scholarly journals Effect of the Parking Lane Configuration on Vehicle Speeds in Home Zones in Poland

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 588
Author(s):  
Alicja Sołowczuk ◽  
Przemysław Gardas
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Engineering ◽  
Alternative Hypothesis ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
Measurement Data ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
Exhaust Emissions ◽  
Design Guidelines ◽  
Vehicle Speed ◽  
Speed Reduction ◽  
Traffic Calming

Nowadays, traffic calming measures that are designed to influence the drivers’ behaviour in the first place and thus make them slow down (and increase the safety of traffic as a result) are used increasingly often in traffic engineering. As a rule of thumb, carefully planned street geometry and street furniture should advise the drivers of the traffic calmed area ahead of them, which makes them reduce the vehicle speed by influencing their perception. One of the most common treatments are road narrowings and horizontal deflections of the route of travel. The reduction of the vehicle speed increases the driver’s central visual area, which results in earlier and easier spotting of pedestrians that are about to cross the roadway. A reduction of noise and exhaust emissions is an additional benefit. However, the current sustainable design guidelines are not specific regarding how often the route should be deflected by alternate parking lanes and how frequently they should be placed in the home zones (woonerven in Dutch) in order to achieve the desired reduction of vehicle speed, noise, pollution, and exhaust emissions. This being so, the authors carried out a speed survey research on a chosen street that includes woonerf design features, as typically used in Poland, with carriageway narrowings being created by parking lanes differently sited along its length. Several speed measuring devices were deployed to automatically and simultaneously measure and record the vehicle speeds and volume of traffic at different test locations. The measurement data were subjected to statistical analyses, including conventional statistical tests. The alternative hypothesis, proposing that the vehicle speeds depend on the configuration of parking lanes and carriageway narrowings was confirmed in almost all cases. The results have confirmed that the siting of parking lanes is a relevant factor as far as speed reduction is concerned, with the degree of this reduction depending on the remaining travel lane width.

scholarly journals Identification of Determinants of the Speed-Reducing Effect of Pedestrian Refuges in Villages Located on a Chosen Regional Road

Symmetry ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 597
Author(s):  
Alicja Sołowczuk ◽  
Dominik Kacprzak
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Engineering ◽  
Geometric Parameters ◽  
Speed Reduction ◽  
The Road ◽  
Traffic Calming ◽  
Engineering Discipline ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Layout Geometry ◽  
Specific Factors

Traffic calming, as a traffic engineering discipline, is becoming an increasingly important aspect of the road engineering process. One of the traffic calming treatments are pedestrian refuges—raised islands located on or at the road centreline. This paper presents factors relevant to the performance of this kind of traffic calming devices retrofitted on the stretches of regional roads in village areas. To this end, speed surveys were carried out before and after the islands in each direction on purposefully chosen test sections. In order to identify the determinants, each test section was characterised by features including the symmetry of the road layout geometry, surrounding features and the existing traffic signs and, last but not least, visibility of the road ahead. The survey data were used by the authors to perform analyses in order to group the speeds at the pedestrian refuges and relate them to specific factors and, finally, identify the determinants of speed reduction. In this way, the authors arrived at a conclusion that the performance of pedestrian refuges depends on a number of factors rather than solely on their geometric parameters. The analyses showed that the pedestrian refuge geometric parameters, features located in its proximity that influence the driver’s perception and placement of appropriate marking, can, in combination, result in achieving the desired speed reduction and ensure safety of non-motorised users. These hypotheses were tested on a stretch of a regional road in village area at three points of the process: before upgrading, after installation of pedestrian refuges, and after retrofitting of enhancements.

The impact of urban speed reduction programmes on health system cost and utilities

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 262-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Babak Mohit ◽  
Zohn Rosen ◽  
Peter A Muennig
Keyword(s):  
Motor Vehicle ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Vehicle Speed ◽  
Severe Injuries ◽  
Speed Reduction ◽  
Traffic Calming ◽  
Life Years ◽  
Probability Of Death ◽  
Minor Injuries ◽  
The Impact

BackgroundVehicle speed changes impact the probability of injuring a pedestrian in ways that differ from the way that it impacts the probability of a collision or of death. Therefore, return on investment in speed reduction programmes has complex and unpredictable manifests. The objective of this study is to analyse the impact of motor vehicle speed reduction on the collision-related morbidity and mortality rates of urban pedestrians.Methods and FindingsWe created a simple way to estimate the public health impacts of traffic speed changes using a Markov model. Our outcome measures include the cost of injury, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained and probability of death and injury due to a road traffic collision. Our two-way sensitivity analysis of speed, both before the implementation of a speed reduction programme and after, shows that, due to key differences in the probability of injury compared with the probability of death, speed reduction programmes may decrease the probability of death while leaving the probability of injury unchanged. The net result of this difference may lead to an increase in injury costs due to the implementation of a speed reduction programme. We find that even small investments in speed reductions have the potential to produce gains in QALYs.ConclusionsOur reported costs, effects and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios may assist urban governments and stakeholders to rethink the value of local traffic calming programmes and to implement speed limits that would shift the trade-off to become between minor injuries and no injuries, rather than severe injuries and fatalities.

scholarly journals Evaluation of the Benefits of Traffic Calming on Vehicle Speed Reduction

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 200-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Distefano ◽  
Salvatore Leonardi
Keyword(s):  
Vehicle Speed ◽  
Speed Reduction ◽  
Traffic Calming

scholarly journals Effect of Traffic Calming in a Downtown District of Szczecin, Poland

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (18) ◽  
pp. 5838
Author(s):  
Alicja Sołowczuk
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Engineering ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Traffic Volume ◽  
Road Vehicles ◽  
Speed Reduction ◽  
Traffic Calming ◽  
Road Users ◽  
The World ◽  
Vulnerable Road Users ◽  
Intersection Types

The increasing use of road vehicles has caused a number of transport and environmental issues throughout the world. To cope with them, traffic calming schemes are being increasingly implemented in built-up areas. An example of such schemes are Tempo-30 zones. The traffic calming measures applied as part of this scheme must be carefully planned in terms of location and design details in order to obtain the desired reduction in speed, traffic volume and exhaust emissions and, last but foremost, to increase the safety and facilitate the movement of vulