Evaluation of post-license advanced driver training in Italy

Post-license advanced driver training addresses different categories of road users such as: novice drivers, professional drivers, company employers and recidivists. These training courses can be carried out on-track or on the road. On-track courses allow participants to gain knowledge on driving physics and experience limits in a safe road environment. On-road courses are more focused on hazard perception and situation awareness. Although extensive research has been done in this field, knowledge of the effects of these courses on road accident risk remains unclear. Previous evaluation of on-track courses did not always show a positive effect on crash rate. For example, post-license training focused on mastery of driving skills can lead to an increase of accident risk, especially on young males. However, research identified several factors that may enhance the effectiveness of driving training. In Europe a new framework for driver education and training has been proposed based on a safe driver hierarchical model (the GADGET model) and the development of a strategy for continuous learning. According to this framework, an evaluation study of on-track post-license advanced driver training has been undertaken in Italy with the main goal of assessing the safety effects of these courses and identifying training aspects to be improved. Besides crash rate, the study aims at assessing also driver behavior, knowledge of risks, self-evaluation and training quality. This paper presents the results of the possible effects of advanced driver training on driving behavior, considering in particular the number and type of violations. For each driver, data on age, gender and driving violations history were extracted from the platform and the national violations database. Three cases were addressed through a before-after analysis with control group. Case 1 considers all drivers who attended an ADT course. Case 2 aimed at understanding the effects of the courses on a specific target group: the traffic violators. Case 3 is similar to Case 2, however the control group was selected in a way that drivers characteristics and the violation rate was similar to the violation rate of the treatment group in the before period. The significance of the differences highlighted was assessed through appropriate statistical tests (i.e. paired t-test and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test). The study showed in general a higher propensity to commit traffic violations after attending an ADT course. These results are in contrast to what expected and show the necessity to diversify the training classes according to the different needs of participant

Strategies and Measures for Sustainable Urban Transport Systems

Increasing sustainability of urban transport systems is a crucial objective of all strategic plans both at national and European level. Different strategies and measures can be adopted to improve the efficiency of transport systems, according to a large set of factors that can affect the results of the implemented actions. A comprehensive study has been carried out in order to define a methodology able to define effective and efficient strategies and measures, allowing to increase the sustainability level of different kinds of cities, from small-medium sized to large metropolitan areas. The methodology has been tested on a group of 50 Italian cities, whose characteristics have been analysed through an initial set of more than 200 indicators. Three main groups of indicators have been taken into account: State indicators, Sustainability indicators, Policy indicators. The main aim has been to identify existing relationships between Sustainability and Policy indicators for cities showing commonalities in terms of State indicators. A correlation analysis allowed to identify 53 relevant indicators from the initial set of 200, while a cluster analysis, based on a hierarchical model, allowed to group the cities into five different groups, according to their population size and density. Correlations between relevant indicators have also been analysed within each group, while linear regression models have allowed to describe some functional relations between Policy and Sustainability indicators. A benchmarking exercise has allowed to identify strategies and measures adopted by the best performers within each group, hence defining possible paths to a better sustainability level for the remaining cities. Finally, recommendations for a correct urban mobility planning procedures have been produce

Data collection framework for understanding UFT within city logistics solutions

Urban Freight Transport (UFT) is a fundamental component of city life. It involves a vast range of activities resulting from relationships among different actors with conflicting needs and goals. Manufacturers are interested in fast and on-time deliveries, retailers require complete assortment and frequent deliveries, citizens wish to have easy access to goods while not losing their quality of life and City Authorities have to face negative externalities related to UFT (i.e. congestion, air and noise pollution, and safety). Concretely, few cities have a well-developed and comprehensive city logistics strategy because authorities generally focus their attention on passenger transport. When city logistics measures have been conceived and implemented, frequently private requirements have not been considered sufficiently. The European Commission includes the lack of data and understanding of freight flows among the main obstacles to the improvement of operational efficiency and planning process for a sustainable UFT in economic, social and environmental terms. Also, the research community raises the issue of the unavailability or the low quality of data on urban freight and the need to identify effective data collection methods in order to understand processes and actors' behavior and then define appropriate city logistics solutions. The NOVELOG EU project is providing city authorities and practitioners with a new framework aimed at systematizing all data to be collected, directly or indirectly, and to be elaborated in order to understand and represent the different aspects of the UFT sector. In order to achieve a complete knowledge, the framework approaches this sector according to four main thematic pillars: 1) profile of major supply chains served in the urban area under study; 2) mapping of urban freight and service trips activity; 3) organizational and legal framework; 4) procedural and technological methods and innovations. The present paper introduces the framework and the guidance it provides to its target audience

