scholarly journals A Rural Road Accident Probability Model Based on Single-Vehicle Hazard Properties including Hazard Color and Mobility: A Driving Simulator Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Sina Sheikholeslami ◽  
Amin M. Boroujerdian ◽  
Morteza Asadamraji
Keyword(s):  
Driving Simulator ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Probability Model ◽  
Road Accident ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Sight Distance ◽  
Accident Probability ◽  
Driving Speed ◽  
Single Vehicle ◽  
Stopping Sight Distance

Road safety has recently been considered an important issue in the country. Single-vehicle accident statistics show the importance of this issue. From a safety viewpoint, drivers need to have a reasonable time window for hazard recognition and reaction; therefore, the hazard has to be in sight from a distance preferably longer than the standard minimum stopping sight distance. Nevertheless, if the roadside configuration makes the sight available for a very long distance, the hazard properties are the ones defining the visibility. The hazard size, color, and mobility are some of the most important hazard properties, which may mainly interact with ambient light (like being day or night) and driving speed. In this research, effect of hazard properties on driving accident likelihood was investigated in a condition that enough recognition and reaction time window was available for the driver to provide a ceteris paribus experiment. To fulfil that in a safe experiment condition, a driving simulator was used to test the behavior of 90 licensed drivers encountering an average of 14 hazards with various sets of properties. Based on the findings of this research, there are some interactions between influential hazard properties. The results imply that it is approximately 23% more likely to observe an accident when encountering a dark small stationary hazard at nighttime like a dark-colored with an observed size of 0.5 m × 0.5 m (e.g., a stone) than a major moving light-colored hazard in the daytime like a camel of 1.5 m ∗ 2 m in size. A green-colored hazard is 27% less likely to involve in an accident at nighttime than hazards with other colors. Each 10 km/h speed increment leads to 1.9% more accident likelihood, and every time the driver encounters a hazard, they will be 0.84% less likely to crash next time.

Sight distance red zones on combined horizontal and sag vertical curves

1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 621-630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasser Hassan ◽  
Said M Easa
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
The Other ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Horizontal Curve ◽  
Sight Distance ◽  
Stopping Sight Distance ◽  
Three Dimensional Models ◽  
Highway Alignment ◽  
Current Standards

Coordination of highway horizontal and vertical alignments is based on subjective guidelines in current standards. This paper presents a quantitative analysis of coordinating horizontal and sag vertical curves that are designed using two-dimensional standards. The locations where a horizontal curve should not be positioned relative to a sag vertical curve (called red zones) are identified. In the red zone, the available sight distance (computed using three-dimensional models) is less than the required sight distance. Two types of red zones, based on stopping sight distance (SSD) and preview sight distance (PVSD), are examined. The SSD red zone corresponds to the locations where an overlap between a horizontal curve and a sag vertical curve should be avoided because the three-dimensional sight distance will be less than the required SSD. The PVSD red zone corresponds to the locations where a horizontal curve should not start because drivers will not be able to perceive it and safely react to it. The SSD red zones exist for practical highway alignment parameters, and therefore designers should check the alignments for potential SSD red zones. The range of SSD red zones was found to depend on the different alignment parameters, especially the superelevation rate. On the other hand, the results showed that the PVSD red zones exist only for large values of the required PVSD, and therefore this type of red zones is not critical. This paper should be of particular interest to the highway designers and professionals concerned with highway safety.Key words: sight distance, red zone, combined alignment.

scholarly journals A Behavioral Model of Drivers’ Mean Speed Influenced by Weather Conditions, Road Geometry, and Driver Characteristics Using a Driving Simulator Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Mehdi Zolali ◽  
Babak Mirbaha ◽  
Maziyar Layegh ◽  
Hamid Reza Behnood
Keyword(s):  
Latent Variables ◽  
Latent Variable ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Driving Simulator ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Geometric Design ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Novice Drivers ◽  
Sight Distance ◽  
The Mean

Driving above the speed limit is one of the factors that significantly affect safety. Many studies examined the factors affecting the speed of vehicles in the simulated environment. The present study aimed to analyze drivers’ characteristics, time and weather conditions, and geometric features’ effect on mean speed in simulated conditions simultaneously. In this regard, the simulator experiment data of 70 drivers were collected in a two-lane rural highway at six different times, and weather scenarios and their socioeconomic characteristics were collected by a questionnaire. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to capture the complex relationships among related variables. Eleven variables were grouped into four latent variables in the structural model. Latent variables including “Novice Drivers,” “Experienced Drivers,” “Sight Distance,” and “Geometric Design” were defined and found significant on their mean speed. The results showed that “Novice Drivers” have a positive correlation with the mean speed. Meanwhile, “Experienced Drivers,” who drive 12% slower than the novice group, negatively affect the mean speed with a standard regression weight of −0.08. This relation means that young and novice drivers are more inclined to choose higher speeds. Among variables, the latent variable “Sight Distance” has the most significant effect on the mean speed. This model shows that foggy weather conditions strongly affect the speed selection behavior and reduce the mean speed by 40%. Nighttime also reduces mean speed due to poor visibility conditions. Furthermore, “Geometric design” as the latent variable indicates the presence of curves on the simulated road, and it can be concluded that the existence of a curve on the road encourages drivers to slow down, even young drivers. It is noteworthy that the parts of the simulated road with a horizontal curve act as a speed reduction tool for drivers.

