WorldWideScience

Sample records for science road show

  1. Educational Outreach: The Space Science Road Show

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cox, N. L. J.

    2002-01-01

    The poster presented will give an overview of a study towards a "Space Road Show". The topic of this show is space science. The target group is adolescents, aged 12 to 15, at Dutch high schools. The show and its accompanying experiments would be supported with suitable educational material. Science teachers at schools can decide for themselves if they want to use this material in advance, afterwards or not at all. The aims of this outreach effort are: to motivate students for space science and engineering, to help them understand the importance of (space) research, to give them a positive feeling about the possibilities offered by space and in the process give them useful knowledge on space basics. The show revolves around three main themes: applications, science and society. First the students will get some historical background on the importance of space/astronomy to civilization. Secondly they will learn more about novel uses of space. On the one hand they will learn of "Views on Earth" involving technologies like Remote Sensing (or Spying), Communication, Broadcasting, GPS and Telemedicine. On the other hand they will experience "Views on Space" illustrated by past, present and future space research missions, like the space exploration missions (Cassini/Huygens, Mars Express and Rosetta) and the astronomy missions (Soho and XMM). Meanwhile, the students will learn more about the technology of launchers and satellites needed to accomplish these space missions. Throughout the show and especially towards the end attention will be paid to the third theme "Why go to space"? Other reasons for people to get into space will be explored. An important question in this is the commercial (manned) exploration of space. Thus, the questions of benefit of space to society are integrated in the entire show. It raises some fundamental questions about the effects of space travel on our environment, poverty and other moral issues. The show attempts to connect scientific with

  2. 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…

  3. 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

  4. Radon awareness in Ireland: a assessment of the effectiveness of radon road shows

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Synnott, H.

    2006-01-01

    Full text: In late 2004 the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (R.P.I.I.) initiated a series of radon road shows in areas designated as High Radon Areas 1 in the R.P.I.I. s national radon survey of homes. The main objective of these road shows was to provide information to a local audience on the risks of exposure to radon. These road shows target both employers and householders. Each road show has the same general format. A presentation and/or meeting with a major employer representative group within the area. The purpose is to make employers aware of the risks associated with exposure to radon in the workplace and to highlight their obligations under current Irish health and safety legislation regarding radon in the workplace. An information stand on radon manned by R.P.I.I. staff members in a local shopping centre or other similar area. This provides those concerned about radon with accessible information on radon exposure risks, how to measure radon and the steps a home owner could take to reduce radon concentrations where necessary. Where possible R.P.I.I. staff members visit one or more schools in the general area. A short presentation on radon was given to students and students were given an opportunity to asks questions Maximizing media exposure to publicize our visits is vital to the success of these visits. Each visit is preceded by a Press Release whose main aim is to brief local and national media on the radon issue so as to achieve maximum publicity mainly through radio and television coverage. In general the media are very interested in the whole radon area and R.P.I.I. staff members have given 57 radio and 10 television interviews to date since the commencement of this initiative. The four road shows carried out to date have been successful in encouraging householders to carry out radon measurements. Since the start of the road shows to the present, the R.P.I.I. has seen a 44% increase in the number of householders requesting radon

  5. The Presentation of Science in Everyday Life: The Science Show

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watermeyer, Richard

    2013-01-01

    This paper constitutes a case-study of the "science show" model of public engagement employed by a company of science communicators focused on the popularization of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subject disciplines with learner constituencies. It examines the potential of the science show to foster the interest…

  6. Talk Show Science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, Mitzi Ruth

    1992-01-01

    Proposes having students perform skits in which they play the roles of the science concepts they are trying to understand. Provides the dialog for a skit in which hot and cold gas molecules are interviewed on a talk show to study how these properties affect wind, rain, and other weather phenomena. (MDH)

  7. Science to Policy: Many Roads to Travel (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eriksson, S. C.; McCaughey, J.

    2013-12-01

    Transferring scientific discoveries to policies and their implementation is not a narrow, one-way road. The complexities of policy-making are not normally within the purview of either scientists or science educators and communicators. Politics, bureaucracy, economics, culture, religion, and local knowledge are a few areas that help determine how policies are made. These factors are compounded by differences in cultures among scientists, educators/communicators, and governments. To complicate this further, bodies of knowledge which could be brought to bear upon improved policies and implementation lie within different disciplines, e.g. natural sciences, disaster risk reduction, development, psychology, social science, communications, education and more. In a scientific research institution, we have found many potential paths to help transfer knowledge back and forth between scientists and decision-makers. Some of these paths are short with an end in sight. Others are longer, and the destination can't be seen. Some of these paths include a) education and discussion with various government agencies, b) educating students who will return to various agencies and educational institutions in their home countries, c) sharing scientific knowledge with research colleagues, d) consulting, e) working with NGOs, and media, f) working with colleagues in other fields, e.g. development, risk, regional consortia. Recognizing and transferring knowledge among different disciplines, learning the needs of various players, finding the most productive paths, and thinking about varying time frames are important in prioritizing the transference of science into action.

  8. Geo-Hazards and Mountain Road Development in Nepal: Understanding the Science-Policy-Governance Interface

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dugar, Sumit; Dahal, Vaskar

    2015-04-01

    informed other road development schemes in Nepal. Geomorphological surveys and robust geo-hazard assessments that factor the spatial and temporal dimensions of the seismic, fluvial and sediment hazards along the road corridor are critical for sustainable development of mountain roads. However, scientific and technical research studies seldom inform mountain road development primarily due to lack of co-ordination between the respective government agencies, access to journal papers in developing countries and unwillingness to adopt novel interventions in rural road construction practices. These challenges are further exacerbated by weak governance and lack of proper policy enforcement that often leads to construction of poorly engineered roads, thereby increasing the risk of rural infrastructural damage from geo-hazards. Though there exists a disconnect between the science-policy-governance interface where information on geo-hazards is neglected in mountain road development due to lack of scientific research and government apathy, there is an opportunity to spur dialogue and sensitize these issues via trans-disciplinary approaches on disaster risk management.

  9. Ensemble forecasts of road surface temperatures

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Sokol, Zbyněk; Bližňák, Vojtěch; Sedlák, Pavel; Zacharov, Petr, jr.; Pešice, Petr; Škuthan, M.

    2017-01-01

    Roč. 187, 1 May (2017), s. 33-41 ISSN 0169-8095 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA13-34856S; GA TA ČR(CZ) TA01031509 Institutional support: RVO:68378289 Keywords : ensemble prediction * road surface temperature * road weather forecast Subject RIV: DG - Athmosphere Sciences, Meteorology OBOR OECD: Meteorology and atmospheric sciences Impact factor: 3.778, year: 2016 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169809516307311

  10. Partnerships in Nuclear Science and Technology contributing to the `high road` to the future

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Garnett, H. [Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Lucas Heights, NSW (Australia)

    1998-12-31

    The focus of this AINSE conference is a celebration of the many contributions that nuclear science and technology have made to the development of knowledge over the past forty years. While understanding and reviewing the past can help us along the road to the future, and in particular help us avoid mistakes of the past, such an historical review cannot determine what the future road will be. Underpinning many of the emerging technologies, considered likely to contribute to socioeconomic development, are both material science and various processing technologies. There is also a need to better understand natural processes. An analysis of the structure, function and performance of materials requires the use of the fundamental probes, neutrons, charged particles and X-rays. Understanding natural processes is facilitated by isotopes. The past has delivered a solid knowledge base for understanding the properties of these probes and their potential applications. Each has unique properties and access to all types of probe is required. Recent innovations, in materials development, have themselves resulted in the design of facilities to deliver these probes more efficiently and effectively and in the construction of better detectors to `visualise` the outcome, thereby allowing a broader range of questions to be answered. Access to solutions for materials and processing problems will be required in an ever-decreasing time span for any company wishing to maintain the competitive edge. Nuclear science and technology can and will be an essential component of this innovation cycle, assisting Australian enterprises to be at the leading edge of competitive markets. To achieve this, we must not just create knowledge but also create the opportunities to assist in adding value, influence external environment and create the networks to make the `high road` a reality

  11. Partnerships in Nuclear Science and Technology contributing to the 'high road' to the future

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Garnett, H.

    1998-01-01

    The focus of this AINSE conference is a celebration of the many contributions that nuclear science and technology have made to the development of knowledge over the past forty years. While understanding and reviewing the past can help us along the road to the future, and in particular help us avoid mistakes of the past, such an historical review cannot determine what the future road will be. Underpinning many of the emerging technologies, considered likely to contribute to socioeconomic development, are both material science and various processing technologies. There is also a need to better understand natural processes. An analysis of the structure, function and performance of materials requires the use of the fundamental probes, neutrons, charged particles and X-rays. Understanding natural processes is facilitated by isotopes. The past has delivered a solid knowledge base for understanding the properties of these probes and their potential applications. Each has unique properties and access to all types of probe is required. Recent innovations, in materials development, have themselves resulted in the design of facilities to deliver these probes more efficiently and effectively and in the construction of better detectors to 'visualise' the outcome, thereby allowing a broader range of questions to be answered. Access to solutions for materials and processing problems will be required in an ever-decreasing time span for any company wishing to maintain the competitive edge. Nuclear science and technology can and will be an essential component of this innovation cycle, assisting Australian enterprises to be at the leading edge of competitive markets. To achieve this, we must not just create knowledge but also create the opportunities to assist in adding value, influence external environment and create the networks to make the 'high road' a reality

  12. 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.

  13. Editorial safety science special issue road safety management.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wegman, F.C.M. & Hagezieker, M.P.

    2014-01-01

    The articles presented in this Special Issue on Road Safety Management represent an illustration of the growing interest in policy-related research in the area of road safety. The complex nature of this type of research combined with the observation that scientific journals pay limited attention to

  14. Show me the road to hydrogen

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-02-01

    The Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) and Ford Motor Company demonstrated a shuttle bus service and hydrogen fueling facilities in rural Missouri near Ft. Leonard Wood. Initiated by a request from the U.S. Army Maneuver Sup...

  15. 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.

  16. 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.

  17. 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.

  18. Properties of Phase Transition of Traffic Flow on Urban Expressway Systems with Ramps and Accessory Roads

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mei Chaoqun; Liu Yejin

    2011-01-01

    In this paper, we develop a cellular automaton model to describe the phase transition of traffic flow on urban expressway systems with on-off-ramps and accessory roads. The lane changing rules are given in detailed, the numerical results show that the main road and the accessory road both produce phase transitions. These phase transitions will often be influenced by the number of lanes, lane changing, the ramp flow, the input flow rate, and the geometry structure. (interdisciplinary physics and related areas of science and technology)

  19. 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.

  20. Comparing Road-Kill Datasets from Hunters and Citizen Scientists in a Landscape Context

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Florian Heigl

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Road traffic has severe effects on animals, especially when road-kills are involved. In many countries, official road-kill data are provided by hunters or police; there are also road-kill observations reported by citizen scientists. The aim of the current study was to test whether road-kill reports by hunters stem from similar landscapes than those reported by citizen scientists. We analysed the surrounding landscapes of 712 road-kill reportings of European hares in the province of Lower Austria. Our data showed that road-killed hares reported both by hunters and citizens are predominantly surrounded by arable land. No difference of hedges and solitary trees could be found between the two datasets. However, significant differences in landcover classes and surrounding road networks indicate that hunters’ and citizen scientists’ data are different. Hunters reported hares from landscapes with significantly higher percentages of arable land, and greater lengths of secondary roads. In contrast, citizens reported hares from landscapes with significantly higher percentages of urban or industrial areas and greater lengths of motorways, primary roads, and residential roads. From this we argue that hunters tend to report data mainly from their hunting areas, whereas citizens report data during their daily routine on the way to/from work. We conclude that a citizen science approach is an important source for road-kill data when used in addition to official data with the aim of obtaining an overview of road-kill events on a landscape scale.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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...

  5. 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.

  6. The Distribution of Road Salt in Private Drinking Water Wells in a Southeastern New York Suburban Township.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelly, Victoria R; Cunningham, Mary Ann; Curri, Neil; Findlay, Stuart E; Carroll, Sean M

    2018-05-01

    We used a GIS analysis of sodium and chloride concentrations in private water wells in a southeastern New York township to describe the pattern of distribution of road salt in aquifers tapped for drinking water. The primary source of road salt was sodium chloride, and sodium and chloride concentrations were significantly correlated ( = 0.80, road ( = 0.76, road had higher concentrations of chloride than wells that were higher than the nearest road, but this occurred only when the nearest road was >30 m from the wells ( road type (major or minor roads). Surface geology and hydrologic soil class had significant effects ( road salt contamination of groundwater is unevenly distributed and is affected by landscape factors that can be used to guide well testing and best management practices of deicing salt distribution. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

  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. 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.

  9. Environmental implications of Universal Rural Road Access Program (URRAP roads in Southwestern Ethiopia: The case of Jimma and Buno Bedelle zones

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hassen Negesso

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Ethiopia has been undertaking numerous development programs and projects with the objective of taking a country to the middle-income countries in the near future. Universal Rural Road Access Program (URRAP roads being constructed in Jimma and Bunno Bedele zones are among the projects in Ethiopia. Although these projects are assumed to bring desirable positive change, there are sometimes negative consequences on environmental issues. Accordingly, the objective of this study was to investigate the negative sides of these projects on environmental elements. Household survey with randomly selected household heads and in-depth interview, focus group discussion (FGD and observation for purposively selected samples were used to collect relevant and required data. Thereby, data were analyzed quantitatively by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS and qualitatively through thematic method. The findings from the analyzed data show that rural roads being constructed by URRAP have both positive and negative impacts on plant species, bird species, reptile species, mammal’s species, amphibians’ species, soil, and climate. Finally, URRAP is in dilemma and needs an extensive and frequent supervision, monitoring, inclusive, interdisciplinary and sound strategies and policies by responsible bodies at all expected levels and contexts.

  10. 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...

  11. 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

  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. 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.

  14. 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

  15. 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

    . Although differences were observed between paved and unpaved roads, our results show that riding on either represented significantly greater dangers than riding off the road. Many vehicle warnings specifically mention the risks of paved but not unpaved roads, yet we found 23 states with half or more of their roadway deaths on unpaved surfaces. Safety warnings should explicitly state the dangers of roadway riding regardless of surface type. These data further support laws/ordinances greatly restricting ATV riding on all types of public roadways.

  16. 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.

  17. 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.

  18. 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.

  19. Can citizen science produce good science? Testing the OPAL Air Survey methodology, using lichens as indicators of nitrogenous pollution

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tregidgo, Daniel J.; West, Sarah E.; Ashmore, Mike R.

    2013-01-01

    Citizen science is having increasing influence on environmental monitoring as its advantages are becoming recognised. However methodologies are often simplified to make them accessible to citizen scientists. We tested whether a recent citizen science survey (the OPAL Air Survey) could detect trends in lichen community composition over transects away from roads. We hypothesised that the abundance of nitrophilic lichens would decrease with distance from the road, while that of nitrophobic lichens would increase. The hypothesised changes were detected along strong pollution gradients, but not where the road source was relatively weak, or background pollution relatively high. We conclude that the simplified OPAL methodology can detect large contrasts in nitrogenous pollution, but it may not be able to detect more subtle changes in pollution exposure. Similar studies are needed in conjunction with the ever-growing body of citizen science work to ensure that the limitations of these methods are fully understood. -- Highlights: •We investigated the validity of a simplified citizen science methodology. •Lichen abundance data were used to indicate nitrogenous air pollution. •Significant changes were detected beside busy roads with low background pollution. •The methodology detected major, but not subtle, contrasts in pollution. •Sensitivity of citizen science methods to environmental change must be evaluated. -- A simplified lichen biomonitoring method used for citizen science can detect the impact of nitrogenous air pollution from local roads

  20. 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.

  1. 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.

  2. Journal of Chemical Sciences | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    National Engineering Research Center for Integrated Utilization of Salt Lake Resource, East China University of Science and Technology, Meilong Road 130, Shanghai 200237, China; Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences & Amsterdam Center for Multiscale Modeling, University of Amsterdam, 1098 XH Amsterdam, ...

  3. 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.

  4. 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

  5. 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.

  6. Addressing social barriers and closing the gender knowledge gap: exposure to road shows is associated with more knowledge and more positive beliefs, attitudes and social norms regarding exclusive breastfeeding in rural Zimbabwe.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jenkins, Alison L; Tavengwa, Naume V; Chasekwa, Bernard; Chatora, Kumbirai; Taruberekera, Noah; Mushayi, Wellington; Madzima, Rufaro C; Mbuya, Mduduzi N N

    2012-10-01

    Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is rarely practiced despite its significant child survival benefits. A key constraint to increasing EBF rates in Zimbabwe and most of the developing world is that key decision makers (fathers/partners and other family members) are often poorly informed about EBF and do not attend antenatal clinics where health information is routinely provided. Informed by formative research, a district-wide campaign was conducted in rural Zimbabwe to encourage EBF and expressing and heat treating (EHT) breast milk as a means to maintain EBF. The campaign combined traditional strategies of education, counselling and outreach through health service delivery with a novel road show 'edutainment' intervention to reach men and other community members. A post campaign evaluation measured the association of road show exposure with 20 knowledge items and summative scores of social norms, beliefs and attitudes obtained through exploratory factor analysis. In adjusted models, road show exposure was associated with correct EBF knowledge (β=1.0, 0.001), EHT knowledge (β=1.3, Pbenefits of condom use during pregnancy and breastfeeding (β=0.5, P<0.001), and more positive EBF social norms (β=0.6, P<0.001), EBF beliefs and attitudes (β=1.0, P<0.001) and attitudes towards condom use during breastfeeding (β=0.6, P<0.001). Road show exposure was more strongly associated with EBF knowledge among men (P-value for gender×exposure group interaction=0.03), suggesting that it also closed the knowledge gap between men and women. Longitudinal studies will determine whether road shows were associated with changes in EBF practices. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  7. 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.

  8. 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...

  9. Effects of Roads on Animal Abundance: an Empirical Review and Synthesis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lenore Fahrig

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available We attempted a complete review of the empirical literature on effects of roads and traffic on animal abundance and distribution. We found 79 studies, with results for 131 species and 30 species groups. Overall, the number of documented negative effects of roads on animal abundance outnumbered the number of positive effects by a factor of 5; 114 responses were negative, 22 were positive, and 56 showed no effect. Amphibians and reptiles tended to show negative effects. Birds showed mainly negative or no effects, with a few positive effects for some small birds and for vultures. Small mammals generally showed either positive effects or no effect, mid-sized mammals showed either negative effects or no effect, and large mammals showed predominantly negative effects. We synthesized this information, along with information on species attributes, to develop a set of predictions of the conditions that lead to negative or positive effects or no effect of roads on animal abundance. Four species types are predicted to respond negatively to roads: (i species that are attracted to roads and are unable to avoid individual cars; (ii species with large movement ranges, low reproductive rates, and low natural densities; and (iii and iv small animals whose populations are not limited by road-affected predators and either (a avoid habitat near roads due to traffic disturbance or (b show no avoidance of roads or traffic disturbance and are unable to avoid oncoming cars. Two species types are predicted to respond positively to roads: (i species that are attracted to roads for an important resource (e.g., food and are able to avoid oncoming cars, and (ii species that do not avoid traffic disturbance but do avoid roads, and whose main predators show negative population-level responses to roads. Other conditions lead to weak or non-existent effects of roads and traffic on animal abundance. We identify areas where further research is needed, but we also argue that the

  10. 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

  11. 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.

  12. 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.

  13. Road Traffic Injury Trends in the City of Valledupar, Colombia. A Time Series Study from 2008 to 2012.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jorge Martín Rodríguez

    Full Text Available To analyze the behavior temporal of road-traffic injuries (RTI in Valledupar, Colombia from January 2008 to December 2012.An observational study was conducted based on records from the Colombian National Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences Institute regional office in Valledupar. Different variables were analyzed, such as the injured person's sex, age, education level, and type of road user; the timeframe, place and circumstances of crashes and the vehicles associated with the occurrence. Furthermore, a time series analysis was conducted using an auto-regressive integrated moving average.There were 105 events per month on an average, 64.9% of RTI involved men; 82.3% of the persons injured were from 18 to 59 years of age; the average age was 35.4 years of age; the road users most involved in RTI were motorcyclists (69%, followed by pedestrians (12%. 70% had up to upper-secondary education. Sunday was the day with the most RTI occurrences; 93% of the RTI occurred in the urban area. The time series showed a seasonal pattern and a significant trend effect. The modeling process verified the existence of both memory and extrinsic variables related.An RTI occurrence pattern was identified, which showed an upward trend during the period analyzed. Motorcyclists were the main road users involved in RTI, which suggests the need to design and implement specific measures for that type of road user, from regulations for graduated licensing for young drivers to monitoring road user behavior for the promotion of road safety.

  14. A Road Map for Improving Geography Assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wertheim, Jill A.; Edelson, Daniel C.; Hildebrant, Barbara; Hinde, Elizabeth; Kenney, Marianne; Kolvoord, Robert; Lanegran, David; Marcello, Jody Smothers; Morrill, Robert; Ruiz-Primo, Maria; Seixas, Peter; Shavelson, Richard

    2013-01-01

    In late 2012, both the second edition of the "Geography for Life: National Geography Standards" and the National Science Foundation-funded "Road Map for Geography Education Project" reports were released; the former document describes the conceptual goals for K-12 geography education, and the latter, a route to coordinating reform efforts to…

  15. Let's Take a Road Trip

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hildebrandt, Martha E.; Biglan, Barbara; Budd, Lisa

    2013-01-01

    In this article, the authors describe activities that can keep math and science skills sharp over summer breaks. A fourth-grade class was encouraged to talk about their coming summer break. The class brainstormed about what one might see on the road--"Observing landscapes, vehicles, and highway signage were quick replies." The children…

  16. 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.

  17. 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.

  18. 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

  19. 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.

  20. Development of road infrastructure as a tool of transforming Ibiono ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Global Journal of Social Sciences ... Development of road infrastructure as a tool of transforming Ibiono Ibom local government area. V Umoren ... The improvement of transportation network in the rural area in this regard becomes imperative.

  1. The sociocultural perspective applied to mobility and road safety: a case study through social networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pilar Parra Contreras

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available This article explores the sociocultural paradigm as a theoretical framework to address mobility and road safety from the social sciences. This approach includes analysis of issues such as the uses and attributes of the car, cultural and social values associated with it, and the implications in processes in structuring and social exclusion. In order to this, we present a case study on alcohol and drugs and driving where we show the demographic, economic and occupational characteristics that mediate the different relation of the people with the car, but also their cultural characteristics, lifestyles and leisure. The research design combines data from a brief online survey with qualitative data such as tastes and preferences, from the social network Facebook. The analysis shows that there are groups of drivers who differ in their patterns of no dissociation in their consumption of alcohol / drugs and driving in terms of classical structural variables and lifestyles that are  reflected in their Facebook likes. The discussion and conclusions examine the need to analyze the social context in which road accident occurs and its usefulness in the design of awareness campaigns and intervention in road safety.

  2. 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.

  3. High Resolution Trichromatic Road Surface Scanning with a Line Scan Camera and Light Emitting Diode Lighting for Road-Kill Detection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gil Lopes

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a road surface scanning system that operates with a trichromatic line scan camera with light emitting diode (LED lighting achieving road surface resolution under a millimeter. It was part of a project named Roadkills—Intelligent systems for surveying mortality of amphibians in Portuguese roads, sponsored by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation. A trailer was developed in order to accommodate the complete system with standalone power generation, computer image capture and recording, controlled lighting to operate day or night without disturbance, incremental encoder with 5000 pulses per revolution attached to one of the trailer wheels, under a meter Global Positioning System (GPS localization, easy to utilize with any vehicle with a trailer towing system and focused on a complete low cost solution. The paper describes the system architecture of the developed prototype, its calibration procedure, the performed experimentation and some obtained results, along with a discussion and comparison with existing systems. Sustained operating trailer speeds of up to 30 km/h are achievable without loss of quality at 4096 pixels’ image width (1 m width of road surface with 250 µm/pixel resolution. Higher scanning speeds can be achieved by lowering the image resolution (120 km/h with 1 mm/pixel. Computer vision algorithms are under development to operate on the captured images in order to automatically detect road-kills of amphibians.

  4. High Resolution Trichromatic Road Surface Scanning with a Line Scan Camera and Light Emitting Diode Lighting for Road-Kill Detection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lopes, Gil; Ribeiro, A Fernando; Sillero, Neftalí; Gonçalves-Seco, Luís; Silva, Cristiano; Franch, Marc; Trigueiros, Paulo

    2016-04-19

    This paper presents a road surface scanning system that operates with a trichromatic line scan camera with light emitting diode (LED) lighting achieving road surface resolution under a millimeter. It was part of a project named Roadkills-Intelligent systems for surveying mortality of amphibians in Portuguese roads, sponsored by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation. A trailer was developed in order to accommodate the complete system with standalone power generation, computer image capture and recording, controlled lighting to operate day or night without disturbance, incremental encoder with 5000 pulses per revolution attached to one of the trailer wheels, under a meter Global Positioning System (GPS) localization, easy to utilize with any vehicle with a trailer towing system and focused on a complete low cost solution. The paper describes the system architecture of the developed prototype, its calibration procedure, the performed experimentation and some obtained results, along with a discussion and comparison with existing systems. Sustained operating trailer speeds of up to 30 km/h are achievable without loss of quality at 4096 pixels' image width (1 m width of road surface) with 250 µm/pixel resolution. Higher scanning speeds can be achieved by lowering the image resolution (120 km/h with 1 mm/pixel). Computer vision algorithms are under development to operate on the captured images in order to automatically detect road-kills of amphibians.

  5. Road dust from pavement wear and traction sanding

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kupiainen, K.

    2007-07-01

    sanding and physical properties of the traction sand aggregate affect formation of road dust (ii) How do studded tires affect the formation of road dust when compared with friction tires (iii) What are the composition and sources of airborne road dust in a road simulator and during a springtime road dust episode in Finland (iv) What is the size distribution of abrasion particles from tire-road interaction. The studies were conducted both in a road simulator and in field conditions. The test results from the road simulator showed that traction sanding increased road dust emissions, and that the effect became more dominant with increasing sand load. A high percentage of fine-grained anti-skid aggregate of overall grading increased the PM10 concentrations. Anti-skid aggregate with poor resistance to fragmentation resulted in higher PM levels compared with the other aggregates, and the effect became more significant with higher aggregate loads. Glaciofluvial aggregates tended to cause higher particle concentrations than crushed rocks with good fragmentation resistance. Comparison of tire types showed that studded tires result in higher formation of PM emissions compared with friction tires. The same trend between the tires was present in the tests with and without anti-skid aggregate. This finding applies to test conditions of the road simulator with negligible resuspension. Source and composition analysis showed that the particles in the road simulator were mainly minerals and originated from both traction sand and pavement aggregates. A clear contribution of particles from anti-skid aggregate to ambient PM and dust deposition was also observed in urban conditions. The road simulator results showed that the interaction between tires, anti-skid aggregate and road surface is important in dust production and the relative contributions of these sources depend on their properties. Traction sand grains are fragmented into smaller particles under the tires, but they also wear the

  6. 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.

  7. Traffic calming for the prevention of road traffic injuries: systematic review and meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bunn, F; Collier, T; Frost, C; Ker, K; Roberts, I; Wentz, R

    2003-09-01

    To assess whether area-wide traffic calming schemes can reduce road crash related deaths and injuries. Systematic review and meta-analysis. Cochrane Injuries Group Specialised Register, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Medline, EMBASE, Sociological Abstracts Science (and social science) citation index, National Technical Information service, Psychlit, Transport Research Information Service, International Road Research Documentation, and Transdoc, and web sites of road safety organisation were searched; experts were contacted, conference proceedings were handsearched, and relevant reference lists were checked. Randomised controlled trials, and controlled before/after studies of area-wide traffic calming schemes designed to discourage and slow down through traffic on residential roads. Data were collected on road user deaths, injuries, and traffic crashes. For each study rate ratios were calculated, the ratio of event rates before and after intervention in the traffic calmed area divided by the corresponding ratio of event rates in the control area, which were pooled to give an overall estimate using a random effects model. Sixteen controlled before/after studies met our inclusion criteria. Eight studies reported the number of road user deaths: pooled rate ratio 0.63 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.14 to 2.59). Sixteen studies reported the number of injuries (fatal and non-fatal): pooled rate ratio 0.89 (95% CI 0.80 to 1.00). All studies were in high income countries. Area-wide traffic calming in towns and cities has the potential to reduce road traffic injuries. However, further rigorous evaluations of this intervention are needed, especially in low and middle income countries.

