scholarly journals Driver Behavior When Overtaking Cyclists Riding in Different Group Configurations on Two-Lane Rural Roads

Author(s):  
Ana María Pérez-Zuriaga ◽  
Sara Moll ◽  
Griselda López ◽  
Alfredo García

The presence of cyclists on Spanish rural roads is ever increasing and currently frequent, and thus becoming a serious safety concern. In rural environments, the risk of a crash is higher than in rural areas. The main cause is the higher speed of motor vehicles during overtaking manoeuvres. This manoeuvre is especially challenging when cyclists ride in groups as they may change size, length, shape, and speed along their route. These variables and those related to road cross-section can influence driver behaviour when overtaking a group of cyclists. To study this, instrumented bicycles were used to ride along five road segments with different geometric and traffic characteristics. Cyclists rode individually and in groups. Overtaking was evaluated by analysing the lateral distance, the speed, and other characteristics of the manoeuvre. Wider roads presented higher lateral clearances and overtaking speeds. Narrower roads had a high opposing lane invasion but a high level of compliance with the minimum lateral clearance. A higher clearance and lower speed of overtaking vehicles was registered when cyclists rode in line. Compliance with the 1.5 m clearance depended on the group configuration, being higher when cyclists rode in line. However, overtaking cyclists riding two abreast presented more accelerative manoeuvres, especially on narrow roads.

2018 ◽  
Vol 162 ◽  
pp. 01030
Author(s):  
Hamid Athab Al-Jameel ◽  
Ali Jihad Kadhim

Now a days, modeling traffic characteristics are very important in evaluating traffic facilitates such normal section, weaving and merging sections. Lane changing and lane utilization are important traffic characteristics that are widely studied. Therefore this study is focused on both of these. The lane changing behavior affects the capacity and safety of roads. The distribution of vehicles among lanes of roadway is important in terms of different aspects such as safety, traffic management and even the structural design of roads. Field data have been collected from different rural roads. Two types of roads were studied; two-lane section and three-lane section. The results of analysis for collected data indicate that the driver behaviour is different in terms of lane utilization in Iraq from other countries and the same behaviour was found for lane changes also. Compared to other countries, Iraq has the lowest lane utilization and highest frequency of lane changes. These data are urgently needed nowadays for calibrating and validating the sophisticated programs such as simulated microscopic programs. These data are so important to mimic the reality for driver behaviors in rural roadways.


2017 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 302-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Llorca ◽  
Antonio Angel-Domenech ◽  
Fernando Agustin-Gomez ◽  
Alfredo Garcia

Author(s):  
Griselda López ◽  
Ana María Pérez-Zuriaga ◽  
Sara Moll ◽  
Alfredo García

In Spain, the presence of cyclists’ groups riding on two-lane rural roads in a single file or in parallel line is growing. The number of overtaking maneuvers to them is also increasing. This is one of the most dangerous interactions between motor vehicles and bicycles. However, the risk of these maneuvers has not been analyzed in depth. This research analyzes the objective and subjective risk of overtaking maneuvers to cyclists’ groups. During this maneuver, the motorized vehicle overtakes the bicycles with a certain speed and lateral distance. These are the surrogate measures used to analyze the objective risk, whereas the subjective risk was analyzed based on the subjective risk perception that 10 cyclists riding instrumented bicycles (in different group configurations) indicated when every motor vehicle overtook them. Results show that the cyclists most exposed to the overtaking maneuver are those at the front and at the rear of the group. In relation to the configuration, the risk is higher in parallel lines, as the lateral clearance is lower compared with a single line. It is even higher when the overtaking maneuver is flying, which is usually performed at higher speeds and lower lateral clearance. The subjective risk perception increases with higher speed and lower lateral clearance, and is higher at the rear positions. Overtaking in which lateral distance is less than 1.5 m is perceived as the riskiest. These results provide scientific recommendations to enhance safety for cyclists’ groups, and to integrate cycling with vehicular traffic on two-lane rural roads.


