Crash Risk Reduction at Signalized Intersections Using Longitudinal Data

This study extends the previous work of Burkey and Obeng (2004) that examined the impact of red light cameras on the type and severity of crashes at signalized intersections in Greensboro, NC. The extension takes the following form. First, we extend the data to cover 57 months, and to include demographics, technology variables, the condition of a driver at the time of the crash, vehicle characteristics, land use and visual obstruction. Second, instead of examining the impact of red light cameras, we focus on identifying the determinants of crash severity, two-vehicle crashes, and property damage costs. The major findings are that the safety impacts of seatbelt use outweigh the impacts of airbags deploying because the latter tends to increase evident injuries and property damage costs, while the former reduces these injuries. We also find that head-on collisions and under rides increase evident injuries. For two-vehicle crashes, we find that the risk of severe injuries increases in pickup-pickup crashes and SUV-pickup crashes, while the risk of possible injuries increases in car-truck crashes. For property damage costs, we found the condition of the driver at the time of the crash (i.e., illness, impaired, medical condition, driver falling asleep, driver apparently normal) to be important determinants in increasing these costs. The types of accidents that we found to increase property damage costs are running into a fixed object and under rides. Finally, we found that property damage costs of crashes are low where the land uses are commercial and institutional suggesting that the accidents that occur in these areas are minor.longitudinal data; accidents; intersections

The Uptake and Expected Impact of Electronic Stability Control (ESC) amongst the Australian Passenger Vehicle Fleet

Electronic Stability Program (ESP) is an in-vehicle active control system which acts in loss of control situations to stabilise a vehicle. Several studies have shown the road safety benefits of ESP in international contexts. However, little consideration has been given for factors which may inhibit the uptake and potential effectiveness of ESP amongst the Australian vehicle fleet. This study highlights some of these potential factors including the rate of uptake of ESP into the Australian new vehicle market, purchasing patterns, driver behaviour, culture and the media. Conclusions are drawn in terms of future research directions and good public policy to maximise the effects of ESP in Australia

Formulating a Strategy for Securing High-Speed Rail in the United States, Research Report 12-03

This report presents an analysis of information relating to attacks, attempted attacks, and plots against high-speed rail (HSR) systems. It draws upon empirical data from MTI’s Database of Terrorist and Serious Criminal Attacks Against Public Surface Transportation and from reviews of selected HSR systems, including onsite observations. The report also examines the history of safety accidents and other HSR incidents that resulted in fatalities, injuries, or extensive asset damage to examine the inherent vulnerabilities (and strengths) of HSR systems and how these might affect the consequences of terrorist attacks. The study is divided into three parts: (1) an examination of security principles and measures; (2) an empirical examination of 33 attacks against HSR targets and a comparison of attacks against HSR targets with those against non-HSR targets; and (3) an examination of 73 safety incidents on 12 HRS systems. The purpose of this study is to develop an overall strategy for HSR security and to identify measures that could be applied to HSR systems currently under development in the United States. It is hoped that the report will provide useful guidance to both governmental authorities and transportation operators of current and future HSR systems

Investigation to enhance sustainable improvements in high speed rail transport

Transport systems are essential for the life of modern societies and economies. A sustainable transport system can shape a sustainable development pattern and socio-economic attributes of urban centres and regions. The use of private cars and trucks is increasing in most countries, creating more congestion, accidents, pollution and energy consumption. Many governments desire to achieve growth in public transport to overcome these adverse trends. A massive shift toward an environmentally sound type of transport is crucial and railways are deemed to be one of the most sustainable modes. All over the world the railway industry is involved in a renewal to reform and up-date rail, prompted largely by environmental concerns. The trend is to develop speed-competitive systems to expand transportation capacity. The focus of the current research, which is at its commencing stages, is to investigate the opportunities to apply an alternative approach to railway operations to overcome the difficulty of high speed transport in servicing larger amounts of demand, while achieving minimum point to point travel time, in a viable and integrated environment for both passenger and freight services. The expected outcome of the research project is to present a framework that may be used to identify and evaluate the most cost-effective transport solution to service not only major cities, but also regional centres along an interregional rail corridor, thus providing greater benefits on local economies and to build a spine for future development

Defining crash configurations for Powered Two-Wheelers: Comparing ISO 13232 to recent in-depth crash data from Germany, India and China

