices

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sadık Çağlar

    2009-04-01

    Full Text Available Forest roads are one of the inevitable infrastructures in conducting forestry operations. Around 1000 km under standardized forest roads have been largely repaired in addition to construction of 1000 km new forest roads in Turkey. Implementing uniform road gradient along the road sections is very important in terms of transportation techniques and safety, as well as the geometrical standardizations of the forest road. In this study, current road standards, longitudinal gradient values and their limitations in forest road constructions recommended by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO and some Europe Union (EU countries were examined. Firstly, the forest road standards and their gradient values have been defined in Turkish forest road construction practices. Afterwards, the forest road standards and the gradient values applied by FAO and some EU countries were presented, and finally, the specifications were examined by comparing them with the current practices in Turkish forestry.

  15. Road safety and road traffic accidents in Saudi Arabia

    OpenAIRE

    Mansuri, Farah A.; Al-Zalabani, Abdulmohsen H.; Zalat, Marwa M.; Qabshawi, Reem I.

    2015-01-01

    Objectives: To identify the changing trends and crucial preventive approaches to road traffic accidents (RTAs) adopted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) over the last 2.5 decades, and to analyze aspects previously overlooked. Methods: This systematic review was based on evidence of RTAs in KSA. All articles published during the last 25 years on road traffic accident in KSA were analyzed. This study was carried out from December 2013 to May 2014 in the Department of Family and Community Med...

  16. Engaging policy makers in road safety research in Malaysia: a theoretical and contextual analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tran, Nhan T; Hyder, Adnan A; Kulanthayan, Subramaniam; Singh, Suret; Umar, R S Radin

    2009-04-01

    Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are a growing public health problem that must be addressed through evidence-based interventions including policy-level changes such as the enactment of legislation to mandate specific behaviors and practices. Policy makers need to be engaged in road safety research to ensure that road safety policies are grounded in scientific evidence. This paper examines the strategies used to engage policy makers and other stakeholder groups and discusses the challenges that result from a multi-disciplinary, inter-sectoral collaboration. A framework for engaging policy makers in research was developed and applied to describe an example of collective road safety research in Malaysia. Key components of this framework include readiness, assessment, planning, implementation/evaluation, and policy development/sustainability. The case study of a collaborative intervention trial for the prevention of motorcycle crashes and deaths in Malaysia serves as a model for policy engagement by road safety and injury researchers. The analytic description of this research process in Malaysia demonstrates that the framework, through its five stages, can be used as a tool to guide the integration of needed research evidence into policy for road safety and injury prevention.

  17. A theoretical study for the propagation of rolling noise over a porous road pavement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keung Lui, Wai; Ming Li, Kai

    2004-07-01

    A simplified model based on the study of sound diffracted by a sphere is proposed for investigating the propagation of noise in a hornlike geometry between porous road surfaces and rolling tires. The simplified model is verified by comparing its predictions with the published numerical and experimental results of studies on the horn amplification of sound over a road pavement. In a parametric study, a point monopole source is assumed to be localized on the surface of a tire. In the frequency range of interest, a porous road pavement can effectively reduce the level of amplified sound due to the horn effect. It has been shown that an increase in the thickness and porosity of a porous layer, or the use of a double layer of porous road pavement, attenuates the horn amplification of sound. However, a decrease in the flow resistivity of a porous road pavement does little to reduce the horn amplification of sound. It has also been demonstrated that the horn effect over a porous road pavement is less dependent on the angular position of the source on the surface of tires.

  18. Secure Certificateless Authentication and Road Message Dissemination Protocol in VANETs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haowen Tan

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available As a crucial component of Internet-of-Thing (IoT, vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs have attracted increasing attentions from both academia and industry fields in recent years. With the extensive VANETs deployment in transportation systems of more and more countries, drivers’ driving experience can be drastically improved. In this case, the real-time road information needs to be disseminated to the correlated vehicles. However, due to inherent wireless communicating characteristics of VANETs, authentication and group key management strategies are indispensable for security assurance. Furthermore, effective road message dissemination mechanism is of significance. In this paper, we address the above problems by developing a certificateless authentication and road message dissemination protocol. In our design, certificateless signature and the relevant feedback mechanism are adopted for authentication and group key distribution. Subsequently, message evaluating and ranking strategy is introduced. Security analysis shows that our protocol achieves desirable security properties. Additionally, performance analysis demonstrates that the proposed protocol is efficient compared with the state of the art.

  19. The use of the DInSAR method in the monitoring of road damage caused by mining activities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murdzek, Radosław; Malik, Hubert; Leśniak, Andrzej

    2018-04-01

    This paper reviews existing remote sensing methods of road damage detection and demonstrates the possibility of using DInSAR (Differential Interferometry SAR) method to identify endangered road sections. In this study two radar images collected by Sentinel-1 satellite have been used. Images were acquired with 24 days interval in 2015. The analysis allowed to estimate the scale of the post-mining deformation that occurred in Upper Silesia and to indicate areas where road infrastructure is particularly vulnerable to damage.

  20. Road accident fatality risks for "vulnerable" versus "protected" road users in northern Ghana.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Damsere-Derry, James; Palk, Gavan; King, Mark

    2017-10-03

    Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are a serious epidemic that claims more than a million lives across the globe each year. The burden of RTIs is particularly pronounced in Africa and other low- and middle-income countries. The unfavorable disparity of the burden of road trauma in the world is largely attributable to unsafe vehicles, lack of appropriate road infrastructure, and the predominance of vulnerable road users (VRUs) in developing countries. However, little research exists in northern Ghana to highlight the scale and risk of death among road users. The objective of this research was to establish the relative risk of death among road users in northern Ghana. Crash data from police reports between 2007 and 2011 were analyzed for the Upper Regions of Ghana. Conditional probabilities and multivariable logistic regression techniques were used to report proportions and adjusted odds ratios (AORs), respectively. Generally, crashes in northern Ghana were extremely severe; that is, 35% of all injury related collisions were fatal. The proportion of fatal casualties ranged between 21% among victims of sideswipe collisions and 41% among pedestrians and victims of rear-end collisions. Though males were 6 times more likely to die than females overall, females were more likely to die as pedestrians (90% of all female casualty deaths) and males were more likely to die as riders/drivers (78% of all male casualty deaths). Pedestrians were 3 times more likely to die (odds ratio [OR] = 3.1; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.4 to 4.1) compared with drivers/riders. Compared with drivers, the odds of death among cyclists was about 4 times higher (AOR = 3.6; 95% CI, 2.3 to 5.6) and about 2 times higher among motorcyclists (AOR = 1.6; 95% CI, 1.2 to 2.2). Compared with casualties aged between 30 and 59 years, children under 10 years and those aged 60 years and above were independently 2 times more likely to die in traffic collisions. Provision of requisite road infrastructure is vital

  1. Dry paths effectively reduce road mortality of small and medium-sized terrestrial vertebrates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niemi, Milla; Jääskeläinen, Niina C; Nummi, Petri; Mäkelä, Tiina; Norrdahl, Kai

    2014-11-01

    Wildlife passages are widely used mitigation measures designed to reduce the adverse impacts of roads on animals. We investigated whether road kills of small and medium-sized terrestrial vertebrates can be reduced by constructing dry paths adjacent to streams that pass under road bridges. The study was carried out in southern Finland during the summer of 2008. We selected ten road bridges with dry paths and ten bridges without them, and an individual dry land reference site for each study bridge on the basis of landscape and traffic features. A total of 307 dead terrestrial vertebrates were identified during the ten-week study period. The presence of dry paths decreased the amount of road-killed terrestrial vertebrates (Poisson GLMM; p road-kills on mammals was not such clear. In the mammal model, a lack of dry paths increased the amount of carcasses (p = 0.001) whereas the number of casualties at dry path bridges was comparable with dry land reference sites. A direct comparison of the dead ratios suggests an average efficiency of 79% for the dry paths. When considering amphibians and mammals alone, the computed effectiveness was 88 and 70%, respectively. Our results demonstrate that dry paths under road bridges can effectively reduce road-kills of small and medium-sized terrestrial vertebrates, even without guiding fences. Dry paths seemed to especially benefit amphibians which are a threatened species group worldwide and known to suffer high traffic mortality. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Overview of the neural network based technique for monitoring of road condition via reconstructed road profiles

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Ngwangwa, HM

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available on the road and driver to assess the integrity of road and vehicle infrastructure. In this paper, vehicle vibration data are applied to an artificial neural network to reconstruct the corresponding road surface profiles. The results show that the technique...

  3. Demonstration of mobile radiation monitoring methodology for quick assessment of radiological impact of Mumbai City Using road, rail and sea routes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chatterjee, M.K.; Divkar, J.K.; Singh, Rajvir; Pradeepkumar, K.S.; Sharma, D.N.

    2008-01-01

    The study of background radiation levels by suitable mobile monitoring methodology through different routes (road, rail and sea) with the help of state of the art monitoring systems has been initiated with an objective to demonstrate the effectiveness of monitoring methodologies for quick radiological impact assessment during any radiological emergency and to detect the presence of orphan source(s), if any. The other objective was to establish a reliable base line data on the background radiation levels. The study was carried out in Mumbai city through different available routes. Mumbai is a densely populated city and everyday millions of commuters are crossing across the city using rail and road routes. In case of any unwarned radiological emergency in public domain, a large section of people of the city may get concerned of radioactive contamination/ high radiation exposure. In such scenario, environmental radiation monitoring and quick assessment of contamination in public domain will be a challenging task for the civil authorities. The monitoring techniques used for quick radiological impact assessment and the established base line dose rate data of Mumbai city will be very useful for planning counter measures, if required. During mobile monitoring programme of this highly populated city, the monitoring routes, selection and placement of different monitoring instruments/system within the mobile platform, data acquisition time of the respective monitoring equipments, speed of mobile monitoring station etc were optimized. State-of-the-art systems like Portable Mobile Gamma Spectrometry System (PMGSS), Compact Radiation Monitoring System integrated with GPS, Gammatracers, Portable low/high range survey meters and hand held spectrometers were used. The average of the dose rates recorded during monitoring through road routes and railway routes of Mumbai city were 60±10 nGy.h -1 and 65±15 nGy.h -1 respectively, which are attributable to terrestrial and cosmic

  4. Road design and environment : best practice on self-explaining and forgiving roads. Deliverable D3 of the RiPCORD-iSEREST project (Road Infrastructure Safety Protection - Core-Research and Development for Road Safety in Europe; Increasing safety and reliability of secondary roads for a sustainable Surface Transport).

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Matena, S. Louwerse, W. Schermers, G. Vaneerdewegh, P. Pokorny, P. Gaitanidou, L. Elvik, R. & Cardoso, J.

    2009-01-01

    Main objective of work-package 3 of Ripcord-lserest was to collect information on best practices concerning the design of self-explaining and forgiving roads. In order to gain an overview on existing practises on road categorisation and the layout of typical rural roads a questionnaire survey had

  5. The impact of the economic crisis and policy actions on GHG emissions from road transport in Spain

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sobrino, Natalia; Monzon, Andres

    2014-01-01

    Road traffic is the greatest contributor to the carbon footprint of the transport sector and reducing it has become one of the main targets of sustainable transport policies. An analysis of the main factors influencing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is essential for designing new energy- and environmentally efficient strategies for the road transport. This paper addresses this need by (i) identifying factors which influence the carbon footprint, including traffic activity, fuel economy and socioeconomic development; and (ii) proposing a methodological framework which uses Modified Laspeyres Index decomposition to analyze the effect of important drivers on the changes in emissions of road transport in Spain during the period from 1990 to 2010. The results demonstrate that the country's economic growth has been closely linked to the rise in GHG emissions. The innovative contribution of this paper is the special analysis of the changes in mobility patterns and GHG emissions during the economic crisis, when, for the first time, Spanish road traffic emissions decreased. The reduction of road transport and improved energy efficiency has been powerful contributors to this decrease, demonstrating the effectiveness of energy-saving measures. On the basis of this analysis, several tailored policy recommendations have been suggested for future implementation. - Highlights: • Drivers contributing to GHG emissions of road transport are identified and analyzed. • Decomposition analysis based on Modified Laspeyres Index (MLI) is applied to the Spanish case. • Economic crisis and changes in mobility patterns and GHG emissions are analyzed. • Policies for the decarbonization of road transport are recommended

  6. New innovative educational method to prevent accidents involving young road users (aged 15-24 – European Road Safety Tunes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jankowska-Karpa Dagmara

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The article presents a new teaching method designed to improve road safety among young road users. Developed under “European Road Safety Tunes”, this international project was cofunded by EU DG MOVE. Its main aim is to improve road safety and minimize the number of road accidents, injuries and fatalities among road users who are 15-24 years old. The Safety Tunes method contains a series of workshops addressed to young vocational school students: cyclists, moped and motor riders and car drivers. The workshops incorporate peer and emotive education, and delivery of road safety related messages through different types of artistic forms. The topics tackled during class address awareness of possible risks and risk-behaviour, prevention of distraction and reduction in young fatalities and serious injuries on the road. All actions within the project are evaluated, both in terms of the impact of the workshops on students’ attitudes towards road safety problems and in terms of process assessment.

  7. Analysis of Individual and Environmental Factors for Road Traffic Accidents in Sirjan-Bandarabbas Road between 2010 and 2011, Iran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ghorbanali Mohammadi

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Sirjan -Bandarabbas road is one of the important commercial roads in Iran and for Sirjan’s area situation and relevance between Sirjan and other states in Iran so high percentage of goods that forwarded from Bandarabbas to other states transit from Sirjan .Therefore this road is as one important transition road and traffic road too .This study analyzed road traffic accidents were occurred between 2010 and 201in Sirjan- Bandarabbas road. Individual and demographic factors include Time of accidents, Drivers age, time of the days, seat belt and safety laws, Guilty vehicle, Mode of accident and education Level. Time of day analyses suggested that the highest percentage of road traffic injuries occurred in the time group between 12-18 hours. Drivers with the age group of 36-50 had more involvement in death accidents. The findings of this study also revealed that most of the collisions was front to back and front to side. Female drivers were found to be generally safer drivers than their male counterparts; male drivers had a higher involvement rate in road traffic accidents. This study indicated that Observe safety laws, Guilty vehicle and Mode of accidents have a meaningful relationship with Type of accidents in road traffic accidents in Sirjan Bandarabbas road.

  8. Development and enhancement of road lighting principles

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ekrias, A.

    2010-07-01

    The work starts with a short introduction concerning the history of road lighting, outlining the trends and changes that have taken place in road lighting research during the past century. The introduction is followed by a review of trends, directions, and problems in current road lighting research and practice. The following part of the work introduces an advanced approach to road lighting measurements and calculations, based on the use of an imaging luminance photometer and the Road LumiMeter v2.0 computer program. The work sets out to investigate the variations in the characteristics of the quality of the road lighting at the same pilot locations in relation to the calculation methods used. In the work mesopic visual performance and the effects of the spectral transmittance of the vehicle windshield on the visibility conditions of the driver are also analysed. The work continues with road lighting measurements in various weather conditions in order to study the effects of snowy and wet road surface conditions on road lighting luminances. The results show that in Finland, snowy conditions offer very good opportunities to save electricity without adversely affecting either the safety of driving or the quality of road lighting. The following measurements set out to investigate the contribution of halogen and high-intensity discharge headlights to road lighting and whether this has a conflicting effect on the luminance contrasts of various targets located on the road or at the side of the road. The results indicate that, in general, the use of vehicle headlights in the presence of road lighting reduces the luminance contrasts of targets. The work continues with road lighting visibility experiments which study the visibility of achromatic and coloured targets in MH lamp and HPS lamp installations. The results show that colours have a major effect on target visibility if the road is illuminated with a light source with adequate colour rendering properties. Finally

  9. Tourist Assessment of Croatian Roads

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joso Vurdelja

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available As environmentally clean industry and as the most significantworld industry regarding the number of employees and theimpact on the social and economic development of a countTy,tourism represents an extremely important social and economicbranch for Croatia.As a functional unit of the mutually interweaving socialand economic relations, tourism is a complex phenomenonwhose development depends on a number of compatible factorsout of which the transport infrastructure is considered to bethe most obvious and almost the most significant one, i.e. thefirst among the equal. This is primarily true for road traffic infrastructure,since road trai!Sportation of tourists by passengercars, buses and motorcycles accounts for more than 90 percentof the overall tourist journeys in Croatia.The topic of this paper is precisely, among other things, thetourist assessment of the Croatian road network by means ofthe so-called econometric model regarding the contribution ofa certain road route to the overall tourist traffic.Practical implementation of the elaborated problematicshould result in the improvement of road infrastructure eitherby constructing new motonvays and/or roads, or by reconstructionand/or modernisation of the existing traffic routes.

  10. MAARGHA: A Prototype System for Road Condition and Surface Type Estimation by Fusing Multi-Sensor Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Deepak Rajamohan

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Road infrastructure in countries like India is expanding at a rapid pace and is becoming increasingly difficult for authorities to identify and fix the bad roads in time. Current Geographical Information Systems (GIS lack information about on-road features like road surface type, speed breakers and dynamic attribute data like the road quality. Hence there is a need to build road monitoring systems capable of collecting such information periodically. Limitations of satellite imagery with respect to the resolution and availability, makes road monitoring primarily an on-field activity. Monitoring is currently performed using special vehicles that are fitted with expensive laser scanners and need skilled resource besides providing only very low coverage. Hence such systems are not suitable for continuous road monitoring. Cheaper alternative systems using sensors like accelerometer and GPS (Global Positioning System exists but they are not equipped to achieve higher information levels. This paper presents a prototype system MAARGHA (MAARGHA in Sanskrit language means an eternal path to solution, which demonstrates that it can overcome the disadvantages of the existing systems by fusing multi-sensory data like camera image, accelerometer data and GPS trajectory at an information level, apart from providing additional road information like road surface type. MAARGHA has been tested across different road conditions and sensor data characteristics to assess its potential applications in real world scenarios. The developed system achieves higher information levels when compared to state of the art road condition estimation systems like Roadroid. The system performance in road surface type classification is dependent on the local environmental conditions at the time of imaging. In our study, the road surface type classification accuracy reached 100% for datasets with near ideal environmental conditions and dropped down to 60% for datasets with shadows and

  11. How Long Do the Dead Survive on the Road? Carcass Persistence Probability and Implications for Road-Kill Monitoring Surveys

    OpenAIRE

    Santos, Sara; Carvalho, Filipe; Mira, António

    2011-01-01

    Background: Road mortality is probably the best-known and visible impact of roads upon wildlife. Although several factors influence road-kill counts, carcass persistence time is considered the most important determinant underlying underestimates of road mortality. The present study aims to describe and model carcass persistence variability on the road for different taxonomic groups under different environmental conditions throughout the year; and also to assess the eff...

  12. Using CART to segment road images

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davies, Bob; Lienhart, Rainer

    2006-01-01

    The 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge is a 132 mile race through the desert with autonomous robotic vehicles. Lasers mounted on the car roof provide a map of the road up to 20 meters ahead of the car but the car needs to see further in order to go fast enough to win the race. Computer vision can extend that map of the road ahead but desert road is notoriously similar to the surrounding desert. The CART algorithm (Classification and Regression Trees) provided a machine learning boost to find road while at the same time measuring when that road could not be distinguished from surrounding desert.

  13. Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome as a cause of road traffic accidents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aguiar, M; Valença, J; Felizardo, M; Caeiro, F; Moreira, S; Staats, R; Bugalho de Almeida, A A

    2009-01-01

    Several studies have demonstrated that obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) patients have a higher rate of road traffic accidents. Our study aimed to analyse any differences in OSAS patients between those who reported having had road traffic accidents and/or near misses and those who did not. We studied 163 patients with OSAS (apnoea- hypopnoea index (AHI)>10/h) diagnosed using nocturnal polysomnography (NPSG), all drivers, 18.4% of whom drove for a living. Patients were asked at their first clinical interview to self-report road traffic accidents and/or near misses over the past 3 years which had been caused by abnormal daytime drowsiness. This allowed patients to be divided into two groups, those who had had road traffic accidents and/or near misses and those who had not. Both were compared as to age, body mass index (BMI), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), daytime PaO2 and PaCO2, Functional Outcomes of Sleep Questionnaire (FOSQ) test and NPSG data. This latter was total sleep time (TTS), sleep efficiency, sleep stages, arousal index (ARI), AHI, minimal and average SaO2, % of time with SaO2 TDAH) (T test). Group I (no road traffic accidents) No=89 patients; group II (road traffic accidents) No=74 patients. Age (years) was 57.6+/-11.8 vs. 54.7+/-10.9 (ns); male gender, 75% vs. 78.4%; ESS, 12.3+/-5.4 vs. 17.6+/-4.3 (pTDAH (minutes), 98.5+/-63.7 vs. 133.3+/-83.2 (p=0,005). In our experience patients who had road traffic accidents and/or near misses had a more severe OSAS, with higher AHI, excessive daytime sleepiness and lower quality of life.

  14. Road diet informational guide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-11-01

    A classic Road Diet converts an existing four-lane undivided roadway segment to a three-lane segment consisting of two : through lanes and a center two-way left turn lane (TWLTL). A Road Diet improves safety by including a protected left-turn lane : ...

  15. ERGONOMICS AND ROAD SAFETY

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    BROOKHUIS, K; BROWN, [No Value

    1992-01-01

    Modifications to the design of vehicles and road infrastructures have improved road safety significantly over the past decades, but all such developments depend upon user acceptance and institutional backing for their success. New R&D programmes combining ergonomic and engineering approaches are

  16. Exploring schema-driven differences in situation awareness between road users: an on-road study of driver, cyclist and motorcyclist situation awareness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salmon, Paul M; Lenne, Michael G; Walker, Guy H; Stanton, Neville A; Filtness, Ashleigh

    2014-01-01

    Collisions between different road users make a substantial contribution to road trauma. Although evidence suggests that different road users interpret the same road situations differently, it is not clear how road users' situation awareness differs, nor is it clear which differences might lead to conflicts. This article presents the findings from an on-road study conducted to examine driver, motorcyclist and cyclist situation awareness in different road environments. The findings suggest that, in addition to minor differences in the structure of different road users' situation awareness (i.e. amount of information and how it is integrated), the actual content of situation awareness in terms of road user schemata, the resulting interaction with the world and the information underpinning situation awareness is markedly different. Further examination indicates that the differences are likely to be compatible along arterial roads, shopping strips and at roundabouts, but that they may create conflicts between different road users at intersections. Interventions designed to support compatible situation awareness and behaviour between different road users are discussed.

  17. Construction and maintenance of underground mine roads

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Logan, A.S.; Seedsman, R.W. [Coffey Partners International Pty. Ltd. (Australia)

    1995-12-31

    Good roads are essential in moving men and materials to and from the underground workplace. An underground coal industry funded project was recently completed on underground mine road construction and maintenance. This paper discusses practical approaches to construction and maintenance of underground mine roads using transferable civil technologies and innovative techniques. Mine pavements are generally low-cost (relative to civil roads), constructed to varying standards using locally available materials to best meet the mobility needs of the mine. Performance of pavements is thus largely dependent on the environmental conditions, quality of the available road making materials, maintenance policies and available resources. This paper explains the causes of bad roads in various underground environments. It details available management strategies, construction and water control techniques, road maintenance and vehicle considerations. It concludes that the trend to larger rubber tires mining equipment needs to be matched with construction and maintenance of high quality road surfaces. For large operations, the total cost due to poor roads may equate to in excess of $A1 million per annum. The strategies outlined in this paper provide the basis for construction and maintenance of underground mine roads to help achieve desired production targets. (author). 2 tabs., 4 figs., 7 refs.

  18. Seismic risk assessment for road in Indonesia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Toyfur, Mona Foralisa; Pribadi, Krishna S.

    2016-05-01

    Road networks in Indonesia consist of 446,000 km of national, provincial and local roads as well as toll highways. Indonesia is one of countries that exposed to various natural hazards, such as earthquakes, floods, landslides, etc. Within the Indonesian archipelago, several global tectonic plates interact, such as the Indo-Australian, Pacific, Eurasian, resulting in a complex geological setting, characterized by the existence of seismically active faults and subduction zones and a chain of more than one hundred active volcanoes. Roads in Indonesia are vital infrastructure needed for people and goods movement, thus supporting community life and economic activities, including promoting regional economic development. Road damages and losses due to earthquakes have not been studied widely, whereas road disruption caused enormous economic damage. The aim of this research is to develop a method to analyse risk caused by seismic hazard to roads. The seismic risk level of road segment is defined using an earthquake risk index, adopting the method of Earthquake Disaster Risk Index model developed by Davidson (1997). Using this method, road segments' risk level can be defined and compared, and road risk map can be developed as a tool for prioritizing risk mitigation programs for road networks in Indonesia.

  19. Automatic Detection and Classification of Audio Events for Road Surveillance Applications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Noor Almaadeed

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available This work investigates the problem of detecting hazardous events on roads by designing an audio surveillance system that automatically detects perilous situations such as car crashes and tire skidding. In recent years, research has shown several visual surveillance systems that have been proposed for road monitoring to detect accidents with an aim to improve safety procedures in emergency cases. However, the visual information alone cannot detect certain events such as car crashes and tire skidding, especially under adverse and visually cluttered weather conditions such as snowfall, rain, and fog. Consequently, the incorporation of microphones and audio event detectors based on audio processing can significantly enhance the detection accuracy of such surveillance systems. This paper proposes to combine time-domain, frequency-domain, and joint time-frequency features extracted from a class of quadratic time-frequency distributions (QTFDs to detect events on roads through audio analysis and processing. Experiments were carried out using a publicly available dataset. The experimental results conform the effectiveness of the proposed approach for detecting hazardous events on roads as demonstrated by 7% improvement of accuracy rate when compared against methods that use individual temporal and spectral features.

  20. The measurement of dry deposition and surface runoff to quantify urban road pollution in Taipei, Taiwan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Yunn-Jinn; Chen, Chi-Feng; Lin, Jen-Yang

    2013-10-16

    Pollutants deposited on road surfaces and distributed in the environment are a source of nonpoint pollution. Field data are traditionally hard to collect from roads because of constant traffic. In this study, in cooperation with the traffic administration, the dry deposition on and road runoff from urban roads was measured in Taipei City and New Taipei City, Taiwan. The results showed that the dry deposition is 2.01-5.14 g/m(2) · day and 78-87% of these solids are in the 75-300 µm size range. The heavy metals in the dry deposited particles are mainly Fe, Zn, and Na, with average concentrations of 34,978, 1,519 and 1,502 ppm, respectively. Elevated express roads show the highest heavy metal concentrations. Not only the number of vehicles, but also the speed of the traffic should be considered as factors that influence road pollution, as high speeds may accelerate vehicle wear and deposit more heavy metals on road surfaces. In addition to dry deposition, the runoff and water quality was analyzed every five minutes during the first two hours of storm events to capture the properties of the first flush road runoff. The sample mean concentration (SMC) from three roads demonstrated that the first flush runoff had a high pollution content, notably for suspended solid (SS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), oil and grease, Pb, and Zn. Regular sweeping and onsite water treatment facilities are suggested to minimize the pollution from urban roads.

  1. The study of road surface micro-texture's effects for the pavement's decontamination by high pressure water washing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kobayashi, Masatoshi; Shimizu, Tadaaki; Hirayama, Takahiro

    2014-01-01

    In the result of “decontamination technical demonstration project” by Ministry of the Environment, it has became clear that the effect variation is larger in high pressure water washing method, compared with others in road surface decontamination technology. In this study, we have hypothesized the fact at the difference of micro-texture of the road surface, by carrying out high pressure water washing method in different kinds of road surfaces and verified the relation between washing efficiency and micro-texture road surface. Positive correlation has admitted between the washing number of times and radiation reduction rate and the trend of primary regression equation (i.e. radiation reduction rate per washing time) is indicating that decreasing tendency of radiation carried by the increasing of micro-texture of the road surface. Here, we proposed the method to estimated essential washing number of times to achieve the targeted radiation reduction rate from the relation of that trend and micro-texture of the road surface. (author)

  2. Impacts of road deicing salt on the demography of vernal pool-breeding amphibians.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karraker, Nancy E; Gibbs, James P; Vonesh, James R

    2008-04-01

    Deicing agents, primarily road salt, are applied to roads in 26 states in the United States and in a number of European countries, yet the scale of impacts of road salt on aquatic organisms remains largely under-studied. The issue is germane to amphibian conservation because both adult and larval amphibians are known to be particularly sensitive to changes in their osmolar environments. In this study, we combined survey, experimental, and demographic modeling approaches to evaluate the possible effects of road salt on two common vernal-pond-breeding amphibian species, the spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) and the wood frog (Rana sylvatica). We found that in the Adirondack Mountain Region of New York (USA), road salt traveled up to 172 m from the highway into wetlands. Surveys showed that egg mass densities of spotted salamanders (A. maculatum) and wood frogs (R. sylvatica) were two times higher in forest pools than roadside pools, but this pattern was better explained by road proximity than by increased salinity. Experiments demonstrated that embryonic and larval survival were reduced at moderate (500 muS) and high conductivities (3000 muS) in A. maculatum and at high conductivities in R. sylvatica. Demographic models suggest that such egg and larval stage effects of salt may have important impacts on populations near roads, particularly in the case of A. maculatum, for which salt exposure may lead to local extinction. For both species, the effect of road salt was dependent upon the strength of larval density dependence and declined rapidly with distance from the roadside, with the greatest negative effects being limited to within 50 m. Based on this evidence, we argue that efforts to protect local populations of A. maculatum and R. sylvatica in roadside wetlands should, in part, be aimed at reducing application of road salt near wetlands with high conductivity levels.

  3. Vehicle speed control using road bumps

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    T. A. O. Salau

    2004-06-01

    Full Text Available Road bumps play a crucial role in enforcing speed limits, thereby preventing overspeeding of vehicles. It significantly contributes to the overall road safety objective through the prevention of accidents that lead to deaths of pedestrians and damage of vehicles. Despite the importance of road bumps, very little research has been done to investigate into their design. While documentation exists on quantitative descriptions of road bumps, they offer little guidance to decision making. This work presents a unique approach to solving road bumps design problems. The results of our study reveal three important road bumps variables that influence the control of vehicle speeds. The key variables are bump height, bump width, and effective distance between two consecutive road bumps. Since vehicle speed control is the ultimate aim of this study the relationship between vehicle speed and other variables earlier mentioned is established. Vehicle speed is defined as the product of frequency at which a vehicle is moving over road bumps and the sum of effective distance between two consecutive road bumps. In the determination of bump height we assume a conical shaped curve for analysis as a matter of research strategy. Based on this, two stages of motion were analysed. The first concerns the motion over the bump itself while the second relates to the motion between two consecutive road bumps. Fourier series was then used to formulate a holistic equation that combines these two stages. We used trigonometric functions to model the behaviour of the first stage while with the second stage giving a functional value of zero since no changes in height are observed. We carried out vibration analysis to determine the effect of road bumps on a vehicular system. Arising from this a model component is referred to as an isolation factor. This offers guidance to the safe frequency at which vehicles could travel over road bumps. The work appears to contribute to knowledge

  4. Recognizablility of rural roads in the Netherlands.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Aarts, L.T. & Davidse, R.J.

    2008-01-01

    In the Netherlands, the Sustainable Safety vision is an important guide in improving road safety. It is considered that the road environment shouldconform to the expectations of road users in order to prevent errors thatcould lead to road crashes. These expectations are based on the characteristics

  5. SmartRoads: training Indonesian workers to become road safety ambassadors in industrial and community settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Montero, Kerry; Spencer, Graham; Ariens, Bernadette

    2012-06-01

    This paper reports on a programme to improve road safety awareness in an industrial community in the vicinity of Jakarta, in Indonesia. Adapting the model of a successful community and school-based programme in Victoria, in Australia, and using a peer education approach, 16 employees of a major manufacturing company were trained to implement road safety education programmes amongst their peers. Specific target groups for the educators were colleagues, schools and the local community. Over 2 days the employees, from areas as diverse as production, public relations, personnel services, administration and management, learned about road safety facts, causes of traffic casualties, prevention approaches and peer education strategies. They explored and developed strategies to use with their respective target groups and practised health education skills. The newly trained workers received certificates to acknowledge them as 'SmartRoads Ambassadors' and, with follow-up support and development, became road safety educators with a commitment and responsibility to deliver education to their respective work and local communities. This paper argues that the model has potential to provide an effective and locally relevant response to road safety issues in similar communities.