Fractional vehicle ownership and revenue generation through blockchain asset tokenization

The automotive industry is on a continuous transition towards a more sustainable and integrated ecosystem influenced by the fast-paced adoption of Electrical Vehicles (EVs) and the developments of emerging technologies such as Automated Vehicles (AVs). The road transportation sector is also experimenting with the emergent decentralized blockchain technology in various ways ranging from supply chain transparency to insurance and tokenization. Some of the recent use cases are the use of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), unique digital assets designed to be immutable, to certify ownership of a vehicle, the data history of it or just for fan base development. The current paper reviews the literature findings concerning the potential of Non-Fungible Tokens for the automotive industry and proposes a new car ownership and revenue generation model using the ERC-1155 token standard. Our proof-of-concept based on fractional vehicle ownership demonstrates the feasibility of such a model that allows for revenue distribution amongst the vehicle owners according to the percentile invested in the vehicle acquisition

Advancements in Road Safety Management Analysis

Road Safety Management (RSM) can be briefly defined as the tasks of preparing and implementing road safety policies. Many studies have been carried out on RSM, trying to identify success factors and reference best practice examples, but the complexity of the subject and the difficulty of quantitative data collection make it difficult a clear and comprehensive understanding. According to the EC-funded DACOTA research project, the weakest components of RSM systems in Europe are policy implementation and funding and the lack of knowledge-based road safety policy making. The main objective of the research, undertaken within the FERSI's working group on Road Safety Management (RSM), is to better investigate in several European countries those two RSM key functions: funding and research. Particularly the study aims at 1) exploring the existing structures, processes and factors affecting funding and research performances; 2) defining an assessment framework able to measure single country performances with reference to the efficiency and effectiveness of road safety funding and research, possibly shifting from a qualitative to a more quantitative approach. Based on the available knowledge on these two topics (research and funding), an assessment framework is defined and a set of qualitative and quantitative indicators for funding and research performance measurement is proposed. A desk analysis aiming at collecting available data useful to estimate the proposed indicators is conducted and a preliminary analysis with this subset of indicators is undertaken. A subset of research indicators (bibliometric) are used to estimate road safety research outputs performance of a country in terms of productivity and quality of research and international collaboration activities. Preliminary results show a positive correlation among them, even if the linear correlation turns to be not so strong. Countries are ranked on the basis of a composite index of all the three indicators

Advanced pricing and rationing policies for large scale multimodal networks

The applying of simplified schemes, such as cordon pricing, as second-best solution to the toll network design problem is investigated here in the context of multiclass traffic assignment on multimodal networks. To this end a suitable equilibrium model has been developed, together with an efficient algorithm capable of simulating large scale networks in quite reasonable computer time. This model implements the theoretical framework proposed in a previous work on the toll optimization problem, where the validity of marginal cost pricing for the context at hand is stated. Application of the model to the real case of Rome shows us, not only that on multimodal networks a relevant share (up to 20%) of the maximum improvements in terms of social welfare achievable with marginal cost pricing can in fact be obtained through cordon pricing, but also that in practical terms rationing is a valid alternative to pricing, thus getting around some of the relevant questions (theoretical, technical, social) the latter raises. As a result we propose a practical method to analyze advanced pricing and rationing policies differentiated for user categories, which enables us to compare alternative operative solutions with an upper bound on social welfare based on a solid theoretical background. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Smart-logistics for people management of innovative small and medium enterprises` development: Agile methodology

Introduction. Innovative entrepreneurship is one of the applied spheres, in which the implementation of core competencies: knowledge and skills from other areas is complicated nowadays due to challenges and rapid changes. Management systems for small and medium-sized enterprises are not so classical now, but horizontal and, what most importantly – flexible, agile is. Thus, it is proposed to turn to modern models of people management to increase the effectiveness of companies and institutions for future economy development. Aim and tasks. The article appeals to management innovation and the use of the “mobility gap” as one of the most discussed economic problems that are necessary for the urban areas and require an appropriate solution development. The proposal is to use smart logistics for an effective people management system for innovative small and medium enterprises to zoom the weight of the cluster unit. The assertion that the increasing impact of horizontal management in outsourcing services is the way for further development and modernization of tax policy for the local economy. Results. In the nearest future, the character of the local economy will change as communities develops cities, improving the quality of life, ensuring safety and neighbourhood policy and stimulating creative development. And it will create opportunities for cutting-edge initiatives, entrepreneurship and local municipalities, as well as developing relationships and competencies based on innovation and creative interaction between stakeholders in the new digital reality, while remaining people-centred. It is proposed to introduce management innovations into the management system according to the developed model according to the agile method of modernization: “to do” – list; "in progress" and motivation; “to verify” – monitoring; “done” – analysis; and business scaling. And to customize services, it is necessary the high quality achieving, speed that meets the needs of the market, and the quick creating of unique innovations. Conclusions. This methodology has been tested by the project – Erasmus 2020, despite the “lockdown” conditions, by the open data project “City Code” with the aim of creating conditions for sustainable urban development by combining: talents, technologies, tolerance, and should be used to people management of small and medium-sized innovative enterprise