  8. Impacts of tourism hotspots on vegetation communities show a higher potential for self-propagation along roads than hiking trails.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolf, Isabelle D; Croft, David B

    2014-10-01

    Vegetation communities along recreational tracks may suffer from substantial edge-effects through the impacts of trampling, modified environmental conditions and competition with species that benefit from disturbance. We assessed impacts on trackside vegetation by comparing high and low usage tourism sites at a 1-10 m distance from recreational tracks in a popular arid-lands tourism destination in South Australia. The central aim was quantification of the strengths and spatial extent of tourism impacts along recreational tracks with a qualitative comparison of roads and trails. Track-distance gradients were most prevalent at high usage sites. There, species community composition was altered, total plant cover decreased, non-native species cover increased, plant diversity increased or decreased (depending on the distance) and soil compaction increased towards recreational tracks. Roadside effects were greater and more pervasive than trailside effects. Further, plant diversity did not continuously increase towards the road verge as it did along trails but dropped sharply in the immediate road shoulder which indicated high disturbance conditions that few species were able to tolerate. To our knowledge, we are the first to demonstrate that the access mode to a recreation site influences the potential of certain impacts, such as the increase of non-native species, to self-perpetuate from their points of introduction to disjointed sites with a predisposition to disturbance. Due to this propulsion of impacts, the overall spatial extent of roadside impacts was far greater than initially apparent from assessments at the road verge. We discuss possible means of mitigating these impacts. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  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. The trend of road traffic crashes at urban signalised intersection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farhana Nasarrudin, Nurul; Razelan, Intan Suhana Mohd

    2018-04-01

    Road traffic crash is one of the main contributing factors for deaths in the world. Intersection is listed as the second road type which road crashes occurred frequently. Hence, the traffic light was installed to minimise the road crashes at intersection. However, the crashes are still occurring and arising. The objective of this study was to exhibit the trend of road crashes at the signalised intersections. The data of road crashes for the past 6 years were analysed using descriptive analysis. The results showed that the road traffic crashes at three- and four-legged signalised intersection recorded the increasing trend. In conclusion, this finding shows that the road traffic crashes for these types of signalised intersection in Malaysia is rising. It is also one the contributors to the increasing number of crashes in Malaysia. This finding will encourage the local authority to conduct awareness programs on the safety at the signalised intersection.

  11. 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.

  12. 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.

  13. 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.

  14. 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...

  15. 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,

  16. 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

  17. Impact of Road Transport on Agricultural Development: A Nigerian ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Impact of Road Transport on Agricultural Development: A Nigerian Example. ... The findings showed that road transport has both positive and negative impact on ... However, the bad conditions of the road affect cost of transportation of agricultural ... AJOL's Partners · Terms and Conditions of Use · Contact AJOL · News.

  18. 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

  19. Automated road network extraction from high spatial resolution multi-spectral imagery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Qiaoping

    For the last three decades, the Geomatics Engineering and Computer Science communities have considered automated road network extraction from remotely-sensed imagery to be a challenging and important research topic. The main objective of this research is to investigate the theory and methodology of automated feature extraction for image-based road database creation, refinement or updating, and to develop a series of algorithms for road network extraction from high resolution multi-spectral imagery. The proposed framework for road network extraction from multi-spectral imagery begins with an image segmentation using the k-means algorithm. This step mainly concerns the exploitation of the spectral information for feature extraction. The road cluster is automatically identified using a fuzzy classifier based on a set of predefined road surface membership functions. These membership functions are established based on the general spectral signature of road pavement materials and the corresponding normalized digital numbers on each multi-spectral band. Shape descriptors of the Angular Texture Signature are defined and used to reduce the misclassifications between roads and other spectrally similar objects (e.g., crop fields, parking lots, and buildings). An iterative and localized Radon transform is developed for the extraction of road centerlines from the classified images. The purpose of the transform is to accurately and completely detect the road centerlines. It is able to find short, long, and even curvilinear lines. The input image is partitioned into a set of subset images called road component images. An iterative Radon transform is locally applied to each road component image. At each iteration, road centerline segments are detected based on an accurate estimation of the line parameters and line widths. Three localization approaches are implemented and compared using qualitative and quantitative methods. Finally, the road centerline segments are grouped into a

  20. Fly ash stabilisation of gravel roads; Flygaska som foerstaerkningslager i grusvaeg

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Macsik, Josef

    2006-01-15

    Majority of the existing gravel roads have low bearing capacity during spring and autumn, due to thaw and/or rain. Low bearing capacity leads often to bad road conditions. This situation results in higher costs for the lumber industry and the public. Management of gravel roads all the year around would traditionally require excavation of frost susceptible soils and replacement with natural materials. Fly ash (from bio fuels) has good technical properties as bearing layer in road constructions. Fly ash stabilised gravel roads have better function and longer life span with less maintenance than traditional gravel roads. The aim of this project is to show how fly ash stabilisation of gravel roads can increase bearing capacity and what its environmental impact is. The overall aim is to make it easier for entrepreneurs and consulting companies to use fly ash during gravel road renovation and/or constructing new gravel roads. This report targets fly ash producers and road constructors as well as environmental agencies. Two different pilot tests were investigated in this study, Norberg with fly ash from Stora Enso Fors AB, and Boerje (Uppsala) with fly ash from Vattenfall Uppsala AB. Both road sections with related reference section were investigated during a two year period. Only fly ash was used in the bearing layer at Norberg and fly ash gravel was used at Boerje. Bearing capacity was investigated twice, for both locations, November 2003 one month after the road renovation and during thawing, April 2004. Water samples from lysimeters, ground water and surface water were only collected and analysed from Norberg. Experience from the fly ash stabilised road sections show that curing and traffic load can with time compensate for less compaction. The same is noticed at Boerje, although deflection measurements show that there are small differences. Stabilisation of gravel roads increases the roads bearing capacity. Two years after stabilisation 90 timber loads were

  1. 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.

  2. 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

  3. The causes and prevalence of road traffic accidents amongst ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The study showed a prevalence of road traffic accidents of 47.9% in Benin City occurring more in day time and the common causes of road traffic accidents include careless driving, speed violation, brake failure, traffic violations, faulty overtaking, burst tyre, bad roads, alcohol use and armed robbery attack. Thus measures ...

  4. A bibliometric analysis of the published road traffic injuries research in India, post-1990.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharma, Neeraj; Bairwa, Mohan; Gowthamghosh, B; Gupta, S D; Mangal, D K

    2018-03-01

    Globally, road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among those aged 15-29 years. However, road traffic injury research has not received adequate attention from the scientific community in low- and middle-income countries, including India. The present study aims to provide a bibliometric overview of research assessing road traffic injuries in India. We used Scopus to extract relevant research in road traffic injuries published from 1991 to 2017. This study presented the key bibliometric indicators such as trends of annual publications and citations, top 10 authors, journals, institutions and highly cited articles, citation analysis of articles, co-occurrence of keywords, etc. Analysis was performed using Scopus, Microsoft Excel, and VOS-viewer. A total of 242 articles were retrieved with an h-index of 18, excluding self-citations. A steadfast growth of publications was documented in last decade, especially after the year 2010. The h-index of the top 10 authors, institutions, journals and highly cited articles did not surpass single digits. A network visualisation map showed that 'traffic accident', 'male', 'adolescent' and 'child' were the most commonly encountered key terms. The prominent authors were Gururaj G, Dandona R, and Hyder AA, whereas the top journals were the Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Medico Legal Update, and the International Journal of Applied Engineering Research and top institutions were the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and the Administrative Staff College of India. In India, road traffic injuries research is inadequate in quantity and quality, warranting greater attention from researchers and policy planners to address the burden of road traffic injuries.

  5. 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,

  6. 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)

  7. Road network: the silent treasures of Kano metropolis | Ibrahim ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The methods used include analysis of secondary data generated from the 2011 satellite imageries (at 0.5m resolution) with the aid of Quantum GIS; road stock inventory; road classification and mapping; as well as field observation. The result shows that, Kano metropolis is well stocked with all sorts of road networks and ...

  8. AN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY OF ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENT CASES AT A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL IN RURAL HARYANA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abhishek Singh

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available Background- Accidents occur not only due to ignorance but also due to carelessness, thoughtlessness and over confidence. Human, vehicular and environmental factors play role before, during and after a Road Traffic Accidents (RTA. Road traffic injuries are partially predictable and hence preventable. Objectives- To study the pattern of road traffic accidents, socio demographic profile of road traffic injury victims seeking care at Maharishi Markandeshwar Institute of Medical Sciences And Research, Mullana and to study the antecedent factors influencing the road traffic accidents. Material and Methods-The present cross-sectional study was carried out at Maharishi Markandeshwar Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (MMIMSR, Mullana (Ambala. All the victims who reported to MMIMSR emergency and various OPD clinics of the institute between September 2009 to February 2011 were included in the study. Various parameters like age and sex distribution, time of occurrence, protective gears worn, injuries sustained, receipt of First -Aid, alcohol consumption, category of road user, vehicles involved in RTA, types of RTA, road conditions, environmental conditions etc were studied and valid conclusions were drawn. Results- There was a marked male preponderance (88.77 % with maximum involvement of younger age groups. Most of the accidents had taken place in the evening hours (6 pm -12 midnight. The vulnerable road users like motorized two wheeler, LMV and pedestrians constituted 41.52%, 19.39% and 13.41% respectively. Only 158 of 545 two-wheeler users wore a helmet at the time of injury. 16.24% of drivers did not have a valid driving license. Not using indicator lights and not following speed limits were two most common factors responsible for these RTA.

  9. 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.

  10. Grip Analysis of Road Surface and Tire Footprint Using FEM

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sabri, M.; Abda, S.

    2018-02-01

    Road grip involve a touch between road pavement and the tire tread pattern. The load bearing surface, which depends on pavement roughness and local pressures in the contact patch. This research conducted to develop a Finite element model for simulating the experimentally testing of asphalt in Jl. AH Nasution Medan, North Sumatera Indonesia base on the value of grip coefficient from various tire loads and the various speed of the vehicle during contact to the road. A tire model and road pavement are developed for the analyses the geometry of tire footprint. The results showed that the greater the mass of car will increase grip coefficient. The coefficient of grip on the road surface contact trough the tire footprint strongly influence the kinetic coefficient of friction at certain speeds. Experimentally show that Concrete road grip coefficient of more than 34% compared to the asphalt road at the same IRI parameters (6-8). Kinetic friction coefficient more than 0.33 was obtained in a asphalt path at a speed of 30-40 Km/hour.

  11. Distributed Road Grade Estimation for Heavy Duty Vehicles

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sahlholm, Per

    2011-07-01

    torque are combined with observations of the road altitude from a GPS receiver, using vehicle and road models. The operation of the estimators is adjusted during gearshifts, braking, and poor satellite coverage, to account for variations in sensor and model reliability. The estimated error covariances of the road grade estimates are used together with their absolute positions to update a stored road grade map. Highway driving trials show that the proposed estimators produce accurate road grade data. The estimation performance improves as the number of road segment traces increases. A vehicle equipped with the proposed system will rapidly develop a road grade map for its area of operation. Simulations show that collaborative generation of the third dimension for a pre-existing large area two-dimensional map is feasible. The experimental results indicate that road grade estimates from the proposed methods are accurate enough to be used in predictive vehicle control systems to enhance safety, efficiency, and driver comfort in heavy duty vehicles. The grade estimators may also be used for on-line validation of road grade information from other sources. This is important in on-board applications, since the envisioned control applications can degrade vehicle performance if inaccurate data are used

  12. 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...

  13. 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...

  14. 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

  15. 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

  16. 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

  17. 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

  18. 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.

  19. 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.

  20. 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...

  1. Assessing the safety of the road network : a simple method.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Janssen, S.T.M.C.

    1993-01-01

    Research by the SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research in The Netherlands assessing the safety of the Dutch road network is presented. In The Netherlands urban and rural roads and motorways are used roughly equally, however accident rates vary greatly. These are discussed in this paper. Tables show

  2. Bulletin of Materials Science | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Author Affiliations. Tanushree Choudhury1 Nirendra M Misra2. Department of Chemistry, School of Advanced Sciences, VIT University Chennai Campus, Vandalur- Kelambakkam Road, Chennai- 600048, India; Department of Applied Chemistry, Indian School of Mines University, Dhanbad 826 004, India ...

  3. Bulletin of Materials Science | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Author Affiliations. Xiuqiang Li1 Dong Zhang1 Peiying Zhu1 Chao Yang1. Key Laboratory of Advanced Civil Engineering Materials, Ministry of Education, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Tongji University, 4800 CaoAn Road, Shanghai 200092, China ...

  4. [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).

  5. Road Assessment Model and Pilot Application in China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tiejun Zhang

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Risk assessment of roads is an effective approach for road agencies to determine safety improvement investments. It can increases the cost-effective returns in crash and injury reductions. To get a powerful Chinese risk assessment model, Research Institute of Highway (RIOH is developing China Road Assessment Programme (ChinaRAP model to show the traffic crashes in China in partnership with International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP. The ChinaRAP model is based upon RIOH’s achievements and iRAP models. This paper documents part of ChinaRAP’s research work, mainly including the RIOH model and its pilot application in a province in China.

  6. Fellowship | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Date of birth: 16 March 1954. Specialization: Geophysics, Data Analysis & Modelling Deep Earth Exploration Address: Chair, Earth & Climate Science, Indian Institute of Science Education & Research, Dr Homi Bhabha Road, Pashan, Pune 411 008, Maharasdhtra Contact: Office: (020) 2590 8255. Mobile: 98903 22705

  7. Associateship | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Home; Fellowship; Associateship. Associate Profile. Period: 1994–1999. Radhakrishnan, Dr J. Date of birth: 30 May 1964. Specialization: Computer Science Address during Associateship: Theoretical Computer Science Group, Tata Inst. of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400 005. YouTube; Twitter ...

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. Journal of Genetics | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Author Affiliations. V. K. Kashyap1 Richa Ashma1 Sonali Gaikwad1 B. N. Sarkar2 R. Trivedi1. DNA Typing Unit, Central Forensic Science Laboratory, 30 Gorachand Road, Kolkata 700 014, India; Anthropological Survey of India, 27 Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Kolkata 700 016, India ...

  11. 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.

  12. Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Home; Journals; Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences; Volume 121; Issue 2. Principal Bundles whose Restrictions to a Curve are Isomorphic. Sudarshan ... Author Affiliations. Sudarshan Rajendra Gurjar1. School of Mathematics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Dr Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400 005, India ...

  13. Can citizen science produce good science? Testing the OPAL Air Survey methodology, using lichens as indicators of nitrogenous pollution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tregidgo, Daniel J; West, Sarah E; Ashmore, Mike R

    2013-11-01

    Citizen science is having increasing influence on environmental monitoring as its advantages are becoming recognised. However methodologies are often simplified to make them accessible to citizen scientists. We tested whether a recent citizen science survey (the OPAL Air Survey) could detect trends in lichen community composition over transects away from roads. We hypothesised that the abundance of nitrophilic lichens would decrease with distance from the road, while that of nitrophobic lichens would increase. The hypothesised changes were detected along strong pollution gradients, but not where the road source was relatively weak, or background pollution relatively high. We conclude that the simplified OPAL methodology can detect large contrasts in nitrogenous pollution, but it may not be able to detect more subtle changes in pollution exposure. Similar studies are needed in conjunction with the ever-growing body of citizen science work to ensure that the limitations of these methods are fully understood. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. 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.

  15. AUTOMATIC GENERATION OF ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE IN 3D FOR VEHICLE SIMULATORS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adam Orlický

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available One of the modern methods of testing new systems and interfaces in vehicles is testing in a vehicle simulator. Providing quality models of virtual scenes is one of tasks for driver-car interaction interface simulation. Nowadays, there exist many programs for creating 3D models of road infrastructures, but most of these programs are very expensive or canÂtt export models for the following use. Therefore, a plug-in has been developed at the Faculty of Transportation Sciences in Prague. It can generate road infrastructure by Czech standard for designing roads (CSN 73 6101. The uniqueness of this plug-in is that it is the first tool for generating road infrastructure in NURBS representation. This type of representation brings more exact models and allows to optimize transfer for creating quality models for vehicle simulators. The scenes created by this plug-in were tested on vehicle simulators. The results have shown that with newly created scenes drivers had a much better feeling in comparison to previous scenes.

  16. Relationship between religion and school students' road behavior in southern Iran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Reza Tabrizi

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: Unsafe behaviors are an important cause of accidents in adolescent age groups. This study was designed to examine the behaviors of adolescent pedestrians in southern Iran. Methods: This is a descriptive analytical cross-sectional study. The study population consisted of high school students in Shiraz, capital city of Fars Province, Iran. Five hundred and sixteen students were selected by multi-stage sampling. Data were collected by the use of three questionnaires, which included Persian copies of adolescent road user behavior questionnaire (ARBQ, Duke University Religious Index (DUREL, as well as the context and independent variables questionnaire. Results: The results showed that a decrease in dangerous behaviors on the road resulted in an increase in respondents' intrinsic religiosity. Also, engagement in unsafe crossing behavior in the road decreased with increasing respondents' intrinsic religiosity. Another finding showed that female students were less involved in dangerous play and planned protective behaviors on the road. Conclusion: Findings clearly indicate that intrinsic religiosity has a significant role in reducing the risky road behaviors of students. Hence, religion may improve road safety in school students' road behavior in Iran. Keywords: Religion, Traffic accidents, Road behaviors, Students

  17. 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...

  18. 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.

  19. 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

  20. 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

  1. 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.

  2. Fellowship | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Date of birth: 22 March 1960. Specialization: Physical Biochemistry and Protein Folding Address: Director, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Pashan, Pune 411 008, Maharashtra Contact: Office: (020) 2590 8000. Email: director@iiserpune.ac.in. Elected: 1992 Section: Plant Sciences.

  3. 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...

  4. 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.

  5. Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Home; Journals; Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences; Volume 111; Issue 1. Limits of Commutative Triangular Systems on Locally Compact Groups. Riddhi Shah. Volume 111 ... Author Affiliations. Riddhi Shah1. School of Mathematics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400 005, India ...

  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. Effects of Road Salt on Connecticut's Groundwater: A Statewide Centennial Perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cassanelli, James P; Robbins, Gary A

    2013-01-01

    This study examined the extent to which development and road salting has affected Connecticut's groundwater. We gathered water quality data from different time periods between 1894 and the present and analyzed the data using maps generated with ESRI ArcGIS. Historical reports illustrate a statewide baseline trend of decreasing chloride concentration northward across the State (average, 2 ppm). Since then, statewide chloride concentrations in ground water have increased by more than an order of magnitude on average. Analysis indicates spatial correlation between chloride impacts and major roadways. Furthermore, increases in statewide chloride concentration parallel increases in road salt application. Projected trends suggest that statewide baseline concentrations will increase by an amount equal to five times background levels between the present and the year 2030. The analytical process outlined herein can be readily applied to any region to investigate salt impacts on large spatial and temporal scales. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

  8. 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...

  9. Road Network Vulnerability Analysis Based on Improved Ant Colony Algorithm

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yunpeng Wang

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available We present an improved ant colony algorithm-based approach to assess the vulnerability of a road network and identify the critical infrastructures. This approach improves computational efficiency and allows for its applications in large-scale road networks. This research involves defining the vulnerability conception, modeling the traffic utility index and the vulnerability of the road network, and identifying the critical infrastructures of the road network. We apply the approach to a simple test road network and a real road network to verify the methodology. The results show that vulnerability is directly related to traffic demand and increases significantly when the demand approaches capacity. The proposed approach reduces the computational burden and may be applied in large-scale road network analysis. It can be used as a decision-supporting tool for identifying critical infrastructures in transportation planning and management.

  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. 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.

  12. 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.

  13. Understanding road safety in Kenya: views of matatu drivers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raynor, Nicolas J; Mirzoev, Tolib

    2014-09-01

    Road traffic accidents (RTAs) are estimated to cause 1.3 million deaths and 20-50 million injuries worldwide. Road safety is a challenge in Kenya with causes being multi-factorial. Matatus (minibuses) are involved in a large proportion of accidents. A literature review was completed to identify key issues and refine the scope of the study. The fieldwork included 20 semi-structured interviews with matatu drivers. All participants were male, with driving experience of 1-20 years. Thematic framework was used for analysis. Some unstructured observations on different road users and their behaviours were also recorded. Literature showed that the causes of RTAs in Kenya are multi-factorial, but that human factors play a large part. There is also an evidence gap concerning matatu drivers, who are key stakeholders in road safety. Fieldwork showed that the matatu industry creates financial pressures on drivers and an excessive level of competition, leading to dangerous driving. Corruption of traffic police appears to be a major barrier to improving road safety, as road safety legislation is not enforced, and bribery has become the cultural norm. The general public, including passengers and private vehicles owners, also cause problems by failing to understand their role in road safety and placing the blame on others. The key policy implication for improving road safety in Kenya is seeking measures to ensure responsibility by all road users through awareness raising in the short-term and reforming the matatu industry and addressing the root causes of corruption in the longer term. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  14. The Relationship between Road Characteristics and Speed Collected from Floating Car Data

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Camilla Sloth; Reinau, Kristian Hegner; Agerholm, Niels

    2016-01-01

    and driver characteristics. The analysis is based on big data on speed and driver characteristics combined with data on road characteristics on 49 secondary rural two-lane roads in Denmark. Data is modelled using multivariate linear regression. The results show a primarily influence from road and shoulder......Speed is of great importance to the safety level of a road. Speed choice is strongly influenced by the road environment and the drivers’ assessment of safe speed level at a specific location. This paper presents an analysis of the relationships between speed and road characteristics and speed...

  15. 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.

  16. Modelling of road traffic fatalities in India.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goel, Rahul

    2018-03-01

    Passenger modes in India include walking, cycling, buses, trains, intermediate public transport modes (IPT) such as three-wheeled auto rickshaws or tuk-tuks, motorised two-wheelers (2W) as well as cars. However, epidemiological studies of traffic crashes in India have been limited in their approach to account for the exposure of these road users. In 2011, for the first time, census in India reported travel distance and mode of travel for workers. A Poisson-lognormal mixture regression model is developed at the state level to explore the relationship of road deaths of all the road users with commute travel distance by different on-road modes. The model controlled for diesel consumption (proxy for freight traffic), length of national highways, proportion of population in urban areas, and built-up population density. The results show that walking, cycling and, interestingly, IPT are associated with lower risk of road deaths, while 2W, car and bus are associated with higher risk. Promotion of IPT has twofold benefits of increasing safety as well as providing a sustainable mode of transport. The mode shift scenarios show that, for similar mode shift across the states, the resulting trends in road deaths are highly dependent on the baseline mode shares. The most worrying trend is the steep growth of death burden resulting from mode shift of walking and cycling to 2W. While the paper illustrates a limited set of mode shift scenarios involving two modes at a time, the model can be applied to assess safety impacts resulting from a more complex set of scenarios. Copyright © 2018 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  17. 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.

  18. Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    ... Lecture Workshops · Refresher Courses · Symposia · Live Streaming. Home; Journals; Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences; Volume 111; Issue 3. On Totally Reducible Binary Forms: I ... Author Affiliations. C Hooley1. School of Mathematics, Cardiff University, Senghennydd Road, PO Box 926, Cardiff CF24 4YH, UK ...

  19. Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Home; Journals; Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences; Volume 120; Issue 3. The Atiyah Bundle and Connections on a Principal Bundle. Indranil Biswas. Volume 120 Issue 3 ... Author Affiliations. Indranil Biswas1. School of Mathematics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400 005, India ...

  20. Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Home; Journals; Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences; Volume 115; Issue 4. Large Time Behaviour of Solutions of a System of Generalized Burgers Equation. K T Joseph ... Author Affiliations. K T Joseph1. School of Mathematics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400 005, India ...

  1. Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Home; Journals; Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences; Volume 114; Issue 1. Representability of Hom Implies Flatness. Nitin Nitsure. Volume 114 Issue 1 February 2004 pp 7-14 .... Author Affiliations. Nitin Nitsure1. School of Mathematics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400 005, India ...

  2. Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Home; Journals; Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences; Volume 118; Issue 2. Some Remarks on the Local Fundamental Group Scheme. V B Mehta S ... Author Affiliations. V B Mehta1 S Subramanian1. School of Mathematics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400 005, India ...

  3. Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Home; Journals; Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences; Volume 127; Issue 2. Nonfiniteness of Hilbert–Kunz functions. V TRIVEDI. Research Article Volume 127 Issue 2 April 2017 ... Author Affiliations. V TRIVEDI1. School of Mathematics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400 005, India ...

  4. Dance as a Road to Science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laws, Kenneth

    2009-05-01

    One of the challenges facing the science community is finding ways of demonstrating for non-scientists the logic and appeal of understanding how science applies to familiar phenomena. Dance movement involves many examples of physical principles that allow dancers and observers of dance to deepen their understanding of the natural world. To demonstrate the connection between science and art, we will observe a ballet dancer performing several movements which we can then analyze to illustrate why the movements are shaped the way they are and how dancers can improve their effectiveness through such analysis. One example is the tour jet'e, a half turn in the air during a vertical jump. The dancer's intent is to create the illusion of going up facing one direction, suddenly reversing direction while aloft, then landing. Good dancers recognize that they can most effectively create that illusion if they understand how the closeness of their legs determines their moment of inertia and hence rate of rotation. Another intriguing movement is a ``whip turn,'' a partnered pirouette in which the woman's leg is used to store angular momentum while her partner continues to increase that momentum by applying forces to her waist. This storing of angular momentum in a leg is a principle also used in fouett'e turns, a common repeated pirouette sequence. These examples, and others, many of which involve a broader range of motion than just rotation, provide the basis for observers and performers to understand how some dance movements can be carried out so effectively and beautifully!

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. Journal of Chemical Sciences | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Author Affiliations. Hong Wang1 Bin Lu2 Jingxiang Zhao2 Qinghai Cai2. School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Harbin 150080, P. R. China; School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Normal University, No. 1 Shida Road Limin development Zone, ...

  10. Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Home; Journals; Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences; Volume 119; Issue 1. On some Frobenius Restriction Theorems for Semistable Sheaves. V B Mehta V Trivedi ... Author Affiliations. V B Mehta1 V Trivedi1. School of Mathematics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400 005, India ...

  11. Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Home; Journals; Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences; Volume 119; Issue 2. Sign (di)Lemma for Dimension Shifting. Nitin Nitsure. Volume 119 Issue 2 April 2009 pp 179-186 ... Author Affiliations. Nitin Nitsure1. School of Mathematics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400 005, India ...

  12. Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Home; Journals; Proceedings – Mathematical Sciences; Volume 122; Issue 2. On Cohomology Theory for Topological Groups. Arati S Khedekar C S Rajan ... Author Affiliations. Arati S Khedekar1 C S Rajan1. School of Mathematics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400 005, India ...

  13. Fixation distance and fixation duration to vertical road signs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Costa, Marco; Simone, Andrea; Vignali, Valeria; Lantieri, Claudio; Palena, Nicola

    2018-05-01

    The distance of first-fixation to vertical road signs was assessed in 22 participants while driving a route of 8.34 km. Fixations to road signs were recorded by a mobile eye-movement-tracking device synchronized to GPS and kinematic data. The route included 75 road signs. First-fixation distance and fixation duration distributions were positively skewed. Median distance of first-fixation was 51 m. Median fixation duration was 137 ms with a modal value of 66 ms. First-fixation distance was linearly related to speed and fixation duration. Road signs were gazed at a much closer distance than their visibility distance. In a second study a staircase procedure was used to test the presentation-time threshold that lead to a 75% accuracy in road sign identification. The threshold was 35 ms, showing that short fixations to a road signs could lead to a correct identification. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. 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

  15. 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

  16. 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.

  17. 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...

  18. Quantification of carbon footprint of urban roads via life cycle assessment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mao, Ruichang; Duan, Huabo; Dong, Dan

    2017-01-01

    assessment method. For given years (ranged from 2004 to 2013), various activities of urban roads (e.g. newly planned road construction, maintenance of road in use, and road renovation and demolition) have been examined in this study. The results show that the total carbon footprint from urban roads...... in Shenzhen was 260 (±20) thousand tons CO2e in 2013. The major contributor was the materials use (embodied impact) from newly constructed roads, which accounts for 52.3% of the total carbon footprint, followed by the maintenance stage (24.3%). The eco-design process of road construction plays a vital role...... studies attempted to examine the impacts from transport infrastructure, especially at a city or country level. This paper, taking Shenzhen in China (a fast developing megacity) as the case study, is specially designed to quantify the carbon footprint of the urban roads by using streamlined life cycle...

  19. Allegheny County-Owned Roads Centerlines

    Data.gov (United States)

    Allegheny County / City of Pittsburgh / Western PA Regional Data Center — This dataset shows the roads owned by Allegheny County. If viewing this description on the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center’s open data portal...

  20. 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.

  1. Fellowship | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Specialization: DNA Double-Strand Break Repair, Genomic Instability, Cancer ... Address: Indian Institute of Science Education & Research, Dr Homi Bhabha Road, .... Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Gastrointestinal Microbiome Stem Cells

  2. Associateship | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Specialization: Small-angle Neutron Scattering in the Studies of Condensed Matter .... Address during Associateship: School of Technology & Computer, Science, TIFR, Homi Bhabha Road, .... Specialization: Elementary Particle Physics

  3. Effects of traffic and ditch maintenance on forest road sediment production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Charles H. Luce; Thomas A. Black

    2001-01-01

    Observations of sediment yield from road segments in the Oregon Coast Range show that either heavy traffic during rainfall or blading the road ditch will increase erosion from forest roads. For the fine soils and high quality aggregate surfacing on the study plots, ditch blading increased sediment yield more than traffic equivalent to 12 log trucks per day. The...

