Accident; analysis and prevention
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Freeway traffic accidents are complicated events that are influenced by multiple factors including roadway geometry, drivers' behavior, traffic conditions and environmental factors. Among the various factors, crash occurrence on freeways is supposed to be strongly influenced by the traffic states representing driving situations that are changed by road geometry and cause the change of drivers' behavior. This paper proposes a methodology to investigate the relationship between traffic states and crash involvements on the freeway. ⋯ By integrating freeway crash occurrence and traffic data over a three-year period, we obtained the crash involvement rate for each traffic state. The results show that crash involvement rate in BN, BQ, and CT states are approximately 5 times higher than the one in FF. The proposed method shows promise to be used for various safety performance measurement including hot spot identification and prediction of the number of crash involvements on freeway sections.
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Tractors are associated with more fatalities than any other piece of machinery in agriculture, with tractor rollovers being a frequent mechanism. This study examines tractor fatalities between 1985 and 2010 in Victoria, Australia, and examines the impact of the 1998 legislation mandating the retrofitting of rollover protection structures (ROPS). The data source was the Victorian WorkCover Authority to whom unintentional work placed deaths are reportable. ⋯ Poisson regression modelling indicated a significant decline in rollover fatalities during this period of approximately 7% per annum (incidence rate ratio [IRR]=0.93, 95% CI 0.90-0.97), however there was no simple relationship between the introduction of the legislation and the fatality decrease. It is proposed that the impact of previous voluntary retrofitting initiatives, coupled with the existing requirement for ROPS on new tractors, may have increased ROPS fitment to a critical point prior to the final requirement for retrofitting, diluting the effect over a number of years so that it could not be detected using the statistical techniques that have been applied. An increased trend in run over fatalities was also found (IRR=1.04, 95% CI 1.00-1.09) suggesting the need for research into interventions for this type of fatality, such as safe tractor access platforms.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Persuading drivers to refrain from speeding: Effects of message sidedness and regulatory fit.
Building on regulatory fit theory (Higgins, 2000, 2005), we tested whether two-sided ads were more effective than one-sided ads in changing intentions toward driving behavior when message recipients were high in assessment orientation rather than locomotion orientation. In one study either a locomotion or an assessment orientation were situationally induced (Study 1) and in another study these different orientations were chronic predispositions (Study 2). ⋯ There was also evidence that the fit effect on intentions to comply was mediated by strength of engagement with the message. Implications for persuasion concerning driving behaviors are discussed.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Safety effects of permanent running lights for bicycles: A controlled experiment.
Making the use of daytime running lights mandatory for motor vehicles is generally documented to have had a positive impact upon traffic safety. Improving traffic safety for bicyclists is a focal point in the road traffic safety work in Denmark. In 2004 and 2005 a controlled experiment including 3845 cyclists was carried out in Odense, Denmark in order to examine, if permanent running lights mounted to bicycles would improve traffic safety for cyclists. ⋯ The study shows that use of permanent bicycle running lights reduces the occurrence of multiparty accidents involving cyclists significantly. In the study the bicycle accidents were recorded trough self-reporting on the Internet. Possible shortcomings and problems related to this accident recording are discussed and analysed.
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China is motorizing rapidly, with associated urban road development and extensive construction of motorways. Speeding accounts for about 10% of fatalities, which represents a large decrease from a peak of 17.2% in 2004. Speeding has been addressed at a national level through the introduction of laws and procedural requirements in 2004, in provinces either across all road types or on motorways, and at city level. ⋯ In Guangdong Province, after using speed detection equipment, motorway fatalities due to speeding in 2005 decreased by 32.5% comparing with 2004. In Beijing, the number of traffic monitoring units which were used to photograph illegal traffic activities such as traffic light violations, speeding and using bus lanes illegally increased to 1958 by April 1, 2009, and in the future such automated enforcement will become the main means of enforcement, expected to account for 60% of all traffic enforcement in Beijing. This paper provides a brief overview of the speeding enforcement programmes in China which have been documented and their successes.