Author(s):  
Katarzyna Zatońska ◽  
Piotr Psikus ◽  
Alicja Basiak-Rasała ◽  
Zuzanna Stępnicka ◽  
Maria Wołyniec ◽  
...  

(1) Background: Alcohol is a leading risk factor of premature morbidity and mortality. The objective of this study was to investigate the patterns of alcohol consumption in the PURE Poland cohort study baseline. (2) Methods: A Polish cohort was enrolled in the baseline study in 2007–2010. The study group consisted of 2021 adult participants of urban and rural areas from the Lower Silesia voivodeship in Poland (747 men and 1274 women). (3) Results: In the overall study population, 67.3% were current drinkers, 10.3% were former drinkers, and 22.4% were abstainers. Current use of alcohol products was more prevalent in men (77.2%), people living in urban areas (73.0%), and people with a higher level of education (78.0%). The percentage of current drinkers decreased with increasing age (from 73.4% in 30- to 44-year-olds to 48.8% in participants aged 64 and more). The majority of participants (89.2%) declared a low level of alcohol intake. The chance of high level of intake of alcohol was four times higher in men than in women (OR 4.17; CI 1.64–10.6). The majority of participants (54.6%) declared most frequent consumption of low-alcohol drinks (beer, wine) and 21% declared most frequent consumption of spirits. Current drinkers had almost 1.5-fold higher odds of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) than never drinkers (OR 1.49, CI 1.03–2.17; OR 1.66, CI 1.27–2.18, respectively). Former drinkers had higher odds for hypertension and CVD than never drinkers (1.73, CI 1.05–2.85; OR 1.76, CI 1.22–2.53, respectively). (4) Conclusions: In our cohort study, we observed several socio-demographic factors differentiating the patterns of alcohol consumption. The preventive programs should focus predominantly on men, people aged <45 years, and those with a higher level of education.


Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 678
Author(s):  
Julio Jaramillo-Monge ◽  
Michael Obimpeh ◽  
Bernardo Vega ◽  
David Acurio ◽  
Annelies Boven ◽  
...  

We investigated the COVID-19 vaccination acceptance level in Azuay province, Ecuador through an online survey from 12th to 26th February (before the start of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Ecuador). Overall, 1219 respondents participated in the survey. The mean age was 32 ± 13 years; 693 participants (57%) were female. In total, 1109 (91%) of the participants indicated they were willing to be vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine, if the vaccine is at least 95% effective; 835 (68.5%) if it is 90% effective and 493 (40.5%) if it is 70% effective; 676 (55.5%) participants indicated they feared side effects and 237 (19.4%) thought the vaccine was not effective. Older age, having had a postgraduate education, a history of a negative COVID-19 test, a high level of worry of contracting COVID-19, believing that COVID-19 infection can be prevented with a vaccine and understanding there is currently an effective vaccine against COVID-19 were associated with higher vaccination acceptance. A vaccination education campaign will be needed to increase the knowledge of Ecuadorians about the COVID-19 vaccine and to increase their trust in the vaccine. People with a lower education level and living in rural areas may need to be targeted during such a campaign.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1417
Author(s):  
Jiguang Dai ◽  
Rongchen Ma ◽  
Litao Gong ◽  
Zimo Shen ◽  
Jialin Wu