  4. Sadhana | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    S Ramesh1 Geok Bee Teh1 Rong-Fuh Louh2 Yong Kong Hou1 Pung Yen Sin1 Lim Jing Yi1. Faculty of Engineering and Science, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Setapak, 53300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Feng Chia University, 100, Wenhwa Road, Seatwen, Taichung, ...

  5. Sadhana | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Toggle navigation. Logo of the Indian Academy of Sciences. Indian Academy of Sciences. Home · About IASc · History · Memorandum of Association ... Volume 31 Issue 5 October 2006 pp 621-633. Minimizing total costs of forest roads with computer-aided design model · Abdullah E Akay · More Details Abstract Fulltext PDF.

  6. Preparation of Road Cuts by Usage of Drilling and Blasting Works

    OpenAIRE

    Dambov, Risto; Mijoski, Goran; Karanakova Stefanovska, Radmila

    2011-01-01

    This paper shows the basic methods of blasting in the construction of the (one-sided and double sided) road cuts in hilly terrain with different inclinations. By applying of these methods we get stable slopes of manufactured road cuts, minimal (or no) damage of the rest solid rocks. It is important to emphasize that the stable and undeformed slopes of the road cuts, to avoid the additional work of restoration and protection of slopes from landslides on the road. The application of these...

  7. Taking Physics and Now the Stars on the Road With the Magic Physics Bus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bennum, David

    2009-05-01

    In February 2003 the ``Physics on the Road'' workshop, held at Colorado State University- Fort Collins, Colorado, brought together physics faculty who were experienced in designing and providing year --round mobile physics displays and those who were interested in initiating similar outreach programs. The impetus for the workshop was the upcoming ``World Year of Physics'', but the workshop had much broader impact for many of us who attended. The University of Nevada had a long history of demonstration shows for campus visitors from K-12 students/faculty but the cost of field trips began to limit this for many schools, especially for schools in poorer neighborhoods without large scale parental fundraising. The timing of the workshop was perfect for my developing program to utilize a donated ``electric bus'' as a traveling physics demo showcase. The program has grown to near our current limitations (70 mile range of the bus and time considerations), however we are expanding the ``scope'' of the project to include evening astronomy ``star parties'' as we enter the ``Year of Astronomy''. In addition to the bus transport of portable astronomy equipment to school sites we are adding, through donation, a 22 inch telescope in a domed observatory at a secondary campus location at the edge of Reno where large scale ``star parties'' can be conducted as outreach to K-12 and the community. The ``Physics on the Road'' bus reaches several thousand elementary and middle school students every year now and the potential for similar outreach with ``Stars on the Road'' has excited several of our faculty and physics students into increased participation in these endeavors to introduce our young people to science. It has become one of our most active ``recruitment'' plans and growing numbers of local students entering physics and other science majors is anecdotal evidence of success.

  8. 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

  9. Relationship between religion and school students' road behavior in southern Iran.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tabrizi, Reza; Akbari, Maryam; Lankarani, Kamran B; Heydari, Seyed Taghi; Masoudi, Alireza; Shams, Amir Hossein; Akbarzadeh, Armin; Moalemi, Saba; Mehr, Maryam Mahmoodi; Sadati, Ahmad Kalateh; Peymani, Payam

    2017-10-01

    Unsafe behaviors are an important cause of accidents in adolescent age groups. This study was designed to examine the behaviors of adolescent pedestrians in southern Iran. This is a descriptive analytical cross-sectional study. The study population consisted of high school students in Shiraz, capital city of Fars Province, Iran. Five hundred and sixteen students were selected by multi-stage sampling. Data were collected by the use of three questionnaires, which included Persian copies of adolescent road user behavior questionnaire (ARBQ), Duke University Religious Index (DUREL), as well as the context and independent variables questionnaire. The results showed that a decrease in dangerous behaviors on the road resulted in an increase in respondents' intrinsic religiosity. Also, engagement in unsafe crossing behavior in the road decreased with increasing respondents' intrinsic religiosity. Another finding showed that female students were less involved in dangerous play and planned protective behaviors on the road. Findings clearly indicate that intrinsic religiosity has a significant role in reducing the risky road behaviors of students. Hence, religion may improve road safety in school students' road behavior in Iran. Copyright © 2017 Daping Hospital and the Research Institute of Surgery of the Third Military Medical University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  10. 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...

  11. Drawing road networks with focus regions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haunert, Jan-Henrik; Sering, Leon

    2011-12-01

    Mobile users of maps typically need detailed information about their surroundings plus some context information about remote places. In order to avoid that the map partly gets too dense, cartographers have designed mapping functions that enlarge a user-defined focus region--such functions are sometimes called fish-eye projections. The extra map space occupied by the enlarged focus region is compensated by distorting other parts of the map. We argue that, in a map showing a network of roads relevant to the user, distortion should preferably take place in those areas where the network is sparse. Therefore, we do not apply a predefined mapping function. Instead, we consider the road network as a graph whose edges are the road segments. We compute a new spatial mapping with a graph-based optimization approach, minimizing the square sum of distortions at edges. Our optimization method is based on a convex quadratic program (CQP); CQPs can be solved in polynomial time. Important requirements on the output map are expressed as linear inequalities. In particular, we show how to forbid edge crossings. We have implemented our method in a prototype tool. For instances of different sizes, our method generated output maps that were far less distorted than those generated with a predefined fish-eye projection. Future work is needed to automate the selection of roads relevant to the user. Furthermore, we aim at fast heuristics for application in real-time systems. © 2011 IEEE

  12. 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.

  13. [Characteristics of fugitive dust emission from paved road near construction activities].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tian, Gang; Fan, Shou-Bin; Li, Gang; Qin, Jian-Ping

    2007-11-01

    Because of the mud/dirt carryout from construction activities, the silt loading of paved road nearby is higher and the fugitive dust emission is stronger. By sampling and laboratory analysis of the road surface dust samples, we obtain the silt loading (mass of material equal to or less than 75 micromaters in physical diameter per unit area of travel surface) of paved roads near construction activities. The result show that silt loading of road near construction activities is higher than "normal road", and silt loading is negatively correlated with length from construction's door. According to AP-42 emission factor model of fugitive dust from roads, the emission factor of influenced road is 2 - 10 times bigger than "normal road", and the amount of fugitive dust emission influenced by one construction activity is "equivalent" to an additional road length of approximately 422 - 3 800 m with the baseline silt loading. Based on the spatial and temporal distribution of construction activities, in 2002 the amount of PM10 emission influenced by construction activities in Beijing city areas account of for 59% of fugitive dust from roads.

  14. 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).

  15. 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

  16. Detection and recognition of road markings in panoramic images

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Cheng; Creusen, Ivo; Hazelhoff, Lykele; de With, Peter H. N.

    2015-03-01

    Detection of road lane markings is attractive for practical applications such as advanced driver assistance systems and road maintenance. This paper proposes a system to detect and recognize road lane markings in panoramic images. The system can be divided into four stages. First, an inverse perspective mapping is applied to the original panoramic image to generate a top-view road view, in which the potential road markings are segmented based on their intensity difference compared to the surrounding pixels. Second, a feature vector of each potential road marking segment is extracted by calculating the Euclidean distance between the center and the boundary at regular angular steps. Third, the shape of each segment is classified using a Support Vector Machine (SVM). Finally, by modeling the lane markings, previous falsely detected segments can be rejected based on their orientation and position relative to the lane markings. Our experiments show that the system is promising and is capable of recognizing 93%, 95% and 91% of striped line segments, blocks and arrows respectively, as well as 94% of the lane markings.

  17. Estimation of element deposition derived from road traffic sources by using mosses

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zechmeister, H.G.; Hohenwallner, D.; Riss, A.; Hanus-Illnar, A.

    2005-01-01

    Sixty moss samples were taken along transects of nine roads in Austria. The concentrations of 17 elements in four moss species were determined. There was a high correlation between several elements like Cu/Sb (0.906), Ni/Co (0.897) or Cr/V (0.898), indicating a common traffic-related source. Enrichment factors were calculated, showing highest enrichment levels for: Cr, Mo, Sb, Zn, As, Fe, V, Cu, Ni, and Co. For these elements, road traffic has to be assumed as a source, which is confirmed by a significant negative correlation of the concentrations in mosses to the distance from the road for most of these metals. The rate of decrease followed a log-shaped curve at most of the investigated transects, although the decline cannot be explained by a single model. Multiple regression analysis highlighted traffic density, distance from and elevation of the road as the most influencing factors for the deposition of the investigated elements. Heavy duty vehicles (HDVs) and light duty vehicles (LDVs) showed different patterns. A comparison of sites likely to be influenced by traffic emissions with average values for the respective regions showed no significant differences for road distances of more than 250 m. Nevertheless, at heavily frequented roads, raised deposition of some elements was found even at a distance of 1000 m. - Cr, Mo, Sb, Zn, As, Fe, V, Cu, Ni, and Co were identified as road traffic emissions and were mainly deposited within a distance of 250 m from major roads

  18. 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...

  19. Road Impact on Deforestation and Jaguar Habitat Loss in the Mayan Forest

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Conde, Dalia Amor

    2008-01-01

    The construction of roads, either as an economic tool or as necessity for the implementation of other infrastructure projects is increasing in the tropical forest worldwide. However, roads are one of the main deforestation drivers in the tropics. In this study we analyzed the impact of road...... and important role in high developed areas. In the short term, the impact of a road in a low developed area is lower than in a road in a high developed area, which could be the result of the lag effect between road construction and forest colonization. This is consistent since roads resulted to be a significant...... investments on both deforestation and jaguar habitat loss, in the Mayan Forest. As well we used these results to forecast the impact of two road investments planned in the region. Our results show that roads are the single deforestation driver in low developed areas, whether many other drivers play...

  20. 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...

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. Factors Affecting Road Traffic Accident in Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Che-Him, Norziha; Roslan, Rozaini; Saifullah Rusiman, Mohd; Khalid, Kamil; Ghazali Kamardan, M.; Azbi Arobi, Farquis; Mohamad, Nazeera

    2018-04-01

    A road traffic accident resulted from the combination of factors related to the few components of the system involving environment, roads, road users, vehicles and the interaction between those systems. Road traffic accident (RTA) in Malaysia recorded as the highest fatality rate (per 100,000 population) among the ASEAN countries. In 2016, more than half of million cases accident recorded with more than 7,000 people were killed. Therefore, the RTA is one of the most critical issue in Malaysia even become the worldwide burden to authority. Generally, driving is a complex process which involves movement of a vehicle by either a computer or human controller. However, failure to control and coordinate will contribute to an accident. The objective of this study is to identify the pattern of accident in Johor Malaysia and to examine the relationship between the number of accident and the types of vehicles and roads. The results could help the government to recognise the different patterns, types of vehicles and roads that show major factors in the increasing of road traffic accident in Malaysia.

  4. 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...

  5. Gravel road stabilisation of Ehnsjoevaegen, Hallstavik[Using fly ash]; Skogsbilvaegsrenovering av Ehnsjoevaegen, Hallstavik

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Macsik, Josef; Svedberg, Bo [Ecoloop, Stockholm (Sweden)

    2006-03-15

    Fly ash in geotechnical applications has stabilising, isolating, low permeability and hardening effect. Fly ash can be used in road constructions with low bearing capacity, as well as on top cover material on landfills. The aim of the project was to build a road section with fly ash stabilised gravel, based on laboratory studies, and follow up technical and environmental aspect during the first year after stabilisation. The overall aim of this project was to evaluate fly ash from Holmen Paper, Hallstavik, from technical and environmental point of view in a gravel road construction. A gravel road, Ehnsjoevaegen, was stabilised with fly ash during autumn 2004. This road was a low priority road. The fly ash stabilised road section was 1300 m long. Gravel from the road Ehnsjoevaegen was stabilised and investigated in a laboratory study. Leachability of metals and geotechnical aspects were investigated. The laboratory study showed that fly ash stabilised gravel has high shear strength, however its thawing resistance is not fully acceptable. Additives of cement or merit are needed in order to increase its thawing resistance. The actual road section is not going to be used during thawing period and no additives were used. The test road is divided into different sections including a reference section. The road stabilisation work was conducted with gravel transported to Ehnsjoevaegen from off site and not with gravel from the site. Fly ash was tipped off on a levelled road, followed by tipping of gravel. Mixing fly ash and gravel was done on site by a road scraper. After the mixing the road was gravelled with 0,1 m graded gravel. In this project the fly ash had low water content. In order to get optimal compaction water was added from a tanker supplying water before compacted with a compactor. Results from the pilot test shows that fly ash stabilised gravel can be tipped, mixed and compacted effectively. Tipping can be optimised if fly ash and gravel is mixed in a mixer

  6. Road Extraction and Car Detection from Aerial Image Using Intensity and Color

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vahid Ghods

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available In this paper a new automatic approach to road extraction from aerial images is proposed. The initialization strategies are based on the intensity, color, and Hough transform. After road elements extraction, chain codes are calculated. In the last step, using shadow, cars on the roads are detected. We implemented our method on the 25 images from "Google Earth" database. The experiments show an increase in both the completeness and the quality indexes for the extracted road.

  7. 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.

  8. 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...

  9. 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...

  10. 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...

  11. 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

  12. 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

  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. 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.

  15. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons associated with road deposited solid and their ecological risk: Implications for road stormwater reuse

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu, Liang; Liu, An; Li, Yang; Zhang, Lixun; Zhang, Guijuan; Guan, Yuntao

    2016-01-01

    Reusing stormwater is becoming popular worldwide. However, urban road stormwater commonly contains toxic pollutants, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which could undermine reuse safety. This study investigated pollution level of PAHs and their composition build-up on urban roads in a typical megacity in South China. The potential ecological risk posed by PAHs associated with road deposited solid (RDS) was also assessed. Results showed that ecological risk levels varied based on different land use types, which could be significantly influenced by the composition of PAHs and characteristics of RDS. A higher percentage of high-ring PAHs, such as more than four rings, could pose higher ecological risk and are more likely to undermine stormwater reuse safety. Additionally, the degree of traffic congestion rather than traffic volume was found to exert a more significant influence on the generation of high-ring PAH generation. Therefore, stormwater from more congested roads might need proper treatment (particularly for removing high-ring PAHs) before reuse or could be suitable for purposes requiring low-water-quality. The findings of this study are expected to contribute to adequate stormwater reuse strategy development and to enhance the safety of urban road stormwater reuse. - Highlights: • PAHs build-up on road surfaces varies with traffic and land use conditions. • RDS characteristics and PAH composition were considered in ecological risk assessment. • ΣPAH concentration attached to RDS cannot represent their overall ecological risk. • Higher percentage of 5–6 rings PAHs can pose higher ecological risk. • TC exerts more important influences on 5–6 rings PAHs build-up compared with TV.

  16. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons associated with road deposited solid and their ecological risk: Implications for road stormwater reuse

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Liu, Liang [Graduate school at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055 (China); Liu, An [College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060 (China); Li, Yang; Zhang, Lixun; Zhang, Guijuan [Graduate school at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055 (China); State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Microorganism Application and Risk Control (MARC), Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong (China); Guan, Yuntao, E-mail: guanyt@tsinghua.edu.cn [Graduate school at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055 (China); State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Microorganism Application and Risk Control (MARC), Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong (China)

    2016-09-01

    Reusing stormwater is becoming popular worldwide. However, urban road stormwater commonly contains toxic pollutants, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which could undermine reuse safety. This study investigated pollution level of PAHs and their composition build-up on urban roads in a typical megacity in South China. The potential ecological risk posed by PAHs associated with road deposited solid (RDS) was also assessed. Results showed that ecological risk levels varied based on different land use types, which could be significantly influenced by the composition of PAHs and characteristics of RDS. A higher percentage of high-ring PAHs, such as more than four rings, could pose higher ecological risk and are more likely to undermine stormwater reuse safety. Additionally, the degree of traffic congestion rather than traffic volume was found to exert a more significant influence on the generation of high-ring PAH generation. Therefore, stormwater from more congested roads might need proper treatment (particularly for removing high-ring PAHs) before reuse or could be suitable for purposes requiring low-water-quality. The findings of this study are expected to contribute to adequate stormwater reuse strategy development and to enhance the safety of urban road stormwater reuse. - Highlights: • PAHs build-up on road surfaces varies with traffic and land use conditions. • RDS characteristics and PAH composition were considered in ecological risk assessment. • ΣPAH concentration attached to RDS cannot represent their overall ecological risk. • Higher percentage of 5–6 rings PAHs can pose higher ecological risk. • TC exerts more important influences on 5–6 rings PAHs build-up compared with TV.

  17. Geographic analysis of road accident severity index in Nigeria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iyanda, Ayodeji E

    2018-05-28

    Before 2030, deaths from road traffic accidents (RTAs) will surpass cerebrovascular disease, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS. Yet, there is little knowledge on the geographic distribution of RTA severity in Nigeria. Accident Severity Index is the proportion of deaths that result from a road accident. This study analysed the geographic pattern of RTA severity based on the data retrieved from Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC). The study predicted a two-year data from a historic road accident data using exponential smoothing technique. To determine spatial autocorrelation, global and local indicators of spatial association were implemented in a geographic information system. Results show significant clusters of high RTA severity among states in the northeast and the northwest of Nigeria. Hence, the findings are discussed from two perspectives: Road traffic law compliance and poor emergency response. Conclusion, the severity of RTA is high in the northern states of Nigeria, hence, RTA remains a public health concern.

  18. Resident Research Fundamentals Course Human Research Curves in the Road

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-09-27

    MDW/SGVU SUBJECT: Professional Presentation Approval 27 JULY 2017 Your paper, entitled Resident Research Fundamentals Course - "Human Research ...Curves in the Road" (27 Sep 2017) presented at/published to Resident Research Fundamentals Course - JBSA Lackland, San Antonio, TX - 27 Sep 2017 in...are a Graduate Health Sciences Education student and your department has told you they cannot fund your publication, the 59th Clinical Research

  19. Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Program Using Functional and Structural Assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Setianingsih, A. I.; Sangaji, S.; Setyawan, A.

    2017-02-01

    Road sector development policy in Bangka Belitung emphasis on equitable development, which is opening up new areas for industrial development zones of potential marine and coastal tourism, so that having an impact on the budget priority to build a new road. This led to a minimal budget provided for the maintenance of the existing road. This study aimed to evaluate the condition of the pavement both functionally and structurally, the growth of traffic density and the availability of existing road maintenance costs. Then, to analyze the influence of existing road conditions, traffic density and road maintenance costs to the type of road maintenance management. The results are compared with the results of the existing maintenance conducted by the Public Works Department of Bangka Belitung province. Evaluation of pavement conditions consists of visual assessment of pavement condition using IRI, pavement condition assessment functionally with deflection method using test data tool Benkelman Beam (BB) and the actual traffic load. IRI value, deflections and traffic growth gained from years 2011-2015 subsequently created regression models to obtain the relationship and the correlation coefficient. The analysis showed that using the same relative magnitude of the budget from 2011 to 2015, giving priority to the maintenance of the road with good conditions capable of providing the road with a steady state of 100%. Recommendations can be given that maintain the road with good conditions reflecting that preservation provide maximum results with the more efficient maintenance cost.

  20. 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. ...

  1. 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...

  2. Distributed Cognition on the road: Using EAST to explore future road transportation systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Banks, Victoria A; Stanton, Neville A; Burnett, Gary; Hermawati, Setia

    2018-04-01

    Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) are set to revolutionise the way in which we use our transportation system. However, we do not fully understand how the integration of wireless and autonomous technology into the road transportation network affects overall network dynamism. This paper uses the theoretical principles underlying Distributed Cognition to explore the dependencies and interdependencies that exist between system agents located within the road environment, traffic management centres and other external agencies in both non-connected and connected transportation systems. This represents a significant step forward in modelling complex sociotechnical systems as it shows that the principles underlying Distributed Cognition can be applied to macro-level systems using the visual representations afforded by the Event Analysis of Systemic Teamwork (EAST) method. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. 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.

  4. The Extraction of Road Boundary from Crowdsourcing Trajectory Using Constrained Delaunay Triangulation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    YANG Wei

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Extraction of road boundary accurately from crowdsourcing trajectory lines is still a hard work.Therefore,this study presented a new approach to use vehicle trajectory lines to extract road boundary.Firstly, constructing constrained Delaunay triangulation within interpolated track lines to calculate road boundary descriptors using triangle edge length and Voronoi cell.Road boundary recognition model was established by integrating the two boundary descriptors.Then,based on seed polygons,a regional growing method was proposed to extract road boundary. Finally, taxi GPS traces in Beijing were used to verify the validity of the novel method, and the results also showed that our method was suitable for GPS traces with disparity density,complex road structure and different time interval.

  5. GEOSPATIAL ANALYSIS OF ROAD DISTRESSES AND THE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE SLOPE FACTOR

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    NOR A. M. NASIR

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available A road is a medium that a person uses to move from one destination to another. A good road can provide comfort and safety to users, however, poor maintenance of a road might cause danger to them. Therefore, a road maintenance management system needs to be carried out to ensure the effectiveness as well as the efficiency of road maintenance itself. In this era, there are so many systems created in order to help data storage and analysis. One of the systems is the Geographic Information System (GIS. Other than getting the location of distresses, GIS also can help to classify the severity level of distresses and to correlate the distresses occurring in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM with the slope gradient. Road distress data was collected using GPS applications supported by Supersurv 3 software. The study shows that the GIS method helps to produce a good spatial database. The road gradient factor is related to the level of road damage.

  6. 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)

  7. International comparisons of energy and environmental efficiency in the road transport sector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ben Abdallah, Khaled; Belloumi, Mounir; De Wolf, Daniel

    2015-01-01

    The present work provides an international comparison of the energy intensity and the carbon dioxide intensity in road transport for a group of 90 countries over the period 1980–2012. This paper attempts to perform a comparative analysis to find the most appropriate mapping of the energy performance in road transport taking into account the three dimensions of sustainable energy development, namely road transport-related energy consumption, economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions. An important result of the study is the inverse relationship between energy efficiency and environmental efficiency. Through the calculated Theil coefficient, our empirical findings highlight the existence of spatial and temporal disparities between countries. In 2012, Tunisia occupies the 48th and the 38th rank respectively in terms of energy and environmental efficiency. Based on a general index of energy performance in the road transport sector, it is deemed to have a medium–high energy performance by occupying the 34th rank. The study shows the importance of enhancing a number of policies for the road transport system through the joint improvement of the fuel price policy, of the road infrastructure policy and of the fuel-efficient road vehicles policy, in order to maintain sustainable energy road transport. - Highlights: • The paper presents an international comparative analysis of the energy performance. • The road transport is analyzed for a group of 90 countries over the period 1980–2012. • There is no convergence between energy and environmental efficiencies. • Tunisia has a medium-high energy performance by occupying the 34th rank in 2012. • The findings show the importance of enhancing some policies for the road transport.

  8. Road Cycling and Mountain Biking Produces Adaptations on the Spine and Hamstring Extensibility.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muyor, J M; Zabala, M

    2016-01-01

    The purposes of this study were as follows: 1) to analyse the influence of training in road cycling or cross-country mountain biking on sagittal spinal curvatures, pelvic tilt and trunk inclination in cyclists of both cycling modalities; 2) to evaluate the specific spinal posture and pelvic tilt adopted on the road bicycle and cross-country mountain bike; and 3) to compare the spinal sagittal capacity of flexion and pelvic tilt mobility as well as hamstring muscle extensibility among road cyclists, cross-country mountain bikers and non-cyclists. Thirty matched road cyclists, 30 mountain bikers and 30 non-cyclists participated in this study. The road cyclists showed significantly greater thoracic kyphosis and trunk inclination than did the mountain bikers and non-cyclists in a standing posture. On the bicycle, the road bicycling posture was characterised by greater lumbar flexion and more significant anterior pelvic tilt and trunk inclination compared with the mountain biking posture. The thoracic spine was more flexed in mountain biking than in road cycling. Road cyclists had significantly greater hamstring muscle extensibility in the active knee extension test, and showed greater anterior pelvic tilt and trunk inclination capacity in the sit-and-reach test, compared with mountain bikers and non-cyclists. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

  9. 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.

  10. On the road for education: Turning business travel into E/PO opportunities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richardson, A.; Jasnow, M.; Srinivasan, M.; Rosmorduc, M.; Blanc, F.

    2003-04-01

    One seemingly universal characteristic of the research scientist and their associates is the necessity for travel. Members of the joint NASA/CNES TOPEX/Poseidon/Jason-1 (T/P/J) Education and Public Outreach Team are promoting a concept that benefits both the scientist on business travel, and the general public. "On the Road for Education" is a program whereby members of the Project take a few hours in their travel schedule to visit a school, informal education venue, or a community group located in the destination city. Formal and informal educators, and civic group officers always welcome visits by professional scientists to give lectures on their research activities, do some hands-on demonstrations in a science center, or just talk to a group of students about career opportunities in science and engineering. The T/P/J outreach team has an educator mailing list that includes members across the country. When contacted in advance of a science team member's travel schedule, outreach team members are happy to locate a school, museum or science center in or near the destination city and arrange an outreach opportunity for the scientist. We can also provide support with handouts for both public and educational uses. It is a goal of NASA to inspire the public and the next generation of explorers. "On the Road for Education" provides an easy mechanism for involvement by any scientist, and may help to make that next business trip even more enjoyable.

  11. 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.

  12. Assessment of rockfall risk along roads

    Science.gov (United States)

    Budetta, P.

    2004-03-01

    This paper contains a method for the analysis of rockfall risk along roads and motorways. The method is derived from the Rockfall Hazard Rating System (RHRS) developed by Pierson et al. (1990) at the Oregon State Highway Division. The RHRS provides a rational way to make informed decisions on where and how to spend construction funds. Exponential scoring functions are used to represent the increases, respectively, in hazard and in vulnerability that are reflected in the nine categories forming the classification. The resulting total score contains the essential elements regarding the evaluation of the degree of the exposition to the risk along roads. In the modified method, the ratings for the categories "ditch effectiveness", "geologic characteristic", "volume of rockfall/block size", "climate and water circulation" and "rockfall history" have been rendered more easy and objective. The main modifications regard the introduction of Slope Mass Rating by Romana (1985, 1988, 1991) improving the estimate of the geologic characteristics, of the volume of the potentially unstable blocks and the underground water circulation. Other modifications regard the scoring for the categories "decision sight distance" and "road geometry". For these categories, the Italian National Council's standards (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - CNR) have been used (CNR, 1980). The method must be applied in both the traffic directions because the percentage of reduction in the decision sight distance greatly affects the results. An application of the modified method to a 2km long section of the Sorrentine road (no 145) in Southern Italy was developed. A high traffic intensity affects the entire section of the road and rockfalls periodically cause casualties, as well as a large amount of damage and traffic interruptions. The method was applied to seven cross sections of slopes adjacent to the Sorrentine road. For these slopes, the analysis shows that the risk is unacceptable and it should

  13. National and regional analysis of road accidents in Spain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tolón-Becerra, A; Lastra-Bravo, X; Flores-Parra, I

    2013-01-01

    In Spain, the absolute fatality figures decreased almost 50 percent between 1998 and 2009. Despite this great effort, road mortality is still of great concern to political authorities. Further progress requires efficient road safety policy based on an optimal set of measures and targets that consider the initial conditions and characteristics in each region. This study attempts to analyze road accidents in Spain and its provinces in time and space during 1998-2009. First, we analyzed daily, monthly, and nationwide (NUTS 0) development of road accidents, the correlation between logarithmic transformations of road accidents and territorial and socioeconomic variables, the causality by simple linear regression of road accidents and territorial and socioeconomic variables, and preliminary frequency by fast Fourier transform. Then we analyzed the annual trend in accidents in the Spanish provinces (NUTS 3) and found a correlation between the logarithmic transformations of the mortality rate, fatalities per fatal accident, and accidents resulting in injuries per inhabitant variables and population, population density, gross domestic product (GDP), length of road network, and area. Finally, causality was analyzed by simple linear regression. The most outstanding results were the negative correlation between mortality rate and population density in Spanish provinces, which has increased over time, and that road accidents in Spain have an approximate periodicity of 57 days. The fast Fourier transform analysis of road accident frequency in Spain was useful in identifying the periodic, harmonic components of accidents and casualties. The periodicity observed both for the period 1998-2009 and by year showed that the highest intensity in road accidents was bimonthly, despite the lower number of accidents and casualties in the spectra of amplitude and power and efforts to reduce the intensity and concentration during off-season travel (summer and December).

  14. 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...