  6. [Accidents on Iceland's most dangerous roads].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bjarnason, Thóroddur; Arnarsson, Sveinn

    2012-02-01

    The objective of this paper was to identify the most dangerous segments of the Icelandic road system in terms of the number of accidents pr km and the rate of accidents pr million km travelled. First to identify the segments where the number of accidents is highest and where the risk of the individual traveller is the greatest. Second to evaluate if the association between the number and the rate of accidents is positive or negative. Third to identify the road segments that are the most dangerous in the sense of many accidents and great risk to individual travellers. Main roads outside urban centers were divided into 45 segments that were on average 78 km in length. Infrequently travelled roads and roads within urban centers were omitted. Information on the length of roads, traffic density and number of accidents was used to calculate the number of accidents per km and the rate of accidents per million km travelled. The correlation between the number and rate of accidents was calculated and the most dangerous road segments were identified by the average rank order on both dimensions. Most accidents pr km occurred on the main roads to and from the capital region, but also east towards Hvolsvöllur, north towards Akureyri and in the Mideast region of the country. The rate of accidents pr million km travelled was highest in the northeast region, in northern Snæfellsnes and in the Westfjords. The most dangerous roads on both dimensions were in Mideast, northern Westfjords, in the north between Blönduós and Akureyri and in northern Snæfellsnes. Most accidents pr km occurred on roads with a low accident rate pr million km travelled. It is therefore possible to reduce accidents the most by increasing road safety where it is already the greatest but that would however increase inequalities in road safety. Policy development in transportation is therefore in part a question of priorities in healthcare. Individual equality in safety and health are not always fully

  7. Instrumentation and monitoring of the nextgen road infrastructure: Some results and perspectives from the R5G project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hautière, Nicolas; Bourquin, Frédéric

    2017-04-01

    Through the centuries, the roads - which today constitute in France a huge transport network of 1 millions kilometers length - have always been able to cope with society needs and challenges. As a consequence, the next generation road infrastructure will have to take into account at least three societal transitions: ecological, energetic and digital. The goal of the 5th generation road project (R5G©) [1], led by Ifsttar in France, aligned with the Forever Open program [2], is to design and build demonstrators of such future road infrastructures. The goal of this presentation is to present different results related to the greening of road materials [3], the design of energy-positive roads [4, 5], the test of roads that self-diagnose [6], the design of roads adapted for connected [7], autonomous [8] and electrified vehicles [9], etc. In terms of perspectives, we will demonstrate that the road infrastructures will soon become a complex system: On one side road users will benefit from new services, on the other side such massively connected and instrumented infrastructures will potentially become an opportune sensor for knowledge development in geoscience, such as air quality, visibility and fog monitoring. References: [1] R5G project. r5g.ifsttar.fr [2] Forever Open Road project. www.foreveropenroad.eu [3] Biorepavation project. www.infravation.net/projects/BIOREPAVATION [4] N. Le Touz, J. Dumoulin. Numerical study of the thermal behavior of a new deicing road structure design with energy harvesting capabilities. EGU General Assembly 2015, Apr 2015, Vienne, Austria. [5] S. Asfour, F. Bernardin, E. Toussaint, J.-M. Piau. Hydrothermal modeling of porous pavement for its surface de-freezing. Applied Thermal Engineering. Volume 107, 25 August 2016, Pages 493-500 [6] LGV BPL Instrumentation. http://railenium.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/INSTRUMENTATION-BPL-FR.pdf [7] SCOOP@F project. https

  8. Road Transportable Analytical Laboratory (RTAL) system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Finger, S.M.

    1995-01-01

    U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) facilities around the country have, over the years, become contaminated with radionuclides and a range of organic and inorganic wastes. Many of the DOE sites encompass large land areas and were originally sited in relatively unpopulated regions of the country to minimize risk to surrounding populations. In addition, wastes were sometimes stored underground at the sites in 55-gallon drums, wood boxes or other containers until final disposal methods could be determined. Over the years, these containers have deteriorated, releasing contaminants into the surrounding environment. This contamination has spread, in some cases polluting extensive areas. The DOE would benefit greatly if it had reliable, road transportable, fully independent laboratory systems that could perform on-site the full range of analyses required. The goal of the Road Transportable Analytical Laboratory (RTAL) project is the development and demonstration of a system to meet the unique needs of the DOE for rapid, accurate analysis of a wide variety of hazardous and radioactive contaminants in soils, ground water and surface waters. This document describes the requirements for such a laboratory

  9. Toward using tire-road contact stresses in pavement design and analysis

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    De Beer, Morris

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available pavement design. Four different tire models were used to represent a single tire type in order to demonstrate its effect on road pavement response of a typical South African pavement structure. Only applied vertical stress was used for the analyses...

  10. Road Transport Entrepreneurs and Road Transportation Revolution ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Toshiba

    upon a massive road-building programme throughout the colony. The rapid expansion ..... transportation problems of his textile customers and palm produce producers and ... unflinching loyalty and solidarity with their illustrious son, General.

  11. PROPOSAL OF VOIVODESHIP ROAD SAFETY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME

    OpenAIRE

    Tomasz SZCZURASZEK; Jan KEMPA

    2016-01-01

    The article presents a proposal of the ‘GAMBIT KUJAWSKO-POMORSKI’ Road Safety Improvement Programme. The main idea of the Programme is to establish and initiate systems that will be responsible for the most important areas of activity within road safety, including road safety control, supervision, and management systems in the whole Voivodeship. In total, the creation and start of nine such systems has been proposed, namely: the Road Safety Management, the Integrated Road Rescue Service, the ...

  12. Safety impacts of rural road construction

    Science.gov (United States)

    2001-02-01

    Crash data in Kentucky show that the fatal crash rate on two-lane rural roads is substantially higher than on any other type of road. Improvements have been proposed at some locations on this type of road which involve either upgrading the existing t...

  13. Psychological aspects of road user behaviour

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rothengatter, J.A.

    The behaviour of road users is an important factor in accident causation. Traffic psychology, defined as ''the study of the behaviour of road users and the psychological processes underlying that behaviour'', attempts to identify the determinants of road user behaviour with the aim of developing

  14. Nonfatal road traffic injuries: can road safety campaigns prevent hazardous behavior? An Italian experience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zampetti, R; Messina, G; Quercioli, C; Vencia, F; Genco, L; Di Bartolomeo, L; Nante, N

    2013-01-01

    Road traffic injuries are a widespread problem and are very difficult to prevent. The purpose of this study was to verify whether intensive versus basic road safety education programs are associated with different incidence and severity of nonfatal road injuries. The study had an ecological design and involved Local Health Authority One (LHA1) in Salerno, Italy, which includes 20 municipalities. Data on nonfatal road injuries occurring in the periods June to August 2003 and June to August 2008 were obtained from trained operators through the information system of the emergency department. All 20 municipalities received a basic community road safety education program (publicity campaign using bill-posting, brochures, mass media communication with press conferences, articles in local papers, radio and television interviews, and a dedicated LHA1 web site), and 12 municipalities also received an intensive education campaign (in secondary schools, community conferences, and activities organized by police and firefighters). The incidence and severity of nonfatal road traffic injuries were compared between June to August 2003 (before the campaign) and June to August 2008. The total number of injuries in all 20 municipalities in 2003 and 2008 was 907 and 755, respectively. The incidence of injuries decreased in the study period both in the 8 municipalities where only the basic campaign was run (difference in incidence = -0.4; P = .053) and in the 12 municipalities where the intensive campaign was implemented (difference in incidence = -0.5; P road safety education. This does not mean that such campaigns are useless (they are important to raise awareness) but that they should be supplemented with complementary activities in order to be really effective.

  15. Road Lane Detection by Discriminating Dashed and Solid Road Lanes Using a Visible Light Camera Sensor.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoang, Toan Minh; Hong, Hyung Gil; Vokhidov, Husan; Park, Kang Ryoung

    2016-08-18

    With the increasing need for road lane detection used in lane departure warning systems and autonomous vehicles, many studies have been conducted to turn road lane detection into a virtual assistant to improve driving safety and reduce car accidents. Most of the previous research approaches detect the central line of a road lane and not the accurate left and right boundaries of the lane. In addition, they do not discriminate between dashed and solid lanes when detecting the road lanes. However, this discrimination is necessary for the safety of autonomous vehicles and the safety of vehicles driven by human drivers. To overcome these problems, we propose a method for road lane detection that distinguishes between dashed and solid lanes. Experimental results with the Caltech open database showed that our method outperforms conventional methods.

  16. Global patterns of current and future road infrastructure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meijer, Johan R.; Huijbregts, Mark A. J.; Schotten, Kees C. G. J.; Schipper, Aafke M.

    2018-06-01

    Georeferenced information on road infrastructure is essential for spatial planning, socio-economic assessments and environmental impact analyses. Yet current global road maps are typically outdated or characterized by spatial bias in coverage. In the Global Roads Inventory Project we gathered, harmonized and integrated nearly 60 geospatial datasets on road infrastructure into a global roads dataset. The resulting dataset covers 222 countries and includes over 21 million km of roads, which is two to three times the total length in the currently best available country-based global roads datasets. We then related total road length per country to country area, population density, GDP and OECD membership, resulting in a regression model with adjusted R 2 of 0.90, and found that that the highest road densities are associated with densely populated and wealthier countries. Applying our regression model to future population densities and GDP estimates from the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) scenarios, we obtained a tentative estimate of 3.0–4.7 million km additional road length for the year 2050. Large increases in road length were projected for developing nations in some of the world’s last remaining wilderness areas, such as the Amazon, the Congo basin and New Guinea. This highlights the need for accurate spatial road datasets to underpin strategic spatial planning in order to reduce the impacts of roads in remaining pristine ecosystems.

  17. Ultra Low Noise Poroelastic Road Surfaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jerzy A. Ejsmont

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Noise is one of the most important environmental problems related to road traffic. During the last decades, the noise emitted by the engines and powertrains of vehicles was greatly reduced and tires became a clearly dominant noise source. The article describes the concept of low noise poroelastic road surfaces that are composed of mineral and rubber aggregate bound by polyurethane resin. Those surfaces have a porous structure and are much more flexible than standard asphalt or cement concrete pavements due to high content of rubber aggregate and elastic binder. Measurements performed in several European countries indicate that such surfaces decrease tire/road noise between 7 dB and 12 dB with respect to reference surfaces such as dense asphalt concrete or stone matrix asphalt. Furthermore, poroelastic road surfaces ascertain the rolling resistance of car tires, which is comparable to classic pavements. One of the unforeseen properties of the poroelastic road surfaces is their ability to decrease the risks related to car fires with fuel spills. The article presents the road and laboratory results of noise, rolling resistance, and fire tests performed on a few types of poroelastic road surfaces.

  18. 23 CFR 660.517 - Maneuver area roads.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 23 Highways 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Maneuver area roads. 660.517 Section 660.517 Highways... PROGRAMS (DIRECT FEDERAL) Defense Access Roads § 660.517 Maneuver area roads. (a) Claims by a highway agency for costs incurred to restore, to their former condition, roads damaged by maneuvers involving a...

  19. EDITORIAL Road traffic accident: A major public health problem in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    admin

    Damen Haile Mariam1. One of the articles in this issue demonstrates how road traffic accident is a serious, but neglected, health problem in Ethiopia using secondary data collected by the Amhara National Regional State. Police Commission from 2007-2011 (1). Fatalities due to traffic accidents are reported to be among.

  20. YÖNETİCİLERİN YÖNETSEL STRES KAYNAKLARI VE STRESE YATKINLIK DÜZEYLERİ: ERZURUM’DA BİR ARAŞTIRMA

    OpenAIRE

    Kaya, M. Dursun; Keskin, Gülümser

    2010-01-01

    Yöneticilik mesleğinin, stresli olduğu bilinen bir gerçektir. İşleriningüçlüğü yanında kişilik olarak da strese daha yatkın oldukları düşünülür. Bütünbunlarla birlikte yöneticiler hem kendi stresleriyle hem de astları üzerinde oluşanstresle mücadele etmek durumundadırlar. Yöneticilik mesleğinin stresli olmasıyanında yöneticilerin strese yatkın davranış özelliğine sahip olduğu görüşü bu...

  1. Dynamics of vehicle-road coupled system

    CERN Document Server

    Yang, Shaopu; Li, Shaohua

    2015-01-01

    Vehicle dynamics and road dynamics are usually considered to be two largely independent subjects. In vehicle dynamics, road surface roughness is generally regarded as random excitation of the vehicle, while in road dynamics, the vehicle is generally regarded as a moving load acting on the pavement. This book suggests a new research concept to integrate the vehicle and the road system with the help of a tire model, and establishes a cross-subject research framework dubbed vehicle-pavement coupled system dynamics. In this context, the dynamics of the vehicle, road and the vehicle-road coupled system are investigated by means of theoretical analysis, numerical simulations and field tests. This book will be a valuable resource for university professors, graduate students and engineers majoring in automotive design, mechanical engineering, highway engineering and other related areas. Shaopu Yang is a professor and deputy president of Shijiazhuang Tiedao University, China; Liqun Chen is a professor at Shanghai Univ...

  2. Predicting fitness-to-drive following stroke using the Occupational Therapy - Driver Off Road Assessment Battery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Unsworth, Carolyn A; Baker, Anne; Lannin, Natasha; Harries, Priscilla; Strahan, Janene; Browne, Matthew

    2018-02-28

    It is difficult to determine if, or when, individuals with stroke are ready to undergo on-road fitness-to-drive assessment. The Occupational Therapy - Driver Off Road Assessment Battery was developed to determine client suitability to resume driving. The predictive validity of the Battery needs to be verified for people with stroke. Examine the predictive validity of the Occupational Therapy - Driver Off Road Assessment Battery for on-road performance among people with stroke. Off-road data were collected from 148 people post stroke on the Battery and the outcome of their on-road assessment was recorded as: fit-to-drive or not fit-to-drive. The majority of participants (76%) were able to resume driving. A classification and regression tree (CART) analysis using four subtests (three cognitive and one physical) from the Battery demonstrated an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.8311. Using a threshold of 0.5, the model correctly predicted 98/112 fit-to-drive (87.5%) and 26/36 people not fit-to-drive (72.2%). The three cognitive subtests from the Occupational Therapy - Driver Off Road Assessment Battery and potentially one of the physical tests have good predictive validity for client fitness-to-drive. These tests can be used to screen client suitability for proceeding to an on-road test following stroke. Implications for Rehabilitation: Following stroke, drivers should be counseled (including consideration of local legislation) concerning return to driving. The Occupational Therapy - Driver Off Road Assessment Battery can be used in the clinic to screen people for suitability to undertake on road assessment. Scores on four of the Occupational Therapy - Driver Off Road Assessment Battery subtests are predictive of resumption of driving following stroke.

  3. Assessing the impact of road transport infrastructure investment on economic development in South Africa

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anathi Hlotywa

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Background: There has been considerable decline in the investment on road transport infrastructure in recent times, as a result of the dwindling economic investment owing to lowering gross domestic product (GDP since 2009. Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between road transport investment (ROTI and economic development (ED in South Africa. This article adopts the Harrod–Domar (HD model of economic growth and development theory, endogenous growth theory and Solow–Swan neoclassical growth model. Method: Data were derived from the South African Reserve Bank, Quantec database and Statistics South Africa (StatsSA between 1990 and 2014. It used time series, econometric models cointegration and vector error correction model (VECM to analyse. Result: The results of the estimation demonstrate that the explanatory variables account for approximately 86.7% variation in ED in South Africa. Therefore, there exists a positive relationship between ROTI and ED. Conclusion: This study established a long-run relationship between phenomena and demonstrates the role of road transport investment on economic development in South Africa.

  4. Road Lane Detection by Discriminating Dashed and Solid Road Lanes Using a Visible Light Camera Sensor

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Toan Minh Hoang

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available With the increasing need for road lane detection used in lane departure warning systems and autonomous vehicles, many studies have been conducted to turn road lane detection into a virtual assistant to improve driving safety and reduce car accidents. Most of the previous research approaches detect the central line of a road lane and not the accurate left and right boundaries of the lane. In addition, they do not discriminate between dashed and solid lanes when detecting the road lanes. However, this discrimination is necessary for the safety of autonomous vehicles and the safety of vehicles driven by human drivers. To overcome these problems, we propose a method for road lane detection that distinguishes between dashed and solid lanes. Experimental results with the Caltech open database showed that our method outperforms conventional methods.

  5. Optimizing detection of road furniture (pole-like object in Mobile Laser Scanner data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D. Li

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available Due to the road safety problem is becoming more and more serious recent years, existing road safety assessment by using automatic method is necessary. Meanwhile, since the pole-like objects have large effect on road safety and are in high demand as facilities to be managed, the automatic pole-like objects extraction is becoming a hot issue. As a result, a robust, quick and automatic pole-like object detection algorithm in MLS data is proposed in this paper. Two datasets are tested to show performance of the proposed algorithm, it demonstrates that it is feasible to detect tree with an overall accuracy of over 92% and other pole-like object of 72% in dataset A and 82% of tree points and 75% of other pole points in dataset B.

  6. Significance of chronic toxoplasmosis in epidemiology of road traffic accidents in Russian Federation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stepanova, Ekaterina V; Kondrashin, Anatoly V; Sergiev, Vladimir P; Morozova, Lola F; Turbabina, Natalia A; Maksimova, Maria S; Brazhnikov, Alexey I; Shevchenko, Sergei B; Morozov, Evgeny N

    2017-01-01

    Studies carried out in Moscow residents have revealed that the prevalence of chronic toxoplasmosis is very close to those in countries of Eastern and Central Europe. Our findings also demonstrated a statistically significant relationship between the rate of traffic accidents and the seroprevalence of chronic toxoplasmosis in drivers who were held responsible for accidents. The latter was 2.37 times higher in drivers who were involved in road accidents compared with control groups. These results suggest that the consequences of chronic toxoplasmosis (particularly a slower reaction time and decreased concentration) might contribute to the peculiarities of the epidemiology of road traffic accidents in the Russian Federation and might interfere with the successful implementation of the Federal Programme named "Increase road traffic safety". Suggestions for how to address overcome this problem are discussed in this paper.

  7. Road Zone Effects in Small-Mammal Communities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John A. Bissonette

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available Our study focused on the putative effects of roads on small-mammal communities in a high desert region of southern Utah. Specifically, we tested whether or not roads create adjacent zones characterized by lower small- mammal densities, abundance, and diversity. We sampled abundance of small mammals at increasing distances from Interstate 15 during two summers. We recorded 11 genera and 13 species. We detected no clear abundance, density, or diversity effects relative to distance from the road. Only two of 13 species were never captured near roads. The abundance of the remaining 11 small mammal species was either similar at different distances from the road or higher closer to the road. We conclude that although roads may act as barriers and possible sources of mortality, adjacent zones of vegetation often provide favorable microhabitat in the desert landscape for many small mammals.

  8. The Measurement of Dry Deposition and Surface Runoff to Quantify Urban Road Pollution in Taipei, Taiwan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Yunn-Jinn; Chen, Chi-Feng; Lin, Jen-Yang

    2013-01-01

    Pollutants deposited on road surfaces and distributed in the environment are a source of nonpoint pollution. Field data are traditionally hard to collect from roads because of constant traffic. In this study, in cooperation with the traffic administration, the dry deposition on and road runoff from urban roads was measured in Taipei City and New Taipei City, Taiwan. The results showed that the dry deposition is 2.01–5.14 g/m2·day and 78–87% of these solids are in the 75–300 µm size range. The heavy metals in the dry deposited particles are mainly Fe, Zn, and Na, with average concentrations of 34,978, 1,519 and 1,502 ppm, respectively. Elevated express roads show the highest heavy metal concentrations. Not only the number of vehicles, but also the speed of the traffic should be considered as factors that influence road pollution, as high speeds may accelerate vehicle wear and deposit more heavy metals on road surfaces. In addition to dry deposition, the runoff and water quality was analyzed every five minutes during the first two hours of storm events to capture the properties of the first flush road runoff. The sample mean concentration (SMC) from three roads demonstrated that the first flush runoff had a high pollution content, notably for suspended solid (SS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), oil and grease, Pb, and Zn. Regular sweeping and onsite water treatment facilities are suggested to minimize the pollution from urban roads. PMID:24135820

  9. Response of moose to a high‐density road network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wattles, David W.; Zeller, Katherine A.; DeStefano, Stephen

    2018-01-01

    Road networks and the disturbance associated with vehicle traffic alter animal behavior, movements, and habitat selection. The response of moose (Alces americanus) to roads has been documented in relatively rural areas, but less is known about moose response to roads in more highly roaded landscapes. We examined road‐crossing frequencies and habitat use of global positioning system (GPS)‐collared moose in Massachusetts, USA, where moose home ranges have road densities approximately twice that of previous studies. We compared seasonal road‐crossing frequencies of moose with a null movement model. We estimated moose travel speeds during road‐crossing events and compared them with speeds during other home range movements. To estimate the extent of the road effect zone and determine how roads influenced moose habitat use, we fit a third‐order resource selection function. With the exception of the lowest use road class (roads less than expected based on the null movement model and frequency decreased with increasing road size and traffic. Moose crossed roads faster than they traveled during other times. This effect increased with increasing road use intensity. Overall, roads were a major factor determining what portions of Massachusetts moose used and how they moved among habitat patches. Our results suggest that moose in Massachusetts can adapt to a high‐density road network, but the road effect is still strongly negative and, in some cases, is more pronounced than in study areas with lower road densities. Future road construction and the expansion of road networks may have a large effect on moose and other wildlife.

  10. Road safety in Poland: magnitude, causes and injuries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goniewicz, Krzysztof; Goniewicz, Mariusz; Pawłowski, Witold; Fiedor, Piotr; Lasota, Dorota

    2017-01-01

    Road accidents are a serious problem of the modern world. They are one of the main causes of injuries and are the third most frequent cause of death. Every year, about one million people, adults and children, die on the roads and several millions get injured. Mortality rate due to injuries from road accidents amounts to 2.2% of all deaths in the world. The research presents epidemiology of road accidents in the period 2004-2015 with particular emphasis on the key issues of road safety in Poland, related to the dangerous behaviour of road users (disregard toward traffic rules). Between years 2004 and 2015 on Polish roads took place more than 508000 accidents with 53155 fatalities and more then 572000 casualties. Despite the various measures which are taken to improve safety on Polish roads, the number of dead and wounded in the vehicle mishap is still large, and losses borne by society are high. To improve safety on Polish roads, it is necessary to continue multi- action plan to systematically progress in the level of road safety.

  11. Factors contributing to amphibian road mortality in a wetland

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haijun GU, Qiang DAI, Qian WANG, Yuezhao WANG

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available To understand road characteristics and landscape features associated with high road mortality of amphibians in Zoige Wetland National Nature Reserve, we surveyed road mortality along four major roads after rainfall in May and September 2007. Road mortality of three species, Rana kukunoris, Nanorana pleskei and Bufo minshanicus, was surveyed across 225 transects (115 in May and 110 in September. Transects were 100 m long and repeated every two kilometers along the four major roads. We used model averaging to assess factors that might determine amphibian road mortality. We recorded an average of 24.6 amphibian road mortalities per kilometer in May and 19.2 in September. Among road characteristics, road width was positively associated with road morality for R. kukunori and B. minshanicus. Traffic volume also increased the road mortality of B. minshanicus in September. Of the landscape features measured, area proportions of three types of grassland (wet, mesic and dry within 1 km of the roads, particularly that of wet grassland, significantly increased road mortality for R. kukunori and total mortality across all three species. To most effectively reduce road mortality of amphibians in the Zoige wetlands, we suggest better road design such as avoiding wet grasslands, minimizing road width, underground passes and traffic control measures. The implementation of public transit in the area would reduce traffic volume, and hence mortality [Current Zoology 57 (6: 768–774, 2011].

  12. Information technology road map 2015

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2009-09-01

    This book introduces information technology road map 2015 with presentation, process, plan and conclusion of it. It also has introduction of IT road map by field : information technology road map 2015 on the next-generation of semiconductor, display, light emitting diode and light industry, home network and home electronic appliances, digital TV and broadcasting, radio technology, satellite communications, mobile communication for the next-generation, BcN field, software, computer for the next-generation and security of knowledge information.

  13. Spatial Analysis Methods of Road Traffic Collisions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Loo, Becky P. Y.; Anderson, Tessa Kate

    Spatial Analysis Methods of Road Traffic Collisions centers on the geographical nature of road crashes, and uses spatial methods to provide a greater understanding of the patterns and processes that cause them. Written by internationally known experts in the field of transport geography, the book...... outlines the key issues in identifying hazardous road locations (HRLs), considers current approaches used for reducing and preventing road traffic collisions, and outlines a strategy for improved road safety. The book covers spatial accuracy, validation, and other statistical issues, as well as link...

  14. Investigation of road network features and safety performance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Xuesong; Wu, Xingwei; Abdel-Aty, Mohamed; Tremont, Paul J

    2013-07-01

    The analysis of road network designs can provide useful information to transportation planners as they seek to improve the safety of road networks. The objectives of this study were to compare and define the effective road network indices and to analyze the relationship between road network structure and traffic safety at the level of the Traffic Analysis Zone (TAZ). One problem in comparing different road networks is establishing criteria that can be used to scale networks in terms of their structures. Based on data from Orange and Hillsborough Counties in Florida, road network structural properties within TAZs were scaled using 3 indices: Closeness Centrality, Betweenness Centrality, and Meshedness Coefficient. The Meshedness Coefficient performed best in capturing the structural features of the road network. Bayesian Conditional Autoregressive (CAR) models were developed to assess the safety of various network configurations as measured by total crashes, crashes on state roads, and crashes on local roads. The models' results showed that crash frequencies on local roads were closely related to factors within the TAZs (e.g., zonal network structure, TAZ population), while crash frequencies on state roads were closely related to the road and traffic features of state roads. For the safety effects of different networks, the Grid type was associated with the highest frequency of crashes, followed by the Mixed type, the Loops & Lollipops type, and the Sparse type. This study shows that it is possible to develop a quantitative scale for structural properties of a road network, and to use that scale to calculate the relationships between network structural properties and safety. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Tailpipe, resuspended road dust, and brake-wear emission factors from on-road vehicles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abu-Allaban, Mahmoud; Gillies, John A.; Gertler, Alan W.; Clayton, Russ; Proffitt, David

    Intensive mass and chemical measurements were performed at roadside locations in Reno, Nevada, and Durham/Research Triangle Park), North Carolina to derive tailpipe, resuspended road dust, and brake-wear emission factors from in-use vehicles. Continuous particulate matter (PM) data were utilized to derive total emission factors while integrated PM data were used to attribute the calculated emission factors to different mechanisms using chemical mass balance receptor modeling and scanning electron microscopy techniques. Resuspended road dust and tailpipe emissions were found to be the dominant mechanisms that contribute significantly to the total PM 10 and PM 2.5 emission factors, respectively. Small contributions from brake-wear were observed at locations where strong braking occurs, but no tire-wear was seen at any sampling location. PM 10 emission rates from light-duty spark ignition (LDSI) vehicles ranged from 40 to 780 mg/km, 10 to 70 mg/km, and 0 to 80 mg/km per vehicle for road dust, tailpipe, and brake-wear, respectively. PM 10 emission rates from heavy-duty vehicles ranged from 230 to 7800 mg/km, 60 to 570 mg/km, and 0 to 610 mg/km per vehicle for road dust, tailpipe, and brake-wear, respectively. PM 2.5 emission rates from LDSI vehicles ranged from 2 to 25 mg/km, 10 to 50 mg/km, and 0 to 5 mg/km per vehicle for road dust, tailpipe, and brake-wear, respectively. PM 2.5 emission rates from heavy-duty vehicles ranged from 15 to 300 mg/km, 60 to 480 mg/km, and 0 to 15 mg/km per vehicle for road dust, tailpipe, and brake-wear, respectively.

  16. Main Road Extraction from ZY-3 Grayscale Imagery Based on Directional Mathematical Morphology and VGI Prior Knowledge in Urban Areas.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Bo; Wu, Huayi; Wang, Yandong; Liu, Wenming

    2015-01-01

    Main road features extracted from remotely sensed imagery play an important role in many civilian and military applications, such as updating Geographic Information System (GIS) databases, urban structure analysis, spatial data matching and road navigation. Current methods for road feature extraction from high-resolution imagery are typically based on threshold value segmentation. It is difficult however, to completely separate road features from the background. We present a new method for extracting main roads from high-resolution grayscale imagery based on directional mathematical morphology and prior knowledge obtained from the Volunteered Geographic Information found in the OpenStreetMap. The two salient steps in this strategy are: (1) using directional mathematical morphology to enhance the contrast between roads and non-roads; (2) using OpenStreetMap roads as prior knowledge to segment the remotely sensed imagery. Experiments were conducted on two ZiYuan-3 images and one QuickBird high-resolution grayscale image to compare our proposed method to other commonly used techniques for road feature extraction. The results demonstrated the validity and better performance of the proposed method for urban main road feature extraction.

  17. Main Road Extraction from ZY-3 Grayscale Imagery Based on Directional Mathematical Morphology and VGI Prior Knowledge in Urban Areas.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bo Liu

    Full Text Available Main road features extracted from remotely sensed imagery play an important role in many civilian and military applications, such as updating Geographic Information System (GIS databases, urban structure analysis, spatial data matching and road navigation. Current methods for road feature extraction from high-resolution imagery are typically based on threshold value segmentation. It is difficult however, to completely separate road features from the background. We present a new method for extracting main roads from high-resolution grayscale imagery based on directional mathematical morphology and prior knowledge obtained from the Volunteered Geographic Information found in the OpenStreetMap. The two salient steps in this strategy are: (1 using directional mathematical morphology to enhance the contrast between roads and non-roads; (2 using OpenStreetMap roads as prior knowledge to segment the remotely sensed imagery. Experiments were conducted on two ZiYuan-3 images and one QuickBird high-resolution grayscale image to compare our proposed method to other commonly used techniques for road feature extraction. The results demonstrated the validity and better performance of the proposed method for urban main road feature extraction.

  18. Main Road Extraction from ZY-3 Grayscale Imagery Based on Directional Mathematical Morphology and VGI Prior Knowledge in Urban Areas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Bo; Wu, Huayi; Wang, Yandong; Liu, Wenming

    2015-01-01

    Main road features extracted from remotely sensed imagery play an important role in many civilian and military applications, such as updating Geographic Information System (GIS) databases, urban structure analysis, spatial data matching and road navigation. Current methods for road feature extraction from high-resolution imagery are typically based on threshold value segmentation. It is difficult however, to completely separate road features from the background. We present a new method for extracting main roads from high-resolution grayscale imagery based on directional mathematical morphology and prior knowledge obtained from the Volunteered Geographic Information found in the OpenStreetMap. The two salient steps in this strategy are: (1) using directional mathematical morphology to enhance the contrast between roads and non-roads; (2) using OpenStreetMap roads as prior knowledge to segment the remotely sensed imagery. Experiments were conducted on two ZiYuan-3 images and one QuickBird high-resolution grayscale image to compare our proposed method to other commonly used techniques for road feature extraction. The results demonstrated the validity and better performance of the proposed method for urban main road feature extraction. PMID:26397832

  19. Bobcats (Lynx rufus) as a Model Organism to Investigate the Effects of Roads on Wide-Ranging Carnivores.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Litvaitis, John A; Reed, Gregory C; Carroll, Rory P; Litvaitis, Marian K; Tash, Jeffrey; Mahard, Tyler; Broman, Derek J A; Callahan, Catherine; Ellingwood, Mark

    2015-06-01

    We are using bobcats (Lynx rufus) as a model organism to examine how roads affect the abundance, distribution, and genetic structure of a wide-ranging carnivore. First, we compared the distribution of bobcat-vehicle collisions to road density and then estimated collision probabilities for specific landscapes using a moving window with road-specific traffic volume. Next, we obtained incidental observations of bobcats from the public, camera-trap detections, and locations of bobcats equipped with GPS collars to examine habitat selection. These data were used to generate a cost-surface map to investigate potential barrier effects of roads. Finally, we have begun an examination of genetic structure of bobcat populations in relation to major road networks. Distribution of vehicle-killed bobcats was correlated with road density, especially state and interstate highways. Collision models suggested that some regions may function as demographic sinks. Simulated movements in the context of the cost-surface map indicated that some major roads may be barriers. These patterns were supported by the genetic structure of bobcats. The sharpest divisions among genetically distinct demes occurred along natural barriers (mountains and large lakes) and in road-dense regions. In conclusion, our study has demonstrated the utility of using bobcats as a model organism to understand the variety of threats that roads pose to a wide-ranging species. Bobcats may also be useful as one of a group of focal species while developing approaches to maintain existing connectivity or mitigate the negative effects of roads.

  20. Distraction-related road traffic collisions

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    drivers involved in road traffic collisions (RTC) were using mobile phones. Our study supports ... while driving. Keywords: Distraction, prevention, road traffic collision, mobile phone. ..... keeps us connected with others with great advantages.

  1. A longitudinal study of an intervention to improve road safety climate: climate as an organizational boundary spanner.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Naveh, Eitan; Katz-Navon, Tal

    2015-01-01

    This study presents and tests an intervention to enhance organizational climate and expands existing conceptualization of organizational climate to include its influence on employee behaviors outside the organization's physical boundaries. In addition, by integrating the literatures of climate and work-family interface, the study explored climate spillover and crossover from work to the home domain. Focusing on an applied practical problem within organizations, we investigated the example of road safety climate and employees' and their families' driving, using a longitudinal study design of road safety intervention versus control groups. Results demonstrated that the intervention increased road safety climate and decreased the number of traffic violation tickets and that road safety climate mediated the relationship between the intervention and the number of traffic violation tickets. Road safety climate spilled over to the family domain but did not cross over to influence family members' driving. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

  2. Road icing forecasting and detecting system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Hongke; Zheng, Jinnan; Li, Peiqi; Wang, Qiucai

    2017-05-01

    Regard for the facts that the low accuracy and low real-time of the artificial observation to determine the road icing condition, and it is difficult to forecast icing situation, according to the main factors influencing the road-icing, and the electrical characteristics reflected by the pavement ice layer, this paper presents an innovative system, that is, ice-forecasting of the highway's dangerous section. The system bases on road surface water salinity measurements and pavement temperature measurement to calculate the freezing point of water and temperature change trend, and then predicts the occurrence time of road icing; using capacitance measurements to verdict the road surface is frozen or not; This paper expounds the method of using single chip microcomputer as the core of the control system and described the business process of the system.