Road extraction in rural areas is one of the most fundamental tasks in the practical application of remote sensing. In recent years, sample-driven methods have achieved state-of-the-art performance in road extraction tasks. However, sample-driven methods are prohibitively expensive and laborious, especially when dealing with rural roads with irregular curvature changes, narrow widths, and diverse materials. The template matching method can overcome these difficulties to some extent and achieve impressive road extraction results. This method also has the advantage of the vectorization of road extraction results, but the automation is limited. Straight line sequences can be substituted for curves, and the use of the color space can increase the recognition of roads and nonroads. A model-driven-to-sample-driven road extraction method for rural areas with a much higher degree of automation than existing template matching methods is proposed in this study. Without prior samples, on the basis of the geometric characteristics of narrow and long roads and using the advantages of straight lines instead of curved lines, the road center point extraction model is established through length constraints and gray mean contrast constraints of line sequences, and the extraction of some rural roads is completed through topological connection analysis. In addition, we take the extracted road center point and manual input data as local samples, use the improved line segment histogram to determine the local road direction, and use the panchromatic and hue, saturation, value (HSV) space interactive matching model as the matching measure to complete the road tracking extraction. Experimental results show that, for different types of data and scenarios on the premise, the accuracy and recall rate of the evaluation indicators reach more than 98%, and, compared with other methods, the automation of this algorithm has increased by more than 40%.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle C. Stanton ◽  
Patrick Kalonde ◽  
Kennedy Zembere ◽  
Remy Hoek Spaans ◽  
Christopher M. Jones

Abstract Background Spatio-temporal trends in mosquito-borne diseases are driven by the locations and seasonality of larval habitat. One method of disease control is to decrease the mosquito population by modifying larval habitat, known as larval source management (LSM). In malaria control, LSM is currently considered impractical in rural areas due to perceived difficulties in identifying target areas. High resolution drone mapping is being considered as a practical solution to address this barrier. In this paper, the authors’ experiences of drone-led larval habitat identification in Malawi were used to assess the feasibility of this approach. Methods Drone mapping and larval surveys were conducted in Kasungu district, Malawi between 2018 and 2020. Water bodies and aquatic vegetation were identified in the imagery using manual methods and geographical object-based image analysis (GeoOBIA) and the performances of the classifications were compared. Further, observations were documented on the practical aspects of capturing drone imagery for informing malaria control including cost, time, computing, and skills requirements. Larval sampling sites were characterized by biotic factors visible in drone imagery and generalized linear mixed models were used to determine their association with larval presence. Results Imagery covering an area of 8.9 km2 across eight sites was captured. Larval habitat characteristics were successfully identified using GeoOBIA on images captured by a standard camera (median accuracy = 98%) with no notable improvement observed after incorporating data from a near-infrared sensor. This approach however required greater processing time and technical skills compared to manual identification. Larval samples captured from 326 sites confirmed that drone-captured characteristics, including aquatic vegetation presence and type, were significantly associated with larval presence. Conclusions This study demonstrates the potential for drone-acquired imagery to support mosquito larval habitat identification in rural, malaria-endemic areas, although technical challenges were identified which may hinder the scale up of this approach. Potential solutions have however been identified, including strengthening linkages with the flourishing drone industry in countries such as Malawi. Further consultations are therefore needed between experts in the fields of drones, image analysis and vector control are needed to develop more detailed guidance on how this technology can be most effectively exploited in malaria control.


Author(s):  
Oderinu Hassana ◽  
◽  
Kadir Mumini ◽  
Tijani Adebayo ◽  

Nigeria has one of the countries whose experience of poverty and unemployment is on the high side makes this study to look into the effect of the economic lockdown during the global pandemic in the country, with the aim of making effort on how this effect can be translated into economic development. Survey research design method was adopted with self-administered questionnaire used to collect data. Findings revealed that in Nigeria COVID -19 outbreak effects was felt in almost all sectors and the aftermath greatly affected the country’s GDP and this adversely affect rural development in the country, which translated to a worrisome rate of poverty and unemployment. Hence, both individual and government have now seen that campaigning for economic diversification is not sufficient for economic development but rather a prompt swing into action by all is needed for sustainable development of rural areas to respond to the worrisome rate of unemployment and in turn high level of poverty caused by the COVID-19 lockdown in the country. It was recommended that government at all level as well as individuals and stakeholders should put in place actions that would gear up rural development and set policies at their various helms of affairs that would encourage economic participation of all citizens in all sector of the economy.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiran Havivi ◽  
Stanley R. Rotman ◽  
Dan G. Blumberg ◽  
Shimrit Maman