  15. Adaptive Hybrid Control of Vehicle Semiactive Suspension Based on Road Profile Estimation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yechen Qin

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available A new road estimation based suspension hybrid control strategy is proposed. Its aim is to adaptively change control gains to improve both ride comfort and road handling with the constraint of rattle space. To achieve this, analytical expressions for ride comfort, road handling, and rattle space with respect to road input are derived based on the hybrid control, and the problem is transformed into a MOOP (Multiobjective Optimization Problem and has been solved by NSGA-II (Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II. A new road estimation and classification method, which is based on ANFIS (Adaptive Neurofuzzy Inference System and wavelet transforms, is then presented as a means of detecting the road profile level, and a Kalman filter is designed for observing unknown states. The results of simulations conducted with random road excitation show that the efficiency of the proposed control strategy compares favourably to that of a passive system.

  16. 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.

  17. [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.

  18. 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

  19. 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

  20. 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,...

  1. Advanced receptor modelling for the apportionment of road dust resuspension to atmospheric PM

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amato, F.; Pandolfi, M.; Escrig, A.; Querol, X.; Alastuey, A.; Pey, J.; Perez, N.; Hopke, P. K.

    2009-04-01

    ), authors show how to apply in ME-2 this knowledge to obtain a quantitative assessment of this source. The achievement of this objective permitted to show how is possible to improve a basic solution of PMF2 basing on an extended model. Results show that road dust resuspension accounted for 6.7 µg/m3 (16%) in PM10, 2.2 µg/m3 (8%) of PM2.5 and 0.3 µg/m3 (1%) of PM1, revealing that fugitive emissions were responsible of the 36%, 18% and 2% of total traffic emissions respectively in PM10, PM2.5 and PM1. Acknowledments: This work was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (GRACCIE-SCD2007-00067)

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. Feature Fusion Based Road Extraction for HJ-1-C SAR Image

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lu Ping-ping

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Road network extraction in SAR images is one of the key tasks of military and civilian technologies. To solve the issues of road extraction of HJ-1-C SAR images, a road extraction algorithm is proposed based on the integration of ratio and directional information. Due to the characteristic narrow dynamic range and low signal to noise ratio of HJ-1-C SAR images, a nonlinear quantization and an image filtering method based on a multi-scale autoregressive model are proposed here. A road extraction algorithm based on information fusion, which considers ratio and direction information, is also proposed. By processing Radon transformation, main road directions can be extracted. Cross interferences can be suppressed, and the road continuity can then be improved by the main direction alignment and secondary road extraction. The HJ-1-C SAR image acquired in Wuhan, China was used to evaluate the proposed method. The experimental results show good performance with correctness (80.5% and quality (70.1% when applied to a SAR image with complex content.

  5. 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

  6. 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.

  7. How to encourage road noise abatement in Nordic municipalities

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sørensen, Claus Hedegaard

    2008-01-01

    Road noise nuisance is a huge problem in the Nordic countries, and it seems diffi cult for Nordic countries to meet national targets for its reduction. One reason for this is the lack of municipal activities in the fi eld. Th us the research question that this article seeks to answer in relation...... to already existing residential areas and roads is: which conditions in the municipal organisation and its institutional environment contribute to making municipalities provide and implement noise abatement measures? Th e assumption is that three factors infl uence how the municipalities prioritize among...... political issues: the municipal organisation itself, the local institutional environment (citizens, business and NGOs), and the state and trans-municipal networks. A study of the anatomy of municipal road noise abatement policy shows that conditions for implementing road noise abatement in existing...

  8. Analysis of road development and associated agricultural land use change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alphan, Hakan

    2017-12-05

    Development of road network is one of the strongest drivers of habitat fragmentation. It interferes with ecological processes that are based on material and energy flows between landscape patches. Therefore, changes in temporal patterns of roads may be regarded as important landscape-level environmental indicators. The aim of this study is to analyze road development and associated agricultural land use change near the town of Erdemli located in the eastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey. The study area has witnessed an unprecedented development of agriculture since the 2000s. This process has resulted with the expansion of the road network. Associations between agricultural expansion and road development were investigated. High-resolution satellite images of 2004 and 2015 were used to analyze spatial and temporal dimensions of change. Satellite images were classified using a binary approach, in which land areas were labeled as either "agriculture" or "non-agriculture." Road networks were digitized manually. The study area was divided into 23 sublandscapes using a regular grid with 1-km cell spacing. Percentage of landscape (PL) for agriculture and road density (RD) metrics were calculated for the earlier (2004) and later (2015) years. Metric calculations were performed separately for each of the 23 sublandscapes in order to understand spatial diversity of agriculture and road density. Study results showed that both RD and PL exhibited similar increasing trends between 2004 and 2015.

  9. Why did the proton cross the road? Humour and science communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riesch, Hauke

    2015-10-01

    The use of humour in public discourse about science has grown remarkably over the past few years, and when used in science communication activities is being seen as a great way to bring science to the public through laughter. However, barely any research has been published either on the often-assumed beneficial learning effects of humour in informal science education, or on the wider social functions and effects of humour about science and how humorous public discourse about science can influence the public understanding of science and the science-society relationship. This research note reviews some of the literature on the psychology and sociology of humour and comedy and tries to apply some of its insights to the effects humour might have when used in science communication. Although not intended to be anti-humour, this note attempts at least to start a more critical conversation on the value of humour in the communication of science. © The Author(s) 2014.

  10. 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...

  11. 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.

  12. Environmental problems attributed due to increased road traffic intensity in Hyderabad city

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Memon, Z.; Ansari, A.K.

    2001-01-01

    Hyderabad is a historical city, so roads are not so wide to cater the present intensity of traffic, hence it is facing transportation problems. No any attempt of traffic management and control has been made in this regard to solve the acute problem of city. Some of the typical problems can be stated as poor driving, encroachments, unsystematic parking on roads, improper road markings and road sings, inadequate road geometry and inadequate control system at intersections etc. This study involves measurement of vehicles flow at five sites of Hyderabad city, and assessment of health hazards on human being due to noise congestion, improper road planning coupled with old city streets converted into roads which are now insufficient for present traffic density, resulting disturbance to pedestrians and dwellers who are living near by road for smooth walk. Motor vehicles, however, play a vital role in the field of public and goods transportation and this survey shows that there are about 726 vehicles operating per hour at the five sites in the city. (author)

  13. Resonance – Journal of Science Education | Indian Academy of ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education; Volume 20; Issue 3 ... Lorenz system; deterministic chaos; unpredictability; Lyapunov exponent; fractals. ... Professor of Physics Dean Graduate Studies Indian Institute of Science Education & Research Dr Homi Bhabha Road Pashan, Pune 411008, India ...

  14. Impact of road traffic accidents on the elderly.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Etehad, H; Yousefzadeh-Chabok, Sh; Davoudi-Kiakalaye, A; Moghadam Dehnadi, A; Hemati, H; Mohtasham-Amiri, Z

    2015-01-01

    Older adults are a vulnerable road user group with high mortality and morbidity in road crash. The aim of this study was to show pattern of road traffic injuries in this special aging group. In a cross sectional study, pre-hospital emergency system reports, hospital and police records of all motor vehicle collisions injured above 60 years old who were admitted to Pour-Sina hospital from April 2011 to March 2012 were studied. Demographic data, characteristic of road traffic incidents and in-hospital medical profiles were derived. Data were analyzed with SPSS ver. 18. Differences between demographic and injuries situation were calculated by chi square test. A p-value of road accident injured. Mean age of them was 70.9 ± 6.7 years. Most of them were male (74.7%). 40.5% were pedestrians, 22.1% were car occupants and 19.1% were motorcyclists.76.7% had multiple trauma. Head and neck were the most prevalent regions of injured. Total in-hospital mortality rate was 10.1% that was higher in old elderly pedestrians and motorcyclists in comparison to young elderly (16.1% vs. 7.9%) and other type of victims (ρroad accident injured. Mean age of them was 70.9 ± 6.7 years. Most of them were male (74.7%). 40.5% were pedestrians, 22.1% were car occupants and 19.1% were motorcyclists.76.7% had multiple trauma. Head and neck were the most prevalent regions of injured. Total in-hospital mortality rate was 10.1% that was higher in old elderly pedestrians and motorcyclists in comparison to young elderly (16.1% vs. 7.9%) and other type of victims (ρroad traffic injuries in this group especially in pedestrians should be taken into consideration and strategies aimed at the road-user safety including periodic medical examination and improvement of road structure and facilities. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

  15. Road infrastructure, spatial spillover and county economic growth

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Zhenhua; Luo, Shuang

    2017-09-01

    This paper analyzes the spatial spillover effect of road infrastructure on the economic growth of poverty-stricken counties, based on the spatial Durbin model, by using the panel data of 37 poor counties in Hunan province from 2006 to 2015. The results showed that there is a significant spatial dependence of economic growth in Poor Counties. Road infrastructure has a positive impact on economic growth, and the results will be overestimated without considering spatial factors. Considering the spatial factors, the road infrastructure will promote the economic growth of the surrounding areas through the spillover effect, but the spillover effect is restricted by the distance factor. Capital investment is the biggest factor of economic growth in poor counties, followed by urbanization, labor force and regional openness.

  16. An evaluation of a supplementary road safety package.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guria, Jagadish; Leung, Joanne

    2004-09-01

    A Supplementary Road Safety Package (SRSP) was developed in New Zealand in 1995/1996 to supplement the compulsory breath test (CBT) and speed camera programmes introduced in 1993. A major feature of the package was the use of emotion and shock advertising campaigns not only to affect high risk driving attitudes and behaviours towards speeding and drink-driving but also to encourage the use of safety belts. Furthermore, the SRSP also emphasised targeting enforcement to these three areas. This package continued for 5 years. This paper estimates the effect of the package on road trauma. The analysis shows that the Package made substantial impact on road safety and saved over 285 lives over the 5-year period. Copyright 2003 Elsevier Ltd.

  17. Road fugitive dust emission characteristics in Beijing during Olympics Game 2008 in Beijing, China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shou-bin, Fan; Gang, Tian; Gang, Li; Yu-hu, Huang; Jian-ping, Qin; Shui-yuan, Cheng

    2009-12-01

    Eighty road dust-fall (DF) monitoring sites and 14 background monitoring sites were established in the Beijing metropolitan area, and monitoring was conducted from January 2006 to December 2008. The dust-fall attributable to roads (ΔDF) showed a clear decline from 2006 to 2008. Dust-fall levels decreased across different road types from freeway > major arterial roads > minor arterial roads > collector roads > background sites. The ΔDF showed declines of 65%, 55%, 65% and 84% respectively for freeways, major arterial, minor arterial and collector roads from August 2007 to August 2008, and declines of 77%, 76%, 82% and 82% between August 2006 and August 2008. The ΔDF declined by 80%, 79%, 82% and 69% for freeways, major arterial, minor arterial and collector roads respectively between September 2007 and September 2008, and declined by 84%, 88%, 80% and 81% between September 2006 and September 2008. Eighty samples were collected in August 2007 and August 2008 and analyzed for silt loading. PM 10 emission factors and emission strengths were calculated using the AP-42 model. The silt loading reduced by 77%, 35%, 61%, 59% and 75% for freeways, major arterial, minor arterial, collector and local roads respectively. The PM 10 emission factors were reduced by 57%, 15%, 36%, 51% and 61% and the PM 10 emission strength declined by 70%, 40%, 55%, 65% and 72% for freeways, major arterial, minor arterial, collector and local roads respectively between August 2007 and August 2008. The decline is consistent with the reduction in road dust-fall.

  18. Rumblings and Rainfall, Rebels, Remittances and Roads- The complex landscape of slope failure in Nepal

    Science.gov (United States)

    McAdoo, Brian G.; Sudmeier, Karen; Devkota, Sanjaya

    2017-04-01

    During the first monsoon season following the deadly 2015 Gorkha earthquake, 27 people were killed during two events in Nepal's Western Region due to debris flows triggered by a 24-hour, 315 mm cloudburst (Devkota et al. 2015). Both events were linked with roads: the first was caused by an accumulation of water on a newly constructed road above a steep, deforested slope, the second wiped out a major road and destroyed 10 houses. These deadly landslides were not triggered solely by extreme rainfall, but rather a complex combination of earthquakes, intensified rainfall associated with climate change and an explosion of unplanned rural road construction fueled by an increase in foreign investment, remittances and decentralisation of budgets and power from the central government to local villages. This complexity is explored through a trend data analysis on the number of landslides, landslide fatalities, rainfall intensity, and the road network in Nepal between 1980-2014 (McAdoo et al, submitted). Of most concern are the poorly constructed roads in Nepal's Middle Hill districts ( 1000-3000 m above sea level, humid, subtropical) as they are proliferating at an unprecedented pace without proper alignment, drainage, grading or maintenance. They are occurring in areas which frequently receive up to 4,000-5,000 mm of precipitation per year, causing considerable loss in lives, livelihoods and investment. Landslide fatalities increased from 88 on average for the period 1982-1995 to 130 deaths per year for the period 2007-2014 (Desinventar, 2016). Contrary to numerous studies which show a strong link between rainfall and landslides, our trend analysis demonstrates a decoupling of climate and the geomorphic drivers, pointing to other factors, namely the exponential road construction trend to explain the increase in landslide fatalities. Nepal has some of the oldest manuals and well-trained cadres in low-cost green engineering practices, yet these are rarely applied. To reverse

  19. 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

  20. 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...

  1. 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)

  2. 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

  3. 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.

  4. 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

  5. 76 FR 26607 - Safety Zone; Air Power Over Hampton Roads, Back River, Hampton, VA

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-05-09

    ...-AA00 Safety Zone; Air Power Over Hampton Roads, Back River, Hampton, VA AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS... the safety of life on navigable waters during the Air Power Over Hampton Roads Air Show. This action... Division Chief, Sector Hampton Roads, Coast Guard; telephone 757-668- 5581, e-mail [email protected

  6. Road networks as collections of minimum cost paths

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wegner, Jan Dirk; Montoya-Zegarra, Javier Alexander; Schindler, Konrad

    2015-10-01

    We present a probabilistic representation of network structures in images. Our target application is the extraction of urban roads from aerial images. Roads appear as thin, elongated, partially curved structures forming a loopy graph, and this complex layout requires a prior that goes beyond standard smoothness and co-occurrence assumptions. In the proposed model the network is represented as a union of 1D paths connecting distant (super-)pixels. A large set of putative candidate paths is constructed in such a way that they include the true network as much as possible, by searching for minimum cost paths in the foreground (road) likelihood. Selecting the optimal subset of candidate paths is posed as MAP inference in a higher-order conditional random field. Each path forms a higher-order clique with a type of clique potential, which attracts the member nodes of cliques with high cumulative road evidence to the foreground label. That formulation induces a robust PN -Potts model, for which a global MAP solution can be found efficiently with graph cuts. Experiments with two road data sets show that the proposed model significantly improves per-pixel accuracies as well as the overall topological network quality with respect to several baselines.

  7. Fellowship | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Radhakrishnan, Prof. Jaikumar Ph.D. (Rutgers), FNA. Date of birth: 30 May 1964. Specialization: Algorithms, Information Theory, Computational Complexity, Combinatorics and Quantum Computing Address: Professor, School of Technology & Computer Science, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, ...

  8. Belt, Road, and Circle: The Arctic and Northern Europe in China's Belt and Road Initiative

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nørup Sørensen, Camilla Tenna

    2018-01-01

    Sørensen offers a much-needed analysis of the how the development of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) links to China’s growing interests and ambitions in the Arctic showing how China is using the BRI to further intensify and strengthen relations with the Nordic countries in the Arctic. Conducting...

  9. 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...

  10. Spatiotemporal responses of dengue fever transmission to the road network in an urban area.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Qiaoxuan; Cao, Wei; Ren, Hongyan; Ji, Zhonglin; Jiang, Huixian

    2018-07-01

    Urbanization is one of the important factors leading to the spread of dengue fever. Recently, some studies found that the road network as an urbanization factor affects the distribution and spread of dengue epidemic, but the study of relationship between the distribution of dengue epidemic and road network is limited, especially in highly urbanized areas. This study explores the temporal and spatial spread characteristics of dengue fever in the distribution of road network by observing a dengue epidemic in the southern Chinese cities. Geographic information technology is used to extract the spatial location of cases and explore the temporal and spatial changes of dengue epidemic and its spatial relationship with road network. The results showed that there was a significant "severe" period in the temporal change of dengue epidemic situation, and the cases were mainly concentrated in the vicinity of narrow roads, the spread of the epidemic mainly along the high-density road network area. These results show that high-density road network is an important factor to the direction and scale of dengue epidemic. This information may be helpful to the development of related epidemic prevention and control strategies. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  11. 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.

  12. 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

  13. A cross-cultural comparison of high school students' responses to a science centre show on the physics of sound in South Africa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fish, Derek; Allie, Saalih; Pelaez, Nancy; Anderson, Trevor

    2017-10-01

    We report on the attitudes and ideas developed by students from three distinct school groups to a science show about sound. We addressed two research questions: (1) How do the students compare with respect to their (a) attitudes to the sound show and to science in general and (b) changes in conceptual understanding as a result of the show and (2) what changes could be made to the show, and to science shows in general, that would be sensitive to the cultural and language differences of the groups? These were addressed by multiple-choice, pre- and post-tests comprising both attitudinal and conceptual questions. Our results pointed to a common enjoyment of the show but a different understanding of concepts and consequent learning, which suggest that science shows (and science teaching) need to be adjusted to accommodate different cultural groups for maximum impact.

  14. 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...

  15. 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

  16. The Kepler Science Data Processing Pipeline Source Code Road Map

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wohler, Bill; Jenkins, Jon M.; Twicken, Joseph D.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Clarke, Bruce Donald; Middour, Christopher K.; Quintana, Elisa Victoria; Sanderfer, Jesse Thomas; Uddin, Akm Kamal; Sabale, Anima; hide

    2016-01-01

    We give an overview of the operational concepts and architecture of the Kepler Science Processing Pipeline. Designed, developed, operated, and maintained by the Kepler Science Operations Center (SOC) at NASA Ames Research Center, the Science Processing Pipeline is a central element of the Kepler Ground Data System. The SOC consists of an office at Ames Research Center, software development and operations departments, and a data center which hosts the computers required to perform data analysis. The SOC's charter is to analyze stellar photometric data from the Kepler spacecraft and report results to the Kepler Science Office for further analysis. We describe how this is accomplished via the Kepler Science Processing Pipeline, including, the software algorithms. We present the high-performance, parallel computing software modules of the pipeline that perform transit photometry, pixel-level calibration, systematic error correction, attitude determination, stellar target management, and instrument characterization.

  17. 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

  18. 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.

  19. 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...

  20. The science of vehicle dynamics handling, braking, and ride of road and race cars

    CERN Document Server

    Guiggiani, Massimo

    2014-01-01

    Vehicle dynamics is often perceived as a quite intuitive subject. As a matter of fact, lots of people are able to drive a car. Nevertheless, without a rigorous mathematical formulation it is very difficult to truly understand the physical phenomena involved in the motion of a road vehicle. In this book, mathematical models of vehicles are developed, always paying attention to state the relevant assumptions and to provide explanations for each step. This approach allows for a deep, yet simple, analysis of the dynamics of vehicles, without having to resort to foggy concepts. The reader will soon achieve a clear understanding of the subject, which will be of great help both in dealing with the challenges of designing and testing new vehicles and in tackling new research topics. The book covers handling and performance of both road and race cars. A new approach, called MAP (Map of Achievable Performance), is presented and thoroughly discussed. It provides a global and intuitive picture of the handling features of...

  1. 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.

  2. [Road safety measures and their effects on traffic injuries: a systematic review].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aguilera, Sandra Lúcia Vieira Ulinski; Moysés, Simone Tetú; Moysés, Samuel Jorge

    2014-10-01

    To identify and summarize the findings of studies describing interventions aimed at reducing road traffic injuries. An integrative systematic review without meta-analysis was performed. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) were used to synthesize the findings of the articles reviewed. The keywords "traffic accidents", "review" and "public policy" were used in isolation or combined with boolean operator "And" to search PubMed, Web of Science, SciELO, and LILACS for the period between 2006 and 2011 RESULTS: Twenty-two studies were included in the systematic review. Of these, two described engineering strategies, two described other road safety policies, three described education strategies, and 15 described law enforcement policies. Law enforcement had the most effective immediate results. Engineering strategies proved important to promote a safe environment. Finally, education strategies had an informative role and served to support other strategies, but did not seem sufficient to promote cultural changes regarding road safety. Law enforcement seems to be the most effective strategy to change the behavior of drivers, especially regarding speed limits and drinking and driving.

  3. Communication's Role in Safety Management and Performance for the Road Safety Practices

    OpenAIRE

    Salim Keffane (s)

    2014-01-01

    Communication among organizations could play an important role in increasing road safety. To get in-depth knowledge of its role, this study measured managers' and employees' perceptions of the communication's role on six safety management and performance criteria for road safety practices by conducting a survey using a questionnaire among 165 employees and 135 managers. Path analysis using AMOS-19 software shows that some of the safety management road safety practices have high correlation wi...

  4. Evaluating the Influence of Road Lighting on Traffic Safety at Accesses Using An Artificial Neural Network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Yueru; Ye, Zhirui; Wang, Yuan; Wang, Chao; Sun, Cuicui

    2018-05-18

    This paper focuses on the effect of road lighting on road safety at accesses and tries to quantitatively analyze the relationship between road lighting and road safety. An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was applied in this study. This method is one of the most popular machine-learning methods in recent years and does not require any pre-defined assumptions. This method was applied using field data collected from ten road segments in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China. The results show that the impact of road lighting on road safety at accesses is significant. In addition, road lighting has greater influence when vehicle speeds are higher or the number of lanes is larger. A threshold illuminance was also found in this paper, and the results show that the safety level at accesses will become stable when reaching this value. The improvement of illuminance can decrease the speed variation among vehicles and improve the safety level. In addition, high-grade roads need better illuminance at accesses. A threshold value can also be obtained based on related variables and used to develop scientific guidelines for traffic management organizations.

  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. Estimating under-reporting of road crash injuries to police using multiple linked data collections.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watson, Angela; Watson, Barry; Vallmuur, Kirsten

    2015-10-01

    The reliance on police data for the counting of road crash injuries can be problematic, as it is well known that not all road crash injuries are reported to police which under-estimates the overall burden of road crash injuries. The aim of this study was to use multiple linked data sources to estimate the extent of under-reporting of road crash injuries to police in the Australian state of Queensland. Data from the Queensland Road Crash Database (QRCD), the Queensland Hospital Admitted Patients Data Collection (QHAPDC), Emergency Department Information System (EDIS), and the Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit (QISU) for the year 2009 were linked. The completeness of road crash cases reported to police was examined via discordance rates between the police data (QRCD) and the hospital data collections. In addition, the potential bias of this discordance (under-reporting) was assessed based on gender, age, road user group, and regional location. Results showed that the level of under-reporting varied depending on the data set with which the police data was compared. When all hospital data collections are examined together the estimated population of road crash injuries was approximately 28,000, with around two-thirds not linking to any record in the police data. The results also showed that the under-reporting was more likely for motorcyclists, cyclists, males, young people, and injuries occurring in Remote and Inner Regional areas. These results have important implications for road safety research and policy in terms of: prioritising funding and resources; targeting road safety interventions into areas of higher risk; and estimating the burden of road crash injuries. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Influence of solid noise barriers on near-road and on-road air quality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baldauf, Richard W.; Isakov, Vlad; Deshmukh, Parikshit; Venkatram, Akula; Yang, Bo; Zhang, K. Max

    2016-03-01

    Public health concerns regarding adverse health effects for populations spending significant amounts of time near high traffic roadways has increased substantially in recent years. Roadside features, including solid noise barriers, have been investigated as potential methods that can be implemented in a relatively short time period to reduce air pollution exposures from nearby traffic. A field study was conducted to determine the influence of noise barriers on both on-road and downwind pollutant concentrations near a large highway in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, ultrafine particles, and black carbon were measured using a mobile platform and fixed sites along two limited-access stretches of highway that contained a section of noise barrier and a section with no noise barrier at-grade with the surrounding terrain. Results of the study showed that pollutant concentrations behind the roadside barriers were significantly lower relative to those measured in the absence of barriers. The reductions ranged from 50% within 50 m from the barrier to about 30% as far as 300 m from the barrier. Reductions in pollutant concentrations generally began within the first 50 m of the barrier edge; however, concentrations were highly variable due to vehicle activity behind the barrier and along nearby urban arterial roadways. The concentrations on the highway, upwind of the barrier, varied depending on wind direction. Overall, the on-road concentrations in front of the noise barrier were similar to those measured in the absence of the barrier, contradicting previous modeling results that suggested roadside barriers increase pollutant levels on the road. Thus, this study suggests that noise barriers do reduce potential pollutant exposures for populations downwind of the road, and do not likely increase exposures to traffic-related pollutants for vehicle passengers on the highway.

  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. VIRMS: A VEHICLE INFORMATION AND ROAD MONITORING SYSTEM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fabio Arnéz

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS are emerging technologies for building collaborative vehicular networks to increase road safety and to improve driver’s experience. Unfortunately these technologies require heavy infrastructure to be deployed inside and outside the vehicle that is difficult to extend. In this article we present VIRMS (Vehicle Information and Road Monitoring System, an ITS that is based on low-cost and small footprint client and server infrastructure that was designed to increase vehicular security and reduce accident rates along highways. The VIRMS remote client device is an on board vehicle electronic device that gathers data from sensors and processes the collected data that is sent to the VIRMS server in order to keep drivers informed with precise context information through the detection and identification of events (accidents, traffic jams, bad weather conditions, etc. along the roads. A prototype running tests on Bolivian highways show that VIRMS can give a technological answer to a real problem where road safety is one of the highest issues and cause of mortality.

  12. 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...

  13. Spatio-temporal Variations in on-road CO2 Emissions in the Los Angeles Megacity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Preeti Rao

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available We quantify hourly on-road fossil fuel carbon dioxide (FFCO2 emissions at the road segment level for the Los Angeles (LA megacity based on observed traffic data, and characterize emission patterns across space and time. This on-road FFCO2 emissions dataset for LA (from Hestia version 1.0, based on actual traffic volume, provides emissions per vehicle kilometer travelled (VKT—an important metric for greenhouse gas (GHG reductions. We further identify emissions hotpots that can help state and local policy makers plan the most effective GHG reduction strategies. On-road vehicle traffic accounts for half of the FFCO2 emissions in LA, of which 41% is from arterials (intermediate road type. Arterials also have the largest C emissions intensity—FFCO2 per VKT—possibly from high traffic congestion and fleet composition. Non-interstate emissions hotspots (> 419 tC lane-km-1 are equally dominated by arterials and collectors (the lowest road type in terms of FFCO2 emissions though collectors have a higher VKT. These hotspots occur in densely populated areas and developed landuse classes, largely in LA (67% and Orange (18% counties, and provide specific targets for emissions reduction efforts. The estimated uncertainties for interstate, arterial and collector emissions per road length are ± 2.1, ± 0.5 and ± 18.0%, respectively. Our overall estimates compare reasonably well with other products, DARTE and FIVE but with substantial differences in spatial distribution. The method for developing this dataset is easily replicable in other urban landscapes, and represents a powerful tool for carbon cycle science and regional policy makers.

  14. Environmental Management Model for Road Maintenance Operation Involving Community Participation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Triyono, A. R. H.; Setyawan, A.; Sobriyah; Setiono, P.

    2017-07-01

    Public expectations of Central Java, which is very high on demand fulfillment, especially road infrastructure as outlined in the number of complaints and community expectations tweeter, Short Mail Massage (SMS), e-mail and public reports from various media, Highways Department of Central Java province requires development model of environmental management in the implementation of a routine way by involving the community in order to fulfill the conditions of a representative, may serve road users safely and comfortably. This study used survey method with SEM analysis and SWOT with Latent Independent Variable (X), namely; Public Participation in the regulation, development, construction and supervision of road (PSM); Public behavior in the utilization of the road (PMJ) Provincial Road Service (PJP); Safety in the Provincial Road (KJP); Integrated Management System (SMT) and latent dependent variable (Y) routine maintenance of the provincial road that is integrated with the environmental management system and involve the participation of the community (MML). The result showed the implementation of routine maintenance of road conditions in Central Java province has yet to implement an environmental management by involving the community; Therefore developed environmental management model with the results of H1: Community Participation (PSM) has positive influence on the Model of Environmental Management (MML); H2: Behavior Society in Jalan Utilization (PMJ) positive effect on Model Environmental Management (MML); H3: Provincial Road Service (PJP) positive effect on Model Environmental Management (MML); H4: Safety in the Provincial Road (KJP) positive effect on Model Environmental Management (MML); H5: Integrated Management System (SMT) has positive influence on the Model of Environmental Management (MML). From the analysis obtained formulation model describing the relationship / influence of the independent variables PSM, PMJ, PJP, KJP, and SMT on the dependent variable

  15. 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.

  16. Resonance – Journal of Science Education | Indian Academy of ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education; Volume 1; Issue 1. Algorithms Introduction to Algorithms. R K Shyamasundar. Series Article Volume 1 ... Author Affiliations. R K Shyamasundar1. Computer Science Group, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Bombay 400 005, India.