scholarly journals Evolution of andrenine bees reveals a long and complex history of faunal interchanges between the Americas during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelli S Ramos ◽  
Aline C Martins ◽  
Gabriel A R Melo
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
South America ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Distributional Pattern ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Early Diversification ◽  
Palearctic Region ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Times ◽  
Dated Phylogeny

Bees are presumed to have arisen in the early to mid-Cretaceous coincident with the fragmentation of the southern continents and concurrently with the early diversification of the flowering plants. Among the main groups of bees, Andreninae sensu lato comprise about 3000 species widely distributed with greatest and disjunct diversity in arid areas of North America, South America, and the Palearctic region. Here, we present the first comprehensive dated phylogeny and historical biogeographic analysis for andrenine bees, including representatives of all currently recognized tribes. Our analyses rely on a dataset of 106 taxa and 7952 aligned nucleotide positions from one mitochondrial and six nuclear loci. Andreninae is strongly supported as a monophyletic group and the recovered phylogeny corroborates the commonly recognized clades for the group. Thus, we propose a revised tribal classification that is congruent with our phylogenetic results. The time-calibrated phylogeny and ancestral range reconstructions of Andreninae reveal a fascinating evolutionary history with Gondwana patterns that are unlike those observed in other subfamilies of bees. Andreninae arose in South America during the Late Cretaceous around 90 Million years ago (Ma) and the origin of tribes occurred through a relatively long time-window from this age to the Miocene. The early evolution of the main lineages took place in South America until the beginning of Paleocene with North American fauna origin from it and Palearctic from North America as results of multiple lineage interchanges between these areas by long-distance dispersal or hopping through landmass chains. Overall, our analyses provide strong evidence of amphitropical distributional pattern currently observed in Andreninae in the American continent as result at least three periods of possible land connections between the two American landmasses, much prior to the Panama Isthmus closure. The andrenine lineages reached the Palearctic region through four dispersal events from North America during the Eocene, late Oligocene and early Miocene, most probably via the Thulean Bridge. The few lineages with Afrotropical distribution likely originated from a Palearctic ancestral in the Miocene around 10 Ma when these regions were contiguous, and the Sahara Desert was mostly vegetated making feasible the passage by several organisms. Incursions of andrenine bees to North America and then onto the Old World are chronological congruent with distinct periods when open-vegetation habitats were available for trans-continental dispersal and at the times when aridification and temperature decline offered favorable circumstances for bee diversification.

scholarly journals An Initial Investigation of the Effects of a Fully Automated Vehicle Fleet on Geometric Design

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Khoury ◽  
Kamar Amine ◽  
Rima Abi Saad
Keyword(s):  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Autonomous Vehicle ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Geometric Design ◽  
Design Elements ◽  
Sight Distance ◽  
Human Driver ◽  
Projected Change ◽  
Vehicle Fleet ◽  
Stopping Sight Distance

This paper investigates the potential changes in the geometric design elements in response to a fully autonomous vehicle fleet. When autonomous vehicles completely replace conventional vehicles, the human driver will no longer be a concern. Currently, and for safety reasons, the human driver plays an inherent role in designing highway elements, which depend on the driver’s perception-reaction time, driver’s eye height, and other driver related parameters. This study focuses on the geometric design elements that will directly be affected by the replacement of the human driver with fully autonomous vehicles. Stopping sight distance, decision sight distance, and length of sag and crest vertical curves are geometric design elements directly affected by the projected change. Revised values for these design elements are presented and their effects are quantified using a real-life scenario. An existing roadway designed using current AASHTO standards has been redesigned with the revised values. Compared with the existing design, the proposed design shows significant economic and environmental improvements, given the elimination of the human driver.

scholarly journals Three-Dimensional Stopping Sight Distance Calculation Method under High Slope Restraint

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (20) ◽  
pp. 7118
Author(s):  
Yonghong Yang ◽  
Jiecong Wang ◽  
Yuanbo Xia ◽  
Lan Huang
Keyword(s):  
Calculation Method ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Highway Safety ◽  
Small Radius ◽  
Safety Engineering ◽  
Design Data ◽  
Important Indicator ◽  
High Slope ◽  
Sight Distance ◽  
Stopping Sight Distance

