10 research outputs found

    Identification of infrastructure related risk factors, Deliverable 5.1 of the H2020 project SafetyCube

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    The present Deliverable (D5.1) describes the identification and evaluation of infrastructure related risk factors. It outlines the results of Task 5.1 of WP5 of SafetyCube, which aimed to identify and evaluate infrastructure related risk factors and related road safety problems by (i) presenting a taxonomy of infrastructure related risks, (ii) identifying “hot topics” of concern for relevant stakeholders and (iii) evaluating the relative importance for road safety outcomes (crash risk, crash frequency and severity etc.) within the scientific literature for each identified risk factor. To help achieve this, Task 5.1 has initially exploited current knowledge (e.g. existing studies) and, where possible, existing accident data (macroscopic and in-depth) in order to identify and rank risk factors related to the road infrastructure. This information will help further on in WP5 to identify countermeasures for addressing these risk factors and finally to undertake an assessment of the effects of these countermeasures. In order to develop a comprehensive taxonomy of road infrastructure-related risks, an overview of infrastructure safety across Europe was undertaken to identify the main types of road infrastructure-related risks, using key resources and publications such as the European Road Safety Observatory (ERSO), The Handbook of Road Safety Measures (Elvik et al., 2009), the iRAP toolkit and the SWOV factsheets, to name a few. The taxonomy developed contained 59 specific risk factors within 16 general risk factors, all within 10 infrastructure elements. In addition to this, stakeholder consultations in the form of a series of workshops were undertaken to prioritise risk factors (‘hot topics’) based on the feedback from the stakeholders on which risk factors they considered to be the most important or most relevant in terms of road infrastructure safety. The stakeholders who attended the workshops had a wide range of backgrounds (e.g. government, industry, research, relevant consumer organisations etc.) and a wide range of interests and knowledge. The identified ‘hot topics’ were ranked in terms of importance (i.e. which would have the greatest effect on road safety). SafetyCube analysis will put the greatest emphasis on these topics (e.g. pedestrian/cyclist safety, crossings, visibility, removing obstacles). To evaluate the scientific literature, a methodology was developed in Work Package 3 of the SafetyCube project. WP5 has applied this methodology to road infrastructure risk factors. This uniformed approach facilitated systematic searching of the scientific literature and consistent evaluation of the evidence for each risk factor. The method included a literature search strategy, a ‘coding template’ to record key data and metadata from individual studies, and guidelines for summarising the findings (Martensen et al, 2016b). The main databases used in the WP5 literature search were Scopus and TRID, with some risk factors utilising additional database searches (e.g. Google Scholar, Science Direct). Studies using crash data were considered highest priority. Where a high number of studies were found, further selection criteria were applied to ensure the best quality studies were included in the analysis (e.g. key meta-analyses, recent studies, country origin, importance). Once the most relevant studies were identified for a risk factor, each study was coded within a template developed in WP3. Information coded for each study included road system element, basic study information, road user group information, study design, measures of exposure, measures of outcomes and types of effects. The information in the coded templates will be included in the relational database developed to serve as the main source (‘back end’) of the Decision Support System (DSS) being developed for SafetyCube. Each risk factor was assigned a secondary coding partner who would carry out the control procedure and would discuss with the primary coding partner any coding issues they had found. Once all studies were coded for a risk factor, a synopsis was created, synthesising the coded studies and outlining the main findings in the form of meta-analyses (where possible) or another type of comprehensive synthesis (e.g. vote-count analysis). Each synopsis consists of three sections: a 2 page summary (including abstract, overview of effects and analysis methods); a scientific overview (short literature synthesis, overview of studies, analysis methods and analysis of the effects) and finally supporting documents (e.g. details of literature search and comparison of available studies in detail, if relevant). To enrich the background information in the synopses, in-depth accident investigation data from a number of sources across Europe (i.e. GIDAS, CARE/CADaS) was sourced. Not all risk factors could be enhanced with this data, but where it was possible, the aim was to provide further information on the type of crash scenarios typically found in collisions where specific infrastructure-related risk factors are present. If present, this data was included in the synopsis for the specific risk factor. After undertaking the literature search and coding of the studies, it was found that for some risk factors, not enough detailed studies could be found to allow a synopsis to be written. Therefore, the revised number of specific risk factors that did have a synopsis written was 37, within 7 infrastructure elements. Nevertheless, the coded studies on the remaining risk factors will be included in the database to be accessible by the interested DSS users. At the start of each synopsis, the risk factor is assigned a colour code, which indicates how important this risk factor is in terms of the amount of evidence demonstrating its impact on road safety in terms of increasing crash risk or severity. The code can either be Red (very clear increased risk), Yellow (probably risky), Grey (unclear results) or Green (probably not risky). In total, eight risk factors were given a Red code (e.g. traffic volume, traffic composition, road surface deficiencies, shoulder deficiencies, workzone length, low curve radius), twenty were given a Yellow code (e.g. secondary crashes, risks associated with road type, narrow lane or median, roadside deficiencies, type of junction, design and visibility at junctions) seven were given a Grey code (e.g. congestion, frost and snow, densely spaced junctions etc.). The specific risk factors given the red code were found to be distributed across a range of infrastructure elements, demonstrating that the greatest risk is spread across several aspects of infrastructure design and traffic control. However, four ‘hot topics’ were rated as being risky, which were ‘small work-zone length’, ‘low curve radius’, ‘absence of shoulder’ and ‘narrow shoulder’. Some limitations were identified. Firstly, because of the method used to attribute colour code, it is in theory possible for a risk factor with a Yellow colour code to have a greater overall magnitude of impact on road safety than a risk factor coded Red. This would occur if studies reported a large impact of a risk factor but without sufficient consistency to allocate a red colour code. Road safety benefits should be expected from implementing measures to mitigate Yellow as well as Red coded infrastructure risks. Secondly, findings may have been limited by both the implemented literature search strategy and the quality of the studies identified, but this was to ensure the studies included were of sufficiently high quality to inform understanding of the risk factor. Finally, due to difficulties of finding relevant studies, it was not possible to evaluate the effects on road safety of all topics listed in the taxonomy. The next task of WP5 is to begin identifying measures that will counter the identified risk factors. Priority will be placed on investigating measures aimed to mitigate the risk factors identified as Red. The priority of risk factors in the Yellow category will depend on why they were assigned to this category and whether or not they are a hot topic