  17. 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.

  18. Risk Factors Associated with Crash Severity on Low-Volume Rural Roads in Denmark

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Prato, Carlo Giacomo; Rasmussen, Thomas Kjær; Kaplan, Sigal

    2014-01-01

    Safety on low-volume rural roads is drawing attention due to the high fatality and severe injury rates in comparison with high-volume roads and the increasing awareness of sustainable rural development among policy makers. This study analyzes the risk factors associated with crash severity on low......-volume rural roads, including crash characteristics, driver attributes and behavior, vehicle type, road features, environmental conditions, distance from the nearest hospital, and zone rurality degree. The data consist of a set of crashes occurred on low-volume rural roads in Denmark between 2007 and 2011...... advantage in accommodating the ordered-response nature of severity while relaxing the proportional odds assumption. Model estimates and pseudoelasticities show that aggravated crash injury severity is significantly associated with (1) alcohol and failure to wear seatbelts, (2) involvement of vulnerable road...

  19. 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

  20. Assessment of rockfall risk along roads

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. Budetta

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper contains a method for the analysis of rockfall risk along roads and motorways. The method is derived from the Rockfall Hazard Rating System (RHRS developed by Pierson et al. (1990 at the Oregon State Highway Division. The RHRS provides a rational way to make informed decisions on where and how to spend construction funds. Exponential scoring functions are used to represent the increases, respectively, in hazard and in vulnerability that are reflected in the nine categories forming the classification. The resulting total score contains the essential elements regarding the evaluation of the degree of the exposition to the risk along roads. In the modified method, the ratings for the categories 'ditch effectiveness', 'geologic characteristic', 'volume of rockfall/block size', 'climate and water circulation' and 'rockfall history' have been rendered more easy and objective. The main modifications regard the introduction of Slope Mass Rating by Romana (1985, 1988, 1991 improving the estimate of the geologic characteristics, of the volume of the potentially unstable blocks and the underground water circulation. Other modifications regard the scoring for the categories 'decision sight distance' and 'road geometry'. For these categories, the Italian National Council's standards (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - CNR have been used (CNR, 1980. The method must be applied in both the traffic directions because the percentage of reduction in the decision sight distance greatly affects the results. An application of the modified method to a 2km long section of the Sorrentine road (no 145 in Southern Italy was developed. A high traffic intensity affects the entire section of the road and rockfalls periodically cause casualties, as well as a large amount of damage and traffic interruptions. The method was applied to seven cross sections of slopes adjacent to the Sorrentine road. For these slopes, the analysis shows that the risk is

  1. Identification of Hazardous Road Locations on the basis of Floating Car Data

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Agerholm, Niels; Lahrmann, Harry

    2012-01-01

    A central aspect of road safety work relies on identification of hazardous road locations (HRL). However, the said identification is based on police-reported accidents, which show massive underreporting. Thus, in Denmark, only 14% of the serious injury accidents were reported in 2007...

  2. 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...

  3. 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...

  4. 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...

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. 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:.

  10. Survey on Road-Tyre Contact Patch Pattern and Wear Related Aspects

    OpenAIRE

    Azodo Adinife Patrick

    2017-01-01

    Motor vehicle end-users approaches to tyre safety issues in automobiles translate to a number of tyre failure risk factors. This study basically assessed tread wear pattern of tyres in passenger cars used on Nigeria roads. The result obtained showed that 75.4% of the assessed tyres showed uneven wear pattern resulting from incorrect tyre-road contact effects. This observed high proportion of uneven tyre tread wear pattern implies high rate of inconsequential regard for tyre safety.

  11. Studying the Effect of Roughness of Wet Road on Critical speed of Vehicle

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ali K. Mohammed

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Hydroplaning is one the most dangerous phenomena which effect on the safety of driving cars on wet roads, then, the critical speed of slipping cars is an important parameter in the hydroplaning ,and depends on the properties of  the following three  parameters: tires, water layer and  road surface. The road texture is the main property of road specifications which affect directly on the critical speed of the vehicle. In the present work, the properties of road roughness and influence of surface texture on critical speed of vehicle are studied with variation of the following parameters: thickness and dynamic viscosity of water on the road surface and the vehicle load. The results showed that increasing the road surface roughness and the vehicle load both has a appositive influence on the critical speed (increaseof the vehicle, while increasing the dynamic viscosity and thickness of the water layer on the road surface has a negative influence on the critical speed (decrease of the vehicle. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25130/tjes.24.2017.24

  12. Associateship | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    ... of birth: 6 June 1951. Specialization: Finite Element Analysis of Structures Address during Associateship: Structures Division, National Aerospace Laboratories, Airport Road, Bengaluru 560 017 ... The Annual Meeting scheduled during 4 to 6 November 2016 at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal.

  13. Fellowship | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Home; Fellowship. Fellow Profile. Elected: 1966 Section: Engineering & Technology. Narasimhan, Prof. Rangaswamy M.S. (Caltech), Ph.D. (Indiana), FNA, FNASc. Date of birth: 17 April 1926. Specialization: Computer Sciences Last known address: CMC Limited, KHR House, 11/2, Palace Road, Bengaluru 560 052.

  14. 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...

  15. Enzyme based soil stabilization for unpaved road construction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Renjith Rintu

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Enzymes as soil stabilizers have been successfully used in road construction in several countries for the past 30 years. However, research has shown that the successful application of these enzymes is case specific, emphasizing that enzyme performance is dependent on subgrade soil type, condition and the type of enzyme used as the stabilizer. A universal standard or a tool for road engineers to assess the performance of stabilized unbound pavements using well-established enzymes is not available to date. The research aims to produce a validated assessment tool which can be used to predict strength enhancement within a generalized statistical framework. The objective of the present study is to identify new materials for developing the assessment tool which supports enzyme based stabilization, as well as to identify the correct construction sequence for such new materials. A series of characterization tests were conducted on several soil types obtained from proposed construction sites. Having identified the suitable soil type to mix with the enzyme, a trial road construction has been performed to investigate the efficiency of the enzyme stabilization along with the correct construction sequence. The enzyme stabilization has showed significant improvement of the road performance as was evidenced from the test results which were based on site soil obtained before and after stabilization. The research will substantially benefit the road construction industry by not only replacing traditional construction methods with economical/reliable approaches, but also eliminating site specific tests required in current practice of enzyme based road construction.

  16. Perception and Practice of Road Safety among Medical Students, Mansoura, Egypt.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Helal, Randah; El-Khawaga, Ghada; El-Gilany, Abdel-Hady

    2018-01-01

    To assess the knowledge and attitude of medical students towards road safety and to determine their driving behavior and its relation to different related factors. This cross-sectional study involved 480 medical students at Mansoura University, Egypt. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect student personal data, knowledge about road safety, attitude towards road safety, and driving practices. More than 40% of students experienced an injury in the previous year, mainly as a pedestrian (56%), and 15.2% practiced driving, although only 9.6% had a driving licence. Most of the students had correct road safety knowledge except for awareness that the safe time to read maps is when your vehicle is parked (44%), one should drive in the left lane (29.6%), and one should overtake from the right-hand lane only (25.8%). The majority of the students reported that road traffic injuries can be prevented (89.2%). The mean score of the driving practices of the students ranged from 0.66±1.04 to 2.44±6.28 and rural residents showed significantly higher score regarding errors and lapses. Good road safety knowledge and a favorable, low risk attitude, did not translate into improved road traffic behavior and this highlights the importance of stricter implementation of the existing rules and including road safety in medical education programs.

  17. 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.

  18. 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.

  19. 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.

  20. 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...

  1. 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.

  2. 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...

  3. Road safety development in Europe: a decade of changes (2001-2010).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shen, Yongjun; Hermans, Elke; Bao, Qiong; Brijs, Tom; Wets, Geert

    2013-11-01

    To evaluate the road safety development of a country over time, the percentage change in the number of road fatalities is traditionally the main indicator. However, simply considering the reduction in the road fatalities may not correctly reflect the real improvement in road safety because the transport circumstances of a country underlying the road fatalities also change every year. In this study, we present a new way for measuring the road safety performance change over time, which is to use the technique of data envelopment analysis (DEA) and the Malmquist productivity index. In doing so, we can not only focus on the evolution of road safety final outcomes within a given period, but also take the changes of different measures of exposure in the same period into account. In the application, the DEA-based Malmquist productivity index (DEA-MI) is used to measure the extent to which the EU countries have improved their road safety performance over the period 2001-2010. More objective and insightful results are obtained compared to the ones based on the traditional indicator. The results show considerable road safety progress in most of the Member States during these ten years, and the fatality risk rather than the fatality number on Europe's roads has actually been reduced by approximately half. However, the situation differed considerably from country to country. The decomposition of the DEA-MI into 'efficiency change' and 'technical change' further reveals that the bulk of the improvement during the last decade was attained through the adoption of productivity-enhancing new technologies throughout the road transport sector in Europe, rather than through the relatively underperforming countries catching up with those best-performing ones. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Technology Roadmap: Fuel Economy of Road Vehicles

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2012-07-01

    This roadmap explores the potential improvement of existing technologies to enhance the average fuel economy of motorised vehicles; the roadmap’s vision is to achieve a 30% to 50% reduction in fuel use per kilometre from new road vehicles including 2-wheelers, LDV s and HDV s) around the world in 2030, and from the stock of all vehicles on the road by 2050. This achievement would contribute to significant reductions in GHG emissions and oil use, compared to a baseline projection. Different motorised modes are treated separately, with a focus on LDV s, HDV s and powered two-wheelers. A section on in-use fuel economy also addresses technical and nontechnical parameters that could allow fuel economy to drastically improve over the next decades. Technology cost analysis and payback time show that significant progress can be made with low or negative cost for fuel-efficient vehicles over their lifetime use. Even though the latest data analysed by the IEA for fuel economy between 2005 and 2008 showed that a gap exists in achieving the roadmap’s vision, cutting the average fuel economy of road motorised vehicles by 30% to 50% by 2030 is achievable, and the policies and technologies that could help meet this challenge are already deployed in many places around the world.

  5. FACTORS AFFECTING ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS IN BENGHAZI, LIBYA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Al-Ghaweel, Ibrahim; Mursi, Saleh A.; Jack, Joel P.; Joel, Irene

    2009-01-01

    Objectives: The aim of the study was to evaluate the factors responsible for road traffic accidents in Benghazi. Material and Methods: Retrospective and descriptive studies were done in the years 2006-2007. The data was collected from Traffic and License Department, Benghazi. The data were analyzed, based on fatalities, the severely handicapped, hit and run victims and were correlated with age, sex, time, environmental factors, type of roads, etc. Results: One-Thousand-Two-Hundred-Sixty-Five accidents occurred between the years 2006-2007 within the Benghazi city limits; 11.14% of the injuries were fatal; 67.35% of the victims had severe injuries and 21.51% escaped with minor injuries. Table 1 shows that 73.04% lost their lives within the city limits, 13.47% on the fly-over, and 2.12% on minor roads connected to main roads within the city limits. The mean of the accidents and its standard deviation were 16.66± 25.67 with a variance of fatality of 1.54. Conclusion: It is concluded from the studies that major road traffic accidents occur because of environmental stress factors. In addition, fatalities and the seriousness of the accidents depend on a number of factors such as the age of the vehicle, safety measures, human error and time and place of accident. PMID:23012183

  6. A FAST AND ROBUST ALGORITHM FOR ROAD EDGES EXTRACTION FROM LIDAR DATA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. Qiu

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Fast mapping of roads plays an important role in many geospatial applications, such as infrastructure planning, traffic monitoring, and driver assistance. How to extract various road edges fast and robustly is a challenging task. In this paper, we present a fast and robust algorithm for the automatic road edges extraction from terrestrial mobile LiDAR data. The algorithm is based on a key observation: most roads around edges have difference in elevation and road edges with pavement are seen in two different planes. In our algorithm, we firstly extract a rough plane based on RANSAC algorithm, and then multiple refined planes which only contains pavement are extracted from the rough plane. The road edges are extracted based on these refined planes. In practice, there is a serious problem that the rough and refined planes usually extracted badly due to rough roads and different density of point cloud. To eliminate the influence of rough roads, the technology which is similar with the difference of DSM (digital surface model and DTM (digital terrain model is used, and we also propose a method which adjust the point clouds to a similar density to eliminate the influence of different density. Experiments show the validities of the proposed method with multiple datasets (e.g. urban road, highway, and some rural road. We use the same parameters through the experiments and our algorithm can achieve real-time processing speeds.

  7. 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

  8. Social costs of road crashes: An international analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wijnen, Wim; Stipdonk, Henk

    2016-09-01

    This paper provides an international overview of the most recent estimates of the social costs of road crashes: total costs, value per casualty and breakdown in cost components. The analysis is based on publications about the national costs of road crashes of 17 countries, of which ten high income countries (HICs) and seven low and middle income countries (LMICs). Costs are expressed as a proportion of the gross domestic product (GDP). Differences between countries are described and explained. These are partly a consequence of differences in the road safety level, but there are also methodological explanations. Countries may or may not correct for underreporting of road crashes, they may or may not use the internationally recommended willingness to pay (WTP)-method for estimating human costs, and there are methodological differences regarding the calculation of some other cost components. The analysis shows that the social costs of road crashes in HICs range from 0.5% to 6.0% of the GDP with an average of 2.7%. Excluding countries that do not use a WTP- method for estimating human costs and countries that do not correct for underreporting, results in average costs of 3.3% of GDP. For LMICs that do correct for underreporting the share in GDP ranges from 1.1% to 2.9%. However, none of the LMICs included has performed a WTP study of the human costs. A major part of the costs is related to injuries: an average share of 50% for both HICs and LMICs. The average share of fatalities in the costs is 23% and 30% respectively. Prevention of injuries is thus important to bring down the socio-economic burden of road crashes. The paper shows that there are methodological differences between countries regarding cost components that are taken into account and regarding the methods used to estimate specific cost components. In order to be able to make sound comparisons of the costs of road crashes across countries, (further) harmonization of cost studies is recommended. This can be

  9. Learning from the crowd: Road infrastructure monitoring system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Johannes Masino

    2017-10-01

    To address this problem, the methods to collect training data automatically for new vehicles based on the comparison of trajectories of untrained and trained vehicles have been developed. The results show that the method based on a k-dimensional tree and Euclidean distance performs best and is robust in transferring the information of the road surface from one vehicle to another. Furthermore, this method offers the possibility to merge the output and road infrastructure information from multiple vehicles to enable a more robust and precise prediction of the ground truth.

  10. 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

  11. Survey on Road-Tyre Contact Patch Pattern and Wear Related Aspects

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Azodo Adinife Patrick

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Motor vehicle end-users approaches to tyre safety issues in automobiles translate to a number of tyre failure risk factors. This study basically assessed tread wear pattern of tyres in passenger cars used on Nigeria roads. The result obtained showed that 75.4% of the assessed tyres showed uneven wear pattern resulting from incorrect tyre-road contact effects. This observed high proportion of uneven tyre tread wear pattern implies high rate of inconsequential regard for tyre safety.

  12. 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.

  13. 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.

  14. A New Approach to Urban Road Extraction Using High-Resolution Aerial Image

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jianhua Wang

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Road information is fundamental not only in the military field but also common daily living. Automatic road extraction from a remote sensing images can provide references for city planning as well as transportation database and map updating. However, owing to the spectral similarity between roads and impervious structures, the current methods solely using spectral characteristics are often ineffective. By contrast, the detailed information discernible from the high-resolution aerial images enables road extraction with spatial texture features. In this study, a knowledge-based method is established and proposed; this method incorporates the spatial texture feature into urban road extraction. The spatial texture feature is initially extracted by the local Moran’s I, and the derived texture is added to the spectral bands of image for image segmentation. Subsequently, features like brightness, standard deviation, rectangularity, aspect ratio, and area are selected to form the hypothesis and verification model based on road knowledge. Finally, roads are extracted by applying the hypothesis and verification model and are post-processed based on the mathematical morphology. The newly proposed method is evaluated by conducting two experiments. Results show that the completeness, correctness, and quality of the results could reach approximately 94%, 90% and 86% respectively, indicating that the proposed method is effective for urban road extraction.

  15. A Method for Extracting Road Boundary Information from Crowdsourcing Vehicle GPS Trajectories.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Wei; Ai, Tinghua; Lu, Wei

    2018-04-19

    Crowdsourcing trajectory data is an important approach for accessing and updating road information. In this paper, we present a novel approach for extracting road boundary information from crowdsourcing vehicle traces based on Delaunay triangulation (DT). First, an optimization and interpolation method is proposed to filter abnormal trace segments from raw global positioning system (GPS) traces and interpolate the optimization segments adaptively to ensure there are enough tracking points. Second, constructing the DT and the Voronoi diagram within interpolated tracking lines to calculate road boundary descriptors using the area of Voronoi cell and the length of triangle edge. Then, the road boundary detection model is established integrating the boundary descriptors and trajectory movement features (e.g., direction) by DT. Third, using the boundary detection model to detect road boundary from the DT constructed by trajectory lines, and a regional growing method based on seed polygons is proposed to extract the road boundary. Experiments were conducted using the GPS traces of taxis in Beijing, China, and the results show that the proposed method is suitable for extracting the road boundary from low-frequency GPS traces, multi-type road structures, and different time intervals. Compared with two existing methods, the automatically extracted boundary information was proved to be of higher quality.

  16. A Method for Extracting Road Boundary Information from Crowdsourcing Vehicle GPS Trajectories

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wei Yang

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Crowdsourcing trajectory data is an important approach for accessing and updating road information. In this paper, we present a novel approach for extracting road boundary information from crowdsourcing vehicle traces based on Delaunay triangulation (DT. First, an optimization and interpolation method is proposed to filter abnormal trace segments from raw global positioning system (GPS traces and interpolate the optimization segments adaptively to ensure there are enough tracking points. Second, constructing the DT and the Voronoi diagram within interpolated tracking lines to calculate road boundary descriptors using the area of Voronoi cell and the length of triangle edge. Then, the road boundary detection model is established integrating the boundary descriptors and trajectory movement features (e.g., direction by DT. Third, using the boundary detection model to detect road boundary from the DT constructed by trajectory lines, and a regional growing method based on seed polygons is proposed to extract the road boundary. Experiments were conducted using the GPS traces of taxis in Beijing, China, and the results show that the proposed method is suitable for extracting the road boundary from low-frequency GPS traces, multi-type road structures, and different time intervals. Compared with two existing methods, the automatically extracted boundary information was proved to be of higher quality.

  17. [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.

  18. DMPD: Interferon gene regulation: not all roads lead to Tolls. [Dynamic Macrophage Pathway CSML Database

    Lifescience Database Archive (English)

    Full Text Available 16095970 Interferon gene regulation: not all roads lead to Tolls. Jefferies CA, Fit...zgerald KA. Trends Mol Med. 2005 Sep;11(9):403-11. (.png) (.svg) (.html) (.csml) Show Interferon gene regulation: not all roads... lead to Tolls. PubmedID 16095970 Title Interferon gene regulation: not all roads lead to

  19. Instrumentation and control and human machine interface science and technology road-map in support of advanced reactors and fuel programs in the U.S

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miller, D. W.; Arndt, S. A.; Bond, L. J.; Dudenhoeffer, D.; Hallbert, B.; Holcomb, D. E.; Wood, R. T.; Naser, J. A.; O'Hara, J.; Quinn, E. L.

    2006-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the current status of the Instrumentation, Control and Human Machine Interface (ICHMI) Science and Technology road-map being developed to address the major challenges in this technical area for the Gen IV and other U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) initiatives that support future deployments of nuclear energy systems. Reliable, capable ICHMI systems will be necessary for the advanced nuclear plants to be economically competitive. ICHMI enables measurement, control, protection, monitoring, and maintenance for processes and components. Through improvements in the technologies and demonstration of their use to facilitate licensing, ICHMI can contribute to the reduction of plant operations and maintenance costs while helping to ensure high plant availability. The impact of ICHMI can be achieved through effective use of the technologies to improve operational efficiency and optimize use of human resources. However, current licensing experience with digital I and C systems has provided lessons learned concerning the difficulties that can be encountered when introducing advanced technologies with expanded capabilities. Thus, in the development of advanced nuclear power designs, it will be important to address both the technical foundations of ICHMI systems as well as their licensing considerations. The ICHMI road-map will identify the necessary research, development and demonstration activities that are essential to facilitate necessary technology advancement and resolve outstanding issues. (authors)

  20. Instrumentation and control and human machine interface science and technology Road-map in support of advanced reactors and fuel programs in the U.S

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miller, D. W.; Arndt, S. A.; Dudenhoeffer, D.; Hallbert, B.; Bond, L. J.; Holcomb, D. E.; Wood, R. T.; Naser, J. A.; O'Hara, J.; Quinn, E. L.

    2008-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the current status of the Instrumentation, Control and Human Machine Interface (ICHMI) Science and Technology Road-map (Reference xi) that was developed to address the major challenges in this technical area for the Gen IV and other U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) initiatives that support future deployments of nuclear energy systems. Reliable, capable ICHMI systems will be necessary for the advanced nuclear plants to be economically competitive. ICHMI enables measurement, control, protection, monitoring, and maintenance for processes and components. Through improvements in the technologies and demonstration of their use to facilitate licensing, ICHMI can contribute to the reduction of plant operations and maintenance costs while helping to ensure high plant availability. The impact of ICHMI can be achieved through effective use of the technologies to improve operational efficiency and optimize use of human resources. However, current licensing experience with digital I and C systems has provided lessons learned concerning the difficulties that can be encountered when introducing advanced technologies with expanded capabilities. Thus, in the development of advanced nuclear power designs, it will be important to address both the technical foundations of ICHMI systems and their licensing considerations. The ICHMI Road-map will identify the necessary research, development and demonstration activities that are essential to facilitate necessary technology advancement and resolve outstanding issues. (authors)

  1. Characterizing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon build-up processes on urban road surfaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu, Liang; Liu, An; Li, Dunzhu; Zhang, Lixun; Guan, Yuntao

    2016-01-01

    Reliable prediction models are essential for modeling pollutant build-up processes on urban road surfaces. Based on successive samplings of road deposited sediments (RDS), this study presents empirical models for mathematical replication of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) build-up processes on urban road surfaces. The contaminant build-up behavior was modeled using saturation functions, which are commonly applied in US EPA's Stormwater Management Model (SWMM). Accurate fitting results were achieved in three typical urban land use types, and the applicability of the models was confirmed based on their acceptable relative prediction errors. The fitting results showed high variability in PAH saturation value and build-up rate among different land use types. Results of multivariate data and temporal-based analyses suggested that the quantity and property of RDS significantly influenced PAH build-up. Furthermore, pollution sources, traffic parameters, road surface conditions, and sweeping frequency could synthetically impact the RDS build-up and RDS property change processes. Thus, changes in these parameters could be the main reason for variations in PAH build-up in different urban land use types. - Highlights: • Sufficient robust prediction models were established for analysis of PAH build-up on urban road surfaces. • PAH build-up processes showed high variability among different land use types. • Pollution sources as well as the quantity and property of RDS mainly influenced PAH build-up. - Sufficient robust prediction models were established for analysis of PAH build-up on urban road surfaces. Pollution sources as well as the quantity and property of RDS mainly influenced PAH build-up.

  2. DEVELOPMENT OF CARGO TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM BY ROAD ON THE BASIS OF LOGISTICS PRINCIPLES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. M. Tsarenkova

    2017-10-01

    unification by a single road transportation system. Inter-connected elements of the system are formalized in the form of dispersed two-phase system of mass service. Each element of the system is evaluated by its own characteristics. Practical value. The practical significance of research consists in possibility of their use by employees of motor transport enterprises, service enterprises, responsible for procurement of production and transportation of products, travel agencies to make science-based decisions in forming the program of road works and to provide alternative opportunities for the rational organization of cargo transportation.

  3. Identification of Risk Factors Influencing Road Traffic Accidents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Touahmia

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Road traffic accidents (RTAs are becoming a major problem around the world, incurring enormous losses of human and economic resources. Recent reports from the World Health Organization (WHO reveal that each year more than 1.25 million people are killed and 50 million are injured in road traffic accidents worldwide. In Saudi Arabia, statistics show that at least one traffic accident occurs every minute, causing up to 7,000 deaths and over 39,000 injuries annually. In this study, the main causes of RATs in the province of Hail are examined. The data was collected through the use of a survey which was developed to evaluate the effect of influencing parameters on RTA rate. The results show that 67% of RTAs result from human factors, 29% from road conditions and 4% from vehicle defects. Excessive speed and violation of traffic rules and regulations were found to be the main causes of RATs. Low rates of compliance with speed limit signs and seat-belt regulations were also observed. These findings highlight the need of strengthening effective traffic law enforcement alongside with improving traffic safety and raising public awareness.

  4. Lead pollution of road-side vegetation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Quinche, J P; Zuber, R; Bovay, E

    1969-01-01

    In Switzerland, investigations have been made in 1967/1968 concerning the distribution of lead issued from the antiknocking additive of petrol. Observations show that the deposits in meadows in the immediate surrounding (first meter) of roads and highways with high traffic density were especially high (50-100 ppm in dry matter). The pollution is still perceptible even as far as 50 meters from the road. Moreover, during the summer (July and August), a second zone of high lead accumulation (more than 100 ppm) was detected 50 to 100 m from the road, particularly along the highways. This probably is caused by certain climatic conditions and the increase of traffic volume. With regard to fruits, only the downy species (e.g. apricots, peaches) retain some quantities of lead on their skin. Vegetables with large leaves, e.g. lettuce, spinach, and particularly vegetables with definite dissected foliage, such as fennel and parsley, may accumulate relatively high quantities of lead. According to some authors, up to 50 percent of these deposits may be eliminated by washing with water. Conversely, root vegetables (e.g. carrots, onions) do not show a perceptible lead contamination. Likewise the flesh of fruits is not markedly polluted by lead. Trials with foddering milk cows using hay harvested along a highway are not yet analyzed. The results from these trials should permit determining the proportion of lead which remains in the tissues (meat etc.) or passes over into the milk.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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...

  8. Cultural Resource Investigations for a Multipurpose Haul Road on the Idaho National Laboratory

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brenda R. Pace; Cameron Brizzee; Hollie Gilbert; Clayton Marler; Julie Braun Williams

    2010-08-01

    The U. S. Department of Energy, Idaho Operations Office is considering options for construction of a multipurpose haul road to transport materials and wastes between the Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) and other Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Site facilities. The proposed road will be closed to the public and designed for limited year-round use. Two primary options are under consideration: a new route south of the existing T-25 power line road and an upgrade to road T-24. In the Spring of 2010, archaeological field surveys and initial coordination and field reconnaissance with representatives from the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes were completed to identify any resources that may be adversely affected by the proposed road construction and to develop recommendations to protect any listed or eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The investigations showed that 24 archaeological resources and one historic marker are located in the area of potential effects for road construction and operation south of the T-25 powerline road and 27archaeological resources are located in the area of potential effects for road construction and operation along road T-24. Generalized tribal concerns regarding protection of natural resources were also documented in both road corridors. This report outlines recommendations for additional investigations and protective measures that can be implemented to minimize adverse impacts to the identified resources.

  9. An introduction to the integrated design of surface mine haul roads

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Thompson, R.J.; Visser, A.T. [University of Pretoria, Pretoria (South Africa). Dept. of Mining Engineering

    1997-12-01

    The world-wide expansion of surface mining has led to the development of very large off-highway trucks currently capable of hauling layloads in excess of 160 t. Typical axle loads ranging from 110 t to 170 t are applied to haul roads that have been, at best, empirically designed on the premise of `satisfactory` or `failed`, both in terms of structure and function of the road. The use of these empirical pavement design techniques will prove inadequate when high axle loads are encountered. Not only will the maintenance costs of existing haul roads of inadequate thickness increase, but vehicle operating and maintenance costs will also increase prohibitively. Under these conditions there is thus a clearly defined need for improved construction and management techniques for flexible mine haulage roads, appropriate for the wheel loads of vehicles now in use. The aim of this paper is to introduce developments in haul road structural, functional and maintenance design and management which overcome the limitations associated with the previously empirical design techniques and to show how these developments are combined into an integrated design strategy combining construction techniques, available material and road maintenance equipment with hauler choice to realise a reduction in haulage and road maintenance costs. Future contributions will enumerate on the fundamental haul road structural, functional and maintenance design and management research from which these developments originated. 7 refs., 5 figs., 2 tabs.

  10. 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.

  11. Singlet Oxygen Production by Illuminated Road Dust and Winter Street Sweepings

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schneider, S.; Gan, L.; Gao, S.; Hoy, K. S.; Kwasny, J. R.; Styler, S. A.