  3. TECHNOLOGY EVALUATION REPORT, SITE PROGRAM DEMONSTRATION TEST: SHIRCO PILOT-SCALE INFRARED INCINERATION SYSTEM ROSE TOWNSHIP DEMODE ROAD SUPERFUND SITE - VOLUME II

    Science.gov (United States)

    The performance of the Shirco pilot-scale infrared thermal destruction system has been evaluated at the Rose Township, Demode Road Superfund Site and is presented in the report. The waste tested consisted of solvents, organics and heavy metals in an illegal dump site. Volume I gi...

  4. Road Safety Education in a Science Course: Evaluation of "Science and the Road."

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gardner, Paul L.

    1989-01-01

    A traffic safety instructional package--"Science and the Road"--was assessed. It was designed by the Road Traffic Authority of Victoria (Australia) for use in tenth-grade science courses. Evaluation findings resulted in revision of the unit and implementation of more inservice courses for teachers lacking relevant biology and physics…

  5. Kansas Road Centerline Fle (KRCF)

    Data.gov (United States)

    Kansas Data Access and Support Center — This version of the Kansas Road Centerline File (0801) represents the first effort to create a statewide roads layer from best available data sources. KGS integrated...

  6. 49 CFR 391.31 - Road test.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 49 Transportation 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Road test. 391.31 Section 391.31 Transportation... COMBINATION VEHICLE (LCV) DRIVER INSTRUCTORS Tests § 391.31 Road test. (a) Except as provided in subpart G, a person shall not drive a commercial motor vehicle unless he/she has first successfully completed a road...

  7. Use of wood ash for road stabilisation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lagerkvist, A.; Lind, B.

    2009-01-01

    Due to warmer winters in Sweden, the bearing capacity of forestry roads has become increasingly problematic in recent years. Road stabilization is needed in order to get timber out from the forests. This usually involves the addition of cement to the road body. However, wood ash is a possible substitute for cement because it has similar properties. Using wood ash has the added advantage of saving landfill space. This paper presented an ongoing laboratory study on leaching and mechanical stability, as well as frost-sensitivity using a 30 per cent ash addition to natural soils for reinforcing a forestry road near Timra in central Sweden. The road was being monitored with regard to environmental impact and mechanical properties. The paper discussed the potential of biofuel ashes and the increasing need to reinforce infrastructure due to climate change. The environmental impact from ash use in road constructions was then addressed. It was concluded that the application of ash in road construction would help to strengthen forest roads, make them more resistant to climatic change and render them accessible year-round. 32 refs., 3 tabs., 2 figs.

  8. NEA International Workshop on the Nuclear Innovation Road-map - NI2050. Workshop proceedings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ait Abderrahim, Hamid; Fernandez Fernandez, Alberto; Van Walle, Eric; Speranzini, Robert; Zezula, Lubor; Puska, Eija Karita; Tuomisto, Harri; Al Mazouzi, Abderrahim; Bazile, Fanny; Cordier, Pierre-Yves; Wahide, Carole; Tromm, Th. Walter; Horvath, Akos; Agostini, Pietro; Ambrosini, Walter; Kamide, Hideki; Nakatsuka, Toru; Sagayama, Yutaka; Tsujimoto, Kazufumi; Jeong, Ik; LEE, Gye Seok; Roelofs, Ferry; Van Der Lugt, Hermen; Wrochna, Grzegorz; Alekseev, Pavel; Andreeva-Andrievskaya, Lyudmila N.; Liska, Peter; Cizelj, Leon; Castelao Lopez, Carlos; Zimmermann, Martin; Rayment, Fiona; Pasamehmetoglu, Kemal; Martin Ramos, Manuel; Schmitz, Bruno; Monti, Stefano; Bignan, Gilles; Mcgrath, Margaret; Caron-Charles, Marylise; Magwood, William IV; Ha, Jaejoo; Deffrennes, Marc; Paillere, Henri; Noh, Jae Man; Gulliford, Jim; Breest, Axel; Matsumoto, Kiyoshi; Lebedev, Vladimir

    2015-07-01

    The two-day workshop held at the OECD Headquarters in Paris on 7-8 July 2015, brought together some of the leading experts in the field of nuclear fission research, development and demonstration. The purpose was to launch the NEA Nuclear Innovation 2050 Initiative, aiming, after a first survey phase, at producing a road-map of main priority research programs and infrastructures necessary to support the role nuclear energy may play in the low carbon power sector of the future. This might then further lead to some ad-hoc co-operation frameworks that help to effectively implement key priorities coming out of the road-mapping. The workshop was organised into the following five sessions: 1 - Opening session on NI2050: vision and main objectives; 2 - National presentations on nuclear fission research and innovation activities (programs, infrastructures, budgets); 3 - Presentations on some existing international nuclear fission road-maps and co-operation frameworks; 4 - Defining the way forward for NI2050: survey, road-mapping and priorities and co-operation; 5 - Open discussion. This document gathers the available presentations given at this workshop

  9. Scaling roads and wildlife: The Cinderella principle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bissonette, J.A.

    2002-01-01

    It is clear that a reduction in both direct and indirect effects of roads and road networks must be the goal of management agencies. However, increased permeability of roaded landscapes can only be achieved by up-front planning and subsequent mitigative actions. The key is to understand that roads must be made permeable to the movement of animals. More profoundly, ecosystem services, i.e., clean water, clean air, uncontaminated soil, natural landscapes, recreation opportunities, abundant wildlife, and life sustaining ecological processes must not be seriously impacted. In other words, quality of life as measured by ecosystem services should be a major component of the planning process when roads are constructed or improved. Mitigative structures exist to increase permeability of roads. Wildlife overpasses and underpasses, often referred to as ecoducts or green bridges, with associated structures to enable larger animals to exit the road right of way, e.g., earthen escape ramps (BISSONETTE and HAMMER, 2001), various culvert designs for smaller animals including badger pipes and amphibian and reptile tunnels, and fish ladders are but a small sampling of the structures already in place around the world. What is needed is attention to the big picture. Landscapes need to be reconnected and made more permeable. Responsible agencies and organizations need to be aggressive about promoting mitigations and a conservation ethic into road planning. Only with a broad based effort between a concerned public, a database to work from, and a willingness of responsible agencies, will the now very large virtual footprint of roads and road networks be reduced to more closely approximate the physical footprint. By embracing the Cinderella Principle of making the virtual shoe fit more closely the actual physical footprint of roads, we will be able to achieve a closer connection with ecological harmony with its resultant effect of abundant wildlife.

  10. Global collaboration on road traffic injury prevention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peden, Margie

    2005-06-01

    Worldwide, nearly 1.2 million people are killed in road traffic crashes every year and 20 million to 50 million more are injured or disabled. These injuries account for 2.1% of global mortality and 2.6% of all disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost. Low- and middle-income countries account for about 85% of the deaths and 90% of the DALYs lost annually. Without appropriate action, by 2020, road traffic injuries are predicted to be the third leading contributor to the global burden of disease. The economic cost of road traffic crashes is enormous. Globally it is estimated that US$518 billion is spent on road traffic crashes with low- and middle-income countries accounting for US$65 billion--more than these countries receive in development assistance. But these costs are just the tip of the iceberg. For everyone killed, injured or disabled by a road traffic crash there are countless others deeply affected. Many families are driven into poverty by the expenses of prolonged medical care, loss of a family breadwinner or the added burden of caring for the disabled. There is an urgent need for global collaboration on road traffic injury prevention. Since 2000, WHO has stepped up its response to the road safety crisis by firstly developing a 5-year strategy for road traffic injury prevention and following this by dedicating World Health Day 2004 to road safety and launching the WHO/World Bank World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention at the global World Health Day event in Paris, France. This short article highlights the main messages from the World Report and the six recommendations for action on road safety at a national and international level. It goes on to briefly discuss other international achievements since World Health Day and calls for countries to take up the challenge of implementing the recommendations of the World Report.

  11. The Relationship between Road Design and Driving Behavior

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Abele, Liva; Møller, Mette

    2011-01-01

    Speed is a substantial factor contributing to road safety. Currently, speed reduction is mainly achieved through law enforcement and the implementation of traffic calming measures. An alternative speed reducing approach is to encourage drivers to voluntarily choose an appropriate driving speed....... Improving road infrastructure safety can be achieved by making roads forgiving and self-explaining. This could be done by clarifying the road design characteristics for each road category. The effect on driver behavior by varying road-shoulders and presence of roadside trees was tested by means of a fixed-driving...... simulator experiment. Speed and lateral position were used as performance indicators. The results indicated that shoulders might not be applied to decrease the speed on the experimental road stretch, but their presence cause drivers to drive closer to the road edge, hence eliminating the probability of head...

  12. Multispectral Image Road Extraction Based Upon Automated Map Conflation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Bin

    Road network extraction from remotely sensed imagery enables many important and diverse applications such as vehicle tracking, drone navigation, and intelligent transportation studies. There are, however, a number of challenges to road detection from an image. Road pavement material, width, direction, and topology vary across a scene. Complete or partial occlusions caused by nearby buildings, trees, and the shadows cast by them, make maintaining road connectivity difficult. The problems posed by occlusions are exacerbated with the increasing use of oblique imagery from aerial and satellite platforms. Further, common objects such as rooftops and parking lots are made of materials similar or identical to road pavements. This problem of common materials is a classic case of a single land cover material existing for different land use scenarios. This work addresses these problems in road extraction from geo-referenced imagery by leveraging the OpenStreetMap digital road map to guide image-based road extraction. The crowd-sourced cartography has the advantages of worldwide coverage that is constantly updated. The derived road vectors follow only roads and so can serve to guide image-based road extraction with minimal confusion from occlusions and changes in road material. On the other hand, the vector road map has no information on road widths and misalignments between the vector map and the geo-referenced image are small but nonsystematic. Properly correcting misalignment between two geospatial datasets, also known as map conflation, is an essential step. A generic framework requiring minimal human intervention is described for multispectral image road extraction and automatic road map conflation. The approach relies on the road feature generation of a binary mask and a corresponding curvilinear image. A method for generating the binary road mask from the image by applying a spectral measure is presented. The spectral measure, called anisotropy-tunable distance (ATD

  13. Drivers’ Visual Behavior-Guided RRT Motion Planner for Autonomous On-Road Driving

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mingbo Du

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper describes a real-time motion planner based on the drivers’ visual behavior-guided rapidly exploring random tree (RRT approach, which is applicable to on-road driving of autonomous vehicles. The primary novelty is in the use of the guidance of drivers’ visual search behavior in the framework of RRT motion planner. RRT is an incremental sampling-based method that is widely used to solve the robotic motion planning problems. However, RRT is often unreliable in a number of practical applications such as autonomous vehicles used for on-road driving because of the unnatural trajectory, useless sampling, and slow exploration. To address these problems, we present an interesting RRT algorithm that introduces an effective guided sampling strategy based on the drivers’ visual search behavior on road and a continuous-curvature smooth method based on B-spline. The proposed algorithm is implemented on a real autonomous vehicle and verified against several different traffic scenarios. A large number of the experimental results demonstrate that our algorithm is feasible and efficient for on-road autonomous driving. Furthermore, the comparative test and statistical analyses illustrate that its excellent performance is superior to other previous algorithms.

  14. Drivers' Visual Behavior-Guided RRT Motion Planner for Autonomous On-Road Driving.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Du, Mingbo; Mei, Tao; Liang, Huawei; Chen, Jiajia; Huang, Rulin; Zhao, Pan

    2016-01-15

    This paper describes a real-time motion planner based on the drivers' visual behavior-guided rapidly exploring random tree (RRT) approach, which is applicable to on-road driving of autonomous vehicles. The primary novelty is in the use of the guidance of drivers' visual search behavior in the framework of RRT motion planner. RRT is an incremental sampling-based method that is widely used to solve the robotic motion planning problems. However, RRT is often unreliable in a number of practical applications such as autonomous vehicles used for on-road driving because of the unnatural trajectory, useless sampling, and slow exploration. To address these problems, we present an interesting RRT algorithm that introduces an effective guided sampling strategy based on the drivers' visual search behavior on road and a continuous-curvature smooth method based on B-spline. The proposed algorithm is implemented on a real autonomous vehicle and verified against several different traffic scenarios. A large number of the experimental results demonstrate that our algorithm is feasible and efficient for on-road autonomous driving. Furthermore, the comparative test and statistical analyses illustrate that its excellent performance is superior to other previous algorithms.

  15. Drivers’ Visual Behavior-Guided RRT Motion Planner for Autonomous On-Road Driving

    Science.gov (United States)

    Du, Mingbo; Mei, Tao; Liang, Huawei; Chen, Jiajia; Huang, Rulin; Zhao, Pan

    2016-01-01

    This paper describes a real-time motion planner based on the drivers’ visual behavior-guided rapidly exploring random tree (RRT) approach, which is applicable to on-road driving of autonomous vehicles. The primary novelty is in the use of the guidance of drivers’ visual search behavior in the framework of RRT motion planner. RRT is an incremental sampling-based method that is widely used to solve the robotic motion planning problems. However, RRT is often unreliable in a number of practical applications such as autonomous vehicles used for on-road driving because of the unnatural trajectory, useless sampling, and slow exploration. To address these problems, we present an interesting RRT algorithm that introduces an effective guided sampling strategy based on the drivers’ visual search behavior on road and a continuous-curvature smooth method based on B-spline. The proposed algorithm is implemented on a real autonomous vehicle and verified against several different traffic scenarios. A large number of the experimental results demonstrate that our algorithm is feasible and efficient for on-road autonomous driving. Furthermore, the comparative test and statistical analyses illustrate that its excellent performance is superior to other previous algorithms. PMID:26784203

  16. Sediment deposition from forest roads at stream crossings as influenced by road characteristics

    Science.gov (United States)

    A.J. Lang; W.M. Aust; M.C. Bolding; K.J. McGuire

    2015-01-01

    Recent controversies associated with ditched forest roads and stream crossings in the Pacific Northwest have focused national attention on sediment production and best management practices (BMPs) at stream crossings. Few studies have quantified soil erosion rates at stream crossings as influenced by road characteristics and compared them to modeled rates. Soil erosion...

  17. Development of road hydronic snow-ice melting system with solar energy and seasonal underground thermal energy storage

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gao, Q.; Liu, Y.; Ma, C.Q.; Li, M.; Huang, Y.; Yu, M. [Jilin Univ., Changchun (China). Dept. of Thermal Energy Engineering; Liu, X.B. [Climate Master Inc., OK (United States)

    2008-07-01

    Snow and ice melting technologies that used thermal energy storage were explored. The study included analyses of solar heat slab, seasonal underground thermal energy storage, and embedded pipe technologies. Different road materials, roadbed construction methods, and underground rock and soil conditions were also discussed. New processes combining all 3 of the main technologies were also reviewed. Other thermal ice melting technologies included conductive concrete and asphalt; heating cables, and hydronic melting systems. Geothermal energy is increasingly being considered as a means of melting snow and ice from roads and other infrastructure. Researchers have also been focusing on simulating heat transfer in solar collectors and road-embedded pipes. Demonstration projects in Japan, Switzerland, and Poland are exploring the use of combined geothermal and solar energy processes to remove snow and ice from roads. Research on hydronic melting technologies is also being conducted in the United States. The study demonstrated that snow-ice melting energy storage systems will become an important and sustainable method of snow and ice removal in the future. The technology efficiently uses renewable energy sources, and provides a cost-effective means of replacing or reducing chemical melting agents. 33 refs., 1 fig.

  18. Mayan Forest Road Projects

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Conde, Dalia Amor

    2008-01-01

    Road-building projects in the Mayan Biosphere Reserve to connect Mexico and Guatemala were subjected to a cost-benefit evaluation. Up to an estimated 311,000 hectares of jaguar habitat were found to be at risk of deforestation due to these projects. Some of the projects were shown to have negativ...... of continued conservation rather than road development....

  19. Final report on Thermally Modified Sand demonstration project

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1994-09-23

    The use of salt and salt/sand mixtures on icy roadway surfaces has dramatically increased during the past 30 years. Despite extensive documentation on salt related damage to the roadway improvements, vehicles and the environment, road maintenance departments have continued to rely on this practice. Road maintenance departments in northern climate areas have long recognized the safety benefits for public mobility on icy roadways from the use of sand. As an abrasive material, the sand improves the surface traction that results in more drivable and less hazardous road conditions during the winter months. Stockpiles of pure sand stored during the winter months oftentimes freeze into large unworkable, monolithic piles. To maintain a free-flowing condition, it has been found to be necessary to add salt to the sand. The addition of salt in amounts ranging from 5 to 10 percent to that of sand, is usually sufficient to provide relatively free-flowing abrasive material that could be stored in stockpiles and applied to icy road surfaces with conventional sand spreading trucks. Another alternative for winter storage of pure sand to maintain a free-flowing condition is in humidity-controlled, heated buildings. As would be expected, this method has high capital and operating costs. and not cost effective for general highway maintenance use. The invention demonstrated herein is a method of thermally modifying pure sand that will remain in a free-flowing state throughout the winter season without the need for the salt additive. The thermally modified sand provides an abrasive material that when applied to icy roads does not cause environmental and corrosive damage as done by the application of sand with salt. By employing a very simple process of freezing screened sand particles by forced air convection under subfreezing conditions, the invention creates a product that has significant value in terms of economic and environmental benefits.

  20. BRICS: opportunities to improve road safety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hyder, Adnan A; Vecino-Ortiz, Andres I

    2014-06-01

    Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa--the countries known as BRICS--are currently undergoing a deep epidemiological transition that is mainly driven by rapid economic growth and technological change. The changes being observed in the distribution of the burden of diseases and injuries--such as recent increases in the incidence of road traffic injuries--are matters of concern. BRICS may need stronger institutional capacity to address such changes in a timely way. In this paper, we present data on road traffic injuries in BRICS and illustrate the enormous challenge that these countries currently face in reducing the incidence of such injuries. There is an urgent need to improve road safety indicators in every country constituting BRICS. It is imperative for BRICS to invest in system-wide road safety interventions and reduce the mortality and morbidity from road traffic injuries.

  1. Roads Belong In the Urban Landscape

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Clemmensen, Thomas Juel

    2012-01-01

    In spite of being an essential part of the system of automobility and as such playing an important role in the development of urban landscapes, road networks seldom attracts much attention among architects involved in the planning and design of urban landscapes. One reason is probably found...... in the dominance of the zoning approach to planning, where road planning easily becomes isolated and reduced to a matter of traffic regulation and transport economy. Another possible reason could be, as suggested by the Australian landscape architect Christopher Sawyer, that road networks like other...... as landscape architects engage with road networks in profound ways, which moves beyond the purely visual and pictorial? Is it possible to conceptually (re)locate road networks in the landscape? The paper will address these questions by discussing different understandings of landscape and its relation...

  2. A Fuel-Based Assessment of On-Road and Off-Road Mobile Source Emission Trends

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dallmann, T. R.; Harley, R. A.

    2009-12-01

    Mobile sources contribute significantly to emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the United States. These emissions lead to a variety of environmental concerns including adverse human health effects and climate change. In the electric power sector, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and NOx emissions from power plants are measured directly using continuous emission monitoring systems. In contrast for mobile sources, statistical models are used to estimate average emissions from a very large and diverse population of engines. Despite much effort aimed at improving them, mobile source emission inventories continue to have large associated uncertainties. Alternate methods are needed to help evaluate estimates of mobile source emissions and quantify and reduce the associated uncertainties. In this study, a fuel-based approach is used to estimate emissions from mobile sources, including on-road and off-road gasoline and diesel engines. In this approach, engine activity is measured by fuel consumed (in contrast EPA mobile source emission models are based on vehicle km of travel and total amount of engine work output for on-road and off-road engines, respectively). Fuel consumption is defined in this study based on highway fuel tax reports for on-road engines, and from surveys of fuel wholesalers who sell tax-exempt diesel fuel for use in various off-road sectors such as agriculture, construction, and mining. Over the decade-long time period (1996-2006) that is the focus of the present study, national sales of taxable gasoline and diesel fuel intended for on-road use increased by 15 and 43%, respectively. Diesel fuel use by off-road equipment increased by about 20% over the same time period. Growth in fuel consumption offset some of the reductions in pollutant emission factors that occurred during this period. This study relies on in-use measurements of mobile source emission factors, for example from roadside and tunnel studies, remote sensing, and

  3. Modeling near-road air quality using a computational fluid dynamics model, CFD-VIT-RIT.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Y Jason; Zhang, K Max

    2009-10-15

    It is well recognized that dilution is an important mechanism governing the near-road air pollutant concentrations. In this paper, we aim to advance our understanding of turbulent mixing mechanisms on and near roadways using computation fluid dynamics. Turbulent mixing mechanisms can be classified into three categories according to their origins: vehicle-induced turbulence (VIT), road-induced turbulence (RIT), and atmospheric boundary layer turbulence. RIT includes the turbulence generated by road embankment, road surface thermal effects, and roadside structures. Both VIT and RIT are affected by the roadway designs. We incorporate the detailed treatment of VIT and RIT into the CFD (namely CFD-VIT-RIT) and apply the model in simulating the spatial gradients of carbon monoxide near two major highways with different traffic mix and roadway configurations. The modeling results are compared to the field measurements and those from CALINE4 and CFD without considering VIT and RIT. We demonstrate that the incorporation of VIT and RIT considerably improves the modeling predictions, especially on vertical gradients and seasonal variations of carbon monoxide. Our study implies that roadway design can significantly influence the near-road air pollution. Thus we recommend that mitigating near-road air pollution through roadway designs be considered in the air quality and transportation management In addition, thanks to the rigorous representation of turbulent mixing mechanisms, CFD-VIT-RIT can become valuable tools in the roadway designs process.

  4. Assisted overtaking : An assessment of overtaking on two-lane rural roads

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hegeman, G.

    2008-01-01

    At the start of the 21st century overtaking on two-lane rural roads is a major traffic safety problem. However, this dissertation research demonstrates that most drivers are perfectly able to safely perform these manoeuvres. Their time spent in the left lane is about eight seconds. Preparing

  5. Road geometry as a factor for musculoskeletal injuries due to road traffic accidents in Sub-Himalayan State of Himachal Pradesh

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sunil Kumar Raina

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Road traffic accidents (RTAs kill 1.25 million people each year and injure between 20 and 50 million more people with many incurring a disability as a result of their injury. The road environment (design and geometry can affect driver speed choice, thereby increasing chances of accidents.Materials and Methods: Patients attending tertiary care center for musculoskeletal injuries after an RTA were enrolled in the study. The data were collected using a standard questionnaire. The details on the geometry of the road (type of road; highway or other, metaled or nonmetaled, straight, and curved were obtaine through inspection wherever possible. Results: Majority of the RTAs occurred on state highways (n = 154/313, 49.7% followed by national highways (NH (n = 94/313, 30%. Link roads account for comparatively less number (n = 65/313, 20.7% of cases. Majority of the accidents occurred on metaled road (n = 268, 85.6%; however, the association of different vehicles involved in RTA with the condition of road was not found to be significant statistically (P > 0.5. Further, the majority of the RTA occurred on straight roads (n = 204, 65.1%. Conclusion: Road geometry is an important factor in RTAs as drivers generally tend to choose their speed based on their perception of the appropriate speed for the road geometry.

  6. Who is in control of road safety? A STAMP control structure analysis of the road transport system in Queensland, Australia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salmon, Paul M; Read, Gemma J M; Stevens, Nicholas J

    2016-11-01

    Despite significant progress, road trauma continues to represent a global safety issue. In Queensland (Qld), Australia, there is currently a focus on preventing the 'fatal five' behaviours underpinning road trauma (drug and drink driving, distraction, seat belt wearing, speeding, and fatigue), along with an emphasis on a shared responsibility for road safety that spans road users, vehicle manufacturers, designers, policy makers etc. The aim of this article is to clarify who shares the responsibility for road safety in Qld and to determine what control measures are enacted to prevent the fatal five behaviours. This is achieved through the presentation of a control structure model that depicts the actors and organisations within the Qld road transport system along with the control and feedback relationships that exist between them. Validated through a Delphi study, the model shows a diverse set of actors and organisations who share the responsibility for road safety that goes beyond those discussed in road safety policies and strategies. The analysis also shows that, compared to other safety critical domains, there are less formal control structures in road transport and that opportunities exist to add new controls and strengthen existing ones. Relationships that influence rather than control are also prominent. Finally, when compared to other safety critical domains, the strength of road safety controls is brought into question. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Trismus: An unusual presentation following road accident

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thakur Jagdeep

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available Trismus due to trauma usually follows road accidents leading to massive faciomaxillary injury. In the literature there is no report of a foreign body causing trismus following a road accident, this rare case is an exception. We present a case of isolated presentation of trismus following a road accident. This case report stresses on the thorough evaluation of patients presenting with trismus following a road accident.

  8. 40 CFR 63.4561 - How do I demonstrate initial compliance?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... demonstration for each general use, TPO, automotive lamp, and assembled on-road vehicle coating operation... in the coating operation controlled by the solvent recovery system during each month. Perform a... recovery system during the month, kg volatile organic matter per kg coating. You may determine the volatile...

  9. Erosion and sediment delivery following removal of forest roads

    Science.gov (United States)

    Madej, Mary Ann

    2001-01-01

    Erosion control treatments were applied to abandoned logging roads in California, with the goal of reducing road-related sediment input to streams and restoring natural hydrologic patterns on the landscape. Treatment of stream crossings involved excavating culverts and associated road fill and reshaping streambanks. A variety of techniques were applied to road benches, which included decompacting the road surface, placing unstable road fill in more stable locations, and re-establishing natural surface drainage patterns. Following treatment and a 12-year recurrence-interval storm, some road reaches and excavated stream crossings showed evidence of mass movement failures, gullying, bank erosion and channel incision. Post-treatment erosion from excavated stream crossings was related to two variables: a surrogate for stream power (drainage area × channel gradient) and the volume of fill excavated from the channel. Post-treatment erosion on road reaches was related to four explanatory variables: method of treatment, hillslope position (upper, mid-slope or lower), date of treatment, and an interaction term (hillslope position × method of treatment). Sediment delivery from treated roads in upper, middle and lower hillslope positions was 10, 135 and 550 m3 of sediment per kilometre of treated roads, respectively. In contrast, inventories of almost 500 km of forest roads in adjacent catchments indicate that untreated roads produced 1500 to 4700 m3 of sediment per kilometre of road length. Erosion from 300 km of treated roads contributed less than 2 per cent of the total sediment load of Redwood Creek during the period 1978 to 1998. Although road removal treatments do not completely eliminate erosion associated with forest roads, they do substantially reduce sediment yields from abandoned logging roads.

  10. Innovation as Road Safety Felicitator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sahoo, S.; Mitra, A.; Kumar, J.; Sahoo, B.

    2018-03-01

    Transportation via Roads should only be used for safely commuting from one place to another. In 2015, when 1.5 Million people, across the Globe started out on a journey, it was meant to be their last. The Global Status Report on Road Safety, 2015, reflected this data from 180 countries as road traffic deaths, worldwide. In India, more than 1.37 Lakh[4] people were victims of road accidents in 2013 alone. That number is more than the number of Indians killed in all the wars put together. With these disturbing facts in mind, we found out some key ambiguities in the Indian Road Traffic Management systems like the non-adaptive nature to fluctuating traffic, pedestrians and motor vehicles not adhering to the traffic norms strictly, to name a few. Introduction of simple systems would greatly erase the effects of this silent epidemic and our Project aims to achieve the same. It would introduce a pair of Barricade systems to cautiously separate the pedestrians and motor vehicles to minimise road mishaps to the extent possible. Exceptional situations like that of an Ambulance or any emergency vehicles will be taken care off by the use of RFID tags to monitor the movement of the Barricades. The varied traffic scenario can be guided properly by using the ADS-B (Automatic Detection System-Broadcast) for monitoring traffic density according to the time and place.

  11. Improving road safety: Experiences from the Netherlands

    OpenAIRE

    Hagenzieker, M.P.

    2012-01-01

    Dr. Hagenzieker's research and education activities focus on the road safety effects of the transport system, with particular interest in road user behaviour aspects. Her PhD-research was on the effects of rewards on road user behaviour.

  12. Predicting the effectiveness of road safety campaigns through alternative research designs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adamos, Giannis; Nathanail, Eftihia

    2016-12-01

    A large number of road safety communication campaigns have been designed and implemented in the recent years; however their explicit impact on driving behavior and road accident rates has been estimated in a rather low proportion. Based on the findings of the evaluation of three road safety communication campaigns addressing the issues of drinking and driving, seat belt usage, and driving fatigue, this paper applies different types of research designs (i.e., experimental, quasi-experimental, and non-experimental designs), when estimating the effectiveness of road safety campaigns, implements a cross-design assessment, and conducts a cross-campaign evaluation. An integrated evaluation plan was developed, taking into account the structure of evaluation questions, the definition of measurable variables, the separation of the target audience into intervention (exposed to the campaign) and control (not exposed to the campaign) groups, the selection of alternative research designs, and the appropriate data collection methods and techniques. Evaluating the implementation of different research designs in estimating the effectiveness of road safety campaigns, results showed that the separate pre-post samples design demonstrated better predictability than other designs, especially in data obtained from the intervention group after the realization of the campaign. The more constructs that were added to the independent variables, the higher the values of the predictability were. The construct that most affects behavior is intention, whereas the rest of the constructs have a lower impact on behavior. This is particularly significant in the Health Belief Model (HBM). On the other hand, behavioral beliefs, normative beliefs, and descriptive norms, are significant parameters for predicting intention according to the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The theoretical and applied implications of alternative research designs and their applicability in the evaluation of road safety

  13. Differential Effects of Roads and Traffic on Space Use and Movements of Native Forest-Dependent and Introduced Edge-Tolerant Species.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hsiang Ling Chen

    Full Text Available Anthropogenic infrastructure such as roads and non-native species are major causes of species endangerment. Understanding animal behavioral responses to roads and traffic provides insight into causes and mechanisms of effects of linear development on wildlife and aids effective mitigation and conservation. We investigated effects of roads and traffic on space use and movements of two forest-dwelling species: endemic, forest-dependent Mount Graham red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis and introduced, edge-tolerant Abert's squirrels (Sciurus aberti. To assess the effects of roads on space use and movement patterns, we compared the probability that a squirrel home range included roads and random lines in forests, and assessed effects of traffic intensity on rate of road crossing and movement patterns. Red squirrels avoided areas adjacent to roads and rarely crossed roads. In contrast, Abert's squirrels were more likely to include roads in their home ranges compared to random lines in forests. Both red squirrels and Abert's squirrels increased speed when crossing roads, compared to before and after road crossings. Increased hourly traffic volume reduced the rate of road crossings by both species. Behavioral responses of red squirrels to roads and traffic resemble responses to elevated predation risk, including reduced speed near roads and increased tortuosity of movement paths with increased traffic volume. In contrast, Abert's squirrels appeared little affected by roads and traffic with tortuosity of movement paths reduced as distance to roads decreased. We found that species with similar body size category (<1 kg but different habitat preference and foraging strategy responded to roads differently and demonstrated that behavior and ecology are important when considering effects of roads on wildlife. Our results indicate that roads restricted movements and space use of a native forest-dependent species while creating habitat preferred

  14. Differential Effects of Roads and Traffic on Space Use and Movements of Native Forest-Dependent and Introduced Edge-Tolerant Species.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Hsiang Ling; Koprowski, John L

    2016-01-01

    Anthropogenic infrastructure such as roads and non-native species are major causes of species endangerment. Understanding animal behavioral responses to roads and traffic provides insight into causes and mechanisms of effects of linear development on wildlife and aids effective mitigation and conservation. We investigated effects of roads and traffic on space use and movements of two forest-dwelling species: endemic, forest-dependent Mount Graham red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis) and introduced, edge-tolerant Abert's squirrels (Sciurus aberti). To assess the effects of roads on space use and movement patterns, we compared the probability that a squirrel home range included roads and random lines in forests, and assessed effects of traffic intensity on rate of road crossing and movement patterns. Red squirrels avoided areas adjacent to roads and rarely crossed roads. In contrast, Abert's squirrels were more likely to include roads in their home ranges compared to random lines in forests. Both red squirrels and Abert's squirrels increased speed when crossing roads, compared to before and after road crossings. Increased hourly traffic volume reduced the rate of road crossings by both species. Behavioral responses of red squirrels to roads and traffic resemble responses to elevated predation risk, including reduced speed near roads and increased tortuosity of movement paths with increased traffic volume. In contrast, Abert's squirrels appeared little affected by roads and traffic with tortuosity of movement paths reduced as distance to roads decreased. We found that species with similar body size category (roads differently and demonstrated that behavior and ecology are important when considering effects of roads on wildlife. Our results indicate that roads restricted movements and space use of a native forest-dependent species while creating habitat preferred by an introduced, edge-tolerant species.