&lt;p&gt;The damage caused by a natural disaster in rural areas differs in nature, extent, landscape and in structure, from the damage in urban environments. Previous and current studies focus mainly on mapping damaged structures in urban areas after catastrophe events such as an earthquake or tsunami. Yet, research focusing on the damage level or its distribution in rural areas is absent. In order to apply an emergency response and for effective disaster management, it is necessary to understand and characterize the nature of the damage in each different environment.&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Havivi et al. (2018), published a damage assessment algorithm that makes use of SAR images combined with optical data, for rapid mapping and compiling a damage assessment map following a natural disaster. The affected areas are analyzed using interferometric SAR (InSAR) coherence. To overcome the loss of coherence caused by changes in vegetation, optical images are used to produce a mask by computing the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and removing the vegetated area from the scene. Due to the differences in geomorphological settings and landuse\landcover between rural and urban settlements, the above algorithm is modified and adjusted by inserting the Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) to better suit rural environments and their unique response after a disaster. MNDWI is used for detection, identification and extraction of waterbodies (such as irrigation canals, streams, rivers, lakes, etc.), allowing their removal which causes lack of coherence at the post stage of the event. Furthermore, it is used as an indicator for highlighting prone regions that might be severely affected pre disaster event. Thresholds are determined for the co-event coherence map (&amp;#8804; 0.5), the NDVI (&amp;#8805; 0.4) and the MNDWI (&amp;#8805; 0), and the three layers are combined into one. Based on the combined map, a damage assessment map is generated.&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As a case study, this algorithm was applied to the areas affected by multi-hazard event, following the Sulawesi earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Palu, Indonesia, which occurred on September 28th, 2018. High-resolution COSMO-SkyMed images pre and post the event, alongside a Sentinel-2 image pre- event are used as inputs. The output damage assessment map provides a quantitative assessment and spatial distribution of the damage in both the rural and urban environments. The results highlight the applicability of the algorithm for a variety of disaster events and sensors. In addition, the results enhance the contribution of the water component to the analysis pre and post the event in rural areas. Thus, while in urban regions the spatial extent of the damage will occur in its proximity to the coastline or the fault, rural regions, even in significant distance will experience extensive damage due secondary hazards as liquefaction processes.&amp;#160; &amp;#160; &amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Akhilesh Nautiyal ◽  
Sunil Sharma

PurposeA large number of roads have been constructed in the rural areas of India to connect habitations with the nearest major roads. With time, the pavements of these roads have deteriorated and they need some kind of maintenance, although they all do not need maintenance at the same time, as they have all not deteriorated to the same level. Hence, they have to be prioritized for maintenance.Design/methodology/approachIn order to present a scientific methodology for prioritizing pavement maintenance, the factors affecting prioritization and the relative importance of each were identified through an expert survey. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to scientifically establish weight (importance) of each factor based on its relative importance over other factors. The proposed methodology was validated through a case study of 203 low volume rural roads in the state of Himachal Pradesh in India. Ranking of these roads in order of their priority for maintenance was presented as the final result.FindingsThe results show that pavement distresses, traffic volume, type of connectivity and the socioeconomic facilities located along a road are the four major factors to be considered in determining the priority of a road for maintenance.Research limitations/implicationsThe methodology provides a comprehensive, scientific and socially responsible pavement maintenance prioritization method which will automatically select roads for maintenance without any bias.Practical implicationsTimely maintenance of roads will also save budgetary expenditure of restoration/reconstruction, leading to enhancement of road service life. The government will not only save money but also provide timely benefit to the needy population.Social implicationsRoad transportation is the primary mode of inland transportation in rural areas. Timely maintenance of the pavements will be of great help to the socioeconomic development of rural areas.Originality/valueThe proposed methodology lays special emphasis on rural roads which are small in length, but large in number. Instead of random, a scientific method for selection of roads for maintenance will be of great help to the public works department for better management of rural road network.


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