    2017-12-01

    Road dust is an important urban source of primary particulate matter, especially in cities where sand and other traction materials are applied to roadways in winter. Although the composition and detrimental health effects of road dust are reasonably well characterized, little is currently known regarding its chemical behaviour. Motivated by our previous work, in which we showed that road dust is a photochemical source of singlet oxygen (1O2), we investigated 1O2 production by bulk winter street sweepings and by road dust collected in a variety of urban, industrial, and suburban locations in both autumn and spring. In all cases, the production of 1O2 by road dust was greater than that by Arizona test dust and desert-sourced dust, which highlights the unique photochemical environment afforded by this substrate. Mechanistically, we observed correlations between 1O2 production and the UV absorbance properties of dust extracts, which suggests the involvement of chromophoric dissolved organic matter in the observed photochemistry. Taken together, this work provides evidence that road dust-mediated photochemistry may influence the environmental lifetime of pollutants that react via 1O2-mediated pathways, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

  12. From Bench to Bountiful Harvests: A Road Map for the Next Decade of Arabidopsis Research[OA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lavagi, Irene; Estelle, Mark; Weckwerth, Wolfram; Beynon, Jim; Bastow, Ruth M.

    2012-01-01

    In the face of an increasing world population and climate instability, the demands for food and fuel will continue to rise. Plant science will be crucial to help meet these exponentially increasing requirements for food and fuel supplies. Fundamental plant research will play a major role in providing key advances in our understanding of basic plant processes that can then flow into practical advances through knowledge sharing and collaborations. The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana has played a major role in our understanding of plant biology, and the Arabidopsis community has developed many tools and resources to continue building on this knowledge. Drawing from previous experience of internationally coordinated projects, The international Arabidopsis community, represented by the Multinational Arabidopsis Steering Committee (MASC), has drawn up a road map for the next decade of Arabidopsis research to inform scientists and decision makers on the future foci of Arabidopsis research within the wider plant science landscape. This article provides a summary of the MASC road map. PMID:22751212

  13. 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 : ...

  14. 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

  15. 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.

  16. 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.

  17. 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.

  18. Associateship | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Period: 2015–2018. Tripathy, Dr Gyana Ranjan Ph.D. (PRL, Ahmedabad). Date of birth: 5 July 1981. Specialization: Re-OS Geochronology, Weathering & Erosion, Isotope Geochemistry Address: Dept. of Earth & Climate Sci., Indian Inst. of Science, Education & Research, Dr Homi Bhabha Road, Pune 411 008, Maharashtra

  19. Associateship | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Associate Profile. Period: 1999–2002. Tole, Dr Shubha. Date of birth: 31 August 1967. Specialization: Neurobiology Address during Associateship: Department of Biological Sciences, Tata Inst. of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Bombay 400 005. Contact: Email: stole@tifr.res.in. YouTube; Twitter; Facebook ...

  20. 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

  1. 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.

  2. 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

  3. 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.

  4. [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

  5. Identifying the Critical Links in Road Transportation Networks: Centrality-based approach utilizing structural properties

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chinthavali, Supriya [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

    2016-04-01

    Surface transportation road networks share structural properties similar to other complex networks (e.g., social networks, information networks, biological networks, and so on). This research investigates the structural properties of road networks for any possible correlation with the traffic characteristics such as link flows those determined independently. Additionally, we define a criticality index for the links of the road network that identifies the relative importance in the network. We tested our hypotheses with two sample road networks. Results show that, correlation exists between the link flows and centrality measures of a link of the road (dual graph approach is followed) and the criticality index is found to be effective for one test network to identify the vulnerable nodes.

  6. Neighbourhood walkability, road density and socio-economic status in Sydney, Australia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cowie, Christine T; Ding, Ding; Rolfe, Margaret I; Mayne, Darren J; Jalaludin, Bin; Bauman, Adrian; Morgan, Geoffrey G

    2016-04-27

    Planning and transport agencies play a vital role in influencing the design of townscapes, travel modes and travel behaviors, which in turn impact on the walkability of neighbourhoods and residents' physical activity opportunities. Optimising neighbourhood walkability is desirable in built environments, however, the population health benefits of walkability may be offset by increased exposure to traffic related air pollution. This paper describes the spatial distribution of neighbourhood walkability and weighted road density, a marker for traffic related air pollution, in Sydney, Australia. As exposure to air pollution is related to socio-economic status in some cities, this paper also examines the spatial distribution of weighted road density and walkability by socio-economic status (SES). We calculated walkability, weighted road density (as a measure of traffic related air pollution) and SES, using predefined and validated measures, for 5858 Sydney neighbourhoods, representing 3.6 million population. We overlaid tertiles of walkability and weighted road density to define "sweet-spots" (high walkability-low weighted road density), and "sour- spots" (low walkability-high weighted road density) neighbourhoods. We also examined the distribution of walkability and weighted road density by SES quintiles. Walkability and weighted road density showed a clear east-west gradient across the region. Our study found that only 4 % of Sydney's population lived in sweet-spot" neighbourhoods with high walkability and low weighted road density (desirable), and these tended to be located closer to the city centre. A greater proportion of neighbourhoods had health limiting attributes of high weighted road density or low walkability (about 20 % each), and over 5 % of the population lived in "sour-spot" neighbourhoods with low walkability and high weighted road density (least desirable). These neighbourhoods were more distant from the city centre and scattered more widely. There were

  7. 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.

  8. A RE-ASSESSMENT OF OLDER DRIVERS AS A ROAD SAFETY RISK

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jim LANGFORD

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available Older drivers are frequently viewed as overly represented in crashes, particularly when crash involvement per distance travelled is considered. This perception has led to a call for tighter licensing conditions for older drivers, a policy which inevitably results in mobility restrictions for at least some drivers. However there is a growing body of research evidence which shows that as a group, older drivers represent no greater road risk than drivers from other age groups once different levels of driving activity are taken into account. This paper has examined aspects of older drivers' fitness to drive based on survey data and off-road and on-road driving performance from a sample of 905 New Zealand older drivers. The results show that policies which target all older drivers and lead to licensing and mobility restrictions cannot be justified from a safety basis.

  9. Executing effective road safety advertising: are big production budgets necessary?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Donovan, R J; Jalleh, G; Henley, N

    1999-05-01

    Twelve (12) road safety television commercials (TVCs) ranging in production costs from $A15,000 to $A250,000 (current prices) were evaluated using standard advertising pre-test procedures. The twelve ads covered four road safety behaviours (speeding; drink driving; fatigue; and inattention), and included a variety of executional types within and across behaviours. One ad in each of the four behaviours was an expensive TAC and ($A200,000 or more). The testing procedure assessed respondents' self-reported impact of the ad on their future intentions to comply with the road safety behavior advocated in the ad. Just under 1000 appropriately screened motor vehicle drivers license holders were recruited via street intercept methods and randomly allocated to one of the twelve and exposure conditions. The results showed that while the two best performing ads were highly dramatic TAC ads showing graphic crash scenes, these were also the most expensive ads to produce, and, being 60 and 90 s, the most expensive to air. In several cases, 30 s low cost talking heads testimonials performed equally as well as their far more expensive counterparts. We conclude that big production budgets may not be necessary to create effective road safety advertising.

  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. 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

  13. 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.

  14. 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.

  15. 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.

  16. 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...

  17. The very large research infrastructures: the French road-map

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2008-01-01

    After having recalled that the notion of TGIR (Tres Grande Infrastructure de Recherche, Very large research infrastructure) has evolved in time and now encompasses many different realities in terms of domain or size, this document briefly presents the main challenging fields of research: the planet, the universe seen from the Earth, particles and nuclei, matter, information, communication, computing and data services, human and social sciences, life sciences and health. It indicates TGIRs which have been selected for the French road-map: some already exist and operational (46), some are not yet operational but have been decided in terms of financing (19) and some are still projected but with different levels of priority. Appendices give selection criteria, working group compositions for different domains, and description sheets for these TGIRs (nature, localisation, scientific tools, spin-offs and impacts, international value, concerned scientific community, budget)

  18. Fellowship | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Home; Fellowship. Fellow Profile. Elected: 1975 Section: Plant Sciences. Joshi, Dr Atmaram Bhairav Ph.D. (Cantab), FNA. Date of birth: 17 November 1916. Date of death: 3 July 2010. Specialization: Crop Breeding and Genetics Last known address: 10, Aboli Apartments, 102/103, Erandavana, Law College Road, Pune ...

  19. 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.

  20. 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...

  1. Assessment of the PCDD/F fate from MSWI residue used in road construction in France.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Badreddine, R; François, D

    2009-01-01

    MSWI fly ash is susceptible to contain high amount of polychlorinated dibenzo-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzo-furans. However, the use of MSWI residue for road construction started in France at a period when MSWI Bottom Ash and MSWI fly ash were not separated. From four old road sites, MSWI residue, road soils, reference soils and geo-textiles were sampled and their PCDD/F contents were analyzed. MSWI residue show a great heterogeneity but also high amounts of PCDD/F (14-2960 ng I-TEQ kg(-1)dm). Soils underlying the road show less heterogeneity and PCDD/F contents between 0.57 and 7.23 ng I-TEQ kg(-1)dm, lower than ordinary soils. Moreover, the specific analysis of the 17 toxic PCDD/F congeners (notably the 2,3,7,8-TetraCDD) indicates the very low harmfulness of road soils. The study also allows to assert the relation between the MSWI residue particle size and the PCDD/F content.

  2. Characterizing heavy metal build-up on urban road surfaces: Implication for stormwater reuse

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu, An; Liu, Liang; Li, Dunzhu; Guan, Yuntao

    2015-01-01

    Stormwater reuse is increasingly popular in the worldwide. In terms of urban road stormwater, it commonly contains toxic pollutants such as heavy metals, which could undermine the reuse safety. The research study investigated heavy metal build-up characteristics on urban roads in a typical megacity of South China. The research outcomes show the high variability in heavy metal build-up loads among different urban road sites. The degree of traffic congestion and road surface roughness was found to exert a more significant influence on heavy metal build-up rather than traffic volume. Due to relatively higher heavy metal loads, stormwater from roads with more congested traffic conditions or rougher surfaces might be suitable for low-water-quality required activities while the stormwater from by-pass road sections could be appropriate for relatively high-water-quality required purposes since the stormwater could be relatively less polluted. Based on the research outcomes, a decision-making process for heavy metals based urban road stormwater reuse was proposed. The new finding highlights the importance to undertaking a “fit-for-purpose” road stormwater reuse strategy. Additionally, the research results can also contribute to enhancing stormwater reuse safety. - Highlights: • Heavy metal (HM) build-up varies with traffic and road surface conditions. • Traffic congestion and surface roughness exert a higher impact on HM build-up. • A “fit-for-purpose” strategy could suit urban road stormwater reuse

  3. Characterizing heavy metal build-up on urban road surfaces: Implication for stormwater reuse

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Liu, An [Research Centre of Environmental Engineering and Management, Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, 518055 Shenzhen (China); Cooperative Research and Education Centre for Environmental Technology, Kyoto University–Tsinghua University, 518055 Shenzhen (China); Liu, Liang; Li, Dunzhu [Research Centre of Environmental Engineering and Management, Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, 518055 Shenzhen (China); Guan, Yuntao, E-mail: guanyt@tsinghua.edu.cn [Research Centre of Environmental Engineering and Management, Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, 518055 Shenzhen (China); School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China)

    2015-05-15

    Stormwater reuse is increasingly popular in the worldwide. In terms of urban road stormwater, it commonly contains toxic pollutants such as heavy metals, which could undermine the reuse safety. The research study investigated heavy metal build-up characteristics on urban roads in a typical megacity of South China. The research outcomes show the high variability in heavy metal build-up loads among different urban road sites. The degree of traffic congestion and road surface roughness was found to exert a more significant influence on heavy metal build-up rather than traffic volume. Due to relatively higher heavy metal loads, stormwater from roads with more congested traffic conditions or rougher surfaces might be suitable for low-water-quality required activities while the stormwater from by-pass road sections could be appropriate for relatively high-water-quality required purposes since the stormwater could be relatively less polluted. Based on the research outcomes, a decision-making process for heavy metals based urban road stormwater reuse was proposed. The new finding highlights the importance to undertaking a “fit-for-purpose” road stormwater reuse strategy. Additionally, the research results can also contribute to enhancing stormwater reuse safety. - Highlights: • Heavy metal (HM) build-up varies with traffic and road surface conditions. • Traffic congestion and surface roughness exert a higher impact on HM build-up. • A “fit-for-purpose” strategy could suit urban road stormwater reuse.

  4. 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

  5. [Influence of traffic restriction on road and construction fugitive dust].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tian, Gang; Li, Gang; Qin, Jian-Ping; Fan, Shou-Bin; Huang, Yu-Hu; Nie, Lei

    2009-05-15

    By monitoring the road and construction dust fall continuously during the "Good Luck Beijing" sport events, the reduction of road and construction dust fall caused by traffic restriction was studied. The contribution rate of road and construction dust to particulate matter of Beijing atmosphere environment, and the emission ratio of it to total local PM10 emission were analyzed. The results show that the traffic restriction reduces road and construction dust fall significantly. The dust fall average value of ring roads was 0.27 g x (m2 x d)(-1) in the "traffic restriction" period, and the values were 0.81 and 0.59 g x (m2 x d)(-1) 1 month and 7 days before. The dust fall average value of major arterial and minor arterial was 0.21 g x (m2 x d)(-1) in the "traffic restriction" period, and the values were 0.54 and 0.58 g x (m2 x d)(-1) 1 month and 7 days before. The roads emission reduced 60%-70% compared with before traffic restriction. The dust fall average values of civil architecture and utility architecture were 0.61 and 1.06 g x (m2 x d)(-1) in the "traffic restriction" period, and the values were 1.15 and 1.55 g x (m2 x d)(-1) 20 days before. The construction dust reduced 30%-47% compared with 20 days before traffic restriction. Road and construction dust emission are the main source of atmosphere particulate matter in Beijing, and its contribution to ambient PM10 concentration is 21%-36%. PM10 emitted from roads and constructions account for 42%-72% and 30%-51% of local emission while the local PM10 account for 50% and 70% of the total emission.

  6. The Global Burden of Road Injury: Its Relevance to the Emergency Physician

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sharon Chekijian

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Background. Road traffic crash fatalities in the United States are at the lowest level since 1950. The reduction in crash injury burden is attributed to several factors: public education and prevention programs, traffic safety policies and enforcement, improvements in vehicle design, and prehospital services coupled with emergency and acute trauma care. Globally, the disease burden of road traffic injuries is rising. In 1990, road traffic injuries ranked ninth in the ten leading causes of the global burden of disease. By 2030, estimates show that road traffic injuries will be the fifth leading causes of death in the world. Historically, emergency medicine has played a pivotal role in contributing to the success of the local, regional, and national traffic safety activities focused on crash and injury prevention. Objective. We report on the projected trend of the global burden of road traffic injuries and fatalities and describe ongoing global initiatives to reduce road traffic morbidity and mortality. Discussion. We present key domains where emergency medicine can contribute through international collaboration to address global road traffic-related morbidity and mortality. Conclusion. International collaborative programs and research offer important opportunities for emergency medicine physicians to make a meaningful impact on the global burden of disease.

  7. Best practices in road transport: An exploratory study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mar Fernández Vázquez-Noguerol

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: Road transport aspects are becoming increasingly important due to their high impact on economic, environmental and social sustainability. Considering the triple bottom line approach, best practices play a fundamental role within organisations. The purpose of this paper is to analyse several sustainable initiatives in road transport adopted by companies. Design/methodology/approach: The findings were developed and evaluated based on empirical data captured through a survey of 98 professionals involved in logistics and transport activities. Additionally, key literature on transport initiatives was reviewed to supplement the framework for the implementation of best practices in road transport. Findings: The exploratory study shows the importance of each best practice and determines the level of implementation of each initiative, comparing the results among different dealers (retailers, wholesalers, carriers and manufacturers, type of transport fleet and companies’ revenues. Research limitations/implications: The sample of 98 companies was based on simple search filters and the group is not wholly representative of all sectors. Respondents were mainly managers from Spain involved in logistics and transport activities. Surveyed companies included manufacturing, retailers, wholesalers and third-party logistics providers. Practical implications: The most common best practices in road transport are identified, including initiatives related to: efficiency, reusability, safety, optimization, emissions, waste and recycling. Initiatives that influence road transport are ranked by their degree of implementation in the companies analysed.  Social implications: Implementation of some of these best practices may help lessen negative impacts of road transport on society and the environment. Originality/value: The study results indicate which practices are most frequently used and their level of implementation depending on companies’ roles in the

  8. Journal of Genetics | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Author Affiliations. A. Wiest1 A. J. McCarthy1 R. Schnittker1 K. McCluskey1. Fungal Genetics Stock Center, University of Missouri Kansas City, School of Biological Sciences, 5007 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, MO 64113, USA ...

  9. 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

  10. Increase of urban lake salinity by road deicing salt

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Novotny, Eric V.; Murphy, Dan; Stefan, Heinz G.

    2008-01-01

    Over 317,000 tonnes of road salt (NaCl) are applied annually for road deicing in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area (TCMA) of Minnesota. Although road salt is applied to increase driving safety, this practice influences environmental water quality. Thirteen lakes in the TCMA were studied over 46 months to determine if and how they respond to the seasonal applications of road salt. Sodium and chloride concentrations in these lakes were 10 and 25 times higher, respectively, than in other non-urban lakes in the region. Seasonal salinity/chloride cycles in the lakes were correlated with road salt applications: High concentrations in the winter and spring, especially near the bottom of the lakes, were followed by lower concentrations in the summer and fall due to flushing of the lakes by rainfall runoff. The seasonal salt storage/flushing rates for individual lakes were derived from volume-weighted average chloride concentration time series. The rate ranged from 9 to 55% of a lake's minimum salt content. In some of the lakes studied salt concentrations were high enough to stop spring turnover preventing oxygen from reaching the benthic sediments. Concentrations above the sediments were also high enough to induce convective mixing of the saline water into the sediment pore water. A regional analysis of historical water quality records of 38 lakes in the TCMA showed increases in lake salinity from 1984 to 2005 that were highly correlated with the amount of rock salt purchased by the State of Minnesota. Chloride concentrations in individual lakes were positively correlated with the percent of impervious surfaces in the watershed and inversely with lake volume. Taken together, the results show a continuing degradation of the water quality of urban lakes due to application of NaCl in their watersheds

  11. 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.

  12. 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.

  13. 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.

  14. 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].

  15. The effects of peer influence on adolescent pedestrian road-crossing decisions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pfeffer, K; Hunter, E

    2013-01-01

    Adolescence is a high-risk period for pedestrian injury. It is also a time of heightened susceptibility to peer influence. The aim of this research was to examine the effects of peer influence on the pedestrian road-crossing decisions of adolescents. Using 10 videos of road-crossing sites, 80 16- to 18-year-olds were asked to make pedestrian road-crossing decisions. Participants were assigned to one of 4 experimental conditions: negative peer (influencing unsafe decisions), positive peer (influencing cautious decisions), silent peer (who observed but did not comment), and no peer (the participant completed the task alone). Peers from the adolescent's own friendship group were recruited to influence either an unsafe or a cautious decision. Statistically significant differences were found between peer conditions. Participants least often identified safe road-crossing sites when accompanied by a negative peer and more frequently identified dangerous road-crossing sites when accompanied by a positive peer. Both cautious and unsafe comments from a peer influenced adolescent pedestrians' decisions. These findings showed that road-crossing decisions of adolescents were influenced by both unsafe and cautious comments from their peers. The discussion highlighted the role that peers can play in both increasing and reducing adolescent risk-taking.

  16. Modelling the impact of roads on regional population of Moor frogs (Rana arvalis)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pontoppidan, Maj-Britt

    for decisions concerning road lay-out and mitigation measures. As model species was chosen the Moor frog (Rana arvalis). Populations of Moor frogs are assumed to follow a pattern of metapopulation dynamics, with colonisation, extinction and recolonisation of suitable habitat patches. Thus, road constructions...... to be constructed and analysed. The first scenario should be a map of the area as it is before the planned road construction (scenario 0). This analysis measures the ecological performance of the original landscape and is a reference against which other scenarios are to be compared. The second map (scenario 1......) should show the landscape as it is expected to be after the road constructions. In combination, the analyses of scenario 0 and scenario 1 make it possible to assess the effect of road construction on connectivity and population persistence. The analyses also constitute the basis for planning...

  17. 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.

  18. Exploiting automatically generated databases of traffic signs and road markings for contextual co-occurrence analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hazelhoff, Lykele; Creusen, Ivo M.; Woudsma, Thomas; de With, Peter H. N.

    2015-11-01

    Combined databases of road markings and traffic signs provide a complete and full description of the present traffic legislation and instructions. Such databases contribute to efficient signage maintenance, improve navigation, and benefit autonomous driving vehicles. A system is presented for the automated creation of such combined databases, which additionally investigates the benefit of this combination for automated contextual placement analysis. This analysis involves verification of the co-occurrence of traffic signs and road markings to retrieve a list of potentially incorrectly signaled (and thus potentially unsafe) road situations. This co-occurrence verification is specifically explored for both pedestrian crossings and yield situations. Evaluations on 420 km of road have shown that individual detection of traffic signs and road markings denoting these road situations can be performed with accuracies of 98% and 85%, respectively. Combining both approaches shows that over 95% of the pedestrian crossings and give-way situations can be identified. An exploration toward additional co-occurrence analysis of signs and markings shows that inconsistently signaled situations can successfully be extracted, such that specific safety actions can be directed toward cases lacking signs or markings, while most consistently signaled situations can be omitted from this analysis.

  19. 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...

  20. 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.

  1. Evaluation of Science

    OpenAIRE

    Usmani, Adnan Mahmmood; Meo, Sultan Ayoub

    2011-01-01

    Scientific achievement by publishing a scientific manuscript in a peer reviewed biomedical journal is an important ingredient of research along with a career-enhancing advantages and significant amount of personal satisfaction. The road to evaluate science (research, scientific publications) among scientists often seems complicated. Scientist’s career is generally summarized by the number of publications / citations, teaching the undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral students, writing or ...

  2. Associateship | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Date of birth: 15 January 1966. Specialization: Computer Science Address during Associateship: Machine Intelligence Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, 203, B T Road, Calcutta 700 035. YouTube; Twitter; Facebook; Blog. Academy News. IAS Logo. 29th Mid-year meeting. Posted on 19 January 2018. The 29th Mid-year ...

  3. 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.

  4. The impact of forest roads on understory plant diversity in temperate hornbeam-beech forests of Northern Iran.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deljouei, Azade; Abdi, Ehsan; Marcantonio, Matteo; Majnounian, Baris; Amici, Valerio; Sohrabi, Hormoz

    2017-08-01

    Forest roads alter the biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems, modifying temperature, humidity, wind speed, and light availability that, in turn, cause changes in plant community composition and diversity. We aim at investigating and comparing the diversity of herbaceous species along main and secondary forest roads in a temperate-managed hornbeam-beech forest, north of Iran. Sixteen transects along main and secondary forest roads were established (eight transects along main roads and eight along secondary roads). To eliminate the effect of forest type, all transects were located in Carpinetum-Fagetum forests, the dominant forest type in the study area. The total length of each transect was 200 m (100 m toward up slope and 100 m toward down slope), and plots were established along it at different distances from road edge. The diversity of herbaceous plant species was calculated in each plot using Shannon-Wiener index, species richness, and Pielou's index. The results showed that diversity index decreased when distance from road edge increases. This decreasing trend continued up to 60 m from forest road margin, and after this threshold, the index slightly increased. Depending on the type of road (main or secondary) as well as cut or fill slopes, the area showing a statistical different plant composition and diversity measured through Shannon-Wiener, species richness, and Pielou's index is up to 10 m. The length depth of the road edge effect found in main and secondary forest roads was small, but it could have cumulative effects on forest microclimate and forest-associated biota at the island scale. Forest managers should account for the effect of road buildings on plant communities.

  5. General dependencies and causality analysis of road traffic fatalities in OECD countries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yaseen, Muhammad Rizwan; Ali, Qamar; Khan, Muhammad Tariq Iqbal

    2018-05-07

    The road traffic accidents were responsible for material and human loss which was equal to 2.8 to 5% of gross national product (GNP). However, literature does not explore the elasticity coefficients and nexus of road traffic fatalities with foreign direct investment, health expenditures, trade openness, mobile subscriptions, the number of researchers in R&D department, and environmental particulate matter. This study filled this research gap by exploring the nexus between road traffic fatalities, foreign direct investment, health expenditures, trade openness, mobile subscriptions, the number of researchers, and environmental particulate matter in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries by using panel data from 1995 to 2015. The panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound test was used for the detection of cointegration between the variables after checking the stationarity in selected variables with different panel unit root tests. Panel vector error correction model explored the causality of road traffic fatalities, foreign direct investment, PM2.5 in the environment, and trade openness in the long run. Road traffic fatalities showed short run bi-directional causality with foreign direct investment and health expenditures. The short run bi-directional causality was also observed between trade and foreign direct investment and cellular mobile subscriptions and foreign direct investment. The panel fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) and panel dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) showed the 0.947% reduction in road fatalities for 1% increase in the health expenditures in OECD countries. The significant reduction in road fatalities was also observed due to 1% increase in trade openness and researchers in R&D, which implies the importance of trade and research for road safety. It is required to invest in the health sector for the safety of precious human lives like the hospitals with latest medical equipment and improvement

  6. 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.

  7. A quantitative approach to measure road network information based on edge diversity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Xun; Zhang, Hong; Lan, Tian; Cao, Weiwei; He, Jing

    2015-12-01

    The measure of map information has been one of the key issues in assessing cartographic quality and map generalization algorithms. It is also important for developing efficient approaches to transfer geospatial information. Road network is the most common linear object in real world. Approximately describe road network information will benefit road map generalization, navigation map production and urban planning. Most of current approaches focused on node diversities and supposed that all the edges are the same, which is inconsistent to real-life condition, and thus show limitations in measuring network information. As real-life traffic flow are directed and of different quantities, the original undirected vector road map was first converted to a directed topographic connectivity map. Then in consideration of preferential attachment in complex network study and rich-club phenomenon in social network, the from and to weights of each edge are assigned. The from weight of a given edge is defined as the connectivity of its end node to the sum of the connectivities of all the neighbors of the from nodes of the edge. After getting the from and to weights of each edge, edge information, node information and the whole network structure information entropies could be obtained based on information theory. The approach has been applied to several 1 square mile road network samples. Results show that information entropies based on edge diversities could successfully describe the structural differences of road networks. This approach is a complementarity to current map information measurements, and can be extended to measure other kinds of geographical objects.

  8. 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...

  9. Development and Verification of the Tire/Road Friction Estimation Algorithm for Antilock Braking System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jian Zhao

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Road friction information is very important for vehicle active braking control systems such as ABS, ASR, or ESP. It is not easy to estimate the tire/road friction forces and coefficient accurately because of the nonlinear system, parameters uncertainties, and signal noises. In this paper, a robust and effective tire/road friction estimation algorithm for ABS is proposed, and its performance is further discussed by simulation and experiment. The tire forces were observed by the discrete Kalman filter, and the road friction coefficient was estimated by the recursive least square method consequently. Then, the proposed algorithm was analysed and verified by simulation and road test. A sliding mode based ABS with smooth wheel slip ratio control and a threshold based ABS by pulse pressure control with significant fluctuations were used for the simulation. Finally, road tests were carried out in both winter and summer by the car equipped with the same threshold based ABS, and the algorithm was evaluated on different road surfaces. The results show that the proposed algorithm can identify the variation of road conditions with considerable accuracy and response speed.

  10. 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...

  11. 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.

  12. 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...

  13. 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...

  14. Adaptive Road Crack Detection System by Pavement Classification

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alejandro Amírola

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a road distress detection system involving the phases needed to properly deal with fully automatic road distress assessment. A vehicle equipped with line scan cameras, laser illumination and acquisition HW-SW is used to storage the digital images that will be further processed to identify road cracks. Pre-processing is firstly carried out to both smooth the texture and enhance the linear features. Non-crack features detection is then applied to mask areas of the images with joints, sealed cracks and white painting, that usually generate false positive cracking. A seed-based approach is proposed to deal with road crack detection, combining Multiple Directional Non-Minimum Suppression (MDNMS with a symmetry check. Seeds are linked by computing the paths with the lowest cost that meet the symmetry restrictions. The whole detection process involves the use of several parameters. A correct setting becomes essential to get optimal results without manual intervention. A fully automatic approach by means of a linear SVM-based classifier ensemble able to distinguish between up to 10 different types of pavement that appear in the Spanish roads is proposed. The optimal feature vector includes different texture-based features. The parameters are then tuned depending on the output provided by the classifier. Regarding non-crack features detection, results show that the introduction of such module reduces the impact of false positives due to non-crack features up to a factor of 2. In addition, the observed performance of the crack detection system is significantly boosted by adapting the parameters to the type of pavement.

