Problems for Vulnerable Road Users in the Netherlands

INTRODUCTION In the Netherlands pedestrian and pedal cycle travel are important transport modes for the population. However, given the particularly vulnerable nature of these modes of transport, pedestrians and cyclists are involved in a large number of accidents and suffer a particularly high proportion of the fatalities and serious injuries. Technical measures to improve safety and efficiency focus almost exclusively on motorized traffic, disregarding the needs of the non-motorized traffic participants. In order to determine how technical measures, such as Road Tr&c Informatics (RTI) applications, can be used to increase the safety and mobility of pedestrians and cyclists, more information is needed about the causes of accidents to these groups. This report deals with a first analysis of the problems of cyclists and pedestrians in the Netherlands. Similar reports are being produced for Britain and Sweden which together will serve as a basic information source from which decisions can be made about which type of measures have potential to improve the situation of vulnerable road users. This report examines the nature and causes of accidents involving vulnerable road users (VRU's), their mobility patterns and their risk. It is intended to serve as a tool in subsequent stages of this project, and thus is not a general survey of safety and mobility problems for vulnerable road users, but rather a review of those issues that are related to the RTI measures envisaged by the project. The project is aimed at improving VRU safety and mobility both directly, through the enhancement of signalized junctions and pedestrian crossings, and indirectly, through the creation of a model of the traffic system incorporating vulnerable road users. It is intended that this model will permit the routing and guidance of motorized vehicles in such a way as to enhance VRU safety and reduce VRU annoyance and delay from traffic. Both the direct and the indirect measures envisaged will only be relevant to VRU safety and mobility on main roads in urban areas; they are unlikely to be applicable to residential streets or minor roads unless these have substantial VRU flows. The report therefore concentrates (in so far as existing information permits) on VRU safety and mobility on main roads and on VRU use of facilities that are intended to be upgraded through the planned RTI measures. The report covers both the national level for the Netherlands (about 14.5 million inhabitants) and the local level for the City of Groningen (about 160,000 inhabitants). Section 2 of this report seeks to define a number of the terms which are used throughout, and provides a basis for comparison between the findings from this report and those for Sweden and Britain. Section 3 identifies the sources of information from which the analyses of accident and mobility data have been derived. Sections 4 and 5 identify the safety and mobility situations of vulnerable road users at the national and local levels respectively. Section 6 examines the risk to pedestrians and cyclists, and finally Section 7 provides some conclusions and recommendations for RTI-measures

Das Eigentumsmodell enthält die klareren Optionen für eine gestaltungswillige Bahnpolitik

Die geplante materielle Privatisierung der Deutschen Bahn AG kann als logischer Schritt der formalen Bahnprivatisierung vom 1.1.1994 angesehen werden. Welche Privatisierungsmodelle werden gegenwärtig diskutiert? Sollte die Deutsche Bahn AG mit oder ohne ihr Betriebsnetz an die Börse gehen? Ist die Deutsche Bahn AG überhaupt börsenfähig? --

Effects of revenue use and perceived effectiveness on acceptability of transport pricing policies

Car use causes various collective problems, such congestion and increasing CO2-emmisions. One way to manage these problems is to influence people’s car use. Pricing policies aimed at making car use more expensive, such as implementing congestion or kilometre charges, may be effective strategies to influence people’s car use. However, significant pricing policies are not easily implemented, since they are not acceptable to the public. Acceptability levels may dependent on the type of pricing policy being implemented. In this study we examined two policy characteristics that may affect the acceptability of pricing policies: revenue use and price level. It is hypothesised that pricing policies are more acceptable if price increases are rather low, and if revenues benefit individual car users rather than the general public. Further, we examined the relationship between policy acceptability and effectiveness. On the one hand we assume that policies are not acceptable if they are not effective in changing people’s car use. In that case, people experience the disadvantages of the policies while at the same time problems resulting from car use, such as congestion, are not being solved. On the other hand, policies that are very effective in changing one’s own car use are probably also not acceptable, because this seriously threatens people’s freedom to move. Thus, we hypothesise policies are acceptable if they reduce the problems of car use, without seriously affecting people’s own car use and freedom of choice.

The Economic Impact of Environmentally Sustainable Transport in Germany

The economic assessment of the Environmentally Sustainable Transportation (EST) scenarios developed throughout this paper are part of Phase 3 of the overall project, which is on social and economic assessment and on devising packages of instruments that - if implemented - would result in attaining EST.  Two methods were chosen for the assessment of the scenarios: a qualitative evaluation based on a simplified cybernetic model (SCM) and a system dynamics model (SDM). In the assessment with the simplified cybernetic model, a conservative baseline has been chosen in order to start with a scenario that incorporates some pessimistic views of the industry. The aim is to show that, even in this case, an economic disaster will not occur.  The System Dynamics Model ESCOT was designed to consider the ecological and technical aspects of a transition towards sustainable transportation. It is important that ESCOT considers not only first round effects but also secondary effects, which makes it a powerful instrument for the assessment of such large ecological changes. The economic assessment of environmentally sustainable scenarios shows that the departure from car and road freight oriented transport policy is far from leading to an economic collapse. The effects concerning economic indices are rather low, even though the measures proposed in the EST-80% scenario designate distinct changes compared to today’s transport policy. The impacts on some economic indicators, however, are clearly negative. With an expansion of the time period for the transition in the EST-50% scenario we derived even more encouraging results than for EST-80%