  15. [Effects of road construction on regional vegetation types].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Shi-Liang; Liu, Qi; Wang, Cong; Yang, Jue-Jie; Deng, Li

    2013-05-01

    As a regional artificial disturbance component, road exerts great effects on vegetation types, and plays a substantial role in defining vegetation distribution to a certain extent. Aiming at the tropical rainforest degradation and artificial forest expansion in Yunnan Province of Southwest China, this paper analyzed the effects of road network extension on regional vegetation types. In the Province, different classes of roads had different effects on the vegetation types, but no obvious regularity was observed in the effects on the patch areas of different vegetation types due to the great variations of road length and affected distance. However, the vegetation patch number was more affected by lower class roads because of their wide distribution. As for different vegetation types, the vegetations on cultivated land were most affected by roads, followed by Castanopsis hystrix and Schima wallichii forests. Road network formation contributed most to the vegetation fragmentation, and there existed significant correlations between the human disturbance factors including village- and road distributions.

  16. Value of monitoring in road network management

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zouch, M.; Courage, W.; Napoles-Morales, O.

    2014-01-01

    We present a framework for road network management to assist road authorities in maintenance budget estimations and long-term maintenance strategies definition. Information about road conditions is obtained from monitoring. Available data are used to estimate and update prediction of degradation

  17. road sector development and economic growth in ethiopia1

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Eyerusalem

    Regarding community roads, both the management and accountancy .... previous years and its impact on overall and sectoral economic growth. Descriptive analysis is deployed to capture the link between the road transport sector and performance indicators, like rural accessibility, road density, road network, road financing ...

  18. Birds and Roads: Reduced Transit for Smaller Species over Roads within an Urban Environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christopher D. Johnson

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Roads provide humans with a means of mobility between destinations, be it for transportation of goods and services or as a means of connecting with others. However, roads are also known to contribute toward a number of deleterious landscape processes, such as habitat destruction and fragmentation, pollution (e.g., chemical, noise and light and animal mortality. Few studies however have investigated their effects on avifauna. We investigated the influence of road width on movements of nearby bird assemblages in Australia by comparing crossing counts of four species guilds and sizes over roads of varying widths in Southern Brisbane. In addition, we also sought to determine the association of seasonality with species crossing richness and abundance. Species guild affiliations were based on definitions from previous literature: small forest dependent, large forest dependent, honeyeater, and urban tolerant; whereas body size classifications were arbitrarily defined: small (< 20 cm, medium (20–29 cm, and large (>30 cm. Road sites were selected based on their vegetation likeness, both within and between sites, and this was assessed using the Specht classification system. We detected strong, negative correlations between road width and forest species richness, crossing species richness and species crossing abundance. In particular, analysis of species guild classifications revealed species richness and crossing likelihoods of the small forest dependent guild to be consistently lower than those of large forest dependent, honeyeater and urban tolerant guilds. Analysis of species by body size classification yielded similar outcomes: small birds were consistently less likely to be present nearby and cross over roads of all widths compared to medium and large birds. We believe gap permeability, particularly changes in vegetation structure and complexity that may restrict a species ability to access to the gap, as well as competition and predation, play an

  19. Distributed Road Grade Estimation for Heavy Duty Vehicles

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sahlholm, Per

    2011-07-01

    An increasing need for goods and passenger transportation drives continued worldwide growth in traffic. As traffic increases environmental concerns, traffic safety, and cost efficiency become ever more important. Advancements in microelectronics open the possibility to address these issues through new advanced driver assistance systems. Applications such as predictive cruise control, automated gearbox control, predictive front lighting control, and hybrid vehicle state-of-charge control decrease the energy consumption of vehicles and increase the safety. These control systems can benefit significantly from preview road grade information. This information is currently obtained using specialized survey vehicles, and is not widely available. This thesis proposes new methods to obtain road grade information using on-board sensors. The task of creating road grade maps is addressed by the proposal of a framework where vehicles using a road network collect the necessary data for estimating the road grade. The estimation can then be carried out locally in the vehicle, or in the presence of a communication link to the infrastructure, centrally. In either case the accuracy of the map increases over time, and costly road surveys can be avoided. This thesis presents a new distributed method for creating accurate road grade maps for vehicle control applications. Standard heavy duty vehicles in normal operation are used to collect measurements. Estimates from multiple passes along a road segment are merged to form a road grade map, which improves each time a vehicle retraces a route. The design and implementation of the road grade estimator are described, and the performance is experimentally evaluated using real vehicles. Three different grade estimation methods, based on different assumption on the road grade signal, are proposed and compared. They all use data from sensors that are standard equipment in heavy duty vehicles. Measurements of the vehicle speed and the engine

  20. Climate Projection Data base for Roads - CliPDaR: Design a guideline for a transnational database of downscaled climate projection data for road impact models - within the Conference's of European Directors of Roads (CEDR) TRANSNATIONAL ROAD RESEARCH PROG

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matulla, Christoph; Namyslo, Joachim; Fuchs, Tobias; Türk, Konrad

    2013-04-01

    The European road sector is vulnerable to extreme weather phenomena, which can cause large socio-economic losses. Almost every year there occur several weather triggered events (like heavy precipitation, floods, landslides, high winds, snow and ice, heat or cold waves, etc.), that disrupt transportation, knock out power lines, cut off populated regions from the outside and so on. So, in order to avoid imbalances in the supply of vital goods to people as well as to prevent negative impacts on health and life of people travelling by car it is essential to know present and future threats to roads. Climate change might increase future threats to roads. CliPDaR focuses on parts of the European road network and contributes, based on the current body of knowledge, to the establishment of guidelines helping to decide which methods and scenarios to apply for the estimation of future climate change based challenges in the field of road maintenance. Based on regional scale climate change projections specific road-impact models are applied in order to support protection measures. In recent years, it has been recognised that it is essential to assess the uncertainty and reliability of given climate projections by using ensemble approaches and downscaling methods. A huge amount of scientific work has been done to evaluate these approaches with regard to reliability and usefulness for investigations on possible impacts of climate changes. CliPDaR is going to collect the existing approaches and methodologies in European countries, discuss their differences and - in close cooperation with the road owners - develops a common line on future applications of climate projection data to road impact models. As such, the project will focus on reviewing and assessing existing regional climate change projections regarding transnational highway transport needs. The final project report will include recommendations how the findings of CliPDaR may support the decision processes of European

  1. Geotechnical Monitoring of the Automobile Road

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matsiy, Vladimir

    2017-12-01

    In the present article, the results of geotechnical monitoring of A-147 automobile road “Dzhubga-Sochi” are given. Some sections of the automobile road suffered from the landslide adjustment movements; it resulted in many deformations of the retaining structures, the damages of the roadbed and ground crawling over the retaining walls. The observation data made it possible to specify the borders of the active landslide and to form a forecast of the landslide activity in the sections of the automobile roads. Due to monitoring being carried out, there was substantiated the necessity to correct the service forms and records connected with the automobile road reconstruction.

  2. Roads Belong in the Urban Landscape

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Clemmensen, Thomas Juel

    2013-01-01

    Roads are often associated with a fragmentation or splintering of landscapes and their natural connectivity; particularly in relation to ‘green infrastructure’ they are often considered problematic elements that rupture and barricade. Conversely, as part of larger networks, roads can be considered...... important elements in the creation of new, ‘green infrastructures’ that can qualify urban landscapes in terms of improving their overall porosity and connectivity. This argument will be unfolded and substantiated in this article through theoretical reflections which conceptually re-locate road networks...... in the urban landscape, supported by relevant reference projects that illustrate the potential of road networks as a platform for ‘green infrastructure’....

  3. Fresh gasoline emissions, not paved road dust, alter cardiac repolarization in ApoE-/- mice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campen, Matthew J; McDonald, Jacob D; Reed, Matthew D; Seagrave, Jeanclare

    2006-01-01

    Fresh vehicular emissions potentially represent a ubiquitous environmental concern for cardiovascular health. We compared electrocardiographic effects of fresh gasoline engine emissions with resuspended paved road dust in a mouse model of coronary insufficiency. Apolipoprotein E (ApoE)-/- mice on a high fat diet were exposed by whole-body inhalation to either gasoline emissions at 60 microg/m3 particulate matter (PM), an equivalent atmosphere with particles filtered out of the whole exhaust, or paved road dust at 0.5 and 3.5 mg /m3 for 6 h/d for 3 d. Radiotelemetry recordings of electrocardiogram (ECG) were analyzed for changes in T-wave morphology (QT interval, T-wave amplitude, and T-wave Area). Following exposures, lung lavage and blood samples were obtained to assay for markers of pulmonary and systemic inflammation. No exposure induced significant changes in heart rate and only the high concentration of road dust induced signs of pulmonary inflammation. T-wave area exhibited significant deviation from baseline values during exposure to gasoline exhaust particulates, but not to either concentration of road dust or gasoline emissions sans particulates. Gasoline-exposed mice demonstrated elevated plasma endothelin-1, but did not cause systemic inflammation. These data support the hypothesis that freshly-generated engine emissions, as opposed to resuspended paved road dust, may drive cardiac effects that have been observed at road-sides in the environment. The absence of ECG effects for both very high concentrations of road dust PM and equivalent concentrations of the vapor/gas phase of gasoline engine exhaust further indicate the specific risk conferred by fresh vehicular PM.

  4. Determining health expectancies

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Robine, Jean-Marie

    2003-01-01

    ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jean-Marie Robine 9 1 Increase in Life Expectancy and Concentration of Ages at Death . . . . France Mesle´ and Jacques Vallin 13 2 Compression of Morbidity...

  5. Why Did the Snake Cross the Road? Effects of Roads on Movement and Location of Mates by Garter Snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Richard Shine

    2004-06-01

    Full Text Available If animals avoid road surfaces or are unable to follow conspecific trails across such surfaces, previously continuous populations may be fragmented. We gathered data on the effects of a small (4-m wide gravel road on the behavior and trail-following abilities of garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis in Manitoba, central Canada. As expected, the road surface had less vegetation cover, a more open canopy and, thus, higher incident radiation than did the surrounding grassland. Contrary to expectations, however, substrate temperatures were lower on the road than in its surrounds, because of the higher reflectivity of the road's surface. On a nearby asphalt road, substrate temperatures were relatively high on the road surface only in the evening, as surrounding areas cooled. Focal sampling showed that snakes avoided the gravel road, typically changing direction when they encountered it. If they crossed the road, they did so by the shortest possible route (straight across. Mate-searching male snakes were less able to follow substrate-deposited pheromonal trails left by females if those trails crossed a road than if the trails were entirely within the surrounding grassland. Thus, roads may significantly modify snake movement patterns, as well as the ability of males to locate reproductive females. Our study provides the first detailed information on the effects of roads on snake behavior.

  6. Simulating autonomous driving styles: Accelerations for three road profiles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karjanto Juffrizal

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a new experimental approach to simulate projected autonomous driving styles based on the accelerations at three road profiles. This study was focused on the determination of ranges of accelerations in triaxial direction to simulate the autonomous driving experience. A special device, known as the Automatic Acceleration and Data controller (AUTOAccD, has been developed to guide the designated driver to accomplish the selected accelerations based on the road profiles and the intended driving styles namely assertive, defensive and light rail transit (LRT. Experimental investigations have been carried out at three different road profiles (junction, speed hump, and corner with two designated drivers with five trials on each condition. A driving style with the accelerations of LRT has also been included in this study as it is significant to the present methodology because the autonomous car is predicted to accelerate like an LRT, in such a way that it enables the users to conduct activities such as working on a laptop, using personal devices or eating and drinking while travelling. The results demonstrated that 92 out of 110 trials of the intended accelerations for autonomous driving styles could be achieved and simulated on the real road by the designated drivers. The differences between the two designated drivers were negligible, and the rates of succeeding in realizing the intended accelerations were high. The present approach in simulating autonomous driving styles focusing on accelerations can be used as a tool for experimental setup involving autonomous driving experience and acceptance.

  7. Functional classification of the Gauteng provincial road network ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The built environment consists of various land uses and activities connected by a road network. The efficiency and effectiveness of the road network directly impacts economic growth and societal movement. This study involved the functional classification of the Gauteng provincial road network using the South African Road ...

  8. Problematics of Reliability of Road Rollers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stawowiak, Michał; Kuczaj, Mariusz

    2018-06-01

    This article refers to the reliability of road rollers used in a selected roadworks company. Information on the method of road rollers service and how the service affects the reliability of these rollers is presented. Attention was paid to the process of the implemented maintenance plan with regard to the machine's operational time. The reliability of road rollers was analyzed by determining and interpreting readiness coefficients.

  9. 36 CFR 212.5 - Road system management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... construction, reconstruction, decommissioning, and maintenance. (2) Identification of unneeded roads... share of the costs. (d) Maintenance and reconstruction of National Forest System roads by users—(1... to cover maintenance or reconstruction of roads shall be used for the purposes deposited, except that...

  10. Introducing Dual Suspension System in Road Vehicles

    OpenAIRE

    Imtiaz Hussain; Jawaid Daudpoto; Ali Asghar Memon

    2013-01-01

    The main objective of suspension system is to reduce the motions of the vehicle body with respect to road disturbances. The conventional suspension systems in road vehicles use passive elements such as springs and dampers to suppress the vibrations induced by the irregularities in the road. But these conventional suspension systems can suppress vibrations to a certain limit. This paper presents a novel idea to improve the ride quality of roads vehicles without compromising vehicle?s stability...

  11. Salt on roads and the environment (VB)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hessberg, Philipp von; Jørgensen, Michael Søgaard

    2000-01-01

    This report descripes the extent of use of salt on roads in Denmark and the environmental consequences of this. Alternative strategies for reducing the risk of greasy roads and different ways of alleviating the vegetation are also discussed.The different consequences for the environment...... that this report discusses are:- The ground water.- Lakes and streams.- Plants and trees along roads.The consequences for the economy through usage of salt on roads has not been carried out....

  12. The study of technological prevention method of road accident ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The study of technological prevention method of road accident related to driver and vehicle. ... road accident prevention method based on the factors studied. The study of this paper can provide forceful data analysis support for the road traffic safety related research. Keywords: road accident; accident prevention; road safety.

  13. Road-map for 2. generation biofuels

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2009-01-01

    This document presents road-map issues concerning the requirements for biofuels of second generation, and defines the priorities addressed by a demonstrator program. It recalls the context created by the challenges of climate change and the excessive dependence on fossil fuels, and the objectives defined by the European Union in terms of biofuel share in the global consumption. Then, it describes the candidate technologies for the production of this second generation of biofuels, those based on thermo-chemical processes (mainly the pyrolysis-gasification of biomass), and those based on biochemical processes (enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation of biomass). It highlights the technological challenges for these processes, and describes the various objectives of research projects supported by a 'demonstrator fund'. It discusses the necessity to develop demonstrators, and mentions some current projects of private companies, competitiveness clusters, and public research institutions. An agenda is defined from 2009 to 2020 which encompasses the research, demonstration and operation phases. An appendix provides brief presentations of thermo-chemical or biological demonstrators currently under operation or under construction in foreign countries (Germany, Finland, United States of America, Sweden, Spain, Canada, Japan, and Denmark)

  14. Testing Re-entrained Aerosol Kinetic Emissions from Roads : a new approach to infer silt loading on roadways

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuhns, H.; Etyemezian, V.; Landwehr, D.; MacDougall, C.; Pitchford, M.; Green, M.

    PM 10 and PM 2.5 emissions from roadways are currently estimated using the silt loading on the road surface as a surrogate for the emissions potential of road dust. While the United States Environmental Protection Agency prescribes this method in AP-42, there is considerable cost associated with silt loading measurements; it is feasible to sample only a small portion of a roadway network. A new approach for measuring the concentration of suspendable PM 10 above road surfaces has been developed to obtain a more spatially representative estimate of a road's potential to emit dust. The Testing Re-entrained Aerosols Kinetic Emissions from Roads (TRAKER) system uses real-time aerosol sensors mounted on a vehicle to measure the concentration of dust suspended from the road while the vehicle is in motion. When coupled with a Global Positioning System (GPS) instrument, TRAKER can be used to efficiently survey the changes in suspendable particles due to varying road conditions over a large spatial domain. In a recent study on paved roads in Las Vegas, the TRAKER system was compared with collocated silt loading measurements. The TRAKER system was also used to survey the relative amounts of suspendable road dust on approximately 300 miles of paved roads. The system provides a unique perspective on road dust sources and their spatial distribution. Results of this study indicated that the difference of the PM 10 concentrations measured behind the tire and on the hood is exponentially related to vehicle speed. This was an interesting finding because current AP-42 road dust emissions estimation methods do not include vehicle speed as a factor in the emissions calculations. The experiment also demonstrated that the distribution of suspendable material on roadways is highly variable and that a large number of samples are needed to represent road dust emissions potential on an urban scale for a variety of road and activity conditions.

  15. The scaling structure of the global road network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strano, Emanuele; Giometto, Andrea; Shai, Saray; Bertuzzo, Enrico; Mucha, Peter J; Rinaldo, Andrea

    2017-10-01

    Because of increasing global urbanization and its immediate consequences, including changes in patterns of food demand, circulation and land use, the next century will witness a major increase in the extent of paved roads built worldwide. To model the effects of this increase, it is crucial to understand whether possible self-organized patterns are inherent in the global road network structure. Here, we use the largest updated database comprising all major roads on the Earth, together with global urban and cropland inventories, to suggest that road length distributions within croplands are indistinguishable from urban ones, once rescaled to account for the difference in mean road length. Such similarity extends to road length distributions within urban or agricultural domains of a given area. We find two distinct regimes for the scaling of the mean road length with the associated area, holding in general at small and at large values of the latter. In suitably large urban and cropland domains, we find that mean and total road lengths increase linearly with their domain area, differently from earlier suggestions. Scaling regimes suggest that simple and universal mechanisms regulate urban and cropland road expansion at the global scale. As such, our findings bear implications for global road infrastructure growth based on land-use change and for planning policies sustaining urban expansions.

  16. Dust emissions from unpaved roads on the Colorado Plateau

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duniway, M.; Flagg, C.; Belnap, J.

    2013-12-01

    On the Colorado Plateau, elevated levels of aeolian dust have become a major land management and policy concern due to its influence on climate, weather, terrestrial ecosystem dynamics, landscape development and fertility, melting of snow and ice, air quality, and human health. Most desert soil surfaces are stabilized by plants, rocks, and/or physical or biological soil crusts, but once disturbed, sediment production from these surfaces can increase dramatically. Road development and use is a common surface disturbing activity in the region. The extent and density of roads and road networks is rapidly increasing due to continued energy exploration, infrastructure development, and off-highway recreation activities. Though it is well known that unpaved roads produce dust, the relative contribution of dust from existing roads or the implications of future road development to regional dust loading is unknown. To address this need, we have initiated a multifaceted research effort to evaluating dust emissions from unpaved roads regionally. At 34 sites arranged across various road surfaces and soil textures in southeastern Utah, we are: 1) monitoring dust emissions, local wind conditions, and vehicle traffic and 2) evaluating fugitive dust potential using a portable wind tunnel and measuring road characteristics that affect dust production. We will then 3) develop a GIS-based model that integrates results from 1 & 2 to estimate potential dust contributions from current and future scenarios of regional road development. Passive, horizontal sediment traps were installed at three distances downwind from the road edge. One control trap was placed upwind of the samplers to account for local, non-road dust emissions. An electronic vehicle counter and anemometer were also installed at monitoring sites. Dust samples were collected every three months at fixed heights, 15 cm up to 100 cm above the soil surface, from March 2010 to the present. Threshold friction velocities (TFV

  17. Road safety policy of the European Union.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    2013-01-01

    The European Union (EU) is important for national road safety policies. The EU has several policymaking instruments, such as binding regulations and directives, and non-binding recommendations. An important element in the EU policy plans on road safety are the non-binding European road safety

  18. Road lighting fundamentals, technology and application

    CERN Document Server

    van Bommel, Wout

    2015-01-01

    This book outlines the underlying principles on which modern road lighting is based, and provides the reader with knowledge of how these principles should be applied in practice. It offers a completely fresh approach to the subject, reflecting how the technology of road lighting has progressed to keep up with the changes in lamp technology, especially in solid state light sources, and the increasing awareness of energy use and environmental issues. The book is divided into three parts. Part One describes lighting of open roads, with chapters discussing visual performance and comfort (including the effects of mesopic vision and age), and international standards and recommendations for road lighting. Lighting equipment is introduced; specifically lamps and luminaires in terms of their practical properties and features, but also the road surface and its characteristics. A chapter on Lighting Design makes the link between theory and practice, providing the reader with the knowledge needed for effective lighting d...

  19. Road traffic noise and children's inattention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weyde, Kjell Vegard; Krog, Norun Hjertager; Oftedal, Bente; Magnus, Per; Øverland, Simon; Stansfeld, Stephen; Nieuwenhuijsen, Mark J; Vrijheid, Martine; de Castro Pascual, Montserrat; Aasvang, Gunn Marit

    2017-11-21

    An increasing number of children are exposed to road traffic noise levels that may lead to adverse effects on health and daily functioning. Childhood is a period of intense growth and brain maturation, and children may therefore be especially vulnerable to road traffic noise. The objective of the present study was to examine whether road traffic noise was associated with reported inattention symptoms in children, and whether this association was mediated by sleep duration. This study was based on the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study conducted by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Parental reports of children's inattention at age 8 were linked to modelled levels of residential road traffic noise. We investigated the association between inattention and noise exposure during pregnancy (n = 1934), noise exposure averaged over 5 years (age 3 to 8 years; n = 1384) and noise exposure at age 8 years (n = 1384), using fractional logit response models. The participants were children from Oslo, Norway. An association with inattention at age 8 years was found for road traffic noise exposure at age 8 years (coef = .0083, CI = [.0012, .0154]; 1.2% point increase in inattention score per 10 dB increase in noise level), road traffic noise exposure average for the last 5 years (coef = .0090, CI = [.0016, .0164]; 1.3% point increase/10 dB), and for pregnancy road traffic noise exposure for boys (coef = .0091, CI = [.0010, .0171]), but not girls (coef = -.0021, CI = [-.0094, .0053]). Criteria for doing mediation analyses were not fulfilled. Results indicate that road traffic noise has a negative impact on children's inattention. We found no mediation by sleep duration.

  20. Road safety in developing countries.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schreuder, D.A.

    1991-01-01

    This paper presents a classification of countries (developing and developed alike), divided into two main categories: an economical and historical entry. When road safety problems are placed into the economical context, it then appears that, among other things: (1) The road safety problem in the

  1. 5 CFR 930.107 - Waiver of road test.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 5 Administrative Personnel 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Waiver of road test. 930.107 Section 930....107 Waiver of road test. Under the following conditions, OPM or an agency head or his or her designated representative may waive the road test: (a) OPM waives the road test requirement for operators of...

  2. Guidelines for upgrading of low volume roads

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Division of Roads

    1993-03-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this manual is to provide guidelines on the upgrading of gravel low volume roads to roads and maintenance personnel of road authorities of all sizes. Low volume is, for the purpose of this document, defined to be less than 500...

  3. Traffic mortality and the role of minor roads.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Langevelde, Frank; van Dooremalen, Coby; Jaarsma, Catharinus F

    2009-01-01

    Roads have large impacts on wildlife, as they form one of the principal causes of mortality, and disturbance and fragmentation of habitat. These impacts are mainly studied and mitigated on major roads. It is, however, a widespread misconception that most animals are killed on major roads. In this paper, we argue that minor roads have a larger impact on wildlife with respect to habitat destruction, noise load and traffic mortality. We use data on traffic related deaths in badgers (Meles meles) in The Netherlands to illustrate that traffic mortality is higher on minor roads. We ask for a more extensive investigation of the environmental impacts of minor roads. Moreover, we argue that the success of mitigation on roads drastically increases when both major and minor roads are integrated in the planning of traffic flows. Therefore, we propose a strategy based on the concept of a "traffic-calmed area". Traffic-calmed areas create opportunities for wildlife by decreasing limitations for animal movement. We ask for further studies to estimate what size traffic-calmed areas should be to maintain minimum viable animal populations.

  4. Extended investigation on road fatality in Brunei.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yusof, N B; Hoque, M A; Steele, M C; Yong, S Y

    2018-06-08

    Road fatality is one of the leading causes of death in Brunei with 79 deaths in 1993, the highest ever recorded. The Brunei government has been trying to reduce this by implementing new traffic measures and successfully reduced fatalities to 24 fatalities in 2014. Yearly road fatality has been fluctuating, but there has been a declining tendency overall. The aim of this study is to investigate road fatality in Brunei by extending the research. We developed a multiple regression model and carried out an analysis on road fatality in Brunei. Our analysis indicates that the road fatality appears to rise depending on the increase in the number of young drivers between 15 to 24 years and the number of unemployed people. Comparisons of Brunei road fatality rate per 10,000 vehicles are made with some other countries and we conclude that Brunei has approximately the same rate as Australia in 2014.

  5. Road dust from pavement wear and traction sanding

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kupiainen, K.

    2007-07-01

    Vehicles affect the concentrations of ambient airborne particles through exhaust emissions, but particles are also formed in the mechanical processes in the tire-road interface, brakes, and engine. Particles deposited on or in the vicinity of the road may be re-entrained, or resuspended, into air through vehicle-induced turbulence and shearing stress of the tires. A commonly used term for these particles is 'road dust'. The processes affecting road dust emissions are complex and currently not well known. Road dust has been acknowledged as a dominant source of PM10 especially during spring in the sub-arctic urban areas, e.g. in Scandinavia, Finland, North America and Japan. The high proportion of road dust in sub-arctic regions of the world has been linked to the snowy winter conditions that make it necessary to use traction control methods. Traction control methods include dispersion of traction sand, melting of ice with brine solutions, and equipping the tires with either metal studs (studded winter tires), snow chains, or special tire design (friction tires). Several of these methods enhance the formation of mineral particles from pavement wear and/or from traction sand that accumulate in the road environment during winter. When snow and ice melt and surfaces dry out, traffic-induced turbulence makes some of the particles airborne. A general aim of this study was to study processes and factors underlying and affecting the formation and emissions of road dust from paved road surfaces. Special emphasis was placed on studying particle formation and sources during tire road interaction, especially when different applications of traction control, namely traction sanding and/or winter tires were in use. Respirable particles with aerodynamic diameter below 10 micrometers (PM10) have been the main concern, but other size ranges and particle size distributions were also studied. The following specific research questions were addressed: (i) How do traction

  6. Large roads reduce bat activity across multiple species.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kitzes, Justin; Merenlender, Adina

    2014-01-01

    Although the negative impacts of roads on many terrestrial vertebrate and bird populations are well documented, there have been few studies of the road ecology of bats. To examine the effects of large roads on bat populations, we used acoustic recorders to survey bat activity along ten 300 m transects bordering three large highways in northern California, applying a newly developed statistical classifier to identify recorded calls to the species level. Nightly counts of bat passes were analyzed with generalized linear mixed models to determine the relationship between bat activity and distance from a road. Total bat activity recorded at points adjacent to roads was found to be approximately one-half the level observed at 300 m. Statistically significant road effects were also found for the Brazilian free-tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis), big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus), hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus), and silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans). The road effect was found to be temperature dependent, with hot days both increasing total activity at night and reducing the difference between activity levels near and far from roads. These results suggest that the environmental impacts of road construction may include degradation of bat habitat and that mitigation activities for this habitat loss may be necessary to protect bat populations.

  7. EFFECT OF A ROAD SAFETY EDUCATION INTERVENTION ON ROAD SAFETY KNOWLEDGE OF UNIVERSITY DRIVERS IN IBADAN, NIGERIA.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olumide, A O; Owoaje, E T

    2016-06-01

    It is essential for drivers employed in the formal sector to have good knowledge of road safety in order to safeguard their lives and those of the staff they are employed to drive. The study was conducted to determine the effect of a road safety education intervention on road safety knowledge of drivers employed in the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. A quasi-experimental study of 98 intervention and 78 control drivers selected using a cluster sampling technique was conducted. The intervention comprised a two-day training on road safety and first aid. The drivers' knowledge of road safety was measured at baseline, immediately and 4-months post-intervention. Aggregate scores of road safety knowledge were computed giving minimum and maximum obtainable scores of 0 and 16 respectively. Change in mean scores over the three measurement periods was assessed using Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Independent t-test was used to compare the scores between intervention and control drivers at each of the assessment periods. Twenty-nine drivers did not complete the study (attrition rate = 16.5%). At baseline, mean road safety knowledge scores for the intervention and control drivers were 12.7±2.2 and 12.9± 2.3 (p = 0.510) respectively. Immediately and four months post intervention, the scores of the intervention drivers were 13.8±1.9 and 12.8±1.6; while scores for the controls were 13.3±2.0 and 13.2±1.8. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed that the increase in knowledge over the three assessment periods was not statistically significant. The intervention resulted in an initial increase in road safety knowledge of the intervention drivers. However, this was not sustained to the forth month post-intervention. This finding suggests periodic refresher trainings to sustain the knowledge acquired.

  8. The Use of Theatre Tours in Road Safety Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Powney, Janet; And Others

    The Scottish Road Safety Campaign and the Road Safety Council of Wales have made a large investment in theater tours as a method of providing road safety education. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a road safety message delivered by a theater group, Road Safety Officers (RSOs), or, teachers for pupils in upper secondary classes.…

  9. Network Screening for Smarter Road Sites: A Regional Case

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Attila Grieco

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Road safety has been a main societal and policy issue in many European countries since the early years of last decade. After the 2000-2010 Road Safety Programme launched by the European Commission, in 2011 the Commission adopted the new 2020 programme, even more demanding than the previous. As the societal consequences of road casualties are increasingly perceived as a core dimension of smart mobility, road safety system is now facing new challenges. Current mobility shifts to softer and greener transportation means raise new safety concerns for an increasingly larger share of vulnerable road users. The need to integrate road safety requirements with other residential, mobility, and environmental policies calls for a more detailed understanding of the phenomenon at different spatial levels and with different observation lenses. The pilot study described in this paper is a contribution to this end. It aims at identifying the accident prone sites of the regional road network to help prioritizing safety interventions, by the regional administration having road planning responsibilities. The study develops a screening approach to select hazardous road locations, outside urban premises, from the Piedmont provincial and state roads. The most recent data for the 2010-2012 years were considered, drawn from the ISTAT road accident database, managed by the CMRSS. The procedure consists of the following steps: identification of the elementary road sections to be screened, through a GIS analysis; definition of the screening groups (road sections have been subdivided in 4 length classes; definition of the selection criteria, with two severity thresholds based on the crash density; classification of the elementary road sections by severity thresholds.

  10. Residential proximity to major roads and term low birth weight: the roles of air pollution, heat, noise, and road-adjacent trees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dadvand, Payam; Ostro, Bart; Figueras, Francesc; Foraster, Maria; Basagaña, Xavier; Valentín, Antònia; Martinez, David; Beelen, Rob; Cirach, Marta; Hoek, Gerard; Jerrett, Michael; Brunekreef, Bert; Nieuwenhuijsen, Mark J

    2014-07-01

    Maternal residential proximity to roads has been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. However, there is no study investigating mediators or buffering effects of road-adjacent trees on this association. We investigated the association between mothers' residential proximity to major roads and term low birth weight (LBW), while exploring possible mediating roles of air pollution (PM(2.5), PM(2.5-10), PM(10), PM(2.5) absorbance, nitrogen dioxide, and nitrogen oxides), heat, and noise and buffering effect of road-adjacent trees on this association. This cohort study was based on 6438 singleton term births in Barcelona, Spain (2001-2005). Road proximity was measured as both continuous distance to and living within 200 m from a major road. We assessed individual exposures to air pollution, noise, and heat using, respectively, temporally adjusted land-use regression models, annual averages of 24-hour noise levels across 50 m and 250 m, and average of satellite-derived land-surface temperature in a 50-m buffer around each residential address. We used vegetation continuous fields to abstract tree coverage in a 200-m buffer around major roads. Living within 200 m of major roads was associated with a 46% increase in term LBW risk; an interquartile range increase in heat exposure with an 18% increase; and third-trimester exposure to PM(2.5), PM(2.5-10), and PM10 with 24%, 25%, and 26% increases, respectively. Air pollution and heat exposures together explained about one-third of the association between residential proximity to major roads and term LBW. Our observations on the buffering of this association by road-adjacent trees were not consistent between our 2 measures of proximity to major roads. An increased risk of term LBW associated with proximity to major roads was partly mediated by air pollution and heat exposures.

  11. Prioritizing Road Treatments using the Geomorphic Roads Analysis and Inventory Package (GRAIP) to Improve Watershed Conditions in the Wall Creek Watershed, Oregon

    Science.gov (United States)

    Day, K. T.; Black, T.; Clifton, C.; Luce, C.; McCune, S.; Nelson, N.