Sight distance is an important indicator to ensure the safety of drivers, and is also an indispensable evaluation basis in highway safety engineering. In mountainous highways, high slopes and small radius often lead to poor visibility and traffic accidents. Through the combined calculation of horizontal and vertical sections, this paper comprehensively considers the specific sizes of roadside clearance, high slope, as well as the position and height of the driver’s view point and other factors, and it analyzes the limited visibility of the driver in the process of driving right turn. An effective and simplified calculation method based on design data for three dimensional (3D) stopping sight distance (S.S.D.) in high fill sections is proposed. Finally, the S.S.D. inspection of the actual highway, based on design speed and operating speed, is carried out, and the sight distance of the calculated point is judged by comparing the value with the normal value and the calculation result of the horizontal sightline offset. The results show that the method proposed in this paper is consistent with the sight distance results obtained by the horizontal sightline offset method, which indicates the calculation method is accurate and provides a technical reference for S.S.D. evaluation in highway safety engineering.

Location-based analysis of car-following behavior during braking using naturalistic driving data

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 498-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mostafa H. Tawfeek ◽  
Karim El-Basyouny
Keyword(s):  
Driver Assistance Systems ◽  
Behavioral Measures ◽  
Car Following ◽  
Sight Distance ◽  
Influence Area ◽  
Data Source ◽  
Naturalistic Driving ◽  
Stopping Sight Distance ◽  
Microscopic Modeling ◽  
Rich Data

This study investigates the car-following behavior during braking at intersections and segments. Car-following events were extracted from a naturalistic driving dataset, mapped using ArcGIS, and analyzed to differentiate between the intersection- and segment-related events. The intersection-related events were identified according to an intersection influence area, which was estimated based on the stopping sight distance and the speed limit. Five behavioral measures were quantified based on exploring the probability density functions (PDF) for intersection- and segment-related events. The results showed that there were significant differences between the PDFs of the measures for both cases. Moreover, it was indicated that drivers tend to be more aggressive at intersections compared with segments. Thus, it is crucial to consider the driver’s location when investigating driver behavior. The quantified behavioral measures are a rich data source that can be used for car-following microscopic modeling, surrogate safety analysis, and driver assistance systems development.

Newborns Crying in Different Contexts: Discrete or Graded Signals?

1998 ◽  
Vol 86 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1123-1140 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Lenti Boero ◽  
C. Bianchi ◽  
C. Volpe ◽  
A. Marcello ◽  
C. Lenti
Keyword(s):  
Time Window ◽  
Interesting Property ◽  
The Other ◽  
Acoustic Features ◽  
Acoustic Parameters ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Human Infants ◽  
Context Type ◽  
Normal Human ◽  
Individual Specificity

The aim of this study was to investigate whether human infants' cries show individually and contextually discriminable acoustic parameters. 20 full-term normal human newborns (aged 1 to 4 days) had their cries recorded during routine blood withdrawal (pain context) 30 min. before a scheduled feeding (hunger context) and when subjected to kinetic stimuli during neurological examination (manipulation context). Type of cries, melodic contours, F0 parameters, but not the “macro” trend of the start of the fundamental frequency, indicated a difference in pain cries in the other two contexts. All the acoustic features considered showed an individual specificity. The peak frequencies of voiceless or partially voiced wails had the interesting property of being optimised as long distance signals. We hypothesised that this feature of infants' cries may have evolved in a time window when the infants were left in collective nurseries and not carried on the mothers' backs as maintained by the traditional view.

scholarly journals Dynamic Eco-Driving Speed Guidance at Signalized Intersections: Multivehicle Driving Simulator Based Experimental Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Chen ◽  
Cong Yan ◽  
Jian Sun ◽  
Yunpeng Wang ◽  
Shenyang Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Consumption ◽  
Driving Simulator ◽  
Fuel Efficiency ◽  
Signalized Intersections ◽  
Specific Power ◽  
Programming Approach ◽  
Time Signal ◽  
Connected Vehicle ◽  
Dynamic Programming Approach ◽  
Driving Speed

Variations in vehicle fuel consumption and gas emissions are usually associated with changes in cruise speed and the aggressiveness of drivers’ acceleration/deceleration, especially at traffic signals. In an attempt to enhance vehicle fuel efficiency on arterials, this study developed a dynamic eco-driving speed guidance strategy (DESGS) using real-time signal timing and vehicle positioning information in a connected vehicle (CV) environment. DESGS mainly aims to optimize the fuel/emission speed profiles for vehicles approaching signalized intersections. An optimization-based rolling horizon and a dynamic programming approach were proposed to track the optimal guided velocity for individual vehicles along the travel segment. In addition, a vehicle specific power (VSP) based approach was integrated into DESGS to estimate the fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. To evaluate the effectiveness of the overall strategy, 15 experienced drivers were recruited to participate in interactive speed guidance experiments using multivehicle driving simulators. It was found that compared to vehicles without speed guidance, those with DESGS had a significantly reduced number of stops and approximately 25% less fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

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