A methodology to assess pedestrian crossing safety

Purpose: The safety level of a pedestrian crossing is affected by infrastructure characteristics and vehicular and pedestrian traffic level. This paper presents a methodology that allows assessing the safety level of a pedestrian crossing, regulated or not by traffic light, in an urban area according to the features of the crossing. Methods: A hierarchical structure representing factors influencing crossing safety has been developed and the relative contributions of each factor were calculated using AHP method. A composite index for crossing safety and specific indexes for main aspects included in the assessment have been developed. Results: Main assessment aspects are: Spatial and Temporal Design, Day-time and Night-time Visibility and Accessibility. Night-time Visibility resulted to have the higher weight (about 41%). Conclusion: Developed indexes allow ranking of pedestrian crossings and assigning intervention priorities, highlighting the aspects which are to be enhanced. The methodology has been used for the evaluation of 215 pedestrian crossings in 17 European cities for the Pedestrian Crossing Assessment Project co-financed by FIA Foundation. © 2010 The Author(s)

Road Safety Capacity Building in Belarus through the development of Road Safety Master Courses

Abstract The risk of traffic fatalities varies significantly across high, medium and low-income countries. Among the reasons for this in the latter ones, there is often a lack of road safety knowledge and political will. Road safety is a multidisciplinary topic and requires trained professionals able to identify and implement efficient measures in the areas of engineering, enforcement, education and emergency services, taking into consideration social and economic aspects as well. However, in some Eastern Europe Countries there are potential barriers to train adequately professionals, generally due to a lack of specialised training and training standardization. Such an example can be seen in Belarus where, although road safety is a key issue, it is not managed on an evidence-based approach and there seems to be insufficient funding for related research. An initiative towards increasing knowledge capacity is the Be-Safe project (EC Tempus), a joint effort between three EU Universities and four Belarusian Universities. The objective of this paper is to describe the methodology carried out in Be-Safe to develop and test for two years two 1st level Road Safety Master Courses (60 ECTS) in Belarus according to the Bologna process requirements. Initially, a User Needs Analysis was carried out to understand local conditions and needs in terms of teaching and research on road safety. The analysis highlighted a lack of research due to insufficient funding, linguistic barriers and inadequate international relationships. This isolation led to a need of updating contents and methods of courses for students as well as research topics. Then, expected learning outcomes and Masters' curricula, one for the Technical Universities and one for the Economics Universities, were defined and developed respectively. Finally, Masters' courses in four Belarusian Universities were tested. Quality results were ensured through a Quality Board and assessment tools to monitor the Masters' process as a whole

A methodology to explore the road safety impact of fitness to drive solutions for commercial drivers: The PANACEA project

In Europe, one in four road deaths occurred in an accident involving a goods vehicle in 2018 (ETSC 2020). Commercial drivers are at higher risk for suffering from physiological, psychological and prescribed medication and illicit drug use, including alcohol misuse. Fitness to drive or driver state monitoring systems integrate technologies able to detect altered driver states and provide them feedback. They constitute an emerging phenomenon, and their effects on changing people's behaviour to drive more safely, and in general, their impact on road safety should be better investigated. The scope of this paper is to present a methodology able to simulate different scenarios to understand how a driver state monitoring system can support improving road safety in the European Union. A conceptual framework is presented to support the definition of the impact assessment methodology and is applied to the PANACEA European research project. The project develops an integrated solution for driving ability assessment of commercial drivers, paired with a countermeasure and coaching solution. The PANACEA system uses algorithms and technologies for detecting, monitoring and assessing alcohol consumption, licit (barbituric) and illicit (methadone substitute) drugs, fatigue and cognitive load (Commercial Health Toolkits (CHTs)). It also provides strategic, tactical and operational countermeasures that will be tested and evaluated to assess their effectiveness and acceptance by the system's users. The methodology presented is able to assess both a single and multiple countermeasures among those developed within the project. Different scenarios have been considered by modifying the variables according to the screening prevalence, solution acceptance level, driving context and time. The methodology uses the results from the project pilot studies in terms of accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of CHTs and countermeasures results in combination with evidence from the existing literature