The motorcyclist safety standard ISO 13232, based on crash data from Europe and the USA from the 1970s, still sets the direction for the development and evaluation of protective measures today. However, it is unclear how relevant the crash configurations in the standard are to present-day motorcycle crashes in Europe, the USA and other parts of the world. We analyzed recent in-depth crash data from Germany, India and China, examining powered two-wheeler (PTW) crash configurations in which at least one police-reported serious injury was present. After assessing the relevance of the ISO\u27s PTW crash configurations to those we found in each country, we suggested new configurations to guide the development of safety systems that would be more effective at reducing PTW-related fatalities and serious injuries. In all three databases, passenger cars were among the top two most frequent collision partners and a car front impacting the side of the PTW was the most common configuration. Notably, although collisions with trucks constituted the most common scenario in India and ground impact (primary collision) was a common scenario in both Germany and India, the ISO did not include either configuration. Further, in three of the seven ISO crash configurations, one of the collision partners is stationary, although stationary collision partners were rare in our data. Our results show that the ISO crash configurations do not represent the most frequent PTW road crashes in Germany, India or China. However, the Chinese database was confined to crashes with a collision partner with four or more wheels. Further, weighting factors for these data were not available, so we could not extrapolate the frequency of the Chinese crash configurations across the entire population. A revised version of the ISO could serve as a basis for a full-scale PTW crash test program. However, the observed differences between countries imply that a single global standard may not be feasible. To optimize the evaluation of a PTW safety system, we recommend the inclusion of configurations which are frequent in the region or country of interest—in addition to common configurations occurring frequently all around the world

Crash Risk Reduction at Signalized Intersections Using Longitudinal Data

This study extends the previous work of Burkey and Obeng (2004) that examined the impact of red light cameras on the type and severity of crashes at signalized intersections in Greensboro, NC. The extension takes the following form. First, we extend the data to cover 57 months, and to include demographics, technology variables, the condition of a driver at the time of the crash, vehicle characteristics, land use and visual obstruction. Second, instead of examining the impact of red light cameras, we focus on identifying the determinants of crash severity, two-vehicle crashes, and property damage costs. The major findings are that the safety impacts of seatbelt use outweigh the impacts of airbags deploying because the latter tends to increase evident injuries and property damage costs, while the former reduces these injuries. We also find that head-on collisions and under rides increase evident injuries. For two-vehicle crashes, we find that the risk of severe injuries increases in pickup-pickup crashes and SUV-pickup crashes, while the risk of possible injuries increases in car-truck crashes. For property damage costs, we found the condition of the driver at the time of the crash (i.e., illness, impaired, medical condition, driver falling asleep, driver apparently normal) to be important determinants in increasing these costs. The types of accidents that we found to increase property damage costs are running into a fixed object and under rides. Finally, we found that property damage costs of crashes are low where the land uses are commercial and institutional suggesting that the accidents that occur in these areas are minor

Survey-Based Accident Analysis for Human-Powered Three-Wheeled Vehicles

The causes of accidents involving nonconventional bicycle types have hardly been investigated in the literature to date. However, these vehicles could play an important role in reducing the CO$_{2}$ emissions generated by traffic. As a basis for improving the driving safety of these environmentally friendly vehicles, this article presents the results of a survey on accidents and near-accidents of multitrack bicycle vehicles. More than 120 critical or accident situations of 86 drivers were analyzed. The situations are investigated with respect to the circumstances, the causes, and the consequences of the accidents using manual analysis and multiple correspondence analysis. A distinction is made between single accidents and accidents with another party. The aim of the survey is not to make statistically accurate statements on the frequency and probability of accidents, but rather to analyze the accident or near-accident circumstances. It is shown that the causes of single accidents are usually too high cornering velocities in combination with other factors such as road conditions. In the case of accidents with external involvement, the person who caused the accident is usually the other party involved. The accident opponent is in most cases a passenger car. Here the overlooking of the vehicles is the most frequent cause of accidents. Finally, possibilities to reduce the probability of accidents are briefly discussed for the different situations. As the research shows, most of the situations described occur on the road. This indicates that there are deficits in the bicycle infrastructure for the vehicles considered here. The results also indicate that there are deficits with regard to the perceptibility of the vehicles by other road users