The future shape of digital cars

Background. Digital information is increasingly becoming available on all aspects of the urban landscape, anywhere and any time. Physical objects (c.f. the Internet of Things) and people (c.f. the Social Web) are increasingly infused with actuators, sensors and tagged with a wealth of digital information. Urban Informatics explores these emerging digital layers of the city. However, very little is known about the challenges and new opportunities that these developments may offer to road users. As we gradually spend more time using our mobile devices as well as our car, the tension between appeasing our craving for connectedness and road safety requirements grow farther apart. Objective. The aims of this paper are to identify (a) new opportunities that Urban Informatics research can offer to our future cars and (b) potential benefits to road safety. Methods. 14 Urban Informatics research experts were grouped into seven teams of two to participate in a guided ideation (idea creation) workshop in a driving simulator. They were immersed into different driving scenarios to brainstorm innovative Urban Informatics applications in different driving contexts. This qualitative study was then evaluated in the context of road safety. Outcomes. There is a lack of articulation between Urban Informatics and Road Safety research. Several Urban Informatics applications (e.g., to enhance social interaction between people in urban environments) may provide benefits, rather than threats, towards road safety, provided they are implemented ergonomically and safely. Conclusions. This research initiates a much-needed dialogue between Urban Informatics and Road Safety disciplines, in the context of Intelligent Transport Systems, before the fast approaching digital wave invades our cars. The dialogue will help to avoid driver distraction issues similar to mobile phones use in cars. As such, it provides valuable information for future regulators and policy makers in charge of shaping our future road transport landscape.

A cross sectional observational study of child restraint use in Queensland following changes in legislation

As part of an evaluation of the 2010 legislation for child vehicle occupants in Queensland, road-side observations of private passenger vehicles were used to estimate the proportions of children 0-under 7 years travelling in each of the 5 different restraint types (eg. forward facing child restraint). Data was collected in 4 major population centres: Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Mackay and Townsville. Almost all children were restrained (95.1%, 95% CI 94.3-95.9%), with only 3.3% (95% CI 2.6-4.0%) clearly unrestrained and 44 (1.6%, 95% CI 1.1-2.1%) for whom restraint status could not be determined (‘unknown’). However, around 24.0% (95 CI 21.8-26.2%) of the target-aged children were deemed inappropriately restrained, primarily comprised of 3-6 year olds in seatbelts (18.7% of the 0-6 year olds, 95% CI 16.3-21.1%) or unrestrained (3.7% of the 0-6 year olds, 95% CI 2.5-4.9%) instead of booster seats. In addition, compliance appeared significantly lower for some regional locations where the proportion of children observed as completely unrestrained was relatively high and of concern

Connection without caution? The role of mobile phone involvement in predicting young people’s intentions to use a mobile phone while driving

The present study examined the predictors of the intentions of young people aged between 17 and 24 years (N = 196) to use their mobile phone while driving. Using convenience sampling, drivers were recruited at petrol station travel centres to complete a cross-sectional survey. The Theory of Planned Behaviour constructs of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control (PBC) were measured, as well as mobile phone involvement - a construct based on behavioural addiction components to reflect people’s cognitive and behavioural interaction with their mobile phone. Attitudes, PBC, and mobile phone involvement predicted young people’s intentions to use their mobile phone while driving, highlighting the need for interventions to address the perceived rewards and costs of the behaviour and to challenge the potentially powerful need to be constantly connected with others by technology irrespective of the associated dangers.

Impact and energy absorption of road safety barriers by coupled SPH/FEM

Road safety barriers are used to minimise the severity of road accidents and protect lives and property. There are several types of barrier in use today. This paper reports the initial phase of research carried out to study the impact response of portable water-filled barrier (PWFB) which has the potential to absorb impact energy and hence provide crash mitigation under low to moderate speeds. Current research on the impact and energy absorption capacity of water-filled road safety barriers is limited due to the complexity of fluid-structure interaction under dynamic impact. In this paper, a novel fluid-structure interaction method is developed based on the combination of Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) and Finite Element Method (FEM). The sloshing phenomenon of water inside a PWFB is investigated to explore the energy absorption capacity of water under dynamic impact. It was found that water plays an important role in energy absorption. The coupling analysis developed in this paper will provide a platform to further the research in optimising the behaviour of the PWFB. The effect of the amount of water on its energy absorption capacity is investigated and the results have practical applications in the design of PWFBs.

