A drive-by inspection system via vehicle moving force identification

This paper presents a novel method to carry out monitoring of transport infrastructure such as pavements and bridges through the analysis of vehicle accelerations. An algorithm is developed for the identification of dynamic vehicle-bridge interaction forces using the vehicle response. Moving force identification theory is applied to a vehicle model in order to identify these dynamic forces between the vehicle and the road and/or bridge. A coupled half-car vehicle-bridge interaction model is used in theoretical simulations to test the effectiveness of the approach in identifying the forces. The potential of the method to identify the global bending stiffness of the bridge and to predict the pavement roughness is presented. The method is tested for a range of bridge spans using theoretical simulations and the influences of road roughness and signal noise on the accuracy of the results are investigated.

Probability and statistics

Now in its sixth edition, the Traffic Engineering Handbook continues to be a must have publication in the transportation industry, as it has been for the past 60 years. The new edition provides updated information for people entering the practice and for those already practicing. The handbook is a convenient desk reference, as well as an all in one source of principles and proven techniques in traffic engineering. Most chapters are presented in a new format, which divides the chapters into four areas-basics, current practice, emerging trends and information sources. Chapter topics include road users, vehicle characteristics, statistics, planning for operations, communications, safety, regulations, traffic calming, access management, geometrics, signs and markings, signals, parking, traffic demand, maintenance and studies. In addition, as the focus in transportation has shifted from project based to operations based, two new chapters have been added-"Planning for Operations" and "Managing Traffic Demand to Address Congestion: Providing Travelers with Choices." The Traffic Engineering Handbook continues to be one of the primary reference sources for study to become a certified Professional Traffic Operations Engineer™. Chapters are authored by notable and experienced authors, and reviewed and edited by a distinguished panel of traffic engineering experts.

Has increasing the age for child passengers to wear child restraints improved the extent to which they are used? Results from an Australian focus group and survey study.

Acknowledgement that many children in Australia travel in restraints that do not offer them the best protection has led to recent changes in legislation such that the type of restraint for children under 7 years is now specified. This paper reports the results of two studies (observational; focus group/ survey) carried out in the state of Queensland to evaluate the effectiveness of these changes to the legislation. Observations suggested that almost all of the children estimated as aged 0-12 years were restrained (95%). Analysis of the type of restraint used for target-aged children (0-6 year olds) suggests that the proportion using an age-appropriate restraint has increased by an estimated 7% since enactment of the legislation. However, around 1 in 4 children estimated as aged under 7 years were using restraints too large for good fit. Results from the survey and focus group suggested parents were supportive of the changes in legislation. Non-Indigenous parents agreed that the changes had been necessary, were effective at getting children into the right restraints, were easy to understand as well as making it clear what restraint to use with children. Moreover, they did not see the legislation as too complicated or too hard to comply with. Indigenous parents who participated in a focus group also regarded the legislation as improving children’s safety. However, they identified the cost of restraints as an important barrier to compliance. In summary, the legislation appears to have had a positive effect on compliance levels and on raising parental awareness of the need to restrain children child-specific restraints for longer. However, it would seem that an important minority of parents transition their children into larger restraints too early for optimal protection. Intervention efforts should aim to better inform these parents about appropriate ages for transition, especially from forward facing childseats. This could potentially be through use of other important transitions that occur at the same age, such as starting school. The small proportion of parents who do not restrain their children at all are also an important community sector to target. Finally, obtaining restraints presents a significant barrier to compliance for parents on limited incomes and interventions are needed to address this.

Analysing energy use in supply chains: the case of fruits & vegetables and furniture

An increasing number of producers, retailers and third-party logistics providers are interested in carrying out energy assessments of their product supply chain. This is due to sensitivity about climate change and carbon emissions, but also to high energy prices. This paper presents an analytical approach developed to measure energy use in logistics activities in product supply chains. The approach (based on the Life Cycle Approach) quantifies energy use in transport and logistics activities at all stages of a product supply chain. The work has demonstrated that such an assessment approach based on the supply chain is useful in comparing the energy use implications of different strategies. This supply chain approach can be used to consider options such as sourcing and distribution centre locations, transport modes, road freight vehicle types and weights, vehicle load factors, empty running, transport distance and the balance between consumer shopping trips and delivery to the home.

Estudo de viabilidade de utilização de VLC em infra-estruturas ITS baseadas em semáforos rodoviários a LEDs

Trabalho Final de Mestrado para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia de Electrónica e Telecomunicações

Planning autonomous vehicles in the absence of speed lanes using lateral potentials

Chaotic traffic, prevalent in many countries, is marked by a large number of vehicles driving with different speeds without following any predefined speed lanes. Such traffic rules out using any planning algorithm for these vehicles which is based upon the maintenance of speed lanes and lane changes. The absence of speed lanes may imply more bandwidth and easier overtaking in cases where vehicles vary considerably in both their size and speed. Inspired by the performance of artificial potential fields in the planning of mobile robots, we propose here lateral potentials as measures to enable vehicles to decide about their lateral positions on the road. Each vehicle is subjected to a potential from obstacles and vehicles in front, road boundaries, obstacles and vehicles to the side and higher speed vehicles to the rear. All these potentials are lateral and only govern steering the vehicle. A speed control mechanism is also used for longitudinal control of vehicle. The proposed system is shown to perform well for obstacle avoidance, vehicle following and overtaking behaviors.

Análise da situação de trabalho do motorista em uma empresa de ônibus urbano da idade de Natal (RN)

The problem dealt with in this study concerns the analysis of bus drivers' working situation. It stemmed from the need to identify the difficulties faced by these professionals in accomplishing the results expected by the company. A case study was carried out in a public transportation company in the city of Natal. Records and observations made in the workplace, alongside perfomance indicators, such as absenteeism tax, staff turnover and traffic accidents, revealed problems in their activity. It was made clear that, in the company being studied, absenteeism was related to health problems, particularly psychiatric and musculoskeletal disorders, and that although the indicators of traffic accidents and staff turnover have declined over the years, they are still elevated. The interviews involved 50 of the 124 drivers who worked directly in the service, and contained questions covering eleven factors related to the drivers' work. They indicated a gap between the prescribed work and the work actually done, in that there were a series of embarassing or stressful situations involving traffic, itinerary length, road conditions, vehicle maintenance, physical environment (bus terminus), job post and supervision policies. On the other hand, factors such as enjoying driving, the work itself and being with workmates positively influenced the drivers' working conditions. In the propositions of the administration and human resources subsystems, some alternatives were found in order to remodel this activity

Non-illness-related factors contributing to traffic safety in older drivers: a litterature review

Background/Study Context: Older drivers are at increased risk of becoming involved in car crashes. Contrary to well-studied illness-related factors contributing to crash risk, the non-illness-related factors that can influence safety of older drivers are underresearched. METHODS: Here, the authors review the literature on non-illness-related factors influencing driving in people over age 60. We identified six safety-relevant factors: road infrastructure, vehicle characteristics, traffic-related knowledge, accuracy of self-awareness, personality traits, and self-restricted driving. RESULTS: The literature suggests that vehicle preference, the quality of traffic-related knowledge, the location and time of traffic exposure, and personality traits should all be taken into account when assessing fitness-to-drive in older drivers. Studies indicate that self-rating of driving skills does not reliably predict fitness-to-drive. CONCLUSIONS: Most factors discussed are adaptable or accessible to training and collectively may have the potential to increase traffic safety for older drivers and other road users.

Employment rate impacts of charging the Heavy Good Vehicle corridor (Madrid-Sevilla) across Spanish regions: a Random Utility Based Multiregional Input-Output approach

The implementation of a charging policy for heavy goods vehicles in European Union (EU) member countries has been imposed to reflect costs of construction and maintenance of infrastructure as well as externalities such as congestion, accidents and environmental impact. In this context, EU countries approved the Eurovignette directive (1999/62/EC) and its amending directive (2006 /38/EC) which established a legal framework to regulate the system of tolls. Even if that regulation seek s to increase the efficien cy of freight, it will trigger direct and indirect effects on Spain’s regional economies by increasing transport costs. This paper presents the development of a multiregional Input-Output methodology (MRIO) with elastic trade coefficients to predict in terregional trade, using transport attributes integrated in multinomial logit models. This method is highly useful to carry out an ex-ante evaluation of transport policies because it involves road freight transport cost sensitivity, and determine regional distributive and substitution economic effect s of countries like Spain, characterized by socio-demographic and economic attributes, differentiated region by region. It will thus be possible to determine cost-effective strategies, given different policy scenarios. MRIO mode l would then be used to determine the impact on the employment rate of imposing a charge in the Madrid-Sevilla corridor in Spain. This methodology is important for measuring the impact on the employment rate since it is one of the main macroeconomic indicators of Spain’s regional and national economic situation. A previous research developed (DESTINO) using a MRIO method estimated employment impacts of road pricing policy across Spanish regions considering a fuel tax charge (€/liter) in the entire shortest cost path network for freight transport. Actually, it found that the variation in employment is expected to be substantial for some regions, and negligible for others. For example, in this Spanish case study of regional employment has showed reductions between 16.1% (Rioja) and 1.4% (Madrid region). This variation range seems to be related to either the intensity of freight transport in each region or dependency of regions to transport intensive economic sect ors. In fact, regions with freight transport intensive sectors will lose more jobs while regions with a predominantly service economy undergo a fairly insignificant loss of employment. This paper is focused on evaluating a freight transport vehicle-kilometer charge (€/km) in a non-tolled motorway corridor (A-4) between Madrid-Sevilla (517 Km.). The consequences of the road pricing policy implementation show s that the employment reductions are not as high as the diminution stated in the previous research because this corridor does not affect the whole freight transport system of Spain.

