Vehicle and Traffic Safety

The book is devoted to contemporary issues regarding the safety of motor vehicles and road traffic. It presents the achievements of scientists, specialists, and industry representatives in the following selected areas of road transport safety and automotive engineering: active and passive vehicle safety, vehicle dynamics and stability, testing of vehicles (and their assemblies), including electric cars as well as autonomous vehicles. Selected issues from the area of accident analysis and reconstruction are discussed. The impact on road safety of aspects such as traffic control systems, road infrastructure, and human factors is also considered

Crashworthiness optimization of vehicle structures considering the effects of lightweight material substitution and dummy models

This study uses numerical design optimization with advanced metamodeling techniques to investigate the effects of material substitution and dummy models on crashworthiness characteristics of automotive structures. A full-scale Dodge Neon LS-DYNA finite element model is used in all structural analysis and optimization calculations. Optimization is performed using vehicle-based responses for multiple crash scenarios and occupant-based responses for one crash scenario. An AZ31 magnesium alloy is substituted for the baseline steel in twenty-two vehicle parts. Five base metamodels and an Optimized Ensemble metamodel are used to develop global surrogate models of crash-induced responses. Magnesium alloy is found to maintain or improve vehicle crashworthiness with an approximate 50% reduction in selected part mass using vehicle-based responses while dummy-based designs show less percentage decrease in weight. Vehicle-based responses selected to approximate dummy injury metrics do not show the same relative change compared to dummy-based responses

Crashworthiness optimization of vehicle structures considering the effects of lightweight material substitution and dummy models

This study uses numerical design optimization with advanced metamodeling techniques to investigate the effects of material substitution and dummy models on crashworthiness characteristics of automotive structures. A full-scale Dodge Neon LS-DYNA finite element model is used in all structural analysis and optimization calculations. Optimization is performed using vehicle-based responses for multiple crash scenarios and occupant-based responses for one crash scenario. An AZ31 magnesium alloy is substituted for the baseline steel in twenty-two vehicle parts. Five base metamodels and an Optimized Ensemble metamodel are used to develop global surrogate models of crash-induced responses. Magnesium alloy is found to maintain or improve vehicle crashworthiness with an approximate 50% reduction in selected part mass using vehicle-based responses while dummy-based designs show less percentage decrease in weight. Vehicle-based responses selected to approximate dummy injury metrics do not show the same relative change compared to dummy-based responses

Motorcycles that see: Multifocal stereo vision sensor for advanced safety systems in tilting vehicles

Advanced driver assistance systems, ADAS, have shown the possibility to anticipate crash accidents and effectively assist road users in critical traffic situations. This is not the case for motorcyclists, in fact ADAS for motorcycles are still barely developed. Our aim was to study a camera-based sensor for the application of preventive safety in tilting vehicles. We identified two road conflict situations for which automotive remote sensors installed in a tilting vehicle are likely to fail in the identification of critical obstacles. Accordingly, we set two experiments conducted in real traffic conditions to test our stereo vision sensor. Our promising results support the application of this type of sensors for advanced motorcycle safety applications