  15. Road Traffic Anomaly Detection via Collaborative Path Inference from GPS Snippets

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hongtao Wang

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Road traffic anomaly denotes a road segment that is anomalous in terms of traffic flow of vehicles. Detecting road traffic anomalies from GPS (Global Position System snippets data is becoming critical in urban computing since they often suggest underlying events. However, the noisy ands parse nature of GPS snippets data have ushered multiple problems, which have prompted the detection of road traffic anomalies to be very challenging. To address these issues, we propose a two-stage solution which consists of two components: a Collaborative Path Inference (CPI model and a Road Anomaly Test (RAT model. CPI model performs path inference incorporating both static and dynamic features into a Conditional Random Field (CRF. Dynamic context features are learned collaboratively from large GPS snippets via a tensor decomposition technique. Then RAT calculates the anomalous degree for each road segment from the inferred fine-grained trajectories in given time intervals. We evaluated our method using a large scale real world dataset, which includes one-month GPS location data from more than eight thousand taxi cabs in Beijing. The evaluation results show the advantages of our method beyond other baseline techniques.

  16. Priority of road maintenance management based on halda reading range on NAASRA method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Surbakti, M.; Doan, A.

    2018-02-01

    The road pavement, constantly experiencing stress-strain due to traffic load through it, can cause damage to the pavement. Therefore, early detection and repair of the damage will be able to prevent more severe damage that can develop into pavement failure. A road condition survey is one of the earliest attempts to detect the initial damage of a pavement. In this case the driving comfort is the most important part for the driver in assessing road conditions that are affected by the level of road surface roughness. To determine the level of roughness of the road, one of the methods developed is the measurement using the NAASRA method. In this method the roughness of the road is an accumulation of the average unevenness of the road, with the general setting on halda of 100 m. However, with this 100-meter setting, in some places the final value of the roughness value is too large or too small so that it will result in the priority of the road maintenance. This is what underlies roughness research by comparing halda settings at 50 m and 200 m different from the general settings above.This study uses the International Roughness Index (IRI) method in determining the level of road stability concerning driving discomfort. IRI score obtained from direct survey in field by using Roughometer-NAASRA.The final result shows that there is a significant difference between the reading of halda which is set at 100 m reading with halda set with 50 and 200 meter readings. This may lead to differences in handling priorities, which may impact on the sustainability of road network maintenance management (Sustainaible Road Management)

  17. 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.

  18. 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.

  19. 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...

  20. 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

  1. 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...

  2. Investigation on the pollution of road rainwater runoff in Shijiazhuang City

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tongjun GUAN

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available To protect groundwater and urban ecological environment, much more sponge cities have been built in China. The sponge road is an important part of a sponge city. In recent years, Shijiazhuang Municipal Design Institute proposes a new sponge road structure, namely planting soil and crushed stone green belt, and it has been extensively used in Shijiazhuang City. In the design of the road structure, it is a key issue whether the infiltration rainwater quality pollutes the groundwater. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the pollution of road rainwater runoff in Shijiazhuang City for the design of sponge road and the construction of sponge city. To obtain the characteristics of rainwater runoff pollution in Shijiazhuang City, four investigation points are chosen at the intersection of the Nanerhuan Road and Yuxiang Street, the east gate of Hebei University of Science and Technology, the site under the Xierhuan Road and Zhongshan Road overpass, and the catch-basin along the roadside in Shijiazhuang City. The investigating points are located in the main road of Shijiazhuang urban area, which covers Shijiazhuang City, and can represent the pollution characteristics of road runoff in Shijiazhuang City. Six rainfalls are collected from March to June in 2017. The rainfall on 3, May is viewed as typical middle and light one which is studied in this paper. The concentration of COD, TP, TN, NH3-N and SS in road runoff is tested by potassium dichromate method, ammonium molybdate spectrophotometry, potassium persulfate digestion-UV spectrophotometry and Nessler’s reagent spectrophotometry and filter paper filtration, respectively. The concentrations of Zn ions and Pb ions are tested by inductively coupled plasma method. According to the test results, the concentration evolutions of COD, TP, TN, NH3-N, SS, Zn and Pb ion in runoff during rainfall are studied. The results show that the contaminant concentration approximately decreases during the rainfall

  3. Degradation of natural habitats by roads: Comparing land-take and noise effect zone

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Madadi, Hossein; Moradi, Hossein; Soffianian, Alireza; Salmanmahiny, Abdolrassoul; Senn, Josef; Geneletti, Davide

    2017-01-01

    Roads may act as barriers, negatively influencing the movement of animals, thereby causing disruption in landscapes. Roads cause habitat loss and fragmentation not only through their physical occupation, but also through traffic noise. The aim of this study is to provide a method to quantify the habitat degradation including habitat loss and fragmentation due to road traffic noise and to compare it with those of road land-take. Two types of fragmentation effects are determined: structural fragmentation (based on road land-take only), and functional fragmentation (noise effect zone fragmentation, buffer using a threshold of 40 dB). Noise propagation for roads with a traffic volume of more than 1000 vehicles per day was simulated by Calculation of Road Traffic Noise (CRTN) model. Habitat loss and fragmentation through land-take and noise effect zone were calculated and compared in Zagros Mountains in western Iran. The study area is characterized by three main habitat types (oak forest, scattered woodland and temperate grassland) which host endangered and protected wildlife species. Due to topographic conditions, land cover type, and the traffic volume in the region, the noise effect zone ranged from 50 to 2000 m which covers 18.3% (i.e. 516,929.95 ha) of the total study area. The results showed that the habitat loss due to noise effect zone is dramatically higher than that due to road land-take only (35% versus 1.04% of the total area). Temperate grasslands lost the highest proportion of the original area by both land-take and noise effect zone, but most area was lost in scattered woodland as compared to the other two habitat types. The results showed that considering the noise effect zone for habitat fragmentation resulted in an increase of 25.8% of the area affected (316,810 ha) as compared to using the land-take only (555,874 ha vs. 239,064 ha, respectively). The results revealed that the degree of habitat fragmentation is increasing by considering the noise

  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

    Aim of this study was to determine: (1) the relative contributions from pavement wear and traction sanding in PM{sub 10} road side air and road dust resuspension samples; (2) PM{sub 10} dust emissions from studded and studless tyres in on-road conditions. The study was conducted as part of the NASTA research program during the winter season 2011/2012. The studies were carried out in Suurmetsaentie and Viikintie in Helsinki, Finland. The results showed that dust from pavement aggregates was the largest source during spring, accounting for 40- 50 percent of the particulate matter in the air and resuspension samples. Based on studies on formation of dust, major source of the dust from pavement aggregates is the wear by studded tyres. Traction sand and road salt were used frequently during the winter 2011/2012. Sanding material explained about 25 percent of the road dust in the air and resuspension samples. Traction sanding is estimated to account for approximately few percent of the pavement dust via the sandpaper effect. Effect of road salt was few percent in the samples. The source contributions from pavement and traction sanding observed in spring 2011/2012 at Suurmetsaentie are similar to what has been estimated in previous studies conducted in the early 2000s in Finland. In a study conducted in the city of Hanko, it was estimated the contribution from traction sanding to be in average of about 10 percent. In another study in the center of Helsinki the contribution was estimated to be about half of the PM{sub 10}. The general perception in Finland has been that traction sanding is the main source of airborne road dust. Studies conducted in 2000s and the results of this study, however, indicate that traction sanding has been an important but not the main source of PM10 road dust even in winters with extensive use of gravel for traction control. Emissions of road dust by a single tyre consist of direct emissions of wear products as well as resuspension emissions of

  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. Numerical investigation of road salt impact on an urban wellfield.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bester, M L; Frind, E O; Molson, J W; Rudolph, D L

    2006-01-01

    The impact of road salt on a wellfield in a complex glacial moraine aquifer system is studied by numerical simulation. The moraine underlies an extensive urban and industrial landscape, which draws its water supply from >20 wellfields, several of which are approaching or have exceeded the drinking water limit for chloride. The study investigates the mechanisms of road salt infiltration, storage, and transport in the subsurface and assesses the effectiveness of mitigation measures designed to reduce the impact. The three-dimensional transport model accounts for increases in salt loading, as well as growth of the urbanized area and road network over the past 50 years. The simulations, which focus on one impacted wellfield, show chloride plumes originating mainly at arterial roads and migrating through aquitard windows into the water supply aquifers. The results suggest that the aquifer system contains a large and heterogeneously distributed mass of chloride and that concentrations in the aquifer can be substantially higher than the concentrations in the well water. Future impact scenarios indicate that although the system responds rapidly to reductions in salt loading, the residual chloride mass may take decades to flush out, even if road salting were discontinued. The implications with respect to urban wellfields in typical snow-belt areas are discussed.

  7. 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....

  8. 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.

  9. 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...

  10. 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

  11. Effect of safety education on knowledge of and compliance with road safety signs among commercial motorcyclists in Uyo, Southern Nigeria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, O E; Adebayo, A M

    2011-09-01

    Compliance with road safety signs is important in the reduction of motorcycle accidents. The aim of this study was to implement health education intervention and assess its impact on the knowledge of and compliance with road safety signs among commercial motorcyclists in Uyo, Southern Nigeria. This was an intervention study among motorcyclists in Uyo, Southern Nigeria, with a control group from a similar town. The instrument of data collection was a semi-structured interviewer administered questionnaire. Subjects were selected through multistage sampling method. Baseline data on compliance to road safety signs was collected from both groups. Motorcyclists in the intervention group were given education on the importance of compliance to road safety signs. Data was subsequently collected from both groups 3 months post intervention and analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 11. A total of 200 respondents participated in the study, 100 from each group. Following intervention, respondents with good knowledge score increased from 21% at baseline to 82% at 3 months post intervention in the intervention group (proad safety signs was recorded among motorcyclists in the intervention group after safety education. All motorcyclists should therefore be given education on road safety signs as this will improve compliance and lead to safer road use among them.

  12. Resonance – Journal of Science Education | Indian Academy of ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Author Affiliations. N J Tejaswi1. National Undergraduate Programme in Mathematics and Computer Science, Chennai Mathematical Institute (previously SPIC Mathematical Institute) 92, G N Chetty Road, T Nagar, Chennai 600 017, India.

  13. 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.

  14. 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.

  15. Application of IC Card License for Road Transportation in Commercial Vehicles Supervision and Service

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li Weiwei

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available IC card electronic license for road transport includes the IC card commercial vehicle’s certificate and IC card practitioner’s qualification certificate. In China, the IC card electronic license for road transport is the electronic ID card which must be carried by each commercial vehicles and practitioners. This paper briefly introduces the basic situation, data format and security keys architecture of IC card electronic license for road transportation of China. In order to strengthen the supervision and service of commercial vehicles, this paper puts forward the overall application framework of IC card electronic license for road transport. The application examples of IC card license in the supervision of passenger station, dangerous goods transport management, governance overload and logistics park and port area management are discussed. The practical application results show that the application of IC card electronic license for road transport is an important technical means to improve the supervision ability and service quality of the road transportation industry.

  16. Real-Time (Vision-Based) Road Sign Recognition Using an Artificial Neural Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Islam, Kh Tohidul; Raj, Ram Gopal

    2017-01-01

    Road sign recognition is a driver support function that can be used to notify and warn the driver by showing the restrictions that may be effective on the current stretch of road. Examples for such regulations are ‘traffic light ahead’ or ‘pedestrian crossing’ indications. The present investigation targets the recognition of Malaysian road and traffic signs in real-time. Real-time video is taken by a digital camera from a moving vehicle and real world road signs are then extracted using vision-only information. The system is based on two stages, one performs the detection and another one is for recognition. In the first stage, a hybrid color segmentation algorithm has been developed and tested. In the second stage, an introduced robust custom feature extraction method is used for the first time in a road sign recognition approach. Finally, a multilayer artificial neural network (ANN) has been created to recognize and interpret various road signs. It is robust because it has been tested on both standard and non-standard road signs with significant recognition accuracy. This proposed system achieved an average of 99.90% accuracy with 99.90% of sensitivity, 99.90% of specificity, 99.90% of f-measure, and 0.001 of false positive rate (FPR) with 0.3 s computational time. This low FPR can increase the system stability and dependability in real-time applications. PMID:28406471

  17. Real-Time (Vision-Based) Road Sign Recognition Using an Artificial Neural Network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Islam, Kh Tohidul; Raj, Ram Gopal

    2017-04-13

    Road sign recognition is a driver support function that can be used to notify and warn the driver by showing the restrictions that may be effective on the current stretch of road. Examples for such regulations are 'traffic light ahead' or 'pedestrian crossing' indications. The present investigation targets the recognition of Malaysian road and traffic signs in real-time. Real-time video is taken by a digital camera from a moving vehicle and real world road signs are then extracted using vision-only information. The system is based on two stages, one performs the detection and another one is for recognition. In the first stage, a hybrid color segmentation algorithm has been developed and tested. In the second stage, an introduced robust custom feature extraction method is used for the first time in a road sign recognition approach. Finally, a multilayer artificial neural network (ANN) has been created to recognize and interpret various road signs. It is robust because it has been tested on both standard and non-standard road signs with significant recognition accuracy. This proposed system achieved an average of 99.90% accuracy with 99.90% of sensitivity, 99.90% of specificity, 99.90% of f-measure, and 0.001 of false positive rate (FPR) with 0.3 s computational time. This low FPR can increase the system stability and dependability in real-time applications.

  18. 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.

  19. 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.

  20. What are the factors that contribute to road accidents? An assessment of law enforcement views, ordinary drivers' opinions, and road accident records.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rolison, Jonathan J; Regev, Shirley; Moutari, Salissou; Feeney, Aidan

    2018-06-01

    What are the main contributing factors to road accidents? Factors such as inexperience, lack of skill, and risk-taking behaviors have been associated with the collisions of young drivers. In contrast, visual, cognitive, and mobility impairment have been associated with the collisions of older drivers. We investigated the main causes of road accidents by drawing on multiple sources: expert views of police officers, lay views of the driving public, and official road accident records. In Studies 1 and 2, police officers and the public were asked about the typical causes of road traffic collisions using hypothetical accident scenarios. In Study 3, we investigated whether the views of police officers and the public about accident causation influence their recall accuracy for factors reported to contribute to hypothetical road accidents. The results show that both expert views of police officers and lay views of the driving public closely approximated the typical factors associated with the collisions of young and older drivers, as determined from official accident records. The results also reveal potential underreporting of factors in existing accident records, identifying possible inadequacies in law enforcement practices for investigating driver distraction, drug and alcohol impairment, and uncorrected or defective eyesight. Our investigation also highlights a need for accident report forms to be continuously reviewed and updated to ensure that contributing factor lists reflect the full range of factors that contribute to road accidents. Finally, the views held by police officers and the public on accident causation influenced their memory recall of factors involved in hypothetical scenarios. These findings indicate that delay in completing accident report forms should be minimised, possibly by use of mobile reporting devices at the accident scene. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  1. Recognition Stage for a Speed Supervisor Based on Road Sign Detection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    José María Armingol

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available Traffic accidents are still one of the main health problems in the World. A number of measures have been applied in order to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities in roads, i.e., implementation of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS based on image processing. In this paper, a real time speed supervisor based on road sign recognition that can work both in urban and non-urban environments is presented. The system is able to recognize 135 road signs, belonging to the danger, yield, prohibition obligation and indication types, and sends warning messages to the driver upon the combination of two pieces of information: the current speed of the car and the road sign symbol. The core of this paper is the comparison between the two main methods which have been traditionally used for detection and recognition of road signs: template matching (TM and neural networks (NN. The advantages and disadvantages of the two approaches will be shown and commented. Additionally we will show how the use of well-known algorithms to avoid illumination issues reduces the amount of images needed to train a neural network.

  2. PAEs occurrence and sources in road dust and soil in/around parks in May in Tianjin, China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Jie; Ji, Yaqin; Zhu, Zhenyu; Zhang, Wei; Zhang, Lei; Zhao, Jingbo

    2018-01-01

    This is the first study reporting the presence of six phthalic acid esters (PAEs) in 45 composite soil and road dust samples collected in the urban zone of Tianjin, China. Three sample types (one soil and two road dust) were collected from the city parks. Soil samples (SI) were obtained from inside the park, road dust samples (RDI) were gathered from inside the park roads and the others (RDA) from roads surrounding parks. The range of concentrations of ∑ 6 PAEs in SI, RDI and RDA were 0.07-0.92μgg -1 , 0.42-6.32μgg -1 and 0.40-7.54μgg -1 , respectively. The highest SI ∑ 6 PAEs concentration (0.92μgg -1 in The People's Park) was 13 times higher than that of the lowest content (0.07μgg -1 in XiLiu Park). Furthermore, the spatial distribution of PAEs in RDI showed higher contents in the Nankai and Hexi districts. PAEs concentrations in different types of roads displayed significant differences (P roads such as arterial road > sub-arterial road > branch road. The results of nonparametric tests on ∑ 6 PAEs revealed significant differences between every two different sample types (P < 0.05). The analysis of the six PAEs types indicated DnBP and DEHP were the primary contaminating compounds in all sample types. The PCA results showed cosmetics and personal care products were important sources of PAEs in SI, and plasticizers were the key sources of PAEs in RDI and RDA. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Road Traffic Injuries Among Iranian Children and Adolescents: An Epidemiological Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Salar Behzadnia

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Context: Road traffic injuries (RTIs are the leading cause of death and globally kill 1.2 million people every year and leave 20 - 50 million people injured and disabled. In Iran, traffic related fatalities are the leading cause of death among all inadvertent fatal injuries imposed on children under five. Herein, authors review the epidemiological studies performed on vehicle accidents among Iranian children and adolescents to improve the knowledge about these preventable events. Evidence Acquisition: International databases including PubMed, Google scholar, science direct Cochrane library, and national data bases such as scientific information database (SID were searched for terms; children, motor vehicle accident, road traffic injuries, Iran 2000 - 2015. Publication in Persian or English language related to the subject including Iranian children and adolescent's age groups were included. Among the 312 articles, 11 (two abstracts and nine full texts were selected. Nine full texts were reviewed. Results: From 22865 victims, about 3578 children and adolescents under 19 years old were identified. Males were more affected than females. Pedestrian injury with 43.66% was the most common case of road traffic injuries. Head trauma was the most common cause of injuries reported by eight of the reviewed articles. Most of the accidents occurred between 1:00 - 6:00 PM. Most of RTIs occurred in summer. Care by emergency medical services (EMS (29.14% was reported by five out of the nine reviewed article. Conclusions: Most of the road traffic injuries among Iranian children and adolescents are preventable using appropriate preventive strategies such as safety facilities, safe vehicles, and safe traffic behavior, and establishing comprehensive public education programs for older children and their parents.

  4. The Status of Road Safety in Iran during 2001 – 2006

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. J. Jafari

    2013-08-01

    .Result: The results revealed that during the period of 6 years, death toll has been increased by 9 deaths per 100000 person of the population. Moreover, application of seat belt and safety helmet has been increased by 20% and 18%, respectively. It also indicated that the number of motorists and the length of paved roads have been increased by 20%, and 10%, respectively. The net income per capita has also grown from 5884 US$ to 7968 US$ and the life expectancy has gone up from 68.9 years to 70.9 years, the percentage of the literate population has grown by 2% (from 76% to 78% and the human development index has increased from 0.721 to 0.759. The results of the present study showed that the increased level of death toll per 10000 vehicles and the increased level (% of seat belt as well as helmet application, paved roads, urbanization, the net income per capita, life expectancy, literacy and human development index were statistically significant and R2 coefficient for this factors was 0.84, 0.9, 0.994, 0.9, 0.97, 0.82, 0.69 and 0.84 respectively. .Conclusion: According to result of the present study, roads safety were not in an appropriate level. The roads safety status can be determined using road safety indicators to be applied for road safety promotion.

  5. [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.

  6. 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

  7. 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 ...

  8. 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

  9. Empirical Radiometric Normalization of Road Points from Terrestrial Mobile Lidar System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tee-Ann Teo

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Lidar data provide both geometric and radiometric information. Radiometric information is influenced by sensor and target factors and should be calibrated to obtain consistent energy responses. The radiometric correction of airborne lidar system (ALS converts the amplitude into a backscatter cross-section with physical meaning value by applying a model-driven approach. The radiometric correction of terrestrial mobile lidar system (MLS is a challenging task because it does not completely follow the inverse square range function at near-range. This study proposed a radiometric normalization workflow for MLS using a data-driven approach. The scope of this study is to normalize amplitude of road points for road surface classification, assuming that road points from different scanners or strips should have similar responses in overlapped areas. The normalization parameters for range effect were obtained from crossroads. The experiment showed that the amplitude difference between scanners and strips decreased after radiometric normalization and improved the accuracy of road surface classification.

  10. 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

  11. 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.

  12. 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’....

  13. A socio-economic assessment of proposed road user charging schemes in Copenhagen

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rich, Jeppe; Nielsen, Otto Anker

    2007-01-01

    -economic analysis of four different proposed road pricing schemes for the Copenhagen area. The purpose was to assess all benefits and costs involved, including impacts on traffic and environment, maintenance and financing costs as well as tax distortion effects. It was concluded that the socio-economic surplus......Road pricing. congestion charging, toll-systems and other road charging instruments are intensively discussed in many countries. Although many partial analyses of the consequences have been published, few overall socio-economic analyses have been carried out. The article presents such a socio...... of the projects depends crucially on the congestion level. With the Current traffic level, road pricing will not yet be socially expedient in Copenhagen. However, if the opening year is postponed to 2015, the two most favourable schemes will turn positive. The analyses also showed that the magnitude of demand...

  14. Road Traffic Injury in Lagos, Nigeria: Assessing Prehospital Care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ibrahim, Nasiru A; Ajani, Abdul Wahab O; Mustafa, Ibrahim A; Balogun, Rufai A; Oludara, Mobolaji A; Idowu, Olufemi E; Solagberu, Babatunde A

    2017-08-01

    Introduction Injuries are the third most important cause of overall deaths globally with one-quarter resulting from road traffic crashes. Majority of these deaths occur before arrival in the hospital and can be reduced with prompt and efficient prehospital care. The aim of this study was to highlight the burden of road traffic injury (RTI) in Lagos, Nigeria and assess the effectiveness of prehospital care, especially the role of Lagos State Ambulance Service (LASAMBUS) in providing initial care and transportation of the injured to the hospital. A three-year, retrospective review of road traffic injured patients seen at the Surgical Emergency Room (SER) of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, Nigeria, from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2014 was conducted. Parameters extracted from the Institution Trauma Registry included bio-data, date and time of injury, date and time of arrival in SER, host status, type of vehicle involved, and region(s) injured. Information on how patients came to the hospital and outcome in SER also were recorded. Results were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS; IBM Corporation; Armonk, New York USA) version 16. A total of 23,537 patients were seen during the study period. Among them, 16,024 (68.1%) had trauma. Road traffic crashes were responsible in 5,629 (35.0%) of trauma cases. Passengers constituted 42.0% of the injured, followed by pedestrians (34.0%). Four wheelers were the most frequent vehicle type involved (54.0%), followed by motor cycles (30.0%). Regions mainly affected were head and neck (40.0%) and lower limb (29.0%). Less than one-quarter (24.0%) presented to the emergency room within an hour, while one-third arrived between one and six hours following injury. Relatives brought 55.4%, followed by bystanders (21.4%). Only 2.3% had formal prehospital care and were brought to the hospital by LASAMBUS. They also had significantly shorter arrival time. One hundred and nine patients

  15. Planning and Arun's (not so Straight and Narrow Roads

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jeannie van Wyk

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Arun Property Development (Pty Ltd wished to subdivide portions of the farm Langeberg 311, Durbanville. The 1988 structure plan for the area had indicated that certain roads would traverse the property. These and other roads all formed part of a new subdivision known as Sonstraal Heights. As is customary, the ownership of the roads in the subdivision vested in the municipality in terms of section 28 of the Land Use Planning Ordinance 15 of 1985 (C (LUPO on the date of approval of the subdivision. Central to this provision is that no compensation is payable to the developer if the provision of the public roads is based on the normal need therefor arising from the subdivision. Since the developer was of the opinion that the roads it had provided exceeded the normal need, the issue that had to be resolved was whether compensation must be paid for roads beyond what would normally be required for a subdivision. The main issue that the courts, from the Western Cape High Court to the Constitutional Court in Arun Property Development (Pty Ltd v City of Cape Town 2015 2 SA 584 (CC, had to deal with was whether the vesting of roads beyond the normal need therefor arising from the subdivision amounted to an expropriation of land for which compensation is payable in terms of section 25(2 of the Constitution. This case note looks at the different stages of the case, and in the process highlights the historical and legislative background and the subdivision process. It shows that the vesting of the ownership of roads in the municipality is similar to the payment of a development contribution, both of which can be categorised as deprivations of property in terms of the constitutional property clause. On 1 July 2015 LUPO was effectively superseded by the new Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act 16 of 2013 (SPLUMA and the Western Cape Land Use Planning Act 3 of 2014 (LUPA. Since SPLUMA does not and LUPA does contain a reference to the "normal needs

  16. Sensors Fusion based Online Mapping and Features Extraction of Mobile Robot in the Road Following and Roundabout

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ali, Mohammed A H; Yussof, Wan Azhar B.; Hamedon, Zamzuri B; Yussof, Zulkifli B.; Majeed, Anwar P P; Mailah, Musa

    2016-01-01

    A road feature extraction based mapping system using a sensor fusion technique for mobile robot navigation in road environments is presented in this paper. The online mapping of mobile robot is performed continuously in the road environments to find the road properties that enable the robot to move from a certain start position to pre-determined goal while discovering and detecting the roundabout. The sensors fusion involving laser range finder, camera and odometry which are installed in a new platform, are used to find the path of the robot and localize it within its environments. The local maps are developed using camera and laser range finder to recognize the roads borders parameters such as road width, curbs and roundabout. Results show the capability of the robot with the proposed algorithms to effectively identify the road environments and build a local mapping for road following and roundabout. (paper)

  17. 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 ...

  18. 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.

  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. Bio fuel ash in a road construction: impact on soil solution chemistry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thurdin, R T; van Hees, P A W; Bylund, D; Lundström, U S

    2006-01-01

    Limited natural resources and landfill space, as well as increasing amounts of ash produced from incineration of bio fuel and municipal solid waste, have created a demand for useful applications of ash, of which road construction is one application. Along national road 90, situated about 20 km west of Sollefteå in the middle of Sweden, an experiment road was constructed with a 40 cm bio fuel ash layer. The environmental impact of the ash layer was evaluated from soil solutions obtained by centrifugation of soil samples taken on four occasions during 2001-2003. Soil samples were taken in the ash layer, below the ash layer at two depths in the road and in the ditch. In the soil solutions, pH, conductivity, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and the total concentration of cations (metals) and anions were determined. Two years after the application of the ash layers in the test road, the concentrations in the ash layer of K, SO4, Zn, and Hg had increased significantly while the concentration of Se, Mo and Cd had decreased significantly. Below the ash layer in the road an initial increase of pH was observed and the concentrations of K, SO4, Se, Mo and Cd increased significantly, while the concentrations of Cu and Hg decreased significantly in the road and also in the ditch. Cd was the element showing a potential risk of contamination of the groundwater. The concentrations of Ca in the ash layer indicated an ongoing hardening, which is important for the leaching rate and the strength of the road construction.

  1. 76 FR 70779 - President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-11-15

    ... University of Michigan North Campus Research Complex, 2800 Plymouth Road, Building 18, Ann Arbor, MI 48109... the University of Michigan North Research Complex from 8:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. on December 12, 2011... OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology...

  2. The Periodic Table. Physical Science in Action[TM]. Schlessinger Science Library. [Videotape].

    Science.gov (United States)

    2000

    Kids know that when they are lost, they look at a map to find their way. It's no different in the world of science, as they'll learn in The Periodic Table--a fun and engaging look at the road map of the elements. Young students will learn about key information included on the table, including atomic number, atomic mass and chemical symbol. They'll…

  3. 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...

  4. 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...

  5. 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....

  6. Development of Strategic Goals of Road Safety Management: A Case Study of Montenegro

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Milenko Čabarkapa

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Evaluation of the results of road safety management at the national level is carried out with a number of predefined indicators. These, predefined indicators should be measurable objectives of road safety management. They are set by national road safety strategies. This paper presents the control implementation of the Strategy to improve road safety in Montenegro for the period 2010-2019. The research showed that the five-year objectives of the National Strategy were achieved in the first years and significantly surmounted. This efficiency is achieved for two main reasons: the development of road safety management, and setting an unambitious, easily attainable goal. These findings are indicators that generally and globally set goals of reducing traffic fatalities cannot comprise at the same time national objectives in all countries. In this context, the methodological improvements of setting national strategic objectives established by the evidences on the national traffic safety issue are proposed.

  7. 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.