Methodology for assessing regional economic impacts of charging HGVs in Spain: an integrated approach through a random utility based multiregional input-output and a road transportation network model

An integrated approach composed of a random utility-based multiregional input-output model and a road transport network model was developed for evaluating the application of a fee to heavy-goods vehicles (HGVs) in Spain. For this purpose, a distance-based charge scenario (in euros per vehicle kilometer) for HGVs was evaluated for a selected motorway network in Spain. Although the aim of this charging policy was to increase the efficiency of transport, the approach strongly identified direct and indirect impacts on the regional economy. Estimates of the magnitude and extent of indirect effects on aggregated macroeconomic indicators (employment and gross domestic product) are provided. The macroeconomic effects of the charging policy were found to be positive for some regions and negative for other regions.

Quantification of motor vehicle emission factors from on road measurements

Assessment and prediction of the impact of vehicular traffic emissions on air quality and exposure levels requires knowledge of vehicle emission factors. The aim of this study was quantification of emission factors from an on road, over twelve months measurement program conducted at two sites in Brisbane: 1) freeway type (free flowing traffic at about 100 km/h, fleet dominated by small passenger cars - Tora St); and 2) urban busy road with stop/start traffic mode, fleet comprising a significant fraction of heavy duty vehicles - Ipswich Rd. A physical model linking concentrations measured at the road for specific meteorological conditions with motor vehicle emission factors was applied for data analyses. The focus of the study was on submicrometer particles; however the measurements also included supermicrometer particles, PM2.5, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen. The results of the study are summarised in this paper. In particular, the emission factors for submicrometer particles were 6.08 x 1013 and 5.15 x 1013 particles per vehicle-1 km-1 for Tora St and Ipswich Rd respectively and for supermicrometer particles for Tora St, 1.48 x 109 particles per vehicle-1 km-1. Emission factors of diesel vehicles at both sites were about an order of magnitude higher than emissions from gasoline powered vehicles. For submicrometer particles and gasoline vehicles the emission factors were 6.08 x 1013 and 4.34 x 1013 particles per vehicle-1 km-1 for Tora St and Ipswich Rd, respectively, and for diesel vehicles were 5.35 x 1014 and 2.03 x 1014 particles per vehicle-1 km-1 for Tora St and Ipswich Rd, respectively. For supermicrometer particles at Tora St the emission factors were 2.59 x 109 and 1.53 x 1012 particles per vehicle-1 km-1, for gasoline and diesel vehicles, respectively.

All-terrain vehicle crashes and associated injuries in North Queensland : findings from the Rural and Remote Road Safety Study

Objective: To define characteristics of all-terrain vehicle (ATV) crashes occurring in north Queensland from March 2004 till June 2007 with the exploration of associated risk factors. Design: Descriptive analysis of ATV crash data collected by the Rural and Remote Road Safety Study. Setting: Rural and remote north Queensland. Participants: Forty-two ATV drivers and passengers aged 16 years or over hospitalised at Atherton, Cairns, Mount Isa or Townsville for at least 24 hours as a result of a vehicle crash. Main outcome measures: Demographics of participants, reason for travel, nature of crash, injuries sustained and risk factors associated with ATV crash. Results: The majority of casualties were men aged 16–64. Forty-one per cent of accidents occurred while performing agricultural tasks. Furthermore, 39% of casualties had less than one year’s experience riding ATVs. Over half the casualties were not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash. Common injuries were head and neck and upper limb injuries. Rollovers tended to occur while performing agricultural tasks and most commonly resulted in multiple injuries. Conclusions: Considerable trauma results from ATV crashes in rural and remote north Queensland. These crashes are not included in most general vehicle crash data sets, as they are usually limited to events occurring on public roads. Minimal legislation and regulation currently applies to ATV use in agricultural, recreational and commercial settings. Legislation on safer design of ATVs and mandatory courses for riders is an essential part of addressing the burden of ATV crashes on rural and remote communities.

The on-road difficulties of older drivers and their relationship with self-reported motor vehicle crashes

OBJECTIVES: To quantify the driving difficulties of older adults using a detailed assessment of driving performance and to link this with self-reported retrospective and prospective crashes. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: On-road driving assessment. PARTICIPANTS: Two hundred sixty-seven community-living adults aged 70 to 88 randomly recruited through the electoral roll. MEASUREMENTS: Performance on a standardized measure of driving performance. RESULTS: Lane positioning, approach, and blind spot monitoring were the most common error types, and errors occurred most frequently in situations involving merging and maneuvering. Drivers reporting more retrospective or prospective crashes made significantly more driving errors. Driver instructor interventions during self-navigation (where the instructor had to brake or take control of the steering to avoid an accident) were significantly associated with higher retrospective and prospective crashes; every instructor intervention almost doubled prospective crash risk. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that on-road driving assessment provides useful information on older driver difficulties, with the self-directed component providing the most valuable information.