    2010-12-01

    Wall Creek, tributary to the North Fork John Day River in eastern Oregon, was identified as a priority watershed by the Umatilla National Forest for restoration in 2002. Most streams in this 518 km2 multi-ownership watershed are designated critical habitat for threatened steelhead. Eight streams are listed on the Oregon 303(d) list for elevated temperatures and excess sedimentation. Over 1000 km of public and private roads in the watershed present a major source of potential water quality and habitat impairment. We conducted a watershed-wide inventory of roads using the Geomorphic Roads Analysis and Inventory Package (GRAIP) in 2009 to quantify sediment contributions from roads to streams. GRAIP is a field and GIS-based model developed by the Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station and Utah State University that georeferences and quantifies road hydrologic connectivity, sediment production and delivery, mass wasting, and risk of diversion and plugging at stream crossings. Field survey and modeling produced data for 6,473 drainage locations on 726 km of road (most of the publically owned roads) quantifying the location and mass of sediment produced and delivered to streams. Findings indicate a relatively small subset of roads deliver the majority of road-produced fine sediment; 12 percent of the road length delivers 90 percent of the total fine sediment to streams. Overall fine sediment production in the watershed is relatively low (with an estimated background erosion rate of 518,000 kg/yr for the watershed) and sediment produced and delivered from the road system appears to be a modest addition. Road surfaces produce approximately 81,455 kg of fine sediment per year, with 20,976 kg/year delivered to the stream network. Fifty-nine gullies were observed, 41 of which received road runoff. Sixteen road-related landslides were also observed. The excavated volume of these features totals 3,922,000 kg which is equivalent to 175 years of fine sediment delivery at

  12. Road safety and trade and industry.

    OpenAIRE

    2014-01-01

    Trade and industry mostly experience the negative consequences of crashes, but sometimes the consequences are positive. The negative consequences of road traffic crashes include loss of personnel and damage to vehicles. Some other industries, such as damage repair companies, on the other hand, derive income from road crashes. Trade and industry can also be of importance for road safety. Particularly the transport sector, the car industry and insurers take several initiatives which for example...

  13. Self regulation initiative in heavy vehicle transport to address road safety, accelerated road deterioration and transport productivity in South Africa

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Nordengen, Paul A

    2006-06-01

    Full Text Available Heavy vehicle overloading and road safety continue to be major problems in South Africa notwithstanding efforts at more effective enforcement by the road and traffic authorities. Overloading causes premature road deterioration and, together...

  14. Effects of roads on survival of San Clemente Island foxes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Snow, N.P.; Andelt, William F.; Stanley, T.R.; Resnik, J.R.; Munson, L.

    2012-01-01

    Roads generate a variety of influences on wildlife populations; however, little is known about the effects of roads on endemic wildlife on islands. Specifically, road-kills of island foxes (Urocyon littoralis) on San Clemente Island (SCI), Channel Islands, California, USA are a concern for resource managers. To determine the effects of roads on island foxes, we radiocollared foxes using a 3-tiered sampling design to represent the entire population in the study area, a sub-population near roads, and a sub-population away from roads on SCI. We examined annual survival rates using nest-survival models, causes of mortalities, and movements for each sample. We found the population had high annual survival (0.90), although survival declined with use of road habitat, particularly for intermediate-aged foxes. Foxes living near roads suffered lower annual survival (0.76), resulting from high frequencies of road-kills (7 of 11 mortalities). Foxes living away from roads had the highest annual survival (0.97). Road-kill was the most prominent cause of mortality detected on SCI, which we estimated as killing 3-8% of the population in the study area annually. Based on movements, we were unable to detect any responses by foxes that minimized their risks from roads. The probabilities of road-kills increased with use of the road habitat, volume of traffic, and decreasing road sinuosity. We recommend that managers should attempt to reduce road-kills by deterring or excluding foxes from entering roads, and attempting to modify behaviors of motorists to be vigilant for foxes. ?? 2011 The Wildlife Society.

  15. Second-best Road Pricing through Highway Franchising

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Verhoef, E.T.

    2007-01-01

    This paper considers the welfare impacts of a range of franchising regimes for congestible highways. For a single road in isolation, it is shown that a competitive auction with the level of road use as the decision criterion produces the socially optimal road (in terms of capacity and toll level),

  16. Quantification of Gravel Rural Road Sediment Production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Silliman, B. A.; Myers Toman, E.

    2014-12-01

    Unbound rural roads are thought to be one of the largest anthropogenic sources of sediment reaching stream channels in small watersheds. This sediment deposition can reduce water quality in the streams negatively impacting aquatic habitat as well as impacting municipal drinking water sources. These roads are thought to see an increase in construction and use in southeast Ohio due to the expansion of shale gas development in the region. This study set out to quantify the amount of sediment these rural roads are able to produce. A controlled rain event of 12.7 millimeters of rain over a half hour period was used to drive sediment production over a 0.03 kilometer section of gravel rural road. These 8 segments varied in many characteristics and produced from 2.0 to 8.4 kilograms of sediment per 0.03 kilometers of road with the average production over the 8 segments being 5.5 kilograms of sediment. Sediment production was not strongly correlated with road segment slope but traffic was found to increase sediment production from 1.1 to 3.9 times as much sediment after traffic use. These results will help inform watershed scale sediment budgeting, and inform best management practices for road maintenance and construction. This study also adds to the understanding of the impacts of rural road use and construction associated with the changing land use from agricultural to natural gas extraction.

  17. Major Roads

    Data.gov (United States)

    Minnesota Department of Natural Resources — This data set contains roadway centerlines for major roads (interstates and trunk highways) found on the USGS 1:24,000 mapping series. These roadways are current...

  18. Small-scale geodiversity and dirt road management, Ede (NL)

    Science.gov (United States)

    van den Ancker, Hanneke; Jungerius, Pieter Dirk

    2016-04-01

    A large part of the countryside roads on the Pleistocene sands of The Netherlands are dirt roads. Most are footpaths, but a small percentage are relatively heavily used by motorized vehicles. These latter roads are a cause subject of debate. Puddles and potholes develop during periods of wet weather, while dust whirls from the roads form during spells of dry weather as do washboard ripples. They cause problems for people living along these roads and tourists (walkers and bikers. The community of Ede (NL), like many other communities on the sand, wants to keep its 80 km of dirt roads because of the natural values they harbour as well as for their characteristic landscape quality and cultural heritage value. A part of the dirt roads in Ede is heavily used. In 2009, the community of Ede developed a decision model to support management of the dirt roads. Ede acknowledges that each dirt road is unique and asks for a tailor-made solution. Road maintenance measures include grading, making a camber, digging pits, applying loam or sandy loam. If problems become too large, one-way traffic can be an option. In more and more cases the dirt roads are barred for motorized through traffic (Gemeente Ede, 2009). As a reconnaissance we have studied the dirt roads of the Horabos/Horalaan over the last year. Incidentally we looked at other parts of the main Horalaan and the footpaths in the adjacent forest of Hoekelum. All dirt roads lie near the top of a Saalian push-moraine in which the upper course of dry valleys are present. Some results of the reconnaissance: - Most dirt roads sections in the Horabos lie lower than the surrounding terrain; - The problems develop in a short period of time during special weather conditions; - Certain dirt road sections e.g. those sections crossing a slight depression are quickly developing potholes; - Even a small slope of the road (differences that have consequences for its maintenance. Knowledge of geodiversity of the terrain and study of small

  19. Pedestrian Safety in Road Traffic in Poland

    Science.gov (United States)

    Budzynski, Marcin; Jamroz, Kazimierz; Mackun, Tomasz

    2017-10-01

    Every third road accident in Poland involves a pedestrian as a participant or, most of the time, a casualty. Pedestrian accidents are usually the result of complex situations and the outcome of a number of factors related to driver and pedestrian behaviour and road infrastructure. Safety depends largely on how well the traffic condition is perceived and on visibility in traffic. The paper presents the results of analyses of methodologies for systematic studies of pedestrian behaviour and pedestrian-driver relations. The effects of the location of the site, type of cross-section and other selected parameters on pedestrian and driver behaviour are demonstrated. The analyses showed that pedestrians are most often put at risk by too long pedestrian crossings, vehicles going too fast around pedestrian crossings, lack of proper sight distance and poorly lit or unlit pedestrian crossings. The reason for such defective infrastructure is that planners, designers, contractors and maintenance services are not receiving any support from design, marking and maintenance regulations for pedestrian traffic. In addition, the Road Traffic Law is not restrictive enough when it comes to drivers’ obligations towards pedestrian safety. Polish design regulations allow long pedestrian crossings up to four lanes in one direction or three lanes in two directions irrespective of traffic control and speed limits. Pedestrian crossings should be kept at a maximum of three lanes. There is nothing in the design regulations about the required driver-pedestrian sight distance. Neither does the Road Traffic Law help engineers with that. It is legal to park vehicles within 10 m of a pedestrian crossing which does not guarantee the necessary sight distance. Drivers must be able to see a pedestrian waiting or stepping onto the crossing from a distance that will help them come to a stop safely. It is safer to follow the principle of providing adequate pedestrian sight distance. Recommendations for

  20. New optimization strategies of pavement maintenance: A case study for national road network in Indonesia using integrated road management system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamdi, Hadiwardoyo, Sigit P.; Correia, A. Gomes; Pereira, Paulo

    2017-06-01

    A road network requires timely maintenance to keep the road surface in good condition onward better services to improve accessibility and mobility. Strategies and maintenance techniques must be chosen in order to maximize road service level through cost-effective interventions. This approach requires an updated database, which the road network in Indonesia is supported by a manual and visual survey, also using NAASRA profiler. Furthermore, in this paper, the deterministic model of deterioration was used. This optimization model uses life cycle cost analysis (LCCA), applied in an integrated manner, using IRI indicator, and allows determining the priority of treatment, type of treatment and its relation to the cost. The purpose of this paper was focussed on the aspects of road maintenance management, i.e., maintenance optimization models for different levels of traffic and various initial of road distress conditions on the national road network in Indonesia. The implementation of Integrated Road Management System (IRMS) can provide a solution to the problem of cost constraints in the maintenance of the national road network. The results from this study found that as the lowest as agency cost, it will affect the increasing of user cost. With the achievement of the target plan scenario Pl000 with initial value IRI 2, it was found that the routine management throughout the year and in early reconstruction and periodic maintenance with a 30 mm thick overlay, will simultaneously provide a higher net benefit value and has the lowest total cost of transportation.

  1. Evaluation of Shortest Paths in Road Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Farrukh Shehzad

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available Optimization is a key factor in almost all the topics of operations research / management science and economics.The road networks can be optimized within different constraints like time, distance, cost and traffic running onthe roads.This study is based on optimization of real road network by means of distances. Two main objectives arepursued in this research: 1 road distances among different routes are composed in detail; 2 two standardalgorithms (Dijkstra and Floyd-Warshall algoritms are applied to optimize/minimize these distances for bothsingle-source and all-pairs shortest path problems.

  2. Amphibian and reptile road-kills on tertiary roads in relation to landscape structure: using a citizen science approach with open-access land cover data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heigl, Florian; Horvath, Kathrin; Laaha, Gregor; Zaller, Johann G

    2017-06-26

    Amphibians and reptiles are among the most endangered vertebrate species worldwide. However, little is known how they are affected by road-kills on tertiary roads and whether the surrounding landscape structure can explain road-kill patterns. The aim of our study was to examine the applicability of open-access remote sensing data for a large-scale citizen science approach to describe spatial patterns of road-killed amphibians and reptiles on tertiary roads. Using a citizen science app we monitored road-kills of amphibians and reptiles along 97.5 km of tertiary roads covering agricultural, municipal and interurban roads as well as cycling paths in eastern Austria over two seasons. Surrounding landscape was assessed using open access land cover classes for the region (Coordination of Information on the Environment, CORINE). Hotspot analysis was performed using kernel density estimation (KDE+). Relations between land cover classes and amphibian and reptile road-kills were analysed with conditional probabilities and general linear models (GLM). We also estimated the potential cost-efficiency of a large scale citizen science monitoring project. We recorded 180 amphibian and 72 reptile road-kills comprising eight species mainly occurring on agricultural roads. KDE+ analyses revealed a significant clustering of road-killed amphibians and reptiles, which is an important information for authorities aiming to mitigate road-kills. Overall, hotspots of amphibian and reptile road-kills were next to the land cover classes arable land, suburban areas and vineyards. Conditional probabilities and GLMs identified road-kills especially next to preferred habitats of green toad, common toad and grass snake, the most often found road-killed species. A citizen science approach appeared to be more cost-efficient than monitoring by professional researchers only when more than 400 km of road are monitored. Our findings showed that freely available remote sensing data in combination with a

  3. Mass-media information campaigns about road safety. [previously known as: Public information about road safety.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    2009-01-01

    In the Netherlands, public information is often used as an instrument to improve road safety. The purpose of each public information campaign is a voluntary and lasting change in traffic behaviour. This requires road users to have sufficient knowledge about a problem and to adapt their behaviour.

  4. Forest road erosion control using multiobjective optimization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matthew Thompson; John Sessions; Kevin Boston; Arne Skaugset; David Tomberlin

    2010-01-01

    Forest roads are associated with accelerated erosion and can be a major source of sediment delivery to streams, which can degrade aquatic habitat. Controlling road-related erosion therefore remains an important issue for forest stewardship. Managers are faced with the task to develop efficient road management strategies to achieve conflicting environmental and economic...

  5. Updating Road Networks by Local Renewal from GPS Trajectories

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tao Wu

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The long production cycle and huge cost of collecting road network data often leave the data lagging behind the latest real conditions. However, this situation is rapidly changing as the positioning techniques ubiquitously used in mobile devices are gradually being implemented in road network research and applications. Currently, the predominant approaches infer road networks from mobile location information (e.g., GPS trajectory data directly using various extracting algorithms, which leads to expensive consumption of computational resources in the case of large-scale areas. For this reason, we propose an alternative that renews road networks with a novel spiral strategy, including a hidden Markov model (HMM for detecting potential problems in existing road network data and a method to update the data, on the local scale, by generating new road segments from trajectory data. The proposed approach reduces computation costs on roads with completed or updated information by updating problem road segments in the minimum range of the road network. We evaluated the performance of our proposals using GPS traces collected from taxies and OpenStreetMap (OSM road networks covering urban areas of Wuhan City.

  6. DNR State Forest Roads - WHEELS Database

    Data.gov (United States)

    Minnesota Department of Natural Resources — Roads administered by the Commissioner of Natural Resources to provide access to lands administered by the Division of Forestry. These roads are generally open to...

  7. To cross or not to cross: modeling wildlife road crossings as a binary response variable with contextual predictors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siers, Shane R.; Reed, Robert N.; Savidge, Julie A.

    2016-01-01

    Roads are significant barriers to landscape-scale movements of individuals or populations of many wildlife taxa. The decision by an animal near a road to either cross or not cross may be influenced by characteristics of the road, environmental conditions, traits of the individual animal, and other aspects of the context within which the decision is made. We considered such factors in a mixed-effects logistic regression model describing the nightly road crossing probabilities of invasive nocturnal Brown Treesnakes (Boiga irregularis) through short-term radiotracking of 691 snakes within close proximity to 50 road segments across the island of Guam. All measures of road magnitude (traffic volume, gap width, surface type, etc.) were significantly negatively correlated with crossing probabilities. Snake body size was the only intrinsic factor associated with crossing rates, with larger snakes crossing roads more frequently. Humidity was the only environmental variable affecting crossing rate. The distance of the snake from the road at the start of nightly movement trials was the most significant predictor of crossings. The presence of snake traps with live mouse lures during a portion of the trials indicated that localized prey cues reduced the probability of a snake crossing the road away from the traps, suggesting that a snake's decision to cross roads is influenced by local foraging opportunities. Per capita road crossing rates of Brown Treesnakes were very low, and comparisons to historical records suggest that crossing rates have declined in the 60+ yr since introduction to Guam. We report a simplified model that will allow managers to predict road crossing rates based on snake, road, and contextual characteristics. Road crossing simulations based on actual snake size distributions demonstrate that populations with size distributions skewed toward larger snakes will result in a higher number of road crossings. Our method of modeling per capita road crossing

  8. An Efficient Framework for Road Sign Detection and Recognition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Duanling Li

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available Road sign detection and recognition is a significant and challenging issue not only for assisting drivers but also navigating mobile robots. In this paper, we propose a novel and fast approach for the automatic detection and recognition of road signs. First, we use Hue Saturation Intensity (HSI color space to segment the road signs color. And then we locate the road signs based on the geometry symmetry, as almost all the shapes of road sign shapes are symmetrical such circle, rectangle, triangle and octagon. The proposed shape feature is further applied to classify the shape initially. Finally, the road signs are exactly recognized by support vector machine (SVM classifiers. We test our proposed method on real road images and the experimental results show that it can detect and recognize road signs rapidly and accurately.

  9. Head-on crashes on two-way interurban roads: a public health concern in road safety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olabarria, Marta; Santamariña-Rubio, Elena; Marí-Dell'Olmo, Marc; Gotsens, Mercè; Novoa, Ana M; Borrell, Carme; Pérez, Katherine

    2015-09-01

    To describe the magnitude and characteristics of crashes and drivers involved in head-on crashes on two-way interurban roads in Spain between 2007 and 2012, and to identify the factors associated with the likelihood of head-on crashes on these roads compared with other types of crash. A cross-sectional study was conducted using the National Crash Register. The dependent variables were head-on crashes with injury (yes/no) and drivers involved in head-on crashes (yes/no). Factors associated with head-on crashes and with being a driver involved in a head-on crash versus other types of crash were studied using a multivariate robust Poisson regression model to estimate proportion ratios (PR) and confidence intervals (95% CI). There were 9,192 head-on crashes on two-way Spanish interurban roads. A total of 15,412 men and 3,862 women drivers were involved. Compared with other types of crash, head-on collisions were more likely on roads 7 m or more wide, on road sections with curves, narrowings or drop changes, on wet or snowy surfaces, and in twilight conditions. Transgressions committed by drivers involved in head-on crashes were driving in the opposite direction and incorrectly overtaking another vehicle. Factors associated with a lower probability of head-on crashes were the existence of medians (PR=0.57; 95%CI: 0.48-0.68) and a paved shoulder of less than 1.5 meters (PR=0.81; 95%CI: 0.77-0.86) or from 1.5 to 2.45 meters (PR=0.90; 95%CI: 0.84-0.96). This study allowed the characterization of crashes and drivers involved in head-on crashes on two-way interurban roads. The lower probability observed on roads with median strips point to these measures as an effective way to reduce these collisions. Copyright © 2014 SESPAS. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

  10. THE GREAT SILK ROAD BECOMES THE GREAT OIL AND GAS ROAD

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. S. Zonn

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The Great Silk Road (GSR called so in the late 19th century by German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen started shaping in the 2nd century B.C. In the minds of peoples the Silk Road is a generalized symbol of trade caravan routes crossing Central Asia, connecting until the 16th century the Far East, in particular Japan, China, with Middle Asia. Appearance in the early 21st century of new independent states in Central Asia along the GSR route was a powerful impetus for revival of the ancient trade route. In September 2013 Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China, during his visit to the Central Asian countries offered the strategic concept of joint construction of the “economic corridor along the Silk Road” based on innovative cooperation in order to revive and consolidate the economic contacts among the Eurasian countries. Establishment of the modern analog of GSR, a powerful transport and pipeline corridor includes the integrated system of railroads and automobile roads, oil and gas pipelines, airlines, and sea lines.

  11. Effects of improved spatial and temporal modeling of on-road vehicle emissions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindhjem, Christian E; Pollack, Alison K; DenBleyker, Allison; Shaw, Stephanie L

    2012-04-01

    Numerous emission and air quality modeling studies have suggested the need to accurately characterize the spatial and temporal variations in on-road vehicle emissions. The purpose of this study was to quantify the impact that using detailed traffic activity data has on emission estimates used to model air quality impacts. The on-road vehicle emissions are estimated by multiplying the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by the fleet-average emission factors determined by road link and hour of day. Changes in the fraction of VMT from heavy-duty diesel vehicles (HDDVs) can have a significant impact on estimated fleet-average emissions because the emission factors for HDDV nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) are much higher than those for light-duty gas vehicles (LDGVs). Through detailed road link-level on-road vehicle emission modeling, this work investigated two scenarios for better characterizing mobile source emissions: (1) improved spatial and temporal variation of vehicle type fractions, and (2) use of Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES2010) instead of MOBILE6 exhaust emission factors. Emissions were estimated for the Detroit and Atlanta metropolitan areas for summer and winter episodes. The VMT mix scenario demonstrated the importance of better characterizing HDDV activity by time of day, day of week, and road type. More HDDV activity occurs on restricted access road types on weekdays and at nonpeak times, compared to light-duty vehicles, resulting in 5-15% higher NOx and PM emission rates during the weekdays and 15-40% lower rates on weekend days. Use of MOVES2010 exhaust emission factors resulted in increases of more than 50% in NOx and PM for both HDDVs and LDGVs, relative to MOBILE6. Because LDGV PM emissions have been shown to increase with lower temperatures, the most dramatic increase from MOBILE6 to MOVES2010 emission rates occurred for PM2.5 from LDGVs that increased 500% during colder wintertime conditions found in Detroit, the northernmost

  12. A theoretical perspective on road safety communication campaigns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elvik, Rune

    2016-12-01

    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. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Total dynamic response of a PSS vehicle negotiating asymmetric road excitations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Jian Jun; Khajepour, Amir; Esmailzadeh, Ebrahim

    2012-12-01

    A planar suspension system (PSS) is a novel automobile suspension system in which an individual spring-damper strut is implemented in both the vertical and longitudinal directions, respectively. The wheels in a vehicle with such a suspension system can move back and forth relative to the chassis. When a PSS vehicle experiences asymmetric road excitations, the relative longitudinal motion of wheels with respect to the chassis in two sides of the same axle are not identical, and thus the two wheels at one axle will not be aligned in the same axis. The total dynamic responses, including those of the bounce, pitch and the roll of the PSS vehicle, to the asymmetric road excitation may exhibit different characteristics from those of a conventional vehicle. This paper presents an investigation into the comprehensive dynamic behaviour of a vehicle with the PSS, in such a road condition, on both the straight and curved roads. The study was carried out using an 18 DOF full-car model incorporating a radial-spring tyre-ground contact model and a 2D tyre-ground dynamic friction model. Results demonstrate that the total dynamic behaviour of a PSS vehicle is generally comparable with that of the conventional vehicle, while PSS exhibits significant improvement in absorbing the impact forces along the longitudinal direction when compared to the conventional suspension system. The PSS vehicle is found to be more stable than the conventional vehicle in terms of the directional performance against the disturbance of the road potholes on a straight line manoeuvre, while exhibiting a very similar handling performance on a curved line.

  14. Prevalence and regional correlates of road traffic injury among Chinese urban residents: A 21-city population-based study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rockett, Ian R H; Jiang, Shuhan; Yang, Qian; Yang, Tingzhong; Yang, Xiaozhao Y; Peng, Sihui; Yu, Lingwei

    2017-08-18

    This study estimated the prevalence of road traffic injury among Chinese urban residents and examined individual and regional-level correlates. A cross-sectional multistage process was used to sample residents from 21 selected cities in China. Survey respondents reported their history of road traffic injury in the past 12 months through a community survey. Multilevel, multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to identify injury correlates. Based on a retrospective 12-month reporting window, road traffic injury prevalence among urban residents was 13.2%. Prevalence of road traffic injury, by type, was 8.7, 8.7, 8.5, and 7.7% in the automobile, bicycle, motorcycle, and pedestrian categories, respectively. Multilevel analysis showed that prevalence of road traffic injury was positively associated with minority status, income, and mental health disorder score at the individual level. Regionally, road traffic injury was associated with geographic location of residence and prevalence of mental health disorders. Both individual and regional-level variables were associated with road traffic injury among Chinese urban residents, a finding whose implications transcend wholesale imported generic solutions. This descriptive research demonstrates an urgent need for longitudinal studies across China on risk and protective factors, in order to inform injury etiology, surveillance, prevention, treatment, and evaluation.

  15. Road Surfaces And Earthquake Engineering: A Theoretical And Experimental Study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pratico, Filippo Giammaria

    2008-01-01

    As is well known, road surfaces greatly affect vehicle-road interaction. As a consequence, road surfaces have a paramount influence on road safety and pavement management systems. On the other hand, earthquakes produce deformations able to modify road surface structure, properties and performance. In the light of these facts, the main goal of this paper has been confined into the modelling of road surface before, during and after the seismic event. The fundamentals of road surface texture theory have been stated in a general formulation. Models in the field of road profile generation and theoretical properties, before, during and after the earthquake, have been formulated and discussed. Practical applications can be hypothesised in the field of vehicle-road interaction as a result of road surface texture derived from deformations and accelerations caused by seismic or similar events

  16. Reconstruction of road defects and road roughness classification using vehicle responses with artificial neural networks simulation

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Ngwangwa, HM

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available -1 Journal of Terramechanics Volume 47, Issue 2, April 2010, Pages 97-111 Reconstruction of road defects and road roughness classification using vehicle responses with artificial neural networks simulation H.M. Ngwangwaa, P.S. Heynsa, , , F...

  17. Road Network Extraction from VHR Satellite Images Using Context Aware Object Feature Integration and Tensor Voting

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mehdi Maboudi

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Road networks are very important features in geospatial databases. Even though high-resolution optical satellite images have already been acquired for more than a decade, tools for automated extraction of road networks from these images are still rare. One consequence of this is the need for manual interaction which, in turn, is time and cost intensive. In this paper, a multi-stage approach is proposed which integrates structural, spectral, textural, as well as contextual information of objects to extract road networks from very high resolution satellite images. Highlights of the approach are a novel linearity index employed for the discrimination of elongated road segments from other objects and customized tensor voting which is utilized to fill missing parts of the network. Experiments are carried out with different datasets. Comparison of the achieved results with the results of seven state-of-the-art methods demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed approach.

  18. Contribution of geophysical methods to the detection of underground cavities in salt series. Development in different projects in Morocco (roads, rail, etc…

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tlemçani M.K.

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available As part of the geotechnical studies of a road project, a geophysical investigation by electrical tomography, microgravimetry, and boreholes, was carried out in order to locate if the areas can present or not a risks of ground instability along the road alignment. The road is located near a rock salt mine. This geophysical survey had demonstrated that the area may present major risks for the stability of the road platform. This risk is related to the existence of large expanses of saliferous rocks.The dissolution and exploitation of salt provoked underground voids under the future road. The results of this geophysical survey have allowed the designer office to propose more suitable solutions to solve this problem or even the possibility of shifting another site.

  19. Simplified methods for evaluating road prism stability

    Science.gov (United States)

    William J. Elliot; Mark Ballerini; David Hall

    2003-01-01

    Mass failure is one of the most common failures of low-volume roads in mountainous terrain. Current methods for evaluating stability of these roads require a geotechnical specialist. A stability analysis program, XSTABL, was used to estimate the stability of 3,696 combinations of road geometry, soil, and groundwater conditions. A sensitivity analysis was carried out to...

  20. Drafting a monitoring plan for the ROAD project under the EU CCS directive

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Steegs, T.P.H.; Neelse, F.P.; Gittins, C.; Ros, M.

    2014-01-01

    The Rotterdam Capture and Storage Demonstration Project (ROAD) is an integrated CCS project in the Netherlands that has recently completed the storage permitting process. Development of the monitoring and contingency plans is a key component of this process. Our paper discusses the development of

  1. VT Data - E911 Road Centerlines

    Data.gov (United States)

    Vermont Center for Geographic Information — (Link to Metadata) EmergencyE911_RDS was originally derived from RDSnn (now called TransRoad_RDS). "Zero-length ranges" in the ROADS layer pertain to grand-fathered...

  2. Introducing Dual Suspension System in Road Vehicles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Imtiaz Hussain

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available The main objective of suspension system is to reduce the motions of the vehicle body with respect to road disturbances. The conventional suspension systems in road vehicles use passive elements such as springs and dampers to suppress the vibrations induced by the irregularities in the road. But these conventional suspension systems can suppress vibrations to a certain limit. This paper presents a novel idea to improve the ride quality of roads vehicles without compromising vehicle?s stability. The paper proposes the use of primary and secondary suspension to suppress the vibrations more effectively.

  3. Tyre-road friction coefficient estimation based on tyre sensors and lateral tyre deflection: modelling, simulations and experiments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hong, Sanghyun; Erdogan, Gurkan; Hedrick, Karl; Borrelli, Francesco

    2013-05-01

    The estimation of the tyre-road friction coefficient is fundamental for vehicle control systems. Tyre sensors enable the friction coefficient estimation based on signals extracted directly from tyres. This paper presents a tyre-road friction coefficient estimation algorithm based on tyre lateral deflection obtained from lateral acceleration. The lateral acceleration is measured by wireless three-dimensional accelerometers embedded inside the tyres. The proposed algorithm first determines the contact patch using a radial acceleration profile. Then, the portion of the lateral acceleration profile, only inside the tyre-road contact patch, is used to estimate the friction coefficient through a tyre brush model and a simple tyre model. The proposed strategy accounts for orientation-variation of accelerometer body frame during tyre rotation. The effectiveness and performance of the algorithm are demonstrated through finite element model simulations and experimental tests with small tyre slip angles on different road surface conditions.

  4. Targeted road safety programmes : a promising approach in road safety. Paper presented at `the second conference on Asian road safety', Beijing, October 28-31, 1996.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wegman, F.C.M.

    1996-01-01

    This paper gives a broad overview on targeted road safety programmes, mainly based on the activities of a so-called OECD scientific expert group, whose report has been published in 1994 (see C 2845 S (IRRD 864087). Examples of targeted road safety programmes are given in some more detail of Finland,

  5. Frequency of Loaded Road March Training and Performance on a Loaded Road March

    Science.gov (United States)

    1990-04-01

    heart rate through the use of beta - blockers can substantially improve shooting accuracy (29, 44). Post road march decrements in the grenade throw may...the road march. An Increase in body tremors due to fatigue or an elevated post exercise heart rate may account for this. Whole body sway while aiming...a rifle is substantially increased even after a short period of exercise (39) and this may effect accuracy. Muscle tremors increase after brief or

  6. Value creation of road infrastructure networks: a structural equation approach

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hartmann, Andreas; Ling, F.Y.Y.

    2016-01-01

    Although road agencies need to provide road infrastructure that is beneficial for road users, little is known about how the activities of the agencies influence the value creation of road infrastructure. From a service-dominant logic perspective, the importance of road maintenance and traffic

  7. Unofficial Road Building in the Amazon: Socioeconomic and Biophysical Explanations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perz, Stephen G.; Caldas, Marcellus M.; Arima, Eugenio; Walker, Robert J.

    2007-01-01

    Roads have manifold social and environmental impacts, including regional development, social conflicts and habitat fragmentation. 'Road ecology' has emerged as an approach to evaluate the various ecological and hydrological impacts of roads. This article aims to complement road ecology by examining the socio-spatial processes of road building itself. Focusing on the Brazilian Amazon, a heavily-studied context due to forest fragmentation by roads, the authors consider non-state social actors who build 'unofficial roads' for the purpose of gaining access to natural resources to support livelihoods and community development. They examine four case studies of roads with distinct histories in order to explain the socio-spatial processes behind road building in terms of profit maximization, land tenure claims, co-operative and conflictive political ecologies, and constraints as well as opportunities afforded by the biophysical environment. The study cases illustrate the need for a multi-pronged theoretical approach to understanding road building, and call for more attention to the role of non-state actors in unofficial road construction.

  8. AN AUTOMATED ROAD ROUGHNESS DETECTION FROM MOBILE LASER SCANNING DATA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. Kumar

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Rough roads influence the safety of the road users as accident rate increases with increasing unevenness of the road surface. Road roughness regions are required to be efficiently detected and located in order to ensure their maintenance. Mobile Laser Scanning (MLS systems provide a rapid and cost-effective alternative by providing accurate and dense point cloud data along route corridor. In this paper, an automated algorithm is presented for detecting road roughness from MLS data. The presented algorithm is based on interpolating smooth intensity raster surface from LiDAR point cloud data using point thinning process. The interpolated surface is further processed using morphological and multi-level Otsu thresholding operations to identify candidate road roughness regions. The candidate regions are finally filtered based on spatial density and standard deviation of elevation criteria to detect the roughness along the road surface. The test results of road roughness detection algorithm on two road sections are presented. The developed approach can be used to provide comprehensive information to road authorities in order to schedule maintenance and ensure maximum safety conditions for road users.

  9. An Automated Road Roughness Detection from Mobile Laser Scanning Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumar, P.; Angelats, E.

    2017-05-01

    Rough roads influence the safety of the road users as accident rate increases with increasing unevenness of the road surface. Road roughness regions are required to be efficiently detected and located in order to ensure their maintenance. Mobile Laser Scanning (MLS) systems provide a rapid and cost-effective alternative by providing accurate and dense point cloud data along route corridor. In this paper, an automated algorithm is presented for detecting road roughness from MLS data. The presented algorithm is based on interpolating smooth intensity raster surface from LiDAR point cloud data using point thinning process. The interpolated surface is further processed using morphological and multi-level Otsu thresholding operations to identify candidate road roughness regions. The candidate regions are finally filtered based on spatial density and standard deviation of elevation criteria to detect the roughness along the road surface. The test results of road roughness detection algorithm on two road sections are presented. The developed approach can be used to provide comprehensive information to road authorities in order to schedule maintenance and ensure maximum safety conditions for road users.

  10. Carbon Nanomaterials for Road Construction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zaporotskova Irina Vladimirovna

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available The requirement of developing and modernizing the roads in Russia and in the Volgograd region in particular, is based on need of expanding the directions of scientific research on road and transport complexes. They have to be aimed at the development of the theory of transport streams, traffic safety increase, and, first of all, at the application of original methods of road development and modernization, introduction of modern technologies and road-building materials.On the basis of the analysis of the plans for transportation sphere development in the Volgograd region assuming the need to apply the new technologies allowing to create qualitative paving, the authors propose the technology of creating a heavy-duty paving with the use of carbon nanomaterial. The knowledge on strengthening the characteristics of carbon nanotubes is a unique material for nanotechnology development which allowed to assume the analysis of general information about asphalt concrete. The analysis showed that carbon nanotubes can be used for improvement of operational characteristics of asphalt concrete, and it is possible to carry out additives of nanotubes in hot as well as in cold bitumen. The article contains the basic principles of creation of the new road material received by means of bitumen reinforcing by carbon nanotubes. The structures received by the offered technique binding on the basis of the bitumens modified by carbon nanomaterial can be used for coverings and bases on highways of all categories in all road and climatic zones of Russia. The technical result consists in increasing the durability and elasticity of the received asphalt covering, and also the increase of water resistance, heat resistance and frost resistance, the expansion of temperature range of its laying in the field of negative temperatures.

  11. Concentration levels and source apportionment of ultrafine particles in road microenvironments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Argyropoulos, G.; Samara, C.; Voutsa, D.; Kouras, A.; Manoli, E.; Voliotis, A.; Tsakis, A.; Chasapidis, L.; Konstandopoulos, A.; Eleftheriadis, K.

    2016-03-01

    A mobile laboratory unit (MOBILAB) with on-board instrumentation (Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer, SMPS; Ambient NOx analyzer) was used to measure size-resolved particle number concentrations (PNCs) of quasi-ultrafine particles (UFPs, 9-372 nm), along with NOx, in road microenvironments. On-road measurements were carried out in and around a large Greek urban agglomeration, the Thessaloniki Metropolitan Area (TMA). Two 2-week measurement campaigns were conducted during the warm period of 2011 and the cold period of 2012. During each sampling campaign, MOBILAB was driven through a 5-day inner-city route and a second 5-day external route covering in total a wide range of districts (urban, urban background, industrial and residential), and road types (major and minor urban roads, freeways, arterial and interurban roads). All routes were conducted during working days, in morning and in afternoon hours under real-world traffic conditions. Spatial classification of MOBILAB measurements involved the assignment of measurement points to location bins defined by the aspect ratio of adjacent urban street canyons (USCs). Source apportionment was further carried out, by applying Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) to particle size distribution data. Apportioned PMF factors were interpreted, by employing a two-step methodology, which involved (a) statistical association of PMF factor contributions with 12 h air-mass back-trajectories ending at the TMA during MOBILAB measurements, and (b) Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) using PMF factor contributions as the dependent variables, while relative humidity, solar radiation flux, and vehicle speed were used as the independent variables. The applied data analysis showed that low-speed cruise and high-load engine operation modes are the two dominant sources of UFPs in most of the road microenvironments in the TMA, with significant contributions from background photochemical processes during the warm period, explaining the reversed

  12. Classification of Steps on Road Surface Using Acceleration Signals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Junji Takahashi

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available In order to reduce a road monitoring cost, we propose a system to monitor extensively road condition by cyclists with a smartphone. In this paper, we propose two methods towards road monitoring. First is to classify road signals to four road conditions. Second is to extract road signal from a smartphone's accelerometer in three positions: pants' side pocket, chest pocket and a bag in a front basket. In pants' side pocket, road signal is extracted by Independent Component Analysis. In chest pocket and bag in a front basket, road signal is extracted by selecting 1-axis affected from gravitational acceleration. In the experiment of the classification method, overall accuracy was 75%. The experimental results of the extraction methods with correlation coefficient showed the overall accuracy were more than 0.7 in pants' side pocket and chest pocket, the overall accuracy was less than 0.3 in bag in a front basket.

  13. Calibration of the inertial consistency index to assess road safety on horizontal curves of two-lane rural roads.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Llopis-Castelló, David; Camacho-Torregrosa, Francisco Javier; García, Alfredo

    2018-05-26

    One of every four road fatalities occurs on horizontal curves of two-lane rural roads. To this regard, many studies have been undertaken to analyze the crash risk on this road element. Most of them were based on the concept of geometric design consistency, which can be defined as how drivers' expectancies and road behavior relate. However, none of these studies included a variable which represents and estimates drivers' expectancies. This research presents a new local consistency model based on the Inertial Consistency Index (ICI). This consistency parameter is defined as the difference between the inertial operating speed, which represents drivers' expectations, and the operating speed, which represents road behavior. The inertial operating speed was defined as the weighted average operating speed of the preceding road section. In this way, different lengths, periods of time, and weighting distributions were studied to identify how the inertial operating speed should be calculated. As a result, drivers' expectancies should be estimated considering 15 s along the segment and a linear weighting distribution. This was consistent with drivers' expectancies acquirement process, which is closely related to Short-Term Memory. A Safety Performance Function was proposed to predict the number of crashes on a horizontal curve and consistency thresholds were defined based on the ICI. To this regard, the crash rate increased as the ICI increased. Finally, the proposed consistency model was compared with previous models. As a conclusion, the new Inertial Consistency Index allowed a more accurate estimation of the number of crashes and a better assessment of the consistency level on horizontal curves. Therefore, highway engineers have a new tool to identify where road crashes are more likely to occur during the design stage of both new two-lane rural roads and improvements of existing highways. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Road safety performance indicators : country profiles. SafetyNet, Building the European Road Safety Observatory, Workpackage 3, Deliverable 3.7b.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Riguelle, F. Eksler, V. Holló, P. Morsink, P. Gent, A. van Gitelman, V. Assum, T. & Rackliff, L.

    2009-01-01

    The EC 6th Framework Integrated Project SafetyNet aims to accelerate the availability and use of harmonised road safety data in Europe. Having such data available throughout Europe would be tremendously beneficial for road safety, since it would enable the evaluation of road safety measures, the

  15. GPS Roads

    Data.gov (United States)

    Earth Data Analysis Center, University of New Mexico — This data set contains a 1:100,000 scale vector digital representation of all interstate highways, all US highways, most of the state highways, and some county roads...

  16. Road Transportable Analytical Laboratory (RTAL) system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1993-01-01

    The goal of this contractual effort is the development and demonstration of a Road Transportable Analytical Laboratory (RTAL) system to meet the unique needs of the Department of Energy (DOE) for rapid, accurate analysis of a wide variety of hazardous and radioactive contaminants in soil, groundwater, and surface waters. This laboratory system will be designed to provide the field and laboratory analytical equipment necessary to detect and quantify radionuclides, organics, heavy metals and other inorganics, and explosive materials. The planned laboratory system will consist of a set of individual laboratory modules deployable independently or as an interconnected group to meet each DOE site's specific needs

  17. TOWARDS FINANCING AND PLANNING ROAD SAFETY AUDIT OPERATIONS IN NIGERIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joshua Adetunji ODELEYE, M.Sc.

    2000-01-01

    Finally, this paper suggests commissioning of a National Road Research Fund, with a view to developing an efficient road safety audit operational system. Also, the introduction of private initiatives and a Community-based Approach in road administration, as well as decentralization of road administration framework at all levels, will greatly help “engineer out” potentially unsafe features across Nigerian roads, towards a better road traffic environment in the 21st century.

  18. Environmental damages of forest road construction by bulldozer on ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    STORAGESEVER

    2009-09-15

    Sep 15, 2009 ... In this study, forest road construction technique by using bulldozer was investigated in forested lands ... example, sediment yield delivered from forest roads to ... minimize the erosional impact of roads on the environ- ... 951 mm. 4570 kg. Figure 2. Proportion of environmental damages on road cross section.

  19. Integrating fuzzy object based image analysis and ant colony optimization for road extraction from remotely sensed images

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maboudi, Mehdi; Amini, Jalal; Malihi, Shirin; Hahn, Michael

    2018-04-01

    Updated road network as a crucial part of the transportation database plays an important role in various applications. Thus, increasing the automation of the road extraction approaches from remote sensing images has been the subject of extensive research. In this paper, we propose an object based road extraction approach from very high resolution satellite images. Based on the object based image analysis, our approach incorporates various spatial, spectral, and textural objects' descriptors, the capabilities of the fuzzy logic system for handling the uncertainties in road modelling, and the effectiveness and suitability of ant colony algorithm for optimization of network related problems. Four VHR optical satellite images which are acquired by Worldview-2 and IKONOS satellites are used in order to evaluate the proposed approach. Evaluation of the extracted road networks shows that the average completeness, correctness, and quality of the results can reach 89%, 93% and 83% respectively, indicating that the proposed approach is applicable for urban road extraction. We also analyzed the sensitivity of our algorithm to different ant colony optimization parameter values. Comparison of the achieved results with the results of four state-of-the-art algorithms and quantifying the robustness of the fuzzy rule set demonstrate that the proposed approach is both efficient and transferable to other comparable images.

  20. 36 CFR 212.9 - Principles for sharing use of roads.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... roads. 212.9 Section 212.9 Parks, Forests, and Public Property FOREST SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE... of roads. The use of roads under arrangements for sharing costs or performance shall be in accordance with the following: (a) Road improvement. Use of a road for commercial hauling, except occasional or...

  1. Modelling the Probability of Landslides Impacting Road Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taylor, F. E.; Malamud, B. D.

    2012-04-01

    During a landslide triggering event, the threat of landslides blocking roads poses a risk to logistics, rescue efforts and communities dependant on those road networks. Here we present preliminary results of a stochastic model we have developed to evaluate the probability of landslides intersecting a simple road network during a landslide triggering event and apply simple network indices to measure the state of the road network in the affected region. A 4000 x 4000 cell array with a 5 m x 5 m resolution was used, with a pre-defined simple road network laid onto it, and landslides 'randomly' dropped onto it. Landslide areas (AL) were randomly selected from a three-parameter inverse gamma probability density function, consisting of a power-law decay of about -2.4 for medium and large values of AL and an exponential rollover for small values of AL; the rollover (maximum probability) occurs at about AL = 400 m2 This statistical distribution was chosen based on three substantially complete triggered landslide inventories recorded in existing literature. The number of landslide areas (NL) selected for each triggered event iteration was chosen to have an average density of 1 landslide km-2, i.e. NL = 400 landslide areas chosen randomly for each iteration, and was based on several existing triggered landslide event inventories. A simple road network was chosen, in a 'T' shape configuration, with one road 1 x 4000 cells (5 m x 20 km) in a 'T' formation with another road 1 x 2000 cells (5 m x 10 km). The landslide areas were then randomly 'dropped' over the road array and indices such as the location, size (ABL) and number of road blockages (NBL) recorded. This process was performed 500 times (iterations) in a Monte-Carlo type simulation. Initial results show that for a landslide triggering event with 400 landslides over a 400 km2 region, the number of road blocks per iteration, NBL,ranges from 0 to 7. The average blockage area for the 500 iterations (A¯ BL) is about 3000 m

  2. The failure to respond to changes in the road environment : Does road familiarity play a role?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Martens, Marieke H.

    2017-01-01

    Road signs do not necessarily lead to the right response. Especially when signs are changed, drivers may not always detect new signs and may therefore fail to respond correctly to the situation indicated. The present driving simulator study investigated whether road familiarity (increased exposure

  3. Spatial Amphibian Impact Assessment – a management tool for assessment of road effects on regional populations of Moor frogs (Rana arvalis)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pontoppidan, Maj-Britt; Nachman, Gøsta Støger

    2013-01-01

    viability. Analyses of maps without the planned road constructions will constitute a “null-model” against which other scenarios can be compared, making it possible to assess the effect of road projects on landscape connectivity and population dynamics. Analyses and comparisons of several...... demonstrate how SAIA can be used to assess which management measures would be best to mitigate the effect of landscape fragmentation caused by road constructions by means of a case study dedicated to the Moor frog (Rana arvalis).......An expanding network of roads and railways fragments natural habitat affecting the amount and quality of habitat and reducing connectivity between habitat patches with severe consequences for biodiversity and population persistence. To ensure an ecologically sustainable transportation system...

  4. Use of GMM and SCMS for Accurate Road Centerline Extraction from the Classified Image

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zelang Miao

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The extraction of road centerline from the classified image is a fundamental image analysis technology. Common problems encountered in road centerline extraction include low ability for coping with the general case, production of undesired objects, and inefficiency. To tackle these limitations, this paper presents a novel accurate centerline extraction method using Gaussian mixture model (GMM and subspace constraint mean shift (SCMS. The proposed method consists of three main steps. GMM is first used to partition the classified image into several clusters. The major axis of the ellipsoid of each cluster is extracted and deemed to be taken as the initial centerline. Finally, the initial result is adjusted using SCMS to produce precise road centerline. Both simulated and real datasets are used to validate the proposed method. Preliminary results demonstrate that the proposed method provides a comparatively robust solution for accurate centerline extraction from a classified image.

  5. Study on the Road Traffic Survey System Based on Micro-ferromagnetic Induction Coil Sensor

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liang Tong

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Road traffic information is the basis of road traffic management and control. Due to the special design of the sensor coil and ferromagnetic core, traffic survey system which uses micro ferromagnetic inductive coil vehicle detector, not only has the features of small size, simple installation and little road surface damage, but also has the advantages of output signal strength, simple signal processing circuit and obvious characteristics for output waveform corresponding vehicle feature. Based on the introduction of the sensor working principle, the construction of hardware and signal processing circuit for the traffic survey system is described in detail in the paper. Combined with the characteristics of the sensor output waveform, adaptive nearest neighbor clustering RBF neural network algorithm used to classify the vehicles is proposed and verified by experimental method. The result has a high vehicle classification rate and demonstrates the feasibility of the system.

  6. On-road driving impairments and associated cognitive deficits after stroke.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Devos, Hannes; Tant, Mark; Akinwuntan, Abiodun E

    2014-01-01

    Little is known about the critical on-road driving skills that get affected after a stroke. The purpose of this study was to investigate the key on-road driving impairments and their associated cognitive deficits after a stroke. A second aim was to investigate if lateralization of stroke impacts results of the cognitive and on-road driving tests. In this cross-sectional study, 99 participants with a first-ever stroke who were actively driving prior to stroke underwent a cognitive battery and a standardized road test that evaluated 13 specific on-road driving skills. These on-road driving skills were mapped onto an existing, theoretical framework that categorized the on-road items into hierarchic clusters of operational, tactical, visuo-integrative, and mixed driving skills. The total score on the road test and the on-road decision, made by a certified fitness-to-drive expert, decided the main outcome. The critical on-road driving skills predicting the on-road decision were identified using logistic regression analysis. Linear regression analysis was employed to determine the cognitive impairments leading to poor total on-road scores. Analyses were repeated for right- and left-sided strokes. In all, 37 persons scored poorly on the road test. These participants performed worse in all hierarchic clusters of on-road driving. Performances on the operational cluster and the visuo-integrative cluster best predicted on-road decisions (R(2) = 0.60). 'Lane changing' and 'understanding, insight, and quality of traffic participation' were the critical skill deficits leading to poor performance on the road test (R(2) = 0.65). Divided attention was the main determinant of on-road scores in the total group (R(2) = 0.06). Participants with right-sided stroke performed worse on visual field, visual neglect, visual scanning, visuo-constructive skills, and divided attention compared with those with left-sided stroke. Divided attention was the main determinant of total on-road scores

  7. A Review of Roads Data Development Methodologies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Taro Ubukawa

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available There is a clear need for a public domain data set of road networks with high special accuracy and global coverage for a range of applications. The Global Roads Open Access Data Set (gROADS, version 1, is a first step in that direction. gROADS relies on data from a wide range of sources and was developed using a range of methods. Traditionally, map development was highly centralized and controlled by government agencies due to the high cost or required expertise and technology. In the past decade, however, high resolution satellite imagery and global positioning system (GPS technologies have come into wide use, and there has been significant innovation in web services, such that a number of new methods to develop geospatial information have emerged, including automated and semi-automated road extraction from satellite/aerial imagery and crowdsourcing. In this paper we review the data sources, methods, and pros and cons of a range of road data development methods: heads-up digitizing, automated/semi-automated extraction from remote sensing imagery, GPS technology, crowdsourcing, and compiling existing data sets. We also consider the implications for each method in the production of open data.

  8. Single and multiple stressor effect of road deicers and Cu on Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) alevins from hatching till swim-up.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mahrosh, Urma; Rosseland, Bjørn Olav; Salbu, Brit; Teien, Hans-Christian

    2018-04-01

    Road salts are frequently used for deicing of roads in the Nordic countries. During snow-melt, the road run-off containing high concentrations of road salt and various metals such as Cu remobilized from sand, silt and dust may negatively influence organisms in downstream receiving water bodies. The present work focuses on the impact of road salt (NaCl) and Cu, separately and in mixtures on Atlantic salmon alevins from hatching till swim-up. The results showed that high road salt concentrations could induce a series of negative effects in alevins such as reduced growth, deformities, delayed swim-up and mortality. For alevins exposed to all tested road salt concentrations (100-1000mg/L), mortality was significantly higher compared to control. In exposure to Cu solutions (5-20μgCu/L), no effects on growth, morphology, swim-up or mortality of alevins compared to control were observed. In mixture solutions (road salt and Cu), ultrafiltration of the exposure water demonstrated that only 20%-40% of Cu was present as positively charged low molecular mass (LMM) Cu species assumed to be bioavailable. When exposed to road salt and Cu mixtures, negative effects in alevins such as reduced growth, deformities, delayed swim-up and mortality were observed. The overall results indicated that the road salt application could seriously affect sensitive life stages of Atlantic salmon, and application of road salt should be avoided during the late winter-early spring period. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  9. Wireless Magnetic Sensor Network for Road Traffic Monitoring and Vehicle Classification

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Velisavljevic Vladan

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Efficiency of transportation of people and goods is playing a vital role in economic growth. A key component for enabling effective planning of transportation networks is the deployment and operation of autonomous monitoring and traffic analysis tools. For that reason, such systems have been developed to register and classify road traffic usage. In this paper, we propose a novel system for road traffic monitoring and classification based on highly energy efficient wireless magnetic sensor networks. We develop novel algorithms for vehicle speed and length estimation and vehicle classification that use multiple magnetic sensors. We also demonstrate that, using such a low-cost system with simplified installation and maintenance compared to current solutions, it is possible to achieve highly accurate estimation and a high rate of positive vehicle classification.

  10. Daylight Saving Time Transitions and Road Traffic Accidents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tuuli Lahti

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Circadian rhythm disruptions may have harmful impacts on health. Circadian rhythm disruptions caused by jet lag compromise the quality and amount of sleep and may lead to a variety of symptoms such as fatigue, headache, and loss of attention and alertness. Even a minor change in time schedule may cause considerable stress for the body. Transitions into and out of daylight saving time alter the social and environmental timing twice a year. According to earlier studies, this change in time-schedule leads to sleep disruption and fragmentation of the circadian rhythm. Since sleep deprivation decreases motivation, attention, and alertness, transitions into and out of daylight saving time may increase the amount of accidents during the following days after the transition. We studied the amount of road traffic accidents one week before and one week after transitions into and out of daylight saving time during years from 1981 to 2006. Our results demonstrated that transitions into and out of daylight saving time did not increase the number of traffic road accidents.

  11. Assessing Environmental Impact Indicators in Road Construction Projects in Developing Countries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohamed Marzouk

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Environmental pollution is considered to be one of the main concerns in the construction industry. Environmental pollution has become a major challenge to construction projects due to the huge amount of pollution caused by construction projects. There are different types of environmental impact indicators, such as the greenhouse gas (GHG footprint, eutrophication potential (EP, acidification potential (AP, human health (HH particulate, ozone depletion, and smog. Each of these environmental impact indicators can be linked to different phases of the construction projects. The overall environmental impact indicators can be divided into direct, indirect, and operational emissions. This paper presents a Building Information Modeling (BIM-based methodology for the assessment of environmental impacts in road construction projects. The model takes into account the overall life cycle of the road construction project, which is divided into: manufacturing phase, transportation phase, construction phase, maintenance phase, operational phase, recycling phase, and deconstruction phase. A case study is presented to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model. The proposed model solves a major problem for road construction project teams who want to assess the environmental impact indicators associated with their project prior to the start of the execution of their projects.

  12. 2004 road traffic crashes in Queensland

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-05-01

    This report presents an overview of reported road traffic crashes in Queensland during : 2004 in the context of the previous five years based on data contained in the Queensland : Road Crash Information System maintained by the Department of Transpor...

  13. An instrument for the measurement of road surface reflection properties

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Corell, Dennis Dan; Sørensen, K.

    2017-01-01

    surfaces in use have changed - for instance to road surface types with less noise from wheel passages. Because of this, a co-operation between the road administrations of the Nordic countries (abbreviated NMF) decided to construct a portable instrument to be used on selections of traffic roads within......Road surface reflection data in the form of standard r-tables serve as input for design calculations of road lighting installations on traffic roads. However, in several countries the use of the standard r-tables has not been verified by measurement in a long period of time, while the types of road...

  14. Modeling road-tyre noise

    OpenAIRE

    Martins, Mário M. Abreu; Santos, Luís Picado; Freitas, Elisabete F.

    2008-01-01

    The growing awareness by the broader public of the consequences to health and wellbeing due to road noise has led to a growing number of legal requirements being produced to deal with this matter, both in the design of new or assessment of existing infrastructure. In this article the purpose is to make an up-to-date review of existing studies being carried out to deliver models for predicting noise produced from tyre-road contact, taking account of different methodological appr...

  15. Road Situation and the Development of Katsina State, Nigeria ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This paper attempts an assessment of the road transport situation in the state based on the road network, road quality, vehicular movement and other infrastructures. It was found that there are many problems facing road transportation in the State. These problems are multi-faceted and range from high traffic, bad condition ...

  16. Detection and analyse of hazardous roads in rural areas

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sørensen, Michael

    2003-01-01

    For the last period of 5-10 years the notion "Grey roads" (hazardous roads) has appeared in Danish traffic safety work and improvement of these roads has become a very important part of the traffic safety work in many countries. The problem is, that the notion never has been clearly defined......, and therefore there are no unambiguos methods to point out and analyse "Grey roads". In this article based on a ph.D.-project a method to detecting "Grey roads" is introduced....

  17. Engineering solutions of traffic safety problems of road transport

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Bogdevičius

    2004-02-01

    Full Text Available The authors of this paper focus on the simulation of the motor vehicle movement (taking into consideration motor vehicle dynamics, motor vehicle hydraulic brake system influence on motor vehicle movement, interaction between its wheels with road pavements, road guardrail characteristics, interaction between motor vehicle and road guardrail on a certain road section and propose their specific solution of this problem. The presented results, illustrating the motor vehicle movement trajectories (motor vehicle braking and interaction between motor vehicle and road guardrail at various initial conditions and at various certain pavement surface of the road section under investigation and work of a motor vehicle hydraulic brake system. Taking into consideration the presented general mathematical model and computer aided test results it is possible to investigate various road transport traffic situations as well as to investigate various transport traffic safety problems.

  18. Developing Road Infrastructure Route Planning: Increasing Feasibility of Toll Road Project

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammed Ali Berawi

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Indonesian government attempts to improve connectivity and to increase regional activities in SumateraIsland through the development of Trans Sumatera Toll Road (TSTR.However, despite its benefits to local economic development in Sumatera, the project shows low feasibility due to a low amount of investment. It can be attributed from the lack of planning in the initial phase to produce a comprehensive route that considers the various potentials of the regions. Thus, this research aims to investigate alternative routeplanning of Trans Sumatera Toll Road particularly in this paper for Central Sumatera by studying Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP, population and other significant factors. This research exposes cities and districts in Riau, West Sumatera, and Jambi which potentially contribute to the regional economy. Each selected towns and districts will be integrated with the intermodal system and connected to other functions to establish the Trans Sumatera Toll Roadproject in Central Sumatera. Compared to existing estimation of investment from public records, this alternative route has generated a competitive cost of investment which is estimated around 118,053,400,074,696 rupiahs. The research findings are expected to become the basis to improve other similar infrastructure toll road project development.

  19. [Child-pedestrian injuries inflicted in the road traffic accidents as a forensic medical problem].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Savenkova, E N; Efimov, A A

    The road traffic accidents are known to make the greatest contribution to the overall structure of pediatric traumatism with the fatal outcome. The problem of pediatric traumatism remains on top of its relevancy despite numerous administrative, legal, technical, and financial measures taken at the government level in an attempt to reduce the mortality rate associated with the child-pedestrian injuries inflicted in the road traffic accidents. The objective of the present study was to summarize and interpret the results published in the scientific literature concerning child-pedestrian injuries inflicted in the road traffic accidents with special reference to the age of the victims and the type of the injury. The analysis of the publications of the domestic and foreign authors has demonstrated that the available data of interest remain to be systematized and that the forensic medical aspects of the problem in question are poorly represented in these materials. It was shown that forensic medical expertises of child-pedestrian injuries inflicted in the road traffic accidents are frequently carried out without taking into consideration the peculiar anatomical and physiological features of the child's organism. The available data concerning the mechanisms and evaluation of severe injuries inflicted to the children in the road traffic accidents are insufficient for the development of the algorithms for the relevant adequate forensic medical expertise. In the light of these findings, the problem of the child-pedestrian injuries inflicted in the road traffic accidents takes on new significance when considered in the context of pediatric traumatism. There is evidently the growing necessity to formulate the universal database containing systematized objective information for the development of new methods of forensic medical expertise for the elucidation of the mechanisms of road traffic injuries inflicted to the children of different age groups depending on the type of the

  20. Gravel Roads: Maintenance and Design Manual

    Science.gov (United States)

    This manual was developed with a major emphasis on the maintenance of gravel roads, including some basic design elements. The purpose of the manual is to provide clear and helpful information for doing a better job of maintaining gravel roads.

  1. RoadPlan Manual version 3.1

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schoute, Albert L.

    RoadPlan is an interactive planning and preprocessing tool to analyse and optimize multi-agv traffic. Currently it provides facilities for: * Traffic road map configuration and visualization; * Interactive drawing and modification of traffic layouts; * Collision and deadlock analysis of multiple

  2. Effect of road surfacing condition on tyre life

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Steyn, WJvdM

    2005-07-01

    Full Text Available simple patching of potholes and sealing of cracks to a reseal of the road or even recycling and rehabilitation of the failed sections of the road. These maintenance actions affect the surfacing of the road and therefore the experience of the tyre...

  3. ROAD TRANSPORT ACCIDENTS IN NIGERIA AND THE ROLE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olasunkanmi Oriola AKINYEMI

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Analysis of road traffic accidents revealed that most accidents are as a result of drivers’ errors. Over the years, active safety systems (ASS were devised in vehicle to reduce the high level of road accidents, caused by human errors, leading to death and injuries.This study however evaluated the impacts of ASS inclusions into vehicles in Nigeria road transportation network. The objectives was to measure how ASS contributed to making driving safer and enhanced transport safety. Road accident data were collected, for a period of eleven years, from Lagos State Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Central Office of Statistics. Quantitative analysis of the retrospective accident was conducted by computing the proportion of yearly number of vehicles involved in road accident to the total number of vehicles for each year. Results of the analysis showed that the proportion of vehicles involved in road accidents decreased from 16 in 1996 to 0.89 in 2006, the injured persons reduced from 15.58 in 1998 to 0.3 in 2006 and the death rate diminished from 4.45 in 1998 to 0.1 in 2006. These represented 94.4%, 95% and 95% improvement respectively on road traffic safety. It can therefore be concluded that the inclusions of ASS into design of modern vehicles had improved road safety in Nigeria automotive industry.

  4. ROAD ACCIDENT AND SAFETY STUDY IN SYLHET REGION OF BANGLADESH

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    B. K. BANIK

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available Roads, highways and streets are fundamental infrastructure facilities to provide the transportation for passenger travel and goods movement from one place to another in Sylhet, north–eastern division of Bangladesh with rapid growth of road vehicle, being comparatively developed economic tourist prone area faces severe road traffic accident. Such severe road accidents cause harsh safety hazards on the roads of Sylhet area. This research work presents an overview of the road traffic accident and degraded road safety situation in Sylhet zone which in particular, discusses the key road accident problem characteristics identifying the hazardous roads and spots, most responsible vehicles and related components, conditions of drivers and pedestrians, most victims of accident, effects of accident on society, safety priorities and options available in Sylhet. In this regard, a comprehensive questionnaire survey was conducted on the concerned groups of transportation and detailed accident data was collected from a popular local newspaper. Analysis of the study reveals that Dhaka- Sylhet highway is the most hazardous in road basis and Sylhet Sador thana is the most vulnerable in thana basis in Sylhet region.

  5. 25 CFR 170.802 - How is road maintenance funded?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false How is road maintenance funded? 170.802 Section 170.802 Indians BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR LAND AND WATER INDIAN RESERVATION ROADS PROGRAM BIA Road Maintenance § 170.802 How is road maintenance funded? (a) The U.S. Congress funds a BIA...

  6. Ecological study of road traffic injuries in the eastern Mediterranean region: country economic level, road user category and gender perspectives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sengoelge, Mathilde; Laflamme, Lucie; El-Khatib, Ziad

    2018-02-13

    The Eastern Mediterranean region has the second highest number of road traffic injury mortality rates after the African region based on 2013 data, with road traffic injuries accounting for 27% of the total injury mortality in the region. Globally the number of road traffic deaths has plateaued despite an increase in motorization, but it is uncertain whether this applies to the Region. This study investigated the regional trends in both road traffic injury mortality and morbidity and examined country-based differences considering on income level, categories of road users, and gender distribution. Register-based ecological study linking data from Global Burden of Disease Study with the United Nations Statistics Division for population and World Bank definition for country income level. Road traffic injury mortality rates and disability-adjusted life years were compiled for all ages at country level in 1995, 2005, 2015 and combined for a regional average (n = 22) and a global average (n = 122). The data were stratified by country economic level, road user category and gender. Road traffic injury mortality rates in the Region were higher than the global average for all three reference years but suggest a downward trend. In 2015 mortality rates were more than twice as high in low and high income countries compared to global income averages and motor vehicle occupants had a 3-fold greater mortality than the global average. Severe injuries decreased by more than half for high/middle income countries but remained high for low income countries; three times higher for males than females. Despite a potential downward trend, inequalities in road traffic injury mortality and morbidity burden remain high in the Eastern Mediterranean region. Action needs to be intensified and targeted to implement and enforce safety measures that prevent and mitigate severe motor vehicle crashes in high income countries especially and invest in efforts to promote public, active transport

  7. Why are some animal populations unaffected or positively affected by roads?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rytwinski, Trina; Fahrig, Lenore

    2013-11-01

    In reviews on effects of roads on animal population abundance we found that most effects are negative; however, there are also many neutral and positive responses [Fahrig and Rytwinski (Ecol Soc 14:21, 2009; Rytwinski and Fahrig (Biol Conserv 147:87-98, 2012)]. Here we use an individual-based simulation model to: (1) confirm predictions from the existing literature of the combinations of species traits and behavioural responses to roads that lead to negative effects of roads on animal population abundance, and (2) improve prediction of the combinations of species traits and behavioural responses to roads that lead to neutral and positive effects of roads on animal population abundance. Simulations represented a typical situation in which road mitigation is contemplated, i.e. rural landscapes containing a relatively low density (up to 1.86 km/km(2)) of high-traffic roads, with continuous habitat between the roads. In these landscapes, the simulations predict that populations of species with small territories and movement ranges, and high reproductive rates, i.e. many small mammals and birds, should not be reduced by roads. Contrary to previous suggestions, the results also predict that populations of species that obtain a resource from roads (e.g. vultures) do not increase with increasing road density. In addition, our simulations support the predation release hypothesis for positive road effects on prey (both small- and large-bodied prey), whereby abundance of a prey species increased with increasing road density due to reduced predation by generalist road-affected predators. The simulations also predict an optimal road density for the large-bodied prey species if it avoids roads or traffic emissions. Overall, the simulation results suggest that in rural landscapes containing high-traffic roads, there are many species for which road mitigation may not be necessary; mitigation efforts should be tailored to the species that show negative population responses to roads.

  8. [Evidence-based effectiveness of road safety interventions: a literature review].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Novoa, Ana M; Pérez, Katherine; Borrell, Carme

    2009-01-01

    Only road safety interventions with scientific evidence supporting their effectiveness should be implemented. The objective of this study was to identify and summarize the available evidence on the effectiveness of road safety interventions in reducing road traffic collisions, injuries and deaths. All literature reviews published in scientific journals that assessed the effectiveness of one or more road safety interventions and whose outcome measure was road traffic crashes, injuries or fatalities were included. An exhaustive search was performed in scientific literature databases. The interventions were classified according to the evidence of their effectiveness in reducing road traffic injuries (effective interventions, insufficient evidence of effectiveness, ineffective interventions) following the structure of the Haddon matrix. Fifty-four reviews were included. Effective interventions were found before, during and after the collision, and across all factors: a) the individual: the graduated licensing system (31% road traffic injury reduction); b) the vehicle: electronic stability control system (2 to 41% reduction); c) the infrastructure: area-wide traffic calming (0 to 20%), and d) the social environment: speed cameras (7 to 30%). Certain road safety interventions are ineffective, mostly road safety education, and others require further investigation. The most successful interventions are those that reduce or eliminate the hazard and do not depend on changes in road users' behavior or on their knowledge of road safety issues. Interventions based exclusively on education are ineffective in reducing road traffic injuries.