    Evaluating changes in driver behaviour for road safety outcomes: a risk profiling approach

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    Road safety continues to be an important issue with road crashes among the leading causes of death. Considerable effort has been put into improving our understanding of the factors that influence driving behaviour with a view to devising more effective road safety strategies. Within the literature, demographics, social norms, personality, enforcement and the road environment have all been identified as influencers of risky driving behaviour. What is missing is an integrated empirical approach which examines the relationship between these factors and drivers’ awareness of their speeding behaviour to a measure of day-to-day driving behaviour. This research employs demographic, psychological, vehicle, trip and Global Positioning System (GPS) driving data collected from 106 drivers in Sydney, Australia during a pay-as-you-drive study. The main contributions are three-fold. First, a methodology is developed to control for the influence of spatiotemporal characteristics on driver behaviour. This deals with the inherent variability introduced from road environment factors external to the driver which would otherwise lead to misleading results. Second, the creation of a composite measure of driver behaviour allows driver behaviour to be described using a single measure whilst accounting for the variability and multitude of aspects within the driving task. This allows drivers to be compared to each other and for the same driver to be compared across time and space permitting empirical testing of interventions in a before and after study. Lastly, this research reveals the potential for reducing the extent and magnitude of risky driving behaviour by making drivers aware of their own behaviour. The results indicate that drivers can be placed in three groups: drivers requiring a monetary incentive to change speeding behaviour, drivers requiring information alone to change their speeding behaviour and drivers that appear unresponsive to both monetary incentives and information

    Strategic and Tactical Guidance for the Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Future

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    Autonomous vehicle (AV) and Connected vehicle (CV) technologies are rapidly maturing and the timeline for their wider deployment is currently uncertain. These technologies are expected to have a number of significant societal benefits: traffic safety, improved mobility, improved road efficiency, reduced cost of congestion, reduced energy use, and reduced fuel emissions. State and local transportation agencies need to understand what this means for them and what they need to do now and in the next few years to prepare for the AV/CV future. In this context, the objectives of this research are as follows: Synthesize the existing state of practice and how other state agencies are addressing the pending transition to AV/CV environment Estimate the impacts of AV/CV environment within the context of (a) traffic operations—impact of headway distribution and traffic signal coordination; (b) traffic control devices; (c) roadway safety in terms of intersection crashes Provide a strategic roadmap for INDOT in preparing for and responding to potential issues This research is divided into two parts. The first part is a synthesis study of existing state of practice in the AV/CV context by conducting an extensive literature review and interviews with other transportation agencies. Based on this, we develop a roadmap for INDOT and similar agencies clearly delineating how they should invest in AV/CV technologies in the short, medium, and long term. The second part assesses the impacts of AV/CVs on mobility and safety via modeling in microsimulation software Vissim

    Third International Symposium on Space Mission Operations and Ground Data Systems, part 2

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    Under the theme of 'Opportunities in Ground Data Systems for High Efficiency Operations of Space Missions,' the SpaceOps '94 symposium included presentations of more than 150 technical papers spanning five topic areas: Mission Management, Operations, Data Management, System Development, and Systems Engineering. The symposium papers focus on improvements in the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of data acquisition, ground systems, and mission operations. New technology, methods, and human systems are discussed. Accomplishments are also reported in the application of information systems to improve data retrieval, reporting, and archiving; the management of human factors; the use of telescience and teleoperations; and the design and implementation of logistics support for mission operations. This volume covers expert systems, systems development tools and approaches, and systems engineering issues