Understanding the fear of bicycle riding in Australia

Rates of bicycle commuting currently hover around 1 - 2% in most Australian capital cities, although 17.8% of Australians report riding at least once per week. The most commonly stated reason for choosing not to ride a bicycle is fear of motorised vehicles. This paper sets out to examine the literature and offer a commentary regarding the role fear plays as a barrier to bicycle riding. The paper also provides an estimate of the relative risk of driving and riding, on a per trip basis. An analysis of the existing literature finds fear of motorised traffic to be disproportionate to actual levels of risk to bicycle riders. Moreover, the health benefits of bicycling outweigh the risks of collision. Rather than actual collisions forming the basis of people’s fear, it appears plausible that near collisions (which occur far more frequently) may be a significant cause for the exaggerated levels of fear associated with bicycle riding. In order to achieve the Australian Government’s goal of doubling bike riding participation, this review suggests it will be necessary to counter fear through the creation of a low risk traffic environment (both perceived and real), involving marketing/promotional campaigns and the development of a comprehensive bicycle infrastructure network and lower speed limits.

Do drivers respond emotionally and behaviourally differently to an intentionally anger provoking driving situation than to an ambiguous, but potentially provocative, one? Results of a self-report survey.

Aggressive driving is considered an important road-safety concern for drivers in highly motorised countries. However, understanding of the causes and maintenance factors fundamental to aggressive driving is limited. In keeping with theoretical advances from general aggression research such as the General Aggression Model (GAM), research has begun to examine the emotional and cognitive antecedents of aggressive driving in order to better understand the underlying processes motivating aggressive driving. Early findings in the driving area have suggested that greater levels of aggression are elicited in response to an intentionally aggressive on-road event. In contrast, general aggression research suggests that greater levels of aggression are elicited in response to an ambiguous event. The current study examined emotional and cognitive responses to two hypothetical driving scenarios with differing levels of aggressive intent (intentional versus ambiguous). There was also an interest in whether factors influencing responses were different for hostile aggression (that is, where the action is intended to harm the other) versus instrumental aggression (that is, where the action is motivated by an intention to remove an impediment or attain a goal). Results were that significantly stronger negative emotion and negative attributions, as well as greater levels of threat were reported in response to the scenario which was designed to appear intentional in nature. In addition, participants were more likely to endorse an aggressive behavioural response to a situation that appeared deliberately aggressive than to one where the intention was ambiguous. Analyses to determine if greater levels of negative emotions and cognitions are able to predict aggressive responses provided different patterns of results for instrumental aggression from those for hostile aggression. Specifically, for instrumental aggression, negative emotions and negative attributions were significant predictors for both the intentional and the ambiguous scenarios. In addition, perceived threat was also a significant predictor where the other driver’s intent was clearly aggressive. However, lower rather than higher, levels of perceived threat were associated with greater endorsement of an aggressive response. For hostile aggressive behavioural responses, trait aggression was the strongest predictor for both situations. Overall the results suggest that in the driving context, instrumental aggression is likely to be a much more common response than hostile aggression. Moreover, aggressive responses are more likely in situations where another driver’s behaviour is clearly intentional rather than ambiguous. The results also support the conclusion that there may be different underlying mechanisms motivating an instrumental aggressive response to those motivating a hostile one. In addition, understanding the emotions and cognitions underlying aggressive driving responses may be helpful in predicting and intervening to reduce driving aggression. The finding that drivers appear to regard tailgating as an instrumental response is of concern since this behaviour has the potential to result in crashes.