  9. Road safety and road traffic accidents in Saudi Arabia. A systematic review of existing evidence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mansuri, Farah A; Al-Zalabani, Abdulmohsen H; Zalat, Marwa M; Qabshawi, Reem I

    2015-04-01

    To identify the changing trends and crucial preventive approaches to road traffic accidents (RTAs) adopted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) over the last 2.5 decades, and to analyze aspects previously overlooked. This systematic review was based on evidence of RTAs in KSA. All articles published during the last 25 years on road traffic accident in KSA were analyzed. This study was carried out from December 2013 to May 2014 in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, Taibah University, Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah, KSA. Road traffic accidents accounted for 83.4% of all trauma admissions in 1984-1989, and no such overall trend was studied thereafter. The most frequently injured body regions as reported in the latest studies were head and neck, followed by upper and lower extremities, which was found to be opposite to that of the studies reported earlier. Hospital data showed an 8% non-significant increase in road accident mortalities in contrast to police records of a 27% significant reduction during the years 2005-2010. Excessive speeding was the most common cause reported in all recent and past studies. Disparity was common in the type of reporting of RTAs, outcome measures, and possible causes over a period of 2.5 decade. All research exclusively looked into the drivers' faults. A sentinel surveillance of road crashes should be kept in place in the secondary and tertiary care hospitals for all regions of KSA.

  10. Pricing road use: politico-economic and fairness considerations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Oberholzer-Gee, F. [University of Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh (United States); Weck-Hannemann, H. [University of Innsbruck (Austria). Institute of of Public Finance

    2002-09-01

    Road pricing measures are rarely adopted in practice. In this review, we ask why citizens are not more supportive of road pricing. We identify two difficulties. First, the general public is often unwilling to embrace the price system as an allocation mechanism for scarce resources. Second, for politico-economic reasons, any latent support for road pricing schemes rarely translates into actual policy-making. Based on our analysis, we outline components of a road pricing policy that might receive greater electoral support. (author)

  11. Air pollution due to road traffic in Ljubljana

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Matej Ogrin

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available Air pollution is due to road traffic an inevitable outcome of internal combustion in engines ofvehicles and some other processes. Air near the roads is more polluted with some pollutants,such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone, particulate matter and some others.Monitoring the air quality is a key issue, when one wants to estimate environmental impactsof the road traffic. The article shows a method of passive samplers for air quality monitoringalong different roads in the area of Ljubljana Municipality.

  12. Control and follow-up of fly ash roads - Communication and Acceptance; Kontroll och uppfoeljning av askvaegar - Kommunikation och acceptans

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Macsik, Josef; Edeskaer, Tommy; Hellman, Fredrik

    2011-10-15

    The report is aimed at those who perform or plan to perform stabilization of the unbound layers or terrace gravel roads or industrial areas, with binder where a major binder component is fly ash from bio-peat or coal fuel. Stabilization of unbound layers of road structures is a promising technique from technical, economical and environmental point of view. The need of demonstration projects on road sections to show the relationship of laboratory measurements and field measurements are great in order to promote this stabilization technique. Results from follow-up of several stabilized distances and industrial surfaces are presented, where the fly ash is a binder component. The results complement the guidance, Munde et al. (2006) respect to durability, environmental characteristics on several years of perspective. Our hope is that report will serve as a support for the implementation of demonstration projects of stabilized terrace or unbound layers of fly ash as binder component.

  13. Material and component road map

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Korea Industrial Technology Foundation Editorial Department

    2007-09-01

    This book is comprised of two parts. One is divided into five chapters, which deals with summary of environment-friendly coloring technology, industry tendency of environment-friendly coloring technology, industry analysis and vision of environment-friendly coloring technology, analysis on core technology for environment-friendly coloring technology, with eco-friendly water paint and painting skill and eco-friendly surface treatment skill using electrochemical process. The other is divided into five chapters, which handles outline of display printing technology road map market trends of display painting, analysis and vision of display painting deduction of core-technology for display painting and analysis of core-technology for display painting. It has Diagrams for eco-friendly coloring technology road map and core-technology display painting road map.

  14. 36 CFR 223.37 - Revegetation of temporary roads.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... roads. 223.37 Section 223.37 Parks, Forests, and Public Property FOREST SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... Provisions § 223.37 Revegetation of temporary roads. Timber sale contracts, permits and other documents... roads constructed or used thereunder so as to permit the reestablishment by artificial or natural means...

  15. Mitigating Reptile Road Mortality: Fence Failures Compromise Ecopassage Effectiveness

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baxter-Gilbert, James H.; Riley, Julia L.; Lesbarrères, David; Litzgus, Jacqueline D.

    2015-01-01

    Roadways pose serious threats to animal populations. The installation of roadway mitigation measures is becoming increasingly common, yet studies that rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of these conservation tools remain rare. A highway expansion project in Ontario, Canada included exclusion fencing and ecopassages as mitigation measures designed to offset detrimental effects to one of the most imperial groups of vertebrates, reptiles. Taking a multispecies approach, we used a Before-After-Control-Impact study design to compare reptile abundance on the highway before and after mitigation at an Impact site and a Control site from 1 May to 31 August in 2012 and 2013. During this time, radio telemetry, wildlife cameras, and an automated PIT-tag reading system were used to monitor reptile movements and use of ecopassages. Additionally, a willingness to utilize experiment was conducted to quantify turtle behavioral responses to ecopassages. We found no difference in abundance of turtles on the road between the un-mitigated and mitigated highways, and an increase in the percentage of both snakes and turtles detected dead on the road post-mitigation, suggesting that the fencing was not effective. Although ecopassages were used by reptiles, the number of crossings through ecopassages was lower than road-surface crossings. Furthermore, turtle willingness to use ecopassages was lower than that reported in previous arena studies, suggesting that effectiveness of ecopassages may be compromised when alternative crossing options are available (e.g., through holes in exclusion structures). Our rigorous evaluation of reptile roadway mitigation demonstrated that when exclusion structures fail, the effectiveness of population connectivity structures is compromised. Our project emphasizes the need to design mitigation measures with the biology and behavior of the target species in mind, to implement mitigation designs in a rigorous fashion, and quantitatively evaluate road

  16. Mitigating reptile road mortality: fence failures compromise ecopassage effectiveness.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    James H Baxter-Gilbert

    Full Text Available Roadways pose serious threats to animal populations. The installation of roadway mitigation measures is becoming increasingly common, yet studies that rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of these conservation tools remain rare. A highway expansion project in Ontario, Canada included exclusion fencing and ecopassages as mitigation measures designed to offset detrimental effects to one of the most imperial groups of vertebrates, reptiles. Taking a multispecies approach, we used a Before-After-Control-Impact study design to compare reptile abundance on the highway before and after mitigation at an Impact site and a Control site from 1 May to 31 August in 2012 and 2013. During this time, radio telemetry, wildlife cameras, and an automated PIT-tag reading system were used to monitor reptile movements and use of ecopassages. Additionally, a willingness to utilize experiment was conducted to quantify turtle behavioral responses to ecopassages. We found no difference in abundance of turtles on the road between the un-mitigated and mitigated highways, and an increase in the percentage of both snakes and turtles detected dead on the road post-mitigation, suggesting that the fencing was not effective. Although ecopassages were used by reptiles, the number of crossings through ecopassages was lower than road-surface crossings. Furthermore, turtle willingness to use ecopassages was lower than that reported in previous arena studies, suggesting that effectiveness of ecopassages may be compromised when alternative crossing options are available (e.g., through holes in exclusion structures. Our rigorous evaluation of reptile roadway mitigation demonstrated that when exclusion structures fail, the effectiveness of population connectivity structures is compromised. Our project emphasizes the need to design mitigation measures with the biology and behavior of the target species in mind, to implement mitigation designs in a rigorous fashion, and quantitatively

  17. State-space based analysis and forecasting of macroscopic road safety trends in Greece.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Antoniou, Constantinos; Yannis, George

    2013-11-01

    In this paper, macroscopic road safety trends in Greece are analyzed using state-space models and data for 52 years (1960-2011). Seemingly unrelated time series equations (SUTSE) models are developed first, followed by richer latent risk time-series (LRT) models. As reliable estimates of vehicle-kilometers are not available for Greece, the number of vehicles in circulation is used as a proxy to the exposure. Alternative considered models are presented and discussed, including diagnostics for the assessment of their model quality and recommendations for further enrichment of this model. Important interventions were incorporated in the models developed (1986 financial crisis, 1991 old-car exchange scheme, 1996 new road fatality definition) and found statistically significant. Furthermore, the forecasting results using data up to 2008 were compared with final actual data (2009-2011) indicating that the models perform properly, even in unusual situations, like the current strong financial crisis in Greece. Forecasting results up to 2020 are also presented and compared with the forecasts of a model that explicitly considers the currently on-going recession. Modeling the recession, and assuming that it will end by 2013, results in more reasonable estimates of risk and vehicle-kilometers for the 2020 horizon. This research demonstrates the benefits of using advanced state-space modeling techniques for modeling macroscopic road safety trends, such as allowing the explicit modeling of interventions. The challenges associated with the application of such state-of-the-art models for macroscopic phenomena, such as traffic fatalities in a region or country, are also highlighted. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that it is possible to apply such complex models using the relatively short time-series that are available in macroscopic road safety analysis. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. ViSTREET: An Educational Virtual Environment for the Teaching of Road Safety Skills to School Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chuah, Kee Man; Chen, Chwen Jen; Teh, Chee Siong

    Virtual reality (VR) has been prevalently used as a tool to help students learn and to simulate situations that are too hazardous to practice in real life. The present study aims to explore the capability of VR to achieve these two purposes and demonstrate a novel application of the result, using VR to help school students learn about road safety skills, which are impractical to be carried out in real-life situations. This paper describes the system design of the VR-based learning environment known as Virtual Simulated Traffics for Road Safety Education (ViSTREET) and its various features. An overview of the technical procedures for its development is also included. Ultimately, this paper highlights the potential use of VR in addressing the learning problem concerning road safety education programme in Malaysia.

  19. Urban snow indicates pollution originating from road traffic.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuoppamäki, Kirsi; Setälä, Heikki; Rantalainen, Anna-Lea; Kotze, D Johan

    2014-12-01

    Traffic is a major source of pollutants in cities. In this well-replicated study we analysed a broad array of contaminants in snowpacks along roads of different traffic intensities. The majority of pollutants showed a similar pattern with respect to traffic intensity: pH and conductivity as well as concentrations of PAHs, total suspended solids, phosphorus and most heavy metals were higher next to high intensity roads compared to low intensity roads. These pollutant levels also decreased considerably up to 5 m distance from the roads. Furthermore, apart from nitrogen, these variables increased in concentration from control sites in urban forest patches to road bank sites next to roads of low, intermediate and high traffic intensities. The deposition pattern of various traffic-derived pollutants--whether gaseous or particle-bound--was the same. Such information can be useful for the purposes of managing pollutants in urban areas. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Overview of Nanotechnology in Road Engineering

    OpenAIRE

    Arpit Singh; Dr. Sangita; Arpan Singh

    2015-01-01

    Nanotechnology has changed our vision, expectations, and abilities to control the material world. This paper examines and document applicable nanotechnology based product that can be improve the overall competitiveness of the Road engineering industry. In this review, nanotechnology is applying in road sector.

  1. Snow Roads at McMurdo Station, Antarctica

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-05-01

    is minimized distribution of low strength areas (also called “ holidays ”). Holidays are actually areas of pulverized snow that are missed or inade...quately processed. Though holidays usually occur sporadically, any single flaw may extend through the entire thickness of an unelevated road. The...Pegasus Road and the LDB pad. A few additional sites were chosen for comparison (Williams Field, virgin snow, etc.). Williams Field Road densities

  2. Explaining the road accident risk: weather effects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bergel-Hayat, Ruth; Debbarh, Mohammed; Antoniou, Constantinos; Yannis, George

    2013-11-01

    This research aims to highlight the link between weather conditions and road accident risk at an aggregate level and on a monthly basis, in order to improve road safety monitoring at a national level. It is based on some case studies carried out in Work Package 7 on "Data analysis and synthesis" of the EU-FP6 project "SafetyNet-Building the European Road Safety Observatory", which illustrate the use of weather variables for analysing changes in the number of road injury accidents. Time series analysis models with explanatory variables that measure the weather quantitatively were used and applied to aggregate datasets of injury accidents for France, the Netherlands and the Athens region, over periods of more than 20 years. The main results reveal significant correlations on a monthly basis between weather variables and the aggregate number of injury accidents, but the magnitude and even the sign of these correlations vary according to the type of road (motorways, rural roads or urban roads). Moreover, in the case of the interurban network in France, it appears that the rainfall effect is mainly direct on motorways--exposure being unchanged, and partly indirect on main roads--as a result of changes in exposure. Additional results obtained on a daily basis for the Athens region indicate that capturing the within-the-month variability of the weather variables and including it in a monthly model highlights the effects of extreme weather. Such findings are consistent with previous results obtained for France using a similar approach, with the exception of the negative correlation between precipitation and the number of injury accidents found for the Athens region, which is further investigated. The outlook for the approach and its added value are discussed in the conclusion. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  3. The quantifying of road safety developments. Paper presented at the International Conference 'Road Safety in Europe', Birmingham, September 9-11, 1996.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Koornstra, M.J.

    1996-01-01

    The evaluation of the effectiveness of road safety policies and measures must be based on quantative information in road safety developments and the relevant variables that influence that development. However, the concept of road safety itself is not well defined theoretically and quantatively. This

  4. Can roads be used as transects for primate population surveys?.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hilário, Renato R; Rodrigues, Flávio H G; Chiarello, Adriano G; Mourthé, Italo

    2012-01-01

    Line transect distance sampling (LTDS) can be applied to either trails or roads. However, it is likely that sampling along roads might result in biased density estimates. In this paper, we compared the results obtained with LTDS applied on trails and roads for two primate species (Callithrix penicillata and Callicebus nigrifrons) to clarify whether roads are appropriate transects to estimate densities. We performed standard LTDS surveys in two nature reserves in south-eastern Brazil. Effective strip width and population density were different between trails and roads for C. penicillata, but not for C. nigrifrons. The results suggest that roads are not appropriate for use as transects in primate surveys, at least for some species. Further work is required to fully understand this issue, but in the meantime we recommend that researchers avoid using roads as transects or treat roads and trails as covariates when sampling on roads is unavoidable. Copyright © 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  5. Effects of Roads on Amphibian Populations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hels, T.

    is the result of my three year PhD study at the National Environmental Research Institute, Kalø, and University of Copenhagen. Funded by NERI, the Danish Research Academy, and the Danish Road Directorate, it has dealt mainly with the effects of traffic and roads on amphibian populations. The Spadefoot toad...... of Spadefoot toads (Pelobates fuscus Laur.) II The effect of road kills on amphibian populations III Simulating viability of a Spadefoot toad (P. fuscus) metapopulation in a landscape fragmented by a road The manuscripts are preceded by a synopsis which sums up the work and puts it into a broader perspective......, Johan Elmberg, Andreas Seiler, and Per Sjögren-Gulve, for sharing your knowledge and enthusiasm for science with me. Constructive ideas, different approaches, and elaborate discussions are crucial parts of any scientific process: I thank Lenore Fahrig for dedicated and original teaching and discussions...

  6. Road safety: serious injuries remain a major unsolved problem.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beck, Ben; Cameron, Peter A; Fitzgerald, Mark C; Judson, Rodney T; Teague, Warwick; Lyons, Ronan A; Gabbe, Belinda J

    2017-09-18

    To investigate temporal trends in the incidence, mortality, disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and costs of health loss caused by serious road traffic injury. A retrospective review of data from the population-based Victorian State Trauma Registry and the National Coronial Information System on road traffic-related deaths (pre- and in-hospital) and major trauma (Injury Severity Score > 12) during 2007-2015.Main outcomes and measures: Temporal trends in the incidence of road traffic-related major trauma, mortality, DALYs, and costs of health loss, by road user type. There were 8066 hospitalised road traffic major trauma cases and 2588 road traffic fatalities in Victoria over the 9-year study period. There was no change in the incidence of hospitalised major trauma for motor vehicle occupants (incidence rate ratio [IRR] per year, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.99-1.01; P = 0.70), motorcyclists (IRR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.97-1.01; P = 0.45) or pedestrians (IRR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.97-1.02; P = 0.73), but the incidence for pedal cyclists increased 8% per year (IRR, 1.08; 95% CI; 1.05-1.10; P road traffic injuries exceeded $14 billion during 2007-2015, although the cost per patient declined for all road user groups. As serious injury rates have not declined, current road safety targets will be difficult to meet. Greater attention to preventing serious injury is needed, as is further investment in road safety, particularly for pedal cyclists.

  7. Selecting habitat to survive: the impact of road density on survival in a large carnivore.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mathieu Basille

    Full Text Available Habitat selection studies generally assume that animals select habitat and food resources at multiple scales to maximise their fitness. However, animals sometimes prefer habitats of apparently low quality, especially when considering the costs associated with spatially heterogeneous human disturbance. We used spatial variation in human disturbance, and its consequences on lynx survival, a direct fitness component, to test the Hierarchical Habitat Selection hypothesis from a population of Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx in southern Norway. Data from 46 lynx monitored with telemetry indicated that a high proportion of forest strongly reduced the risk of mortality from legal hunting at the home range scale, while increasing road density strongly increased such risk at the finer scale within the home range. We found hierarchical effects of the impact of human disturbance, with a higher road density at a large scale reinforcing its negative impact at a fine scale. Conversely, we demonstrated that lynx shifted their habitat selection to avoid areas with the highest road densities within their home ranges, thus supporting a compensatory mechanism at fine scale enabling lynx to mitigate the impact of large-scale disturbance. Human impact, positively associated with high road accessibility, was thus a stronger driver of lynx space use at a finer scale, with home range characteristics nevertheless constraining habitat selection. Our study demonstrates the truly hierarchical nature of habitat selection, which aims at maximising fitness by selecting against limiting factors at multiple spatial scales, and indicates that scale-specific heterogeneity of the environment is driving individual spatial behaviour, by means of trade-offs across spatial scales.

  8. Geochemical anomalies from bottom ash in a road construction--comparison of the leaching potential between an ash road and the surroundings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lind, Bo B; Norrman, Jenny; Larsson, Lennart B; Ohlsson, Sten-Ake; Bristav, Henrik

    2008-01-01

    A study was performed between June 2001 and December 2004 with the primary objective of assessing long-term leaching from municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash in a test road construction in relation to a reference road made up of conventional materials and the natural geochemical conditions in the surroundings. The metal leaching from the test road and the reference road was compared with the natural weathering in the regional surroundings for three time scales: 16, 80 and 1000 years. The results show that Cu and Zn cause a geochemical anomaly from the test road compared with the surroundings. The leaching of Cu from the test road is initially high but will decline with time and will in the long term be exceeded by natural weathering. Zn on the other hand has low initial leaching, which will increase with time and will in the long term exceed that of the test road and the surroundings by a factor of 100-300. For the other metals studied, Al, Na, K and Mg, there is only very limited leaching over time and the potential accumulation will not exceed the background values in a 1000 years.

  9. Traffic mortality and the role of minor roads.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Langevelde, F.; van Dooremalen, J.A.; Jaarsma, C.F.

    2009-01-01

    Roads have large impacts on wildlife, as they form one of the principal causes of mortality, and disturbance and fragmentation of habitat. These impacts are mainly studied and mitigated on major roads. It is, however, a widespread misconception that most animals are killed on major roads. In this

  10. Private Roads

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Verhoef, Erik T.

    2007-01-01

    This paper studies the efficiency impacts of private toll roads in initially untolled networks. The analysis allows for capacity and toll choice by private operators, and endogenizes entry and therewith the degree of competition, distinguishing and allowing for both parallel and serial competition.

  11. Management of roads with abnormal radiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chen Wenfang; Huang Jehnying; Chin, Chingjer; Chen Yibin

    2002-01-01

    Several asphalt concrete (AC) roads in Taoyuan County of Taiwan were found radioactively abnormal in 1994. Atomic Energy Council (AEC), the regulatory agency, was asked to take the samples, to perform the radiochemical analysis and dose evaluation as well as to investigate the source of contamination. The cause of high radiation was due to high uranium and thorium concentration slag used in the AC. The dose rate was approximately 1 μSv/hr at the road surface. The maximum annual dose received by pedestrians was estimated at 0.13 mSv (2.5% of annual dose limit of 5 mSv for the public), or approximately 1/15 of the value of annual natural background radiation in the Taiwan area. Consequently, the AEC suggested that there was no need to implement engineering remedy measures to remove the AC surface of the roads. However, upon consideration of socioeconomic condition and public opinion, the local government still decided to remove the contaminated surface of these roads. The AEC helped to formulate the operational procedures for removal and disposal of the AC including the radiation protection program and the disposal site. To date, all the contaminated AC surface of the roads was removed and properly disposed. The contaminated AC roads are a typical example of improper disposal of wastes containing Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (TENORM). A new regulation was promulgated by AEC recently to limit the use of slag, coal ash or any other industrial wastes unless its radiation or activity level is below the limit. (author)

  12. [Road traffic injuries in Mexico: evidences to strengthen the Mexican road safety strategy].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pérez-Núñez, Ricardo; Híjar, Martha; Celis, Alfredo; Hidalgo-Solórzano, Elisa

    2014-05-01

    Based on a review of secondary data and the scientific literature and an analysis of the ENSANut-2012 database, the current study provides a comprehensive overview of the current burden of road traffic injuries (RTI) in Mexico and analyzes the country's social response to RTI. The high collision, injury, mortality, and disability rates associated with this public health problem represent a high cost for Mexican society, especially for families. The paper argues that the Mexican response has focused on vehicle occupants while overlooking vulnerable road users and has prioritized strategies with limited effectiveness. Although the country's existing legislation addresses the main risk factors, enforcement has been limited. Finally, the paper makes some recommendations for strengthening the Mexican strategy to prevent RTI, such as safe, equitable, healthy, and sustainable mobility for all types of road users. Despite some strides in RTI prevention, there are still challenges and opportunities to be addressed in the future.

  13. 25 CFR 170.801 - What is the BIA Road Maintenance Program?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false What is the BIA Road Maintenance Program? 170.801 Section... ROADS PROGRAM BIA Road Maintenance § 170.801 What is the BIA Road Maintenance Program? The BIA Road... subpart contains a list of activities that are eligible for funding under the BIA road maintenance program. ...

  14. Spatial Resolution Effect on Forest Road Gradient Calculation and Erosion Modelling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cao, L.; Elliot, W.

    2017-12-01

    Road erosion is one of the main sediment sources in a forest watershed and should be properly evaluated. With the help of GIS technology, road topography can be determined and soil loss can be predicted at a watershed scale. As a vector geographical feature, the road gradient should be calculated following road direction rather than hillslope direction. This calculation might be difficult with a coarse (30-m) DEM which only provides the underlying topography information. This study was designed to explore the effect of road segmentation and DEM resolution on the road gradient calculation and erosion prediction at a watershed scale. The Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model was run on road segments of 9 lengths ranging from 40m to 200m. Road gradient was calculated from three DEM data sets: 1m LiDAR, and 10m and 30m USGS DEMs. The 1m LiDAR DEM calculated gradients were very close to the field observed road gradients, so we assumed the 1m LiDAR DEM predicted the true road gradient. The results revealed that longer road segments skipped detail topographical undulations and resulted in lower road gradients. Coarser DEMs computed steeper road gradients as larger grid cells covered more adjacent areas outside road resulting in larger elevation differences. Field surveyed results also revealed that coarser DEM might result in more gradient deviation in a curved road segment when it passes through a convex or concave slope. As road segment length increased, the gradient difference between three DEMs was reduced. There were no significant differences between road gradients of different segment lengths and DEM resolution when segments were longer than 100m. For long segments, the 10m DEM calculated road gradient was similar to the 1m LiDAR gradient. When evaluating the effects of road segment length, the predicted erosion rate decreased with increasing length when road gradient was less than 3%. In cases where the road gradients exceed 3% and rill erosion dominates

  15. Analysis of Child-related Road Traffic Accidents in Vietnam

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vu, Anh Tuan; Nguyen, Dinh Vinh Man

    2018-04-01

    In recent years, the number of road traffic accidents, fatalities and injuries have been decreasing, but the figures of children road traffic accidents have been increasing in Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam. This fact strongly calls for implementing effective solutions to improve traffic safety for children by the local government. This paper presents the trends, patterns and causes of road traffic accidents involving children based on the analysis of road traffic accident data over the period 2010-2015 and the video-based observations of road traffic law violations at 15 typical school gates and 10 typical roads. The results could be useful for the city government to formulate solutions to effectively improve traffic safety for children in Ho Chi Minh City and other cities in Vietnam.

  16. A Price Index Model for Road Freight Transportation and Its Empirical analysis in China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liu Zhishuo

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of price index for road freight transportation (RFT is to reflect the changes of price in the road transport market. Firstly, a price index model for RFT based on the sample data from Alibaba logistics platform is built. This model is a three levels index system including total index, classification index and individual index and the Laspeyres method is applied to calculate these indices. Finally, an empirical analysis of the price index for RFT market in Zhejiang Province is performed. In order to demonstrate the correctness and validity of the exponential model, a comparative analysis with port throughput and PMI index is carried out.

  17. Road development and the geography of hunting by an Amazonian indigenous group: consequences for wildlife conservation.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Santiago Espinosa

    Full Text Available Protected areas are essential for conservation of wildlife populations. However, in the tropics there are two important factors that may interact to threaten this objective: 1 road development associated with large-scale resource extraction near or within protected areas; and 2 historical occupancy by traditional or indigenous groups that depend on wildlife for their survival. To manage wildlife populations in the tropics, it is critical to understand the effects of roads on the spatial extent of hunting and how wildlife is used. A geographical analysis can help us answer questions such as: How do roads affect spatial extent of hunting? How does market vicinity relate to local consumption and trade of bushmeat? How does vicinity to markets influence choice of game? A geographical analysis also can help evaluate the consequences of increased accessibility in landscapes that function as source-sink systems. We applied spatial analyses to evaluate the effects of increased landscape and market accessibility by road development on spatial extent of harvested areas and wildlife use by indigenous hunters. Our study was conducted in Yasuní Biosphere Reserve, Ecuador, which is impacted by road development for oil extraction, and inhabited by the Waorani indigenous group. Hunting activities were self-reported for 12-14 months and each kill was georeferenced. Presence of roads was associated with a two-fold increase of the extraction area. Rates of bushmeat extraction and trade were higher closer to markets than further away. Hunters located closer to markets concentrated their effort on large-bodied species. Our results clearly demonstrate that placing roads within protected areas can seriously reduce their capacity to sustain wildlife populations and potentially threaten livelihoods of indigenous groups who depend on these resources for their survival. Our results critically inform current policy debates regarding resource extraction and road building

  18. Road development and the geography of hunting by an Amazonian indigenous group: consequences for wildlife conservation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Espinosa, Santiago; Branch, Lyn C; Cueva, Rubén

    2014-01-01

    Protected areas are essential for conservation of wildlife populations. However, in the tropics there are two important factors that may interact to threaten this objective: 1) road development associated with large-scale resource extraction near or within protected areas; and 2) historical occupancy by traditional or indigenous groups that depend on wildlife for their survival. To manage wildlife populations in the tropics, it is critical to understand the effects of roads on the spatial extent of hunting and how wildlife is used. A geographical analysis can help us answer questions such as: How do roads affect spatial extent of hunting? How does market vicinity relate to local consumption and trade of bushmeat? How does vicinity to markets influence choice of game? A geographical analysis also can help evaluate the consequences of increased accessibility in landscapes that function as source-sink systems. We applied spatial analyses to evaluate the effects of increased landscape and market accessibility by road development on spatial extent of harvested areas and wildlife use by indigenous hunters. Our study was conducted in Yasuní Biosphere Reserve, Ecuador, which is impacted by road development for oil extraction, and inhabited by the Waorani indigenous group. Hunting activities were self-reported for 12-14 months and each kill was georeferenced. Presence of roads was associated with a two-fold increase of the extraction area. Rates of bushmeat extraction and trade were higher closer to markets than further away. Hunters located closer to markets concentrated their effort on large-bodied species. Our results clearly demonstrate that placing roads within protected areas can seriously reduce their capacity to sustain wildlife populations and potentially threaten livelihoods of indigenous groups who depend on these resources for their survival. Our results critically inform current policy debates regarding resource extraction and road building near or within

  19. Sleep-related vehicle crashes on low speed roads.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Filtness, A J; Armstrong, K A; Watson, A; Smith, S S

    2017-02-01

    Very little is known about the characteristics of sleep related (SR) crashes occurring on low speed roads compared with current understanding of the role of sleep in crashes occurring on high speed roads e.g. motorways. To address this gap, analyses were undertaken to identify the differences and similarities between (1) SR crashes occurring on roads with low (≤60km/h) and high (≥100km/h) speed limits, and (2) SR crashes and not-SR crashes occurring on roads with low speed limits. Police reports of all crashes occurring on low and high speed roads over a ten year period between 2000 and 2009 were examined for Queensland, Australia. Attending police officers identified all crash attributes, including 'fatigue/fell asleep', which indicates that the police believe the crash to have a causal factor relating to falling asleep, sleepiness due to sleep loss, time of day, or fatigue. Driver or rider involvement in crashes was classified as SR or not-SR. All crash-associated variables were compared using Chi-square tests (Cramer's V=effect size). A series of logistic regression was performed, with driver and crash characteristics as predictors of crash category. A conservative alpha level of 0.001 determined statistical significance. There were 440,855 drivers or riders involved in a crash during this time; 6923 (1.6%) were attributed as SR. SR crashes on low speed roads have similar characteristics to those on high speed roads with young (16-24y) males consistently over represented. SR crashes on low speed roads are noticeably different to not-SR crashes in the same speed zone in that male and young novice drivers are over represented and outcomes are more severe. Of all the SR crashes identified, 41% occurred on low speed roads. SR crashes are not confined to high speed roads. Low speed SR crashes warrant specific investigation because they occur in densely populated areas, exposing a greater number of people to risk and have more severe outcomes than not-SR crashes

  20. Determination of road dust loadings and chemical characteristics using resuspension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Jianhua; Wang, Wei; Liu, Hongjie; Ren, Lihong

    2012-03-01

    The contribution of fugitive dust from traffic to air pollution can no longer be ignored in China. In order to obtain the road dust loadings and to understand the chemical characteristics of PM(10) and PM(2.5) from typical road dust, different paved roads in eight districts of Beijing were selected for dust collection during the four seasons of 2005. Ninety-eight samples from 28 roads were obtained. The samples were resuspended using equipment assembled to simulate the rising process of road dust caused by the wind or wheels in order to obtain the PM(10) and PM(2.5) filter samples. The average road dust loading was 3.82 g m(-2), with the highest of 24.22 g m(-2) being in Hutongs in the rural-urban continuum during winter. The road dust loadings on higher-grade roads were lower than those on lower-grade roads. Attention should be paid to the pollution in the rural-urban continuum areas. The sums of element abundances measured were 16.17% and 18.50% for PM(10) and PM(2.5) in road dust. The average abundances of OC and EC in PM(10) and PM(2.5) in road dust were 11.52%, 2.01% and 12.50%, 2.06%, respectively. The abundance of elements, water-soluble ions, and OC, EC in PM(10) and PM(2.5) resuspended from road dust did not change greatly with seasons and road types. The soil dust, construction dust, dust emitted from burning coal, vehicle exhaust, and deposition of particles in the air were the main sources of road dust in Beijing. Affected by the application of snow-melting agents in Beijing during winter, the amount of Cl( - ) and Na( + ) was much higher during that time than in the other seasons. This will have a certain influence on roads, bridges, vegetations, and groundwater.

  1. Lane-Level Road Information Mining from Vehicle GPS Trajectories Based on Naïve Bayesian Classification

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luliang Tang

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we propose a novel approach for mining lane-level road network information from low-precision vehicle GPS trajectories (MLIT, which includes the number and turn rules of traffic lanes based on naïve Bayesian classification. First, the proposed method (MLIT uses an adaptive density optimization method to remove outliers from the raw GPS trajectories based on their space-time distribution and density clustering. Second, MLIT acquires the number of lanes in two steps. The first step establishes a naïve Bayesian classifier according to the trace features of the road plane and road profiles and the real number of lanes, as found in the training samples. The second step confirms the number of lanes using test samples in reference to the naïve Bayesian classifier using the known trace features of test sample. Third, MLIT infers the turn rules of each lane through tracking GPS trajectories. Experiments were conducted using the GPS trajectories of taxis in Wuhan, China. Compared with human-interpreted results, the automatically generated lane-level road network information was demonstrated to be of higher quality in terms of displaying detailed road networks with the number of lanes and turn rules of each lane.

  2. Road traffic emission monitoring on motorways

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dittrich, M.G.; Beek, P.J.G. van

    2006-01-01

    Road traffic noise is one of the major environmental noise sources that is known to cause health problems. Despite existing noise reception items, the continuing growth of traffic causes higher levels than the lims allow. Consequently, excessive costs are incurred for noise barriers along roads and

  3. 30 CFR 780.37 - Road systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Road systems. 780.37 Section 780.37 Mineral... MINING AND RECLAMATION OPERATIONS PERMITS AND COAL EXPLORATION SYSTEMS UNDER REGULATORY PROGRAMS SURFACE MINING PERMIT APPLICATIONS-MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR RECLAMATION AND OPERATION PLAN § 780.37 Road systems...

