Review of driving-behaviour simulation: VISSIM and artificial intelligence approach.

Examining driving behaviour is crucial for traffic operations because of its influence on driver safety and the potential for increased risk of accidents, injuries, and fatalities. Approximately 95% of severe traffic collisions can be attributed to human error. With the progress in artificial intelligence in recent decades, notable advancements have been achieved in computer capabilities, communication systems and data collection technology.

Plastic Roads in Asia: Current Implementations and Should It Be Considered?

The rapid economic and industrial growth experienced in the Asian region has significantly increased waste production, particularly single-use plastic. This surge in waste poses a significant challenge for these countries' municipal solid waste management systems. Consequently, there is a pressing need for progressive and effective solutions to address the plastic waste issue.

Structural Characteristics and Microstructure Analysis of Soft Soil Stabilised with Fine Ground Tile Waste.

Using ceramic tile waste as a soil stabiliser in road construction is a potential solution to dispose of the waste material while providing a cost-effective alternative to traditional stabilising agents. The ceramic tile waste, when crushed and mixed with soil, helps to improve the strength and durability of the road base. However, the effectiveness of the ceramic tile waste as a soil stabiliser depends on the type and size of ceramic tiles used and the soil properties being stabilised.

How has COVID-19 impacted customer perceptions and demand for delivery services: An exploratory analysis.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic created an environment where nearly all aspects of mobility changed to ensure the health and safety of the public. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that people quarantine for 14 days if they were potentially exposed to the virus, stay at least six feet apart from others, and stay at home as much as possible. Delivery via third-party restaurant app, grocery, and package delivery quickly became an essential service.

Effect of Carbon Nanofibers on Physical, Adhesion and Rheological Properties of Liquid Epoxidized Natural Rubber Modified Asphalt.

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) on the performance of liquid epoxidized natural rubber (LENR)-modified asphalt. The physical, adhesion and rheological properties were determined by several tests such as penetration, elastic recovery, ring and ball softening point, Brookfield rotational viscometer, AFM and dynamic shear rheometer. LENR was used at concentrations of 3, 6, and 9%, while CNFs were used at contents of 0.

Investigating risk factors associated with pedestrian crash occurrence and injury severity in Texas.

Objective: This study investigates various risk factors associated with pedestrian crash occurrence and injury severity based on 78,497 reported pedestrian-involved crashes across Texas from 2010 through 2019.

Methods: Crashes are mapped to over 708,738 road segments, along with road design, land use, transit, hospital, rainfall, and other location features. Negative binomial models examine the association between pedestrian crash frequency and various contributing factors, and a heteroskedastic ordered probit model investigates the severity of injuries at the individual crash level.

A systematic review of the utilization of waste materials as aggregate replacement in stone matrix asphalt mixes.

The daily utilization of a large amount of raw materials is causing a rapid depletion of natural resources. The growth of the human population is accompanied by higher activities in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors that resulted in a larger volume of waste materials being disposed of in landfills each year. Researchers are seeking ways to reduce the adverse impact of waste materials on the environment.

Evaluation and Comparison of Mechanical Properties of Polymer-Modified Asphalt Mixtures.

Polymer modification is extensively used in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) because the available asphalt cement does not satisfy the high-temperature requirements. It was widely used in KSA for more than two decades, and there is little information regarding the differences in the performance of different polymers approved for binder modification. Pavement engineers require performance comparisons among various polymers to select the best polymer for modification rather than make their selection based on satisfying binder specifications.

Identification of engine oil-derived ash nanoparticles and ash formation process for a gasoline direct-injection engine.

Engine oil-derived ash particles emitted from internal combustion (IC) engines are unwanted by-products, after oil is involved in in-cylinder combustion process. Since they typically come out together with particulate emissions, no detail has been reported about their early-stage particles other than agglomerated particles loaded on aftertreatment catalysts and filters. To better understand ash formation process during the combustion process, differently formulated engine oils were dosed into a fuel system of a gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine that produces low soot mass emissions at normal operating conditions to increase the chances to find stand-alone ash particles separated from soot aggregates in the sub-20-nm size range.

A pilot study on the evaluation of eye, head, and trunk coordination in subjects with chronic whiplash during a target-tracking task - A driving context approach.

Background: Motor vehicle accidents (MVA) are the most common causes of whiplash injuries. Difficulties with driving and changes in driving behavior are reported by subjects with chronic whiplash associated disorders (WAD). Proper eye and head coordination is required for driving tasks.

Nighttime seat belt use among front seat passengers: Does the driver's belt use matter?

Introduction And Method: We explored the relationship between nighttime seat belt use of right-front passengers and their drivers using observational data from 33,310 vehicles in east Tennessee during March 2015 - May 2017.

Results: Overall, nighttime passenger seat belt use varied by 50 percentage points from 92% when drivers were belted to 42% when drivers were not belted, suggesting that part-time seat belt users can be heavily influenced by the seat belt status of their traveling companions. When stratified by vehicle type and sex, passenger seat belt use by driver seat belt status varied as much as 74 percentage points from 96% to 22%.

Data on highway maintenance, rehabilitation, and mobility projects for integrated planning in Texas.

State Highway Agencies (SHAs) have different functional groups that work towards improving the functional and physical performance of highway assets. These functional groups often propose multiple inter-related highway projects on the same network. However, the respective information systems of such functional groups lack interoperability capabilities between them.

Animal-vehicle collisions in Texas: How to protect travelers and animals on roadways.