    Tematski zbornik radova međunarodnog značaja. Tom 1 / Međunarodni naučni skup "Dani Arčibalda Rajsa", Beograd, 1-2. mart 2013

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    The Thematic Conference Proceedings contains 138 papers written by eminent scholars in the field of law, security, criminalistics, police studies, forensics, medicine, as well as members of national security system participating in education of the police, army and other security services from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, China, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Republic of Srpska and Serbia. Each paper has been reviewed by two competent international reviewers, and the Thematic Conference Proceedings in whole has been reviewed by five international reviewers. The papers published in the Thematic Conference Proceedings contain the overview of con-temporary trends in the development of police educational system, development of the police and contemporary security, criminalistics and forensics, as well as with the analysis of the rule of law activities in crime suppression, situation and trends in the above-mentioned fields, and suggestions on how to systematically deal with these issues. The Thematic Conference Proceedings represents a significant contribution to the existing fund of scientific and expert knowledge in the field of criminalistic, security, penal and legal theory and practice. Publication of this Conference Proceedings contributes to improving of mutual cooperation between educational, scientific and expert institutions at national, regional and international level

    ESSAYS ON PRODUCT RECALL DECISION AND EFFECT

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    Product recalls are pervasive events across many industries, such as automobile and consumer product. Notably, the cost of these product failures could be astronomical. Therefore, these adverse events are of considerable interest to academics, policymakers, and practitioners. My dissertation contributes to this literature by investigating two different yet related aspects of recalls. The first two essays explore underlying elements that affect the recall decision-making process (pre-recall phase). The third essay explores the impact of these adverse events (postrecall phase). In essay 1, I examine whether corporate lobbying influences recall decisions. Lobbying as a political mechanism is widely studied in social science research but remains relatively unexplored in the marketing literature. I find that a firm with higher lobbying expenditures is less likely to initiate a recall, such that approximately $417,014 more in lobbying expenditures is associated with one less voluntary recall by the firm. Results also suggest that a firm’s political influence also led the regulatory agency to adopt a bias that favors the lobbying firm. In essay 2, I capture the game-theoretic strategic interaction between an automaker and its supervising regulatory agency recall decision-making process. By modeling one player’s decision as a function of another player’s expected decision, I examine whether the regulator’s presence affects an automaker’s decisions after controlling for other relevant factors (e.g., defect and product-level characteristics). Results suggest a significant strategic interaction such that automakers act proactively in anticipation of the regulator’s actions, highlighting an underlying trade-off in their decisions. In essay 3, I study how recalls transcend business-to-business (B2B) secondary markets (i.e., used products) by examining recalls’ effects on intermediary B2B buyers’ purchases. By conceptualizing vehicle recalls as exogenous shocks to the automobile secondary market, I find that the transaction prices for recalled products reduce by about 10% in the B2B used vehicle market. The price for recalling automaker’s non-recalled vehicles, which belong to the same segment (e.g., compact) as the recalled vehicle, also declines by 5.54% (negative spillover). In contrast, the price of recalling automaker’s non-recalled vehicles belonging to a different segment increases by 4.91% (positive spillover). Other automakers also experience a negative spillover.Doctor of Philosoph

    From cyber-utopia to cyber-war: normative change in cyberspace

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    This dissertation analyzes a normative change in state perception and political action towards the Internet. This change is currently reflected in certain measures aimed at the exercise of control and state sovereignty in and over cyberspace. These include phenomena such as the total surveillance of data streams and the extensive collection of connection data by secret services, the control (political censorship) and manipulation of information (information war) as well as the arms spiral around offensive cyber capabilities to disrupt and destroy information infrastructures. States face a loss of control that they want to compensate for. The phenomenon of the perceived loss of control and the establishment of a norm of control (filter and monitoring technology) is equally evident in various democratic and non-democratic states, as various studies show. This militarized perception of the Internet is remarkable in so far as Western politicians used to perceive the same Internet technology in the 1980s and 1990s in a completely different way. Back then the lack of state control was seen as desirable. Instead of controlling and monitoring all aspects of the Internet, a "hands-off" and laissez-faire idea dominated political behavior at the time: the possibilities of democratization through information technologies, the liberalization of authoritarian societies through technology and the free availability of global knowledge. The idea of national control over communications technology was considered innovation-inhibiting, undemocratic and even technically impossible. The topic of this work is the interaction between state power and sovereignty (e.g. political control through information sovereignty) and digital technologies. The research question is: Which process led to the establishment of norms of control and rule (surveillance, censorship, cyber-war) with regard to the medium Internet? Furthermore, the question arises: What are the implications of this change in standards for the fundamental functioning of the Internet? The aim is to examine in detail the thesis of the militarization of cyberspace empirically on the basis of a longitudinal case study using the example of Internet development in the USA since the 1960s. An interdisciplinary and multi-theoretical approach is chosen from constructivist norms research and the Social Construction of Technology approach
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