  4. Commentary: Status of road safety in Asia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wismans, Jac; Skogsmo, Ingrid; Nilsson-Ehle, Anna; Lie, Anders; Thynell, Marie; Lindberg, Gunnar

    2016-01-01

    The objective of this article is to assess the status of road safety in Asia and present accident and injury prevention strategies based on global road safety improvement experiences and discuss the way forward by indicating opportunities and countermeasures that could be implemented to achieve a new level of safety in Asia. This study provides a review and analyses of data in the literature, including from the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Bank, and a review of lessons learned from best practices in high-income countries. In addition, an estimation of costs due to road transport injuries in Asia and review of future trends in road transport is provided. Data on the global and Asian road safety problem and status of prevention strategies in Asia as well as recommendations for future actions are discussed. The total number of deaths due to road accidents in the 24 Asian countries, encompassing 56% of the total world population, is 750,000 per year (statistics 2010). The total number of injuries is more than 50 million, of which 12% are hospital admissions. The loss to the economy in the 24 Asian countries is estimated to around US$800 billion or 3.6% of the gross domestic product (GDP). This article clearly shows that road safety is causing large problems and high costs in Asia, with an enormous impact on the well-being of people, economy, and productivity. In many Asian low- and middle-income countries, the yearly number of fatalities and injuries is increasing. Vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists combined) are particularly at risk. Road safety in Asia should be given rightful attention, including taking powerful, effective actions. This review stresses the need for reliable accident data, because there is considerable underreporting in the official statistics. Reliable accident data are imperative to determine evidence-based intervention strategies and monitor the success of these interventions and analyses. On the other

  5. Governmental competition in road charging and capacity choice

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ubbels, B.J.; Verhoef, E.T.

    2008-01-01

    This paper studies policy interactions between an urban and a regional government, both controlling one link of a two-link serial road network, where regional drivers may use both roads and urban drivers use the urban road only. Both governments set capacity and toll on one link, in a two-stage game

  6. Road network safety evaluation using Bayesian hierarchical joint model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Jie; Huang, Helai

    2016-05-01

    Safety and efficiency are commonly regarded as two significant performance indicators of transportation systems. In practice, road network planning has focused on road capacity and transport efficiency whereas the safety level of a road network has received little attention in the planning stage. This study develops a Bayesian hierarchical joint model for road network safety evaluation to help planners take traffic safety into account when planning a road network. The proposed model establishes relationships between road network risk and micro-level variables related to road entities and traffic volume, as well as socioeconomic, trip generation and network density variables at macro level which are generally used for long term transportation plans. In addition, network spatial correlation between intersections and their connected road segments is also considered in the model. A road network is elaborately selected in order to compare the proposed hierarchical joint model with a previous joint model and a negative binomial model. According to the results of the model comparison, the hierarchical joint model outperforms the joint model and negative binomial model in terms of the goodness-of-fit and predictive performance, which indicates the reasonableness of considering the hierarchical data structure in crash prediction and analysis. Moreover, both random effects at the TAZ level and the spatial correlation between intersections and their adjacent segments are found to be significant, supporting the employment of the hierarchical joint model as an alternative in road-network-level safety modeling as well. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Estimation of Turkish road transport emissions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Soylu, Seref

    2007-01-01

    Using the COPERT III program, an inventory of Turkish road transport emissions was calculated and the contributions of road transport to global and local air pollutant emissions were examined for the year 2004. It was observed that passenger cars are the main source of CO, HC, and Pb emissions while heavy duty vehicles are mainly responsible for NO x , particulate matter (PM), and SO 2 emissions. Taking the emissions for the year 2004 as the baseline, a parametric study was conducted to determine the emission reduction potentials of different road transport strategies. The results indicated that the following road transport strategies; fleet renewal, promotion of public transportation, and faster urban traffic speed are very effective strategies for reducing regulated emissions and fuel consumption (FC) from a technical point of view. It was also noted that replacement of two-stroke motorcycles with four-stroke motorcycles is as effective as fleet renewal in reducing HC emissions

  8. Individual spatial responses towards roads: implications for mortality risk.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Clara Grilo

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Understanding the ecological consequences of roads and developing ways to mitigate their negative effects has become an important goal for many conservation biologists. Most mitigation measures are based on road mortality and barrier effects data. However, studying fine-scale individual spatial responses in roaded landscapes may help develop more cohesive road planning strategies for wildlife conservation. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We investigated how individuals respond in their spatial behavior toward a highway and its traffic intensity by radio-tracking two common species particularly vulnerable to road mortality (barn owl Tyto alba and stone marten Martes foina. We addressed the following questions: 1 how highways affected home-range location and size in the immediate vicinity of these structures, 2 which road-related features influenced habitat selection, 3 what was the role of different road-related features on movement properties, and 4 which characteristics were associated with crossing events and road-kills. The main findings were: 1 if there was available habitat, barn owls and stone martens may not avoid highways and may even include highways within their home-ranges; 2 both species avoided using areas near the highway when traffic was high, but tended to move toward the highway when streams were in close proximity and where verges offered suitable habitat; and 3 barn owls tended to cross above-grade highway sections while stone martens tended to avoid crossing at leveled highway sections. CONCLUSIONS: Mortality may be the main road-mediated mechanism that affects barn owl and stone marten populations. Fine-scale movements strongly indicated that a decrease in road mortality risk can be realized by reducing sources of attraction, and by increasing road permeability through measures that promote safe crossings.

  9. Effects of winter road grooming on bison in YNP

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bjornlie, Daniel D.; Garrott, R.A.

    2001-01-01

    The effects of winter recreation—specifically snowmobiling—on wildlife in Yellowstone National Park (YNP) have become high-profile management issues. The road grooming needed to support oversnow travel in YNP is also being examined for its effects on bison (Bison bison) ecology. Data were collected from November 1997 through May 1998 and from December 1998 through May 1999 on the effects of road grooming on bison in Madison–Gibbon–Firehole (MGF) area of YNP Peak bison numbers occurred during late March—early April and were strongly correlated with the snow water equivalent measurements in the Hayden Valley area (1997–1998: r* = 0.62, p:0.001: 1998–1999: r2 = 0.64, P-0.001). Data from an infrared trail monitor on the Mary Mountain trail between the Hayden and Firehole valleys suggest that this trail is the sole corridor for major bison distributional shifts between these locations. Of the 28,293 observations of individual bison made during the study, 8% were traveling and 69% were foraging. These percentages were nearly identical during the period of winter road grooming (7% and 68%, respectively). During this period, 77% of bison foraging activity and 12% of bison traveling activity involved displacing snow. Most travel took place off roads (Pgrooming, with peak use in April and lowest use during the road-grooming period. Bison in the MGF area of YNF neither seek out nor avoid groomed roads. The minimal use of roads compared to off-road areas, the short distances traveled on the roads, the decreased use of roads during the over snow vehicle (OSV) season, and the increased costs of negative interactions with OSVs suggest that grooming roads during winter does not have a major influence on bison ecology.

  10. Honduras - Transportation and Farm to Market Roads

    Data.gov (United States)

    Millennium Challenge Corporation — The evaluation of the Transport Project and Farm to Market Roads Activity aimed to answer whether or not improved conditions throughout the road network: • Lowered...

  11. The implications of the relative risk for road mortality on road safety programmes in Qatar.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Consunji, Rafael J; Peralta, Ruben R; Al-Thani, Hassan; Latifi, Rifat

    2015-04-01

    The epidemiology of road deaths and in particular the relative risk for road mortality (RRRM) in Qatar has not been fully defined. This study will analyse and compare the proportionate mortality and age-specific death rates from road traffic injuries (RTIs) and make recommendations for targeted injury prevention programmes for road safety in Qatar. Data from the Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA), for the year 2010, was collected and analysed. All deaths classified as 'ICD-10 (V89) Motor- or Nonmotor-Vehicle, Accident Type of Vehicle Unspecified' were included. There were 247 RTI related deaths in Qatar in 2010. An overall death rate was computed at 14.4 deaths per 100 000 population. The RRRM varied over 10 times among different populations with Qatari males (QM) having an increased RRRM from 10 years of age, those aged 20-29 years had the highest RRRM of 10.2. The lowest RRRM was for Qatari females who did not have a single reported road fatality in 2010. Populations with a significantly elevated RRRM (ie, RRRM>1.0) were non-Qatari men older than 50 years and Qatari males from the age of 10 onward. Proven and definite programmes must be implemented to reduce these unnecessary deaths among the populations at the highest risk. Multidisciplinary approaches must be implemented and their efficacy evaluated. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

  12. Over-pressure in road tankers; Ueberdrucksicherung an Tankfahrzeugen

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Frobese, Dirk-Hans; Pape, Harald [Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Braunschweig (Germany)

    2011-08-15

    This work was aimed at determining possible causes of overpressure damages on road tankers. In cooperation with the manufacturers of road tankers, the equipment of road tankers usually used today was, therefore, discussed and possible error sources determined. In measurements performed at two filling stations, real pressure, temperature and volume flow ratios for the loading of a road tanker were recorded. Parallel to it, tests in a cold chamber were carried out to determine the possibility and the general conditions of an icing of the tilting valve and the flame arrester. With these results, scenarios have been worked out which can explain known overpressure damaging events. On the basis of a risk assessment, measures are described how such overpressure damages on road tankers can in future be avoided. (orig.)

  13. Prediction of road accidents: A Bayesian hierarchical approach

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Deublein, Markus; Schubert, Matthias; Adey, Bryan T.

    2013-01-01

    the expected number of accidents in which an injury has occurred and the expected number of light, severe and fatally injured road users. Additionally, the methodology is used for geo-referenced identification of road sections with increased occurrence probabilities of injury accident events on a road link......In this paper a novel methodology for the prediction of the occurrence of road accidents is presented. The methodology utilizes a combination of three statistical methods: (1) gamma-updating of the occurrence rates of injury accidents and injured road users, (2) hierarchical multivariate Poisson......-lognormal regression analysis taking into account correlations amongst multiple dependent model response variables and effects of discrete accident count data e.g. over-dispersion, and (3) Bayesian inference algorithms, which are applied by means of data mining techniques supported by Bayesian Probabilistic Networks...

  14. Environmental exposure of road borders to zinc

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blok, J.

    2005-01-01

    The emissions of zinc along roads originating from tyre wear, corrosion of safety fence and other traffic-related sources have been quantified and validated by measured long-term loads in road run-off and airborne solids (drift) for 29 published case studies. The distribution pattern over the road border at various distances from the edge of the paved surface is assessed on the basis of 38 published case studies with measured concentrations in soil. For the impact assessment, the road border is differentiated into a zone that is part of the 'technosphere' and the 'target zone' beyond that technosphere that can be considered as part of the receiving environment. The 'technosphere' of the road includes the central reservation, the hard and the soft shoulder or, if one or both shoulders are not present, the so-called obstacle 'free zone' that is defined by road engineers. Pollution within the technosphere may require appropriate management of solid disposal and isolation from groundwater to prevent further distribution of pollutants to the environment. In the target zone along regional roads, the zinc load is about 4 mg/m 2 year and this is of the same order of magnitude as that of atmospheric deposition in areas beyond the influence of roads (background). In the target zone along highways, the zinc load is increased in comparison to the background deposition. The average load of about 38 mg/m 2 year is similar to that in fertilised agricultural land. Because most of the emitted zinc stays in the technosphere, the total amount entering this target zone along highways is limited. From the 140 tons of zinc per year that is released from tyre wear in The Netherlands, 64 tons is emitted in the urban area, 6.5 tons reaches to the target zones of all roads and only 1.1 tons of zinc will enter the target zone along highways. This amount will be further decreased by the application of porous asphalt in the near future. The emission from safety fence corrosion does not enter

  15. Road Edge of Pavement, EOP (Driveway_Paved, Driveway_Unpaved, Median, Parking_Paved, Parking_Unpaved, Roads_Paved, Roads_Unpaved): Part of 2005 Planimetry-Topography layers, Published in 2005, 1:1200 (1in=100ft) scale, Washington County Government.

    Data.gov (United States)

    NSGIC Local Govt | GIS Inventory — Road Edge of Pavement dataset current as of 2005. EOP (Driveway_Paved, Driveway_Unpaved, Median, Parking_Paved, Parking_Unpaved, Roads_Paved, Roads_Unpaved): Part of...

  16. A good road lies easy on the land: Water harvesting from low-standard rural roads

    OpenAIRE

    Zeedyk, B.

    2006-01-01

    Metadata only record This book addresses the construction and maintenance of unpaved rural roads including strategies, techniques and practices for dealing with problems frequently encountered by landowners, land managers and maintenance personnel. Running water is the primary force affecting road condition and generating the need for maintenance. Economical maintenance means dealing effectively with water, but not just surface runoff. Standing water, seeping water, rain, snow, ice, frost ...

  17. School Area Road Safety Assessment and Improvements (SARSAI) programme reduces road traffic injuries among children in Tanzania.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Poswayo, Ayikai; Kalolo, Simon; Rabonovitz, Katheryn; Witte, Jeffrey; Guerrero, Alejandro

    2018-05-19

    To determine the impact of a paediatric road traffic injury (RTI) prevention programme in urban Sub-Saharan Africa. Dares Salaam, Republic of Tanzania. Household surveys were conducted in catchment areas around 18 primary schools in Dar es Salaam, Republic of Tanzania; the catchment areas were divided into control and intervention groups. Collected data included basic demographic information on all school-aged household members and whether or not they had been involved in an RTI in the previous 12 months, and, if so, what the characteristics of that RTI were. Based on these findings, a separate road safety engineering site analysis and consultation with the communities and other stakeholders, an injury-prevention programme was developed and implemented, consisting of infrastructure enhancements and a site-specific educational programme. The programme was initially implemented at the intervention schools. After 1 year, data were collected in the same manner. The control group received the same intervention after follow-up data were collected. Data were collected on 12 957 school-aged children in the baseline period and 13 555 school-aged children in the post-intervention period, in both the control and intervention communities. There was a statistically significant reduction in RTIs in the intervention group and a non-significant increase in RTI in the control group. The greatest reduction was in motorcycle-pedestrian RTI, private vehicle-pedestrian RTI and morning RTI. The programme demonstrated a significant reduction in paediatric RTI after its implementation, in very specific ways. This study demonstrates that for a reasonable investment, scientifically driven injury-prevention programmes are feasible in resource-limited settings with high paediatric RTI rates. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

  18. Incorporating the Spatial Road Disturbance Index (SPROADI in Ecological Impacts Assessment of Roads at Landscape Scale (Case study: Eastern Part of Isfahan Province

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sh. Nematollahi

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Development of roads can have deleterious effects on natural habitats containing species of conservation concern. Fragmentation of habitat into small, non-contiguous patches may result in dramatic population declines. Thus appropriate studies quantifying ecological impacts of roads at landscape scale are essential. In this study, the Spatial Road Disturbance Index (SPROADI was applied for the ecological impact assessment of the roads network in Eastern part of Isfahan Province, including Abassabad wildlife refuge and Siahkouh National park, which are among the most important habitats for Asiatic Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus classified as Critically Endangered (CR on the IUCN Red List. This new landscape index uses three sub-indices including traffic intensity, vicinity impact and fragmentation grade to calculate the ecological impacts of roads network. Results obtained through quantifying the Spatial Road Disturbance Index showed that the degree of disturbance by roads network is between 0 and 54.53. Our results also revealed that 12 percent of Abassabad wildlife refuge and wide range of suitable habitats for Asiatic Cheetah were affected by roads network, which presents a conservation concern for this critically endangered species.

  19. Risk Factors for Road Traffic Injuries among Different Road Users in the Gambia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Edrisa Sanyang

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available We identified risk factors for road traffic injuries among road users who received treatment at two major trauma hospitals in urban Gambia. The study includes pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, and drivers/passengers of cars and trucks. We examined distributions of injury by age, gender, collision vehicle types and vehicle category, and driver and environment factors. Two hundred and fifty-four patients were included in the study. Two-thirds were male and one-third female. Two-thirds (67% of road traffic injuries involved pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists; and these were more common during weekdays (74% than weekends. Nearly half (47% of road traffic injuries involved pedestrians. One-third (34% of injured patients were students (mean age of students was less than 14 years, more than half (51% of whom were injured on the roadway as pedestrians. Head/skull injuries were common. Concussion/brain injuries were 3.5 times higher among pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists than vehicle occupants. Crashes involving pedestrians were more likely to involve young people (<25 years; aOR 6.36, 95% CI: 3.32–12.17 and involve being struck by a motor car (aOR 3.95, 95% CI: 2.09–7.47. Pedestrians contribute the largest proportion of hospitalizations in the Gambia. Young pedestrians are at particularly high risk. Prevention efforts should focus on not only vehicle and driver factors, but also protecting pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists.

  20. Road Transport Network Analysis In Port-Harcourt Metropolics ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Road transport network contributes to the economy of an area as it connects points of origin to destinations. The thrust of this article therefore, is on the analysis of the road networks in Port – Harcourt metropolis with the aim of determining the connectivity of the road networks and the most accessible node. Consequently ...

  1. Determining the range of acceptable forest road erosion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnny M. III Grace

    2008-01-01

    In recent years there has been increased awareness and societal pressure concerning environmental impacts and aesthetics of forest operations such as road management. Forest roads continue to be attributed to account for the majority of erosion from forestlands. Previous research over the past 70 years has presented many questions concerning the impact of roads on...

  2. 36 CFR 261.54 - National Forest System roads.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false National Forest System roads... PROHIBITIONS Prohibitions in Areas Designated by Order § 261.54 National Forest System roads. When provided by...) Use by any type of traffic prohibited by the order. (c) Using a road for commercial hauling without a...

  3. Second-best Road Pricing Through Highway Franchising

    OpenAIRE

    Verhoef, Erik T.

    2005-01-01

    This paper considers the welfare impacts of a range of franchising regimes for congestible highways. For a single road in isolation, it is shown that a competitive auction with the level of road use as the decision criterion produces the socially optimal road (in terms of capacity and toll level) as the equilibrium outcome, provided constant returns to scale characterize highway operations. The auction outperforms various alternatives, in which the bidders are asked to minimize the toll level...

  4. Lane Changing Trajectory Planning and Tracking Controller Design for Intelligent Vehicle Running on Curved Road

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lie Guo

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available To enhance the active safety and realize the autonomy of intelligent vehicle on highway curved road, a lane changing trajectory is planned and tracked for lane changing maneuver on curved road. The kinematics model of the intelligent vehicle with nonholonomic constraint feature and the tracking error model are established firstly. The longitudinal and lateral coupling and the difference of curvature radius between the outside and inside lane are taken into account, which is helpful to enhance the authenticity of desired lane changing trajectory on curved road. Then the trajectory tracking controller of closed-loop control structure is derived using integral backstepping method to construct a new virtual variable. The Lyapunov theory is applied to analyze the stability of the proposed tracking controller. Simulation results demonstrate that this controller can guarantee the convergences of both the relative position tracking errors and the position tracking synchronization.

  5. Non-vehicular homicides masquerading as road traffic accidents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zine, K U; Mugadlimath, Anand B; Sane, Mandar Ramchandra; Bhuyyar, Chandrashekhar; Rathod, S N

    2016-03-01

    Interfering with or planting evidence to disguise the cause of a death is not uncommon in forensic practice. Homicides staged as road accidents are, however, rarely encountered by crime scene investigators. We report two homicides which were presented as road traffic accidents. Case 1: Dead body of a 35-year-old male was brought for autopsy with history of road traffic accident. Primary police inquiry suggested that the victim was knocked down by a speeding four-wheeler, while walking by the side of a high way with his friends. On postmortem examination the deceased's death was found due to homicidal smothering staged as a road traffic accident. Case 2: Dead body of 40-year-old male was brought for autopsy with history of road traffic accident. It was an unwitnessed crush by a speeding four-wheeler. However, on postmortem examination, the deceased was found to have died from homicidal multiple stab wounds with his death staged as a road traffic accident. Importance of meticulous autopsy to determine accurately the cause of death is emphasized. © The Author(s) 2015.

  6. Road roughness evaluation using in-pavement strain sensors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Zhiming; Deng, Fodan; Huang, Ying; Bridgelall, Raj

    2015-11-01

    The international roughness index (IRI) is a characterization of road roughness or ride quality that transportation agencies most often report. The prevalent method of acquiring IRI data requires instrumented vehicles and technicians with specialized training to interpret the results. The extensive labor and high cost requirements associated with the existing approaches limit data collection to at most once per year for portions of the national highway system. Agencies characterize roughness only for some secondary roads but much less frequently, such as once every five years, resulting in outdated roughness information. This research developed a real-time roughness evaluation approach that links the output of durable in-pavement strain sensors to prevailing indices that summarize road roughness. Field experiments validated the high consistency of the approach by showing that it is within 3.3% of relative IRI estimates. After their installation and calibration during road construction, the ruggedized strain sensors will report road roughness continuously. Thus, the solution will provide agencies a real-time roughness monitoring solution over the remaining service life of road assets.

  7. Trend road safety measures : international course on transportation and road engineering in developing countries. Two-year postgraduate Diploma and M.Sc. programme.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    1991-01-01

    This course focuses mainly on traffic and transport in developing countries, and deals primarily with matters of infrastructure. Road safety and road safety problems are closely related to the construction and operation of the road network. (See also C 1341 - C1346).

  8. GIS Data Based Automatic High-Fidelity 3D Road Network Modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Jie; Shen, Yuzhong

    2011-01-01

    3D road models are widely used in many computer applications such as racing games and driving simulations_ However, almost all high-fidelity 3D road models were generated manually by professional artists at the expense of intensive labor. There are very few existing methods for automatically generating 3D high-fidelity road networks, especially those existing in the real world. This paper presents a novel approach thai can automatically produce 3D high-fidelity road network models from real 2D road GIS data that mainly contain road. centerline in formation. The proposed method first builds parametric representations of the road centerlines through segmentation and fitting . A basic set of civil engineering rules (e.g., cross slope, superelevation, grade) for road design are then selected in order to generate realistic road surfaces in compliance with these rules. While the proposed method applies to any types of roads, this paper mainly addresses automatic generation of complex traffic interchanges and intersections which are the most sophisticated elements in the road networks

  9. The use of yellow longitudinal markings on roads with two-directional traffic. Contribution to OECD Research Group TS 304 "Improving road safety at night".

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schreuder, D.A.

    1978-01-01

    The question is posed whether the application of a colour difference for the central line on the road is the best solution available for the coding of the categories of road. It has been proposed to apply yellow centre lines on roads with two-way traffic and white centre lines on roads with

  10. RoadRail: An economically viable infrastructure which facilitates the transition from oil to electricity for all forms of road transport

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Connolly, David

    2012-01-01

    to convert road transport from oil to electricity. This involves the electrification of major roads so that electric cars, vans, busses, and trucks can use electricity as their primary fuel over long distance, which in this study is referred to as ‘RoadRail’. This is a new and radical alternative......In recent decades, economic renewable energy technologies have been developed for the electricity and heat sectors. Although there has been some development in the transport sector, there is still no well-establish sustainable alternatives to oil. In this study, a new alternative is proposed...... and electricity/oil costs, Denmark is presented as a case study for the installation of RoadRail. The results indicate that based on 2020 cost assumptions, RoadRail is a more socio-economic alternative than a business-as-usual using oil. This is primarily due to decreasing electric vehicle costs, decreasing...

  11. A Distributed Approach to Continuous Monitoring of Constrained k-Nearest Neighbor Queries in Road Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hyung-Ju Cho

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Given two positive parameters k and r, a constrained k-nearest neighbor (CkNN query returns the k closest objects within a network distance r of the query location in road networks. In terms of the scalability of monitoring these CkNN queries, existing solutions based on central processing at a server suffer from a sudden and sharp rise in server load as well as messaging cost as the number of queries increases. In this paper, we propose a distributed and scalable scheme called DAEMON for the continuous monitoring of CkNN queries in road networks. Our query processing is distributed among clients (query objects and server. Specifically, the server evaluates CkNN queries issued at intersections of road segments, retrieves the objects on the road segments between neighboring intersections, and sends responses to the query objects. Finally, each client makes its own query result using this server response. As a result, our distributed scheme achieves close-to-optimal communication costs and scales well to large numbers of monitoring queries. Exhaustive experimental results demonstrate that our scheme substantially outperforms its competitor in terms of query processing time and messaging cost.

  12. Testing road surface treatments to reduce erosion in forest roads in Honduras [Tratamientos de la superficie de rodadura para reducir la erosion en caminos forestales en Honduras

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rivera, Samuel; Kershner, Jeffrey L.; Keller, Gordon R.

    2009-01-01

    Testing road surface treatments to reduce erosion in forest roads in Honduras. Cien. Inv. Agr. 36(3):425-432. Using forest roads produces more erosion and sedimentation than any other forest or agricultural activity. This study evaluated soil losses from a forest road in central Honduras over two consecutive years. We divided a 400-m segment of road into 8 experimental units, each 50 m in length. Four units were treated with Best Management Practices (BMPs) and four were left untreated. The BMP treatments included reshaping the road prism, installing culverts and reshaping of road ditches, compacting 20-cm layers of the road tread, crowning the road surface (3% slope, double drainage), longitudinal sloping (less than 12%), and adding a 10-cm layer of gravel (crush size = 0.63 cm). Soil movement was measured daily during the rainy seasons. The highest soil loss occurred in the control road, around 500 m3 km-1 per year, while the road treated with BMP lost approximately 225 m3km-1 per year. These results show that road surface erosion can be reduced up to 50% with the implementation of surface treatments.

  13. Application of computer graphics to regional trunk road network planning

    OpenAIRE

    M Odani

    1992-01-01

    The author attempts to demonstrate the use of computer graphics to provide an efficient and effective visual presentation method for tranbsprtation planning. First, the basic concept of the visual presentation method of planning is explained and the required hardware is introduced. The information presented graphically by the proposed method is then shown for each step in the process of regional trunk road network planning in the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area of Japan: analysis of the traffic-...

  14. Bilateral Carotid Artery Dissection after High Impact Road Traffic Accident

    OpenAIRE

    Michael Kelly; Marcus Bradley; Ankur Srivastava

    2008-01-01

    A 58 year old man was involved in a high impact road traffic incident and was admitted for observation. Asymptomatic for the first 24 hours, he collapsed with symptoms and signs consistent with a cerebrovascular accident. Computed tomography angiogram (CTA) and Magnetic resonance angiogram (MRA) demonstrated bilateral internal carotid artery dissections and a left middle cerebral artery infarct. It was not considered appropriate to attempt stenting or other revascularistation. The patient was...

  15. Two Belts, One Road? - The role of Africa in Chinas's Belt & Road initiative

    OpenAIRE

    Breuer, Julia

    2017-01-01

    In the light of the EU-Africa Summit 2017 and of the G20 Summit 2017 with Africa being one of the focus areas, China’s engagement in Africa seems more relevant than ever. China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative (OBOR) or silk road initiative is often referred to as a Eurasian infrastructure network initiative, but it is in fact much more than that. The maritime silk road is supposed to go past the coast of East Africa, where several ports are being built and will be built. Furthermore, ports ...

  16. Gender effects in young road users on road safety attitudes, behaviours and risk perception

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pierluigi Cordellieri

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available In the present study, we investigated gender-related effects on road safety attitudesin 2,681 young drivers (1,458 males, 54.4%; aged 18-22 who filled out several scales assessing attitudes towards road safety issues, driving behaviour in specific hypothetical situations, accident risk perception, and concerns about such a risk. We focused only on young drivers to better understand the role of gender in road safety attitudes in a period of life in which risky behaviours are widespread for males and females. Indeed, there is still no agreement as to the nature of these gender differences. According to some authors, the effects of gender on being involved in a crash due to driving skills are either non-existent or largely explained by differences in alcohol consumption. In our study, we found gender differences in road safety attitudes (i.e., negative attitude toward traffic rules and risky driving; negative attitude towards drugs and alcohol and tolerance toward speeding and in driver behaviour (i.e., errors in inattentive driving and driving violations. This result is consistent in all drivers coming from nine different European countries. Our analyses yielded an important finding concerning risk perception. The results indicate that the level of risk perception during driving is the same for males and females. However, these two groups differ in the level of concern about this risk, with males being less concerned about the risk of a road accident. This suggests that the main difference between these two groups is not strictly related to judgment of the perceived risk probability but rather to the level of concern experienced about the consequences of the risk. This difference between risk perception and worry could explain differences in the frequency of car accidents in the two groups. The present findings may provide new insights for the development of gender-based prevention programs.

  17. Understanding fatal older road user crash circumstances and risk factors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koppel, Sjaan; Bugeja, Lyndal; Smith, Daisy; Lamb, Ashne; Dwyer, Jeremy; Fitzharris, Michael; Newstead, Stuart; D'Elia, Angelo; Charlton, Judith

    2018-02-28

    This study used medicolegal data to investigate fatal older road user (ORU) crash circumstances and risk factors relating to four key components of the Safe System approach (e.g., roads and roadsides, vehicles, road users, and speeds) to identify areas of priority for targeted prevention activity. The Coroners Court of Victoria's Surveillance Database was searched to identify coronial records with at least one deceased ORU in the state of Victoria, Australia, for 2013-2014. Information relating to the ORU, crash characteristics and circumstances, and risk factors was extracted and analyzed. The average rate of fatal ORU crashes per 100,000 population was 8.1 (95% confidence interval [CI] 6.0-10.2), which was more than double the average rate of fatal middle-aged road user crashes (3.6, 95% CI 2.5-4.6). There was a significant relationship between age group and deceased road user type (χ 2 (15, N = 226) = 3.56, p road" (87.0%), on roads that were paved (94.2%), dry (74.2%), and had light traffic volume (38.3%). Road user error was identified by the police and/or coroner for the majority of fatal ORU crashes (57.9%), with a significant proportion of deceased ORU deemed to have "misjudged" (40.9%) or "failed to yield" (37.9%). Road user error was the most significant risk factor identified in fatal ORU crashes, which suggests that there is a limited capacity of the Victorian road system to fully accommodate road user errors. Initiatives related to safer roads and roadsides, vehicles, and speed zones, as well as behavioral approaches, are key areas of priority for targeted activity to prevent fatal older road user crashes in the future.

  18. European road users’ risk perception and mobility : the SARTRE 4 survey.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Antov, D. Banet, A. Barbier, C. Bellet, T. Bimpeh, Y. Boulanger, A. Brandstätter, C. Britschgi, V. Brosnan, M. Buttler, I. Cestac, J. , De Craen, S. de Delhomme, P. Dogan, E. Drápela, E. Forward, S. Freeman, R. Furian, G. Gábor, M. Goldenbeld, C. Henriksson, P. Holte, H. Kraïem, S. Papadimitriou, E. Podlesek, A. Polic, M. Sánchez-Martín, F. Sardi, G.-M. Schmidt, E.-A. Silverans, P. Siska, T. Skládaná, P. Theofilatos, A. Below, A. von Yannis, G. Zaidel, D. & Zavrides, N.

    2012-01-01

    The SARTRE (Social Attitudes to Road Traffic Risk in Europe) project started in 1991. It consists of a European wide survey about knowledge of road traffic laws and road traffic risks, attitudes regarding road safety issues, reported road traffic behaviours, transport habits and needs in several

  19. Road salt emissions: A comparison of measurements and modelling using the NORTRIP road dust emission model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Denby, B. R.; Ketzel, M.; Ellermann, T.; Stojiljkovic, A.; Kupiainen, K.; Niemi, J. V.; Norman, M.; Johansson, C.; Gustafsson, M.; Blomqvist, G.; Janhäll, S.; Sundvor, I.

    2016-09-01

    De-icing of road surfaces is necessary in many countries during winter to improve vehicle traction. Large amounts of salt, most often sodium chloride, are applied every year. Most of this salt is removed through drainage or traffic spray processes but a certain amount may be suspended, after drying of the road surface, into the air and will contribute to the concentration of particulate matter. Though some measurements of salt concentrations are available near roads, the link between road maintenance salting activities and observed concentrations of salt in ambient air is yet to be quantified. In this study the NORTRIP road dust emission model, which estimates the emissions of both dust and salt from the road surface, is applied at five sites in four Nordic countries for ten separate winter periods where daily mean ambient air measurements of salt concentrations are available. The model is capable of reproducing many of the salt emission episodes, both in time and intensity, but also fails on other occasions. The observed mean concentration of salt in PM10, over all ten datasets, is 4.2 μg/m3 and the modelled mean is 2.8 μg/m3, giving a fractional bias of -0.38. The RMSE of the mean concentrations, over all 10 datasets, is 2.9 μg/m3 with an average R2 of 0.28. The mean concentration of salt is similar to the mean exhaust contribution during the winter periods of 2.6 μg/m3. The contribution of salt to the kerbside winter mean PM10 concentration is estimated to increase by 4.1 ± 3.4 μg/m3 for every kg/m2 of salt applied on the road surface during the winter season. Additional sensitivity studies showed that the accurate logging of salt applications is a prerequisite for predicting salt emissions, as well as good quality data on precipitation. It also highlights the need for more simultaneous measurements of salt loading together with ambient air concentrations to help improve model parameterisations of salt and moisture removal processes.

  20. 49 CFR 391.33 - Equivalent of road test.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 49 Transportation 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Equivalent of road test. 391.33 Section 391.33... AND LONGER COMBINATION VEHICLE (LCV) DRIVER INSTRUCTORS Tests § 391.33 Equivalent of road test. (a) In place of, and as equivalent to, the road test required by § 391.31, a person who seeks to drive a...