RISPOSTA TERAPEUTICA A TETRAIDROCANNABINOLO/CANNABIDIOLO NELLA SPASTICITA' ASSOCIATA A SCLEROSI MULTIPLA

Sativex® è un spray oromucosale atto alla terapia della spasticità in corso di sclerosi multipla. Esso contiene due principi attivi, il Δ9-tetraidrocannabinolo (THC) e il cannabidiolo (CBD), entrambi derivati dalla pianta di Cannabis Sativa, i quali agiscono modulando il sistema endocannabinoide umano. L'obiettivo della nostra analisi retrospettiva è stato quello di valutare la risposta terapeutica a tale farmaco in 35 pazienti, che non avevano precedentemente risposto ad altri trattamenti antispastici. Per tale valutazione, ci siamo avvalsi di 4 parametri (NRS per la spasticità, EDSS, Ambulation Index, test dei 10 metri), valutati prima e dopo un periodo di terapia di 4 settimane. Tale analisi ha mostrato efficacia nel ridurre l'NRS per la spasticità (riduzione del 26,6% nei responders), ma scarsa efficacia sugli altri paramentri. Il farmaco ha inoltre dimostrato una discreta efficacia sul dolore associato alla spasticità. Inoltre, valutando la terapia nel lungo termine, si è notato che tale trattamento mantiene la sua efficacia anche dopo molti cicli di terapia. Sativex® is a oromucosal spray for the treatment of spasticity in course of multiple sclerosis. It contains Δ9 - tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) , both derived from the plant "Cannabis sativa". The aim of our retrospective analysis was to evaluate the therapeutic response to Sativex® in 35 patients , who had not previously responded to other antispasticity agents .For this evaluation , we used four parameters ( NRS for spasticity , EDSS , Ambulation Index, tests of 10 meters ) , checked before and after a treatment period of 4 weeks .This analysis has shown effectiveness in reducing NRS for spasticity (26.6% reduction in responders) , but little effect on other parameters . The drug also showed a fairly effective on pain, associated with spasticity. Moreover , considering the long-term therapy , it has been noted that such treatment remains effective

Climate Change and Transport

The transport sector is currently the second largest emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, which is the main anthropogenic greenhouse gas (IPCC, 2013). On the global perspective, transport emissions are increasing fast and they might soon catch up with those from the electricity and heat provision sector (IEA, 2015). In 2010 transport generated about 7.0 gigatonnes of direct greenhouse gas emissions. Mainly driven by fast development of emerging economies, transport might double its emissions by 2050 (IEA, 2015). Decarbonising transport is seen as more challenging compared to other sectors (cf. Creutzig et al., 2015). The fifth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicates that the increase in global average surface temperature is very likely due to the observed raise in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and the target to keep global warming below 2L requires severe efforts by the society (IPCC, 2015). In contradiction, transport has not been in the focus of the political agenda (Creutzig et al., 2015) – mainly because policy makers believe that the economy is strongly dependent on cheap mobility and they fear to annoy their voters. The scientific community should strengthen their proclamation that current societies are still focusing on inefficient and oil dependent mobility technologies. Non-motorised modes, public transport, and electric vehicles might provide competitive and efficient abatement options with further social benefits in the future (Creutzig, 2015; Jochem et al., 2015). Otherwise, the ongoing increase in greenhouse gas emissions from transport will highly probably continue for the next decades, due to the rising global vehicle fleet and increasing volumes in freight transport and aviation

VRU-TOO: Micro-Level Behavioural and Conflict Changes in the VRU-TOO Pilot Projects. Deliverable 15.

This report describes the results of an evaluation of pilot project pedestrian detection systems installed in three different European cities at in total six different sites. The implemented systems had the improvement of safety and comfort of pedestrians as objectives. The systems provided early detection of pedestrians approaching the crossing facility and detection of the presence of pedestrian on the crossing facility, allowing the onset of a pedestrian green phase or an extension of such a green phase. The evaluation involved the registration of pedestrian behaviour and pedestrian-vehicle encounters and conflicts. Pedestrian behaviour was recorded on videotape, conflicts were scored on the spot by trained observers. The behaviour recorded on videotape was later analysed using approach speed, nonnative behaviour and appropriate use of the crossing facilities as main indicators. In addition, pedestrian signal settings were recorded for each crossing. The evaluation design used a beforelafter measurement design with the after measurements being taken at least two weeks after the system implementation. The results indicated that although red light violations were reduced at some sites, they remained at a high level. The implementations had some positive effects on the normative behaviour of pedestrians. The percentage of pedestrians getting involved in encounters with motorized traffic was reduced at one site, increased at another and remained unchanged at the other sites. A significant reduction in conflicts was observed at several sites, but at other sites conflict occurrence remained unchanged. The system implementations had a very distinct positive effect on pedestrian delay. Required waiting times were reduced at all but one site and at some sites the reductions were substantial. Pedestrian comfort was also improved by an increase in the percentage of pedestrians arriving durhg the pedestrian green phase and the percentage being able to complete their crossing during pedestrian green. In summary, the evaluation study demonstrated that some safety effects and substantial effect on comfort were achieved by the implementation of the systems. The effects can be further optimized by selecting sites that fulfil specific requirements for successful implementation. Red light violation by pedestrian remains a serious safety problem and further studies should be undertaken how further reductions can be achieved by optimizing signal settings