Animal-vehicle collisions (AVCs) are a growing problem in the United States, resulting in countless loss of animal life and considerable human injury and death every year, especially to motorcyclists. Due to underreporting, collision data generally provide a very low (highly biased) estimate of actual AVC counts and often lack key details, such as the species of animals involved. However, AVC reports cover entire states and nations, and can illuminate differences in wild versus domestic animal-vehicle collisions through statistical and spatial analysis.

Exploring the factors contribute to the injury severities of vulnerable roadway user involved crashes.

The vehicle to pedestrian (V2P) applications will enable safety, mobility, and environmental advancements for the vulnerable roadway user (VRU) that current technologies are unable to provide. The present research aims to explore the use of random parameters in logit models to examine factors that significantly influence injury severity of VRU involved crashes. Two types of logit models, the mixed generalized ordered logit (MGOL) models and mixed logit models are proposed to provide insights on reducing injury severities of pedestrian and bicyclist involved crashes and benefit amending current V2P applications to address the special safety needs and challenges of these VRUs.

Road Weather Condition Estimation Using Fixed and Mobile Based Cameras.

Automated interpretation and understanding of the driving environment using image processing is a challenging task, as most current vision-based systems are not designed to work in dynamically-changing and naturalistic real-world settings. For instance, road weather condition classification using a camera is a challenge due to high variance in weather, road layout, and illumination conditions. Most transportation agencies, within the U.

Access to trauma centers for road crashes in the United States.

Introduction: Existing research indicates that around 90% of all U.S. residents have access to at least one level I or II trauma center within 60min.

Correlates of front-seat passengers' non-use of seatbelts at night.

When properly worn, seatbelts can save lives. They are designed to prevent occupants from hitting objects inside their vehicle and from being ejected out of their vehicle in the event of a crash. Despite their proven effectiveness in reducing the severity of injuries, seatbelt non-use among passengers still remains a problem, especially at night.

A comparative study of rail-pedestrian trespassing crash injury severity between highway-rail grade crossings and non-crossings.

Rail-trespassing crashes that involve various levels of injuries to pedestrians are under-researched. Rail trespassing could occur at crossings where pedestrians are present at the wrong time and at non-crossings where pedestrians are not legally allowed to be present. This paper presents a comparative study examining rail-trespassing crashes in two contexts: highway-rail grade crossings vs.

Multivariate dynamic Tobit models with lagged observed dependent variables: An effectiveness analysis of highway safety laws.

Highway safety laws aim to influence driver behaviors so as to reduce the frequency and severity of crashes, and their outcomes. For one specific highway safety law, it would have different effects on the crashes across severities. Understanding such effects can help policy makers upgrade current laws and hence improve traffic safety.

Do safety performance functions used for predicting crash frequency vary across space? Applying geographically weighted regressions to account for spatial heterogeneity.

Safety Performance Functions (SPFs) provide a basis for identifying locations where countermeasures can be effective. While SPFs in the Highway Safety Manual (HSM) were calibrated based on data from select states, calibration factors can be developed to localize SPFs to other states. Calibration factors typically provide a coarse adjustment-time and space stationarity of associations between crash frequencies and various factors is still assumed, implying that the SPF functional form is transferable.

Exploring the effects of state highway safety laws and sociocultural characteristics on fatal crashes.

Objective: Distinguished from the traditional perspectives in crash analyses, which examined the effects of geometric design features, traffic factors, and other relevant attributes on the crash frequencies of roadway entities, our study focuses on exploring the effects of highway safety laws, as well as sociocultural characteristics, on fatal crashes across states.

Methods: Law and regulation related data were collected from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, State Highway Safety Offices, and Governors Highway Safety Association. A variety of sociodemographic characteristics were obtained from the U.

A study of factors affecting intersection crash frequencies using random-parameter multivariate zero-inflated models.

Recent research demonstrates the appropriateness of multivariate regression models in crash count modelling when one specific type of crash counts needs to be analysed, since they can better handle the correlated issues in multiple crash counts. In this paper, a random-parameter multivariate zero-inflated Poisson (RMZIP) regression model is proposed as an alternative multivariate methodology for jointly modelling crash counts simultaneously. Using this RMZIP model, we are able to account for the heterogeneity due to the unobserved roadway geometric design features and traffic characteristics.

What are the differences in driver injury outcomes at highway-rail grade crossings? Untangling the role of pre-crash behaviors.

Crashes at highway-rail grade crossings can result in severe injuries and fatalities to vehicle occupants. Using a crash database from the Federal Railroad Administration (N=15,639 for 2004-2013), this study explores differences in safety outcomes from crashes between passive controls (Crossbucks and STOP signs) and active controls (flashing lights, gates, audible warnings and highway signals). To address missing data, an imputation model is developed, creating a complete dataset for estimation.

Evaluation of driving behavior on rural 2-lane curves using the SHRP 2 naturalistic driving study data.

Introduction: Over half of motor vehicle fatalities are roadway departures, with rural horizontal curves being of particular interest because they make up only a small share of the system mileage but have a crash rate that is significantly higher than tangent sections. However the interaction between the driver and roadway environment is not well understood, and, as a result, it is difficult to select appropriate countermeasures.

Method: In order to address this knowledge gap, data from the SHRP 2 naturalistic driving study were used to develop relationships between driver, roadway, and environmental characteristics and risk of a road departure on rural curves.

Risky riding: Naturalistic methods comparing safety behavior from conventional bicycle riders and electric bike riders.

As electric bicycles (e-bikes) have emerged as a new transportation mode, their role in transportation systems and their impact on users have become important issues for policy makers and engineers. Little safety-related research has been conducted in North America or Europe because of their relatively small numbers. This work describes the results of a naturalistic GPS-based safety study between regular bicycle (i.