  8. Road-Crossing Safety in Virtual Reality: A Comparison of Adolescents With and Without ADHD

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clancy, Tamera A.; Rucklidge, Julia J.; Owen, Dean

    2006-01-01

    This study investigated the potential accident-proneness of adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a hazardous road-crossing environment. An immersive virtual reality traffic gap-choice task was used to determine whether ADHD adolescents show more unsafe road-crossing behavior than controls. Participants (ages 13 to…

  9. Economic development's effect on road transport-related mortality among different types of road users: a cross-sectional international study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paulozzi, Leonard J; Ryan, George W; Espitia-Hardeman, Victoria E; Xi, Yongli

    2007-05-01

    The relationship between a country's stage of economic development and its motor vehicle crash (MVC) mortality rate is not defined for different road users. This paper presents a cross-sectional regression analysis of recent national mortality in 44 countries using death certificate data provided by the World Health Organization. For five types of road users, MVC mortality is expressed as deaths per 100,000 people and per 1000 motor vehicles. Economic development is measured as gross national income (GNI) per capita in U.S. dollars and as motor vehicles per 1000 people. Results showed overall MVC mortality peaked among low-income countries at about US$ 2000 GNI per capita and at about 100 motor vehicles per 1000 people. Overall mortality declined at higher national incomes up to about US$ 24,000. Most changes in MVC mortality associated with economic development were explained by changes in rates among nonmotorized travelers, especially pedestrians. Overall MVC rates were lowest when pedestrian exposure was low because there were few motor vehicles or few pedestrians, and were highest during a critical transition to motorized travel, when many pedestrians and other vulnerable road users vied for use of the roadways with many motor vehicles.

  10. 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.

  11. 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.

  12. 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

  13. AN EFFICIENT METHOD FOR AUTOMATIC ROAD EXTRACTION BASED ON MULTIPLE FEATURES FROM LiDAR DATA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Y. Li

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The road extraction in urban areas is difficult task due to the complicated patterns and many contextual objects. LiDAR data directly provides three dimensional (3D points with less occlusions and smaller shadows. The elevation information and surface roughness are distinguishing features to separate roads. However, LiDAR data has some disadvantages are not beneficial to object extraction, such as the irregular distribution of point clouds and lack of clear edges of roads. For these problems, this paper proposes an automatic road centerlines extraction method which has three major steps: (1 road center point detection based on multiple feature spatial clustering for separating road points from ground points, (2 local principal component analysis with least squares fitting for extracting the primitives of road centerlines, and (3 hierarchical grouping for connecting primitives into complete roads network. Compared with MTH (consist of Mean shift algorithm, Tensor voting, and Hough transform proposed in our previous article, this method greatly reduced the computational cost. To evaluate the proposed method, the Vaihingen data set, a benchmark testing data provided by ISPRS for “Urban Classification and 3D Building Reconstruction” project, was selected. The experimental results show that our method achieve the same performance by less time in road extraction using LiDAR data.

  14. An Efficient Method for Automatic Road Extraction Based on Multiple Features from LiDAR Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Y.; Hu, X.; Guan, H.; Liu, P.

    2016-06-01

    The road extraction in urban areas is difficult task due to the complicated patterns and many contextual objects. LiDAR data directly provides three dimensional (3D) points with less occlusions and smaller shadows. The elevation information and surface roughness are distinguishing features to separate roads. However, LiDAR data has some disadvantages are not beneficial to object extraction, such as the irregular distribution of point clouds and lack of clear edges of roads. For these problems, this paper proposes an automatic road centerlines extraction method which has three major steps: (1) road center point detection based on multiple feature spatial clustering for separating road points from ground points, (2) local principal component analysis with least squares fitting for extracting the primitives of road centerlines, and (3) hierarchical grouping for connecting primitives into complete roads network. Compared with MTH (consist of Mean shift algorithm, Tensor voting, and Hough transform) proposed in our previous article, this method greatly reduced the computational cost. To evaluate the proposed method, the Vaihingen data set, a benchmark testing data provided by ISPRS for "Urban Classification and 3D Building Reconstruction" project, was selected. The experimental results show that our method achieve the same performance by less time in road extraction using LiDAR data.

  15. 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

  16. Applicability of models to estimate traffic noise for urban roads.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Melo, Ricardo A; Pimentel, Roberto L; Lacerda, Diego M; Silva, Wekisley M

    2015-01-01

    Traffic noise is a highly relevant environmental impact in cities. Models to estimate traffic noise, in turn, can be useful tools to guide mitigation measures. In this paper, the applicability of models to estimate noise levels produced by a continuous flow of vehicles on urban roads is investigated. The aim is to identify which models are more appropriate to estimate traffic noise in urban areas since several models available were conceived to estimate noise from highway traffic. First, measurements of traffic noise, vehicle count and speed were carried out in five arterial urban roads of a brazilian city. Together with geometric measurements of width of lanes and distance from noise meter to lanes, these data were input in several models to estimate traffic noise. The predicted noise levels were then compared to the respective measured counterparts for each road investigated. In addition, a chart showing mean differences in noise between estimations and measurements is presented, to evaluate the overall performance of the models. Measured Leq values varied from 69 to 79 dB(A) for traffic flows varying from 1618 to 5220 vehicles/h. Mean noise level differences between estimations and measurements for all urban roads investigated ranged from -3.5 to 5.5 dB(A). According to the results, deficiencies of some models are discussed while other models are identified as applicable to noise estimations on urban roads in a condition of continuous flow. Key issues to apply such models to urban roads are highlighted.

  17. A statistical analysis of the impact of advertising signs on road safety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yannis, George; Papadimitriou, Eleonora; Papantoniou, Panagiotis; Voulgari, Chrisoula

    2013-01-01

    This research aims to investigate the impact of advertising signs on road safety. An exhaustive review of international literature was carried out on the effect of advertising signs on driver behaviour and safety. Moreover, a before-and-after statistical analysis with control groups was applied on several road sites with different characteristics in the Athens metropolitan area, in Greece, in order to investigate the correlation between the placement or removal of advertising signs and the related occurrence of road accidents. Road accident data for the 'before' and 'after' periods on the test sites and the control sites were extracted from the database of the Hellenic Statistical Authority, and the selected 'before' and 'after' periods vary from 2.5 to 6 years. The statistical analysis shows no statistical correlation between road accidents and advertising signs in none of the nine sites examined, as the confidence intervals of the estimated safety effects are non-significant at 95% confidence level. This can be explained by the fact that, in the examined road sites, drivers are overloaded with information (traffic signs, directions signs, labels of shops, pedestrians and other vehicles, etc.) so that the additional information load from advertising signs may not further distract them.

  18. Journal of Genetics | Indian Academy of Sciences

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Arabidopsis; metal-ion tolerance; metallothionein; rice; salt tolerance; yeast; transgenic gene expression. ... Daqing 163319, People's Republic of China; Texas A and M AgriLife Research and Extension Center, Department of Horticultural Sciences, Texas A and M University, 17360 Coit Road, Dallas, TX 75252, USA ...

  19. 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...

  20. 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.

  1. 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

  2. 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...

  3. 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...

  4. Preliminary study on alterations of altitude road traffic in China from 2006 to 2013

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Hui; Yin, Zhiyong; Xiang, Hongyi; Liao, Zhikang; Wang, Zhengguo

    2017-01-01

    Introduction Road traffic can play an important role in strengthening regional economic activities, especially at high altitude, and it is necessary to know important traffic-related information. Although previous studies reported on road traffic in China, there has been little research on high-altitude road traffic to date. Method The annual official census of road traffic safety from 2006 to 2013 was used to obtain data on the general population, registered drivers, registered vehicles, newly built roads, road traffic accidents (RTAs), mortality rate per 100 000 populations and per 10 000 vehicles in high-altitude provinces, including Tibet, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Gansu, Yunnan, Sichuan, and Chongqing. These provincial data were reviewed retrospectively, with the national data as the reference. Statistical analysis (i.e., t test) was used to compare the estimated average annual change rate of population, number of registered drivers, registered vehicles, and newly built roads in high-altitude provinces with the national rates. Results Compared with the national data, there are significantly higher annual rates of population growth in Tibet and Xinjiang, registered drivers in Gansu, registered vehicles in Gansu, Sichuan, and Chongqing, and newly built roads in Tibet and Qinghai. Among the investigated provinces, Tibet, Qinghai, and Yunnan had a higher proportion of the roads with the high class. RTAs and RTA-induced casualties in the high-altitude provinces indicated a decreasing trend. The mortality rate per 10 000 vehicles and per 100 000 populations showed a decreasing trend, while the RTA-related mortality rate in Tibet, Qinghai, Xinjiang and Gansu remained high. Conclusions Major changes for road traffic in high-altitude provinces have occurred over the past decade; however, the RTA-related mortality rate in high-altitude provinces has remained high. This study furthers understanding about road traffic safety in China; further studies on road traffic safety at

  5. Preliminary study on alterations of altitude road traffic in China from 2006 to 2013.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hui Zhao

    Full Text Available Road traffic can play an important role in strengthening regional economic activities, especially at high altitude, and it is necessary to know important traffic-related information. Although previous studies reported on road traffic in China, there has been little research on high-altitude road traffic to date.The annual official census of road traffic safety from 2006 to 2013 was used to obtain data on the general population, registered drivers, registered vehicles, newly built roads, road traffic accidents (RTAs, mortality rate per 100 000 populations and per 10 000 vehicles in high-altitude provinces, including Tibet, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Gansu, Yunnan, Sichuan, and Chongqing. These provincial data were reviewed retrospectively, with the national data as the reference. Statistical analysis (i.e., t test was used to compare the estimated average annual change rate of population, number of registered drivers, registered vehicles, and newly built roads in high-altitude provinces with the national rates.Compared with the national data, there are significantly higher annual rates of population growth in Tibet and Xinjiang, registered drivers in Gansu, registered vehicles in Gansu, Sichuan, and Chongqing, and newly built roads in Tibet and Qinghai. Among the investigated provinces, Tibet, Qinghai, and Yunnan had a higher proportion of the roads with the high class. RTAs and RTA-induced casualties in the high-altitude provinces indicated a decreasing trend. The mortality rate per 10 000 vehicles and per 100 000 populations showed a decreasing trend, while the RTA-related mortality rate in Tibet, Qinghai, Xinjiang and Gansu remained high.Major changes for road traffic in high-altitude provinces have occurred over the past decade; however, the RTA-related mortality rate in high-altitude provinces has remained high. This study furthers understanding about road traffic safety in China; further studies on road traffic safety at high altitude should be

  6. 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.

  7. Recognition of Damaged Arrow-Road Markings by Visible Light Camera Sensor Based on Convolutional Neural Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Husan Vokhidov

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Automobile driver information as displayed on marked road signs indicates the state of the road, traffic conditions, proximity to schools, etc. These signs are important to insure the safety of the driver and pedestrians. They are also important input to the automated advanced driver assistance system (ADAS, installed in many automobiles. Over time, the arrow-road markings may be eroded or otherwise damaged by automobile contact, making it difficult for the driver to correctly identify the marking. Failure to properly identify an arrow-road marker creates a dangerous situation that may result in traffic accidents or pedestrian injury. Very little research exists that studies the problem of automated identification of damaged arrow-road marking painted on the road. In this study, we propose a method that uses a convolutional neural network (CNN to recognize six types of arrow-road markings, possibly damaged, by visible light camera sensor. Experimental results with six databases of Road marking dataset, KITTI dataset, Málaga dataset 2009, Málaga urban dataset, Naver street view dataset, and Road/Lane detection evaluation 2013 dataset, show that our method outperforms conventional methods.

  8. Recognition of Damaged Arrow-Road Markings by Visible Light Camera Sensor Based on Convolutional Neural Network.

    Science.gov (United States)

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

    2016-12-16

    Automobile driver information as displayed on marked road signs indicates the state of the road, traffic conditions, proximity to schools, etc. These signs are important to insure the safety of the driver and pedestrians. They are also important input to the automated advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), installed in many automobiles. Over time, the arrow-road markings may be eroded or otherwise damaged by automobile contact, making it difficult for the driver to correctly identify the marking. Failure to properly identify an arrow-road marker creates a dangerous situation that may result in traffic accidents or pedestrian injury. Very little research exists that studies the problem of automated identification of damaged arrow-road marking painted on the road. In this study, we propose a method that uses a convolutional neural network (CNN) to recognize six types of arrow-road markings, possibly damaged, by visible light camera sensor. Experimental results with six databases of Road marking dataset, KITTI dataset, Málaga dataset 2009, Málaga urban dataset, Naver street view dataset, and Road/Lane detection evaluation 2013 dataset, show that our method outperforms conventional methods.

  9. Recognition of Damaged Arrow-Road Markings by Visible Light Camera Sensor Based on Convolutional Neural Network

    Science.gov (United States)

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

    2016-01-01

    Automobile driver information as displayed on marked road signs indicates the state of the road, traffic conditions, proximity to schools, etc. These signs are important to insure the safety of the driver and pedestrians. They are also important input to the automated advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), installed in many automobiles. Over time, the arrow-road markings may be eroded or otherwise damaged by automobile contact, making it difficult for the driver to correctly identify the marking. Failure to properly identify an arrow-road marker creates a dangerous situation that may result in traffic accidents or pedestrian injury. Very little research exists that studies the problem of automated identification of damaged arrow-road marking painted on the road. In this study, we propose a method that uses a convolutional neural network (CNN) to recognize six types of arrow-road markings, possibly damaged, by visible light camera sensor. Experimental results with six databases of Road marking dataset, KITTI dataset, Málaga dataset 2009, Málaga urban dataset, Naver street view dataset, and Road/Lane detection evaluation 2013 dataset, show that our method outperforms conventional methods. PMID:27999301

  10. 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.

  11. SELECTED PROBLEMS OF PROTECTION AGAINST ROAD TRAFFIC NOISE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Władysław Gardziejczyk

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available The paper presents factors for assessment of road traffic noise level and possible actions towards the minimization of excessive noise in the roadway neighborhood. Changes of equivalent sound level values were analyzed in relation to traffic intensity, categorization and vehicles speed. In relation to measures reducing noise level in roadway’s surroundings particular attention was given to anti-noise protections and tyre/noise reduction. Acoustic effectiveness of specific solutions was showed based on chosen examples. It was proved that when admissible noise level is slightly exceeded the need for noise barrier use may be replaced by a proper design and maintenance of road pavement or by enforcement of speed limit.

  12. Effects of transverse rumble strips on safety of pedestrian crosswalks on rural roads in China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Pan; Huang, Jia; Wang, Wei; Xu, Chengcheng

    2011-11-01

    The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the impacts of transverse rumble strips in reducing crashes and vehicle speeds at pedestrian crosswalks on rural roads in China. Using crash data reported at 366 sites, the research team conducted an observational before-after study using a comparison group and the Empirical Bayesian (EB) method to evaluate the effectiveness of transverse rumble strips in reducing crashes at pedestrian crosswalks. It was found that transverse rumble strips may reduce expected crash frequency at pedestrian crosswalks by 25%. The research team collected more than 15,000 speed observations at 12 sites. The speed data analysis results show that transverse rumble strips significantly reduce vehicle speeds in vicinity of pedestrian crosswalks on rural roads with posted speed limits of 60 km/h and 80 km/h. On average, the mean speed at pedestrian crosswalks declined 9.2 km/h on roads with a speed limit of 60 km/h; and 11.9 km/h on roads with a speed limit of 80 km/h. The 85th percentile speed declined 9.1 km/h on roads with a speed limit of 60 km/h; and 12.0 km/h on roads with a speed limit of 80 km/h. However, the speed reduction impacts were not found to be statistically significant for the pedestrian crosswalk on the road with a speed limit of 40 km/h. The study also looked extensively at the influence area of transverse rumble strips on rural roads. Speed profiles developed in this study show that the influence area of transverse rumble strips is generally less than 0.3 km. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Signatures of vehicular emissions and human health risk assessment of road dust in selected roads of Accra, Ghana

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Manukure, A.S.

    2009-06-01

    Street dust samples were collected from Mallam Junction-Weija road, John Teye-Pokuase road, Tema Motorway (near Ashiaman overhead) and Tetteh Quarshie interchange in Accra. The samples were segregated into grain sizes between 250μm-100μm and less than 100μm. Energy dispersive X-ray florescence technique was used to determine the elemental compositions. In all twenty (20) elements were identified: K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, Ge, As, Se, Br, Rb, Sr, Y, Zr and Pb. The results show significant concentration levels of K, Ca, Ti Pb, Zn, Cu, Mn, Fe, Rb, Sr, Y, Zr and Cr in all the samples. Ultra violet visible spectrophotometer was used to determine the concentrations of SO 4 2- and NO 3 - . Enrichment factors calculated for the elements show high enrichment of Pb, V, Zn, Cu, Zr, Cr, Br and Pb from the sample sites. There was no indication of significant anthropogenic contribution of manganese (Mn) which gave enrichment factor values in the range of 0.57- 1.00 in the road dust. The average SO 4 2- and NO 3 - concentration ranged between 17.69mg/kg-28.86mg/kg and 14.76mg/kg-23.70mg/kg respectively. The principal component analysis was used to identify sources and their contributions. The sources identified were natural crust, brake wear, tyre wear and vehicle exhaust emission. The results show high levels of vehicle non-exhaust emission than vehicular exhaust emission. A risk assessment of selected heavy metal contaminants from all sites indicate that Pb which is the most toxic among the elements gave Hazard Index (H-I) value in the range of 0.14 - 0.62 which is less than the safe level of one (1). It was also observed that ingestion pathway which gave HI value in the range of 1.1- 2.3 showed the highest risk of exposure. Tetteh Quarshie Interchange gave the highest cumulative risk exposure. (au)

  14. Two-Dimensional Modeling of Heat and Moisture Dynamics in Swedish Roads: Model Set up and Parameter Sensitivity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rasul, H.; Wu, M.; Olofsson, B.

    2017-12-01

    Modelling moisture and heat changes in road layers is very important to understand road hydrology and for better construction and maintenance of roads in a sustainable manner. In cold regions due to the freezing/thawing process in the partially saturated material of roads, the modeling task will become more complicated than simple model of flow through porous media without freezing/thawing pores considerations. This study is presenting a 2-D model simulation for a section of highway with considering freezing/thawing and vapor changes. Partial deferential equations (PDEs) are used in formulation of the model. Parameters are optimized from modelling results based on the measured data from test station on E18 highway near Stockholm. Impacts of phase change considerations in the modelling are assessed by comparing the modeled soil moisture with TDR-measured data. The results show that the model can be used for prediction of water and ice content in different layers of the road and at different seasons. Parameter sensitivities are analyzed by implementing a calibration strategy. In addition, the phase change consideration is evaluated in the modeling process, by comparing the PDE model with another model without considerations of freezing/thawing in roads. The PDE model shows high potential in understanding the moisture dynamics in the road system.

  15. A research of road centerline extraction algorithm from high resolution remote sensing images

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yushan; Xu, Tingfa

    2017-09-01

    Satellite remote sensing technology has become one of the most effective methods for land surface monitoring in recent years, due to its advantages such as short period, large scale and rich information. Meanwhile, road extraction is an important field in the applications of high resolution remote sensing images. An intelligent and automatic road extraction algorithm with high precision has great significance for transportation, road network updating and urban planning. The fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering segmentation algorithms have been used in road extraction, but the traditional algorithms did not consider spatial information. An improved fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm combined with spatial information (SFCM) is proposed in this paper, which is proved to be effective for noisy image segmentation. Firstly, the image is segmented using the SFCM. Secondly, the segmentation result is processed by mathematical morphology to remover the joint region. Thirdly, the road centerlines are extracted by morphology thinning and burr trimming. The average integrity of the centerline extraction algorithm is 97.98%, the average accuracy is 95.36% and the average quality is 93.59%. Experimental results show that the proposed method in this paper is effective for road centerline extraction.

  16. 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.

  17. 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.

  18. Life Cores: A Sci-Art Collaboration Between a Snow/Ice Researcher, an Artist/Educator, Students, and Street Road Artists Space

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dooley, J.; Courville, Z.; Artinian, E.

    2016-12-01

    BackgroundStreet Road Artists Space Summer 2015 show was Sailing Stones. Works presented scenarios on tension between transience and permanence, highlighting cultural constructs imposed onto landscape and place. Dooley's installation, CryoZen Garden, operated as visual metaphor, modeling cryospheric processes and explored effects of melting polar ice caps on a warming world. A grant from Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts, with a focus on sharing contemporary works which were participatory, conceptual, and polar science research-based, allowed for a new project to engage community members, particularly students.MethodsIn this project students were introduced to the work of Dooley, artist/educator and Courville, snow/ice researcher. Students created `Life Cores', a take on ice and sediment coring scientists use as evidence of Earth's atmospheric and geologic changes. Students were given plastic tubes 2' long and 2" in diameter and were asked to add a daily layer of materials taken from everyday life, for a one month period. Students chose materials important to them personally, and kept journals, reflecting on items' significance, and/or relationship to life and world events. After creation of the Life Cores, Courville and Dooley visited students, shared their work on polar research, what it's like to live and work on ice, and ways science and art can intertwine to create better understanding of climate change issues. Students used core logging sheets to make observations of each others' life cores, noting layer colors, textures and deposition rates as some of the characteristics researchers use in ice and sediment core interpretation. Students' work was exhibited at Street Road and will remain on Street Road's website. Courville and Dooley presented to the general public during the opening. ConclusionsParticipants were better able to answer the question, How do we know what we know from coring? by relating the science to something that is known and personal, such as

  19. 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.…

  20. 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.

  1. 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.

  2. Road Impedance Model Study under the Control of Intersection Signal

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yunlin Luo

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Road traffic impedance model is a difficult and critical point in urban traffic assignment and route guidance. The paper takes a signalized intersection as the research object. On the basis of traditional traffic wave theory including the implementation of traffic wave model and the analysis of vehicles’ gathering and dissipating, the road traffic impedance model is researched by determining the basic travel time and waiting delay time. Numerical example results have proved that the proposed model in this paper has received better calculation performance compared to existing model, especially in flat hours. The values of mean absolute percentage error (MAPE and mean absolute deviation (MAD are separately reduced by 3.78% and 2.62 s. It shows that the proposed model has feasibility and availability in road traffic impedance under intersection signal.

  3. Caring Enough to Teach Science. Helping Pre-service Teachers View Science Instruction as an Ethical Responsibility

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grinell, Smith; Rabin, Colette

    2017-11-01

    The goal of this project was to motivate pre-service elementary teachers to commit to spending significant instructional time on science in their future classrooms despite their self-assessed lack of confidence about teaching science and other impediments (e.g., high-stakes testing practices that value other subjects over science). Pre-service teachers in science methods courses explored connections between science and ethics, specifically around issues of ecological sustainability, and grappled with their ethical responsibilities as teachers to provide science instruction. Survey responses, student "quick-writes," interview transcripts, and field notes were analyzed. Findings suggest that helping pre-service teachers see these connections may shape their beliefs and dispositions in ways that may motivate them to embark on the long road toward improving their science pedagogical content knowledge and ultimately to teach science to their students more often and better than they otherwise might. The approach may also offer a way for teachers to attend to the moral work of teaching.

  4. 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

  5. Observers for vehicle tyre/road forces estimation: experimental validation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doumiati, M.; Victorino, A.; Lechner, D.; Baffet, G.; Charara, A.

    2010-11-01

    The motion of a vehicle is governed by the forces generated between the tyres and the road. Knowledge of these vehicle dynamic variables is important for vehicle control systems that aim to enhance vehicle stability and passenger safety. This study introduces a new estimation process for tyre/road forces. It presents many benefits over the existing state-of-art works, within the dynamic estimation framework. One of these major contributions consists of discussing in detail the vertical and lateral tyre forces at each tyre. The proposed method is based on the dynamic response of a vehicle instrumented with potentially integrated sensors. The estimation process is separated into two principal blocks. The role of the first block is to estimate vertical tyre forces, whereas in the second block two observers are proposed and compared for the estimation of lateral tyre/road forces. The different observers are based on a prediction/estimation Kalman filter. The performance of this concept is tested and compared with real experimental data using a laboratory car. Experimental results show that the proposed approach is a promising technique to provide accurate estimation. Thus, it can be considered as a practical low-cost solution for calculating vertical and lateral tyre/road forces.

  6. 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...

  7. 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...

  8. 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.

  9. "Them or Us": Perceptions, cognitions, emotions, and overt behavior associated with cyclists and motorists sharing the road

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kaplan, Sigal; Prato, Carlo Giacomo

    2014-01-01

    In emerging cycling regions, cyclists and motorists share the road due to cycling infrastructure scarcity. This study investigates the chain of stimuli, cognition, emotion, and behavior associated with the road-sharing experience through the thematic analysis of talk-backs posted in response...... to news items related to cyclist-motorist crashes. Results show: (a) cycling infrastructure scarcity and perceived road use rights trigger emotional stress; (b) motorists and cyclists perceive the road-sharing experience as life-threatening and experience anxiety, anger, and fear; (c) drivers' coping...

  10. 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),

  11. 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.

  12. 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...

  13. 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).

  14. 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

  15. On-road emission characteristics of heavy-duty diesel vehicles in Shanghai

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Changhong; Huang, Cheng; Jing, Qiguo; Wang, Haikun; Pan, Hansheng; Li, Li; Zhao, Jing; Dai, Yi; Huang, Haiying; Schipper, Lee; Streets, David G.

    On-road vehicle tests of nine heavy-duty diesel trucks were conducted using SEMTECH-D, an emissions measuring instrument provided by Sensors, Inc. The total length of roads for the tests was 186 km. Data were obtained for 37,255 effective driving cycles, including 17,216 on arterial roads, 15,444 on residential roads, and 4595 on highways. The impacts of speed and acceleration on fuel consumption and emissions were analyzed. Results show that trucks spend an average of 16.5% of the time in idling mode, 25.5% in acceleration mode, 27.9% in deceleration mode, and only 30.0% at cruise speed. The average emission factors of CO, total hydrocarbons (THC), and NO x for the selected vehicles are (4.96±2.90), (1.88±1.03) and (6.54±1.90) g km -1, respectively. The vehicle emission rates vary significantly with factors like speed and acceleration. The test results reflect the actual traffic situation and the current emission status of diesel trucks in Shanghai. The measurements show that low-speed conditions with frequent acceleration and deceleration, particularly in congestion conditions, are the main factors that aggravate vehicle emissions and cause high emissions of CO and THC. Alleviating congestion would significantly improve vehicle fuel economy and reduce CO and THC emissions.

  16. Energy efficiency practices among road freight hauliers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liimatainen, Heikki; Stenholm, Pekka; Tapio, Petri; McKinnon, Alan

    2012-01-01

    The reduction of greenhouse gases (GHG) is a highly prevalent public policy goal among European Union member countries. In the new White Paper on transport, the role of road freight transports in this is strongly emphasized. This far, however, the efficiency practices utilised in logistics firms are less studied. Drawing from policy goals and new survey data on 295 road transport firms our results show that hauliers are aware of the possible energy efficiency actions but lack the knowledge and resources to fully utilize them. Energy efficiency seems also to be unimportant for many shippers, so there are no incentives for hauliers to improve it. Examples from various countries show that clear energy efficiency improvements can be achieved with active cooperation between hauliers, shippers and policy makers. Such cooperation can be developed in Finland through the sectoral energy efficiency agreements. The novelty and the utility of these results allow scholars to answer important open questions in the national-level determinants of enhancing energy efficiency practices among road freight hauliers, and contribute to our understanding of how these can be fostered in public policies. - Highlights: ► Hauliers still monitor their fuel consumption with unsophisticated methods. ► Larger hauliers are more active in energy efficiency related issues than smaller ones. ► Hauliers are aware of energy efficiency actions, but lack knowledge of implementation. ► Finnish energy efficiency agreement provides a good framework for public policies. ► Companies that monitor and improve energy efficiency may gain competitive advantage.

  17. 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.

  18. Trends of energy efficiency in Finnish road freight transport 1995-2009 and forecast to 2016

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Liimatainen, Heikki; Poellaenen, Markus [Department of Business Information Management and Logistics, Tampere University of Technology, P.O. Box 541, 33101 Tampere (Finland)

    2010-12-15

    A framework for modeling and analyzing the energy efficiency of road freight transport is presented in this paper. This framework is tested by using the data from the Finnish Goods Transport by Road statistics. The data was enhanced by calculating the fuel consumption for each trip in the data. To calculate this, weight-fuel consumption functions were estimated for each Euro-class vehicles and road type. This is a new method for analyzing the energy efficiency of road freight transport and it could be applied also in other countries gathering freight transport data with continuous company surveys. The analysis show that the energy efficiency of road freight transport in Finland improved during 1995-2002, but has declined since. The major drivers in the development have been the changes in the level of empty running and vehicle fuel efficiency. Extrapolating current statistical trends of factors that influence the energy efficiency show that the target set by the Finnish government for improving energy efficiency by 9% until 2016 will not be achieved. However, the target is possible to be achieved by a combination of small changes to some determinants. (author)

  19. Science with SALT: the road from concept to reality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buckley, David A. H.

    2015-08-01

    The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) was a relatively cheap (~$20M) 10m class telescope, modelled on the innovative HET design, for which the construction phase was completed in late 2005. However it took another 6 years or so before the commissioning was really completed and the telescope entered full science operations. This talk will discuss the design and construction of SALT, its First Generation instruments and the operational model for the telescope. A number of technical challenges, some unforeseeable at the time, had to be overcome, which are described in this talk. Some science highlights will be presented, covering a range of topics and focussing on studies related to some of the more unique or rare capabilities of SALT, like time resolved studies. Finally, I look to the future and the prospects of new instruments and capabilities.

  20. 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.