Accident; analysis and prevention
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One of the proactive approaches in reducing traffic crashes is to identify hazardous traffic conditions that may lead to a traffic crash, known as real-time crash prediction. Threshold selection is one of the essential steps of real-time crash prediction. And it provides the cut-off point for the posterior probability which is used to separate potential crash warnings against normal traffic conditions, after the outcome of the probability of a crash occurring given a specific traffic condition on the basis of crash risk evaluation models. ⋯ And K-fold cross-validation was used to validate the performance of proposed threshold selection methods with the help of several evaluation criteria. The results indicate that (i) the mixed logit model can obtain a good performance; (ii) the classification performance of the threshold selected by the minimum cross-entropy method outperforms the other methods according to the criteria. This method can be well-behaved to automatically identify thresholds in crash prediction, by minimizing the cross entropy between the original dataset with continuous probability of a crash occurring and the binarized dataset after using the thresholds to separate potential crash warnings against normal traffic conditions.
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The study examined how bus and taxi drivers' public self-consciousness interacted with social anxiety to influence their aberrant driving behaviors. Questionnaires were distributed to 331 male and female Taiwanese bus and taxi drivers whose working environment involves frequent and direct interaction with passengers. Questionnaire statements measured drivers' dispositional public self-consciousness and social anxiety, and their intentions and driving behaviors related to speeding, errors and violations. ⋯ Drivers with crash involvement within three years reported higher public self-consciousness than did those without that involvement. The suitable research frameworks, which describe the influence of public self-consciousness and social anxiety on aberrant driving behaviors, fit to bus and taxi drivers are different, so as different to male and female drivers. The study findings suggest bus and taxi driver should receive special training in general attitude as a condition of their employment in order to avoid aggressive behaviors and provide a better and safer service to the public.
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Comparative Study
Comparison of proposed countermeasures for dilemma zone at signalized intersections based on cellular automata simulations.
The Type II dilemma zone describes the road segment to a signalized intersection where drivers have difficulties to decide either stop or go at the onset of yellow signal. Such phenomenon can result in an increased crash risk at signalized intersections. Different types of warning systems have been proposed to help drivers make decisions. ⋯ Also, it is found that the pavement-marking countermeasure has positive effects on reducing the rear-end risk while it may increase the probability of RLR violation. Lastly, the implementation of the proposed warning system is discussed with the consideration of connected-vehicle technology. It is expected that the dilemma zone issues can be efficiently addressed if the proposed countermeasure can be employed within connected vehicle technology.
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Bus drivers often work irregular hours or split shifts and their work involves high levels of stress. These factors can lead to severe sleepiness and dangerous driving. This study examined how split shift working affects sleepiness and performance during afternoon driving. ⋯ One driver fell asleep during the drive. In addition, 12 of the 18 bus drivers reported that in their daily work they have to fight to stay awake while driving at least 2-4 times per month. While there were strong individual differences, the study clearly showed that shift-working bus drivers struggle to stay awake and thus countermeasures are needed in order to guarantee safe driving with split shift schedules.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Randomized trials and self-reported accidents as a method to study safety-enhancing measures for cyclists-two case studies.
A large number of studies show that high visibility in traffic is important in the struggle of getting the attention from other road users and thus an important safety factor. Cyclists have a much higher risk of being killed or injured in a traffic accident than car drivers so for them high visibility is particularly important. A number of studies have examined the effect of high visibility, such as reflective clothing, but most studies have been primitive, the data limited and the results very uncertain. ⋯ The trials were not blind and it seems that the lack of blinding has influenced the level of the groups accident reporting. To address this bias we used a correction factor formed by the difference in the number of single accidents of the two groups. The experiences with self-reporting of accidents via a web based questionnaire sent by e-mail with one respective two month intervals were very good; in both trials more than 80% answered all questionnaires whereas less than 2% did not answer, and the quality of the self-reported accident was considered high.