The Impact of Credit Information Sharing in Banking Sectors

This thesis provides an analysis of the economic consequences of information sharing among banks about information on their borrowers, so-called “Credit Information Sharing”. Particularly, our research objectives are to assess the impact of credit information sharing on bank lending, bank risk, and bank-specific stock price crash risk. Our main data sources include the Bankscope database, Datastream, IFRS Foundation website, Deloitte, the World Bank’s Doing Business database, the World Bank’s World Development Indicators database (WDI), the World Bank’s Global Financial Development database (GFDD), the World Bank’s Banking and Supervision Survey database. Our sample consists of banks around the globe during the period of 2005-2013. For the empirical investigation throughout the thesis, we employ a panel model and perform bank fixed (within) effects estimation augmented with time dummies. In addition, we provide several robustness tests, which include alternative measures, additional controls, a subsample analysis and an instrumental variable approach. In chapter 2, we investigate the impact of credit information sharing on bank lending for 16,009 banks in 113 countries during 2005-2013 and the finding shows that bank lending increase with more credit information sharing. In addition, by assessing two–way interactions in the regression, we find that such impact is less pronounced with more transparent information environment and stronger creditor protection. In chapter 3, we examine the impact of credit information sharing on bank risk for 15,558 banks in 105 countries during 2005-2013 and we discover that more credit information sharing reduces bank risk. Moreover, by evaluating two-way interactions in the regression, the finding reveals that such impact is less pronounced with more transparent information environment and more pronounced with more competitive banking markets. In chapter 4, with the sample of 1,402 listed-banks in 55 countries during 2005-2013, we explore the impact of credit information sharing on bank-specific stock price crash risk and the result notably shows that more credit information sharing via public credit registries has a negative impact on a stock price crash risk. Furthermore, by considering two-way interactions in the regression, such impact is less pronounced with more transparent information environment and more pronounced with weak regulatory environments in banking sectors. Our findings suggest that policymakers should strive to achieve effective and efficient credit information sharing schemes to promote healthy and well-functioning banking sectors. As information sharing bridges the information gap between banks and their borrowers, banks are thus willing to extend more credit. Not only enhancing credit availability, banks become more stable and less likely to hoard negative information with a greater degree of credit information sharing

Managing the Regulatory State: The Experience of the Bush Administration

This Article traces the history of Presidential management of the regulatory state up to the administration of President George W. Bush. It focuses on the latter\u27s implementation of smarter regulation, an approach to regulation based on unfunded mandates on the private sector implemented through the Office of Management and Budget, an organization within the Executive Office of the President. It finds cost-benefit analysis an essential, yet often neglected, tool for implementing efficient and effective regulations. It concludes the policies promoted under President Bush\u27s OMB have effectively cut costs by streamlining the rule-making process and discouraging adopting new federal rules, but cautions there is still a sea of overlapping regulations and conflict over turf among agencies causing the administrative state to steadily rise in cost

The Effect of Debt Ceiling Announcements on the Banking Industry\u27s Stock Returns: An Event Study Approach

In the wake of the debt ceiling crisis in the summer of 2011, the effect of the United States’ massive and growing national debt on asset markets has become a greater concern. With the banking and finance industry now taking up an increasing share of the United States economy, it is important to understand how ongoing increases in the national debt affect the value of firms in this industry. In particular, negative market reactions to increases in the allowable debt (the debt ceiling) may reduce investor wealth and perhaps also the willingness of banks to facilitate flows of capital and investment. In this thesis, an event study methodology is used to examine how announcements of increases in the debt ceiling affect the stock returns of firms in the banking industry and whether these potential effects have changed over time from year 1984 to 2006. However, this study finds that, overall, debt ceiling announcements have had statistically insignificant effects on the stock returns of commercial banks and created minimal abnormal return in the firms’ stocks. Thus, these findings support the idea that from 1984 to 2006 the rising debt, as illustrated by the debt ceiling, insignificantly impacted the stock returns of the banking industry

Natural Experiments in Environmental and Transport Economics

This thesis provides a collection of five natural experiments in environmental and transport economics. Chapter 1 introduces the topics and offers the methodological context. Chapter 2 tests the hypothesis that particulate matter has a direct effect on human decision-making. It uses chess games as a natural experiment and demonstrates that air pollution causes individuals to take less risk. Chapter 3 assesses whether ozone air pollution affects human physical activity. Findings show that ozone reduces cycling speed, even for concentrations below current air quality standards. Chapter 4 finds that public rental bicycles are a local net substitute for metro service and that these bicycles can alleviate time losses stemming from interruptions in public transport. Chapter 5 focuses on New York City and estimates the causal effect of protected bike lanes on traffic speed, flow, and road safety. Bike lanes seem to improve cyclists' safety both on streets and at junctions, while having no statistically significant effect on traffic speed and traffic flow. Chapter 6 investigates to what extent smartphones play a role in the number of road accidents. The results indicate that smartphone distraction can explain 10% of accidents and that phone-related accidents mainly happen on local urban roads