Automated speed enforcement in Australia : recent examples of the influence of public opinion on program sustainability

In Australia, speeding remains a substantial contributor to road trauma. The National Road Safety Strategy (2011-2020) highlighted the need to harness community support for current and future speed management strategies. Australia is known for intensive speed camera programs which are both automated and manual, employing covert and overt methods. Recent developments in the area of automated speed enforcement in Australia help to illustrate the important link between community attitudes to speed enforcement and subsequent speed camera policy developments. A perceived lack of community confidence in camera programs prompted reviews in New South Wales and Victoria in 2011 by the jurisdictional Auditor-General. This paper explores automated speed camera enforcement in Australia with particular reference to the findings of these two reports as they relate to the level of public support for and community attitudes towards automated speed enforcement. It also provides comment on the evolving nature of automated speed enforcement according to previously identified controversies and dilemmas associated with speed camera programs.

A critical evaluation and comparison of two formative measures of system quality using criterion variables

Evaluating the validity of formative variables has presented ongoing challenges for researchers. In this paper we use global criterion measures to compare and critically evaluate two alternative formative measures of System Quality. One model is based on the ISO-9126 software quality standard, and the other is based on a leading information systems research model. We find that despite both models having a strong provenance, many of the items appear to be non-significant in our study. We examine the implications of this by evaluating the quality of the criterion variables we used, and the performance of PLS when evaluating formative models with a large number of items. We find that our respondents had difficulty distinguishing between global criterion variables measuring different aspects of overall System Quality. Also, because formative indicators “compete with one another” in PLS, it may be difficult to develop a set of measures which are all significant for a complex formative construct with a broad scope and a large number of items. Overall, we suggest that there is cautious evidence that both sets of measures are valid and largely equivalent, although questions still remain about the measures, the use of criterion variables, and the use of PLS for this type of model evaluation.

Towards a structured understanding of caregivers’ safety behaviour in the domestic and driveway setting

Slow speed run-overs represent a major cause of injury and death among Australian children, with higher rates of incidents being reported in Queensland than in the remaining Australian states. Yet, little attention has been given to how caregivers develop their safety behaviour in and around the driveway setting. To address this gap, the current study aimed to develop a conceptual model of driveway child safety behaviours among caregivers of children aged five years or younger. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 caregivers (25 females/1 male, mean age, 33.24 year) from rural and metropolitan Queensland. To enable a comparison and validation of findings from the driveway, the study analysed both driveway and domestic safety behaviours. Domestic safety behaviours were categorised and validated against driveway safety behaviours, uncovering a process of risk appraisal and safety behaviour that was applicable in both settings (the Safety System Model). However, noteworthy differences between the domestic and driveway setting were uncovered. Unlike in the domestic setting, driveway risks were perceived as shifting according the presence of moving vehicles, which resulted in inconsistent safety behaviours. While the findings require further validation, they have implications for the design and implementation of driveway run-over interventions.

An evaluation of corpus-driven measures of medical concept similarity for information retrieval

Measures of semantic similarity between medical concepts are central to a number of techniques in medical informatics, including query expansion in medical information retrieval. Previous work has mainly considered thesaurus-based path measures of semantic similarity and has not compared different corpus-driven approaches in depth. We evaluate the effectiveness of eight common corpus-driven measures in capturing semantic relatedness and compare these against human judged concept pairs assessed by medical professionals. Our results show that certain corpus-driven measures correlate strongly (approx 0.8) with human judgements. An important finding is that performance was significantly affected by the choice of corpus used in priming the measure, i.e., used as evidence from which corpus-driven similarities are drawn. This paper provides guidelines for the implementation of semantic similarity measures for medical informatics and concludes with implications for medical information retrieval.

Characteristics of police-reported road traffic crashes in Ethiopia over a six year period

Ethiopia has one of Africa’s fastest growing non-oil producing economies and an increasing level of motorisation (AfDB, OECD, UNDP, & UNECA, 2012). This rapidly increasing mobility has created some unique road safety concerns; however there is scant published information and related commentary (United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, 2009). The objective of this paper is to quantify police-reported traffic crashes in Ethiopia and characterise the existing state of road safety. Six years (July 2005 - June 2011) of police-reported crash data were analysed, consisting of 12,140 fatal and 29,454 injury crashes on the country’s road network. The 12,140 fatal crashes involved 1,070 drivers, 5,702 passengers, and 7,770 pedestrians, totalling 14,542 fatalities, an average of 1.2 road user fatalities per crash. An important and glaring trend that emerges is that more than half of the fatalities in Ethiopia involve pedestrians. The majority of the crashes occur during daytime hours, involve males, and involve persons in the 18-50 age group—Ethiopia’s active workforce. Crashes frequently occur in mid blocks or roadways. The predominant collision between motor vehicles and pedestrians was a rollover on a road tangent section. Failing to observe the priority of pedestrians and speeding were the major causes of crashes attributed by police. Trucks and minibus taxis were involved in the majority of crashes, while automobiles (small vehicles) were less involved in crashes relative to other vehicle types, partially because small vehicles tend to be driven fewer kilometres per annum. These data illustrate and justify a high priority to identify and implement effective programs, policies, and countermeasures focused on reducing pedestrian crashes.

Effects of mobile phone distraction on drivers’ reaction times

Distraction resulting from mobile phone use whilst driving has been shown to increase the reaction times of drivers, thereby increasing the likelihood of a crash. This study compares the effects of mobile phone conversations on reaction times of drivers responding to traffic events that occur at different points in a driver’s field of view. The CARRS-Q Advanced Driving Simulator was used to test a group of young drivers on various simulated driving tasks including a traffic event that occurred within the driver’s central vision—a lead vehicle braking suddenly—and an event that occurred within the driver’s peripheral—a pedestrian entering a zebra crossing from a footpath. Thirty-two licensed drivers drove the simulator in three phone conditions: baseline (no phone conversation), and while engaged in hands-free and handheld phone conversations. The drivers were aged between 21 to 26 years and split evenly by gender. Differences in reaction times for an event in a driver’s central vision were not statistically significant across phone conditions, probably due to a lower speed selection by the distracted drivers. In contrast, the reaction times to detect an event that originated in a distracted driver’s peripheral vision were more than 50% longer compared to the baseline condition. A further statistical analysis revealed that deterioration of reaction times to an event in the peripheral vision was greatest for distracted drivers holding a provisional licence. Many critical events originate in a driver’s periphery, including vehicles, bicyclists, and pedestrians emerging from side streets. A reduction in the ability to detect these events while distracted presents a significant safety concern that must be addressed.

Promoting a more positive traffic safety culture in Australia : lessons learnt and future directions

Adopting a traffic safety culture approach, this paper identifies and discusses the ongoing challenge of promoting the road safety message in Australia. It is widely acknowledged that mass media and public education initiatives have played a critical role in the significant positive changes witnessed in community attitudes to road safety in the last three to four decades. It could be argued that mass media and education have had a direct influence on behaviours and attitudes, as well as an indirect influence through signposting and awareness raising functions in conjunction with enforcement. Great achievements have been made in reducing fatalities on Australia’s roads; a concept which is well understood among the international road safety fraternity. How well these achievements are appreciated by the general Australian community however, is not clear. This paper explores the lessons that can be learnt from successes in attitudinal and behaviour change in regard to seatbelt use and drink driving in Australia. It also identifies and discusses key challenges associated with achieving further positive changes in community attitudes and behaviours, particularly in relation to behaviours that may not be perceived by the community as dangerous, such as speeding and mobile phone use while driving. Potential strategies for future mass media and public education campaigns to target these challenges are suggested, including ways of harnessing the power of contemporary traffic law enforcement techniques, such as point-to-point speed enforcement and in-vehicle technologies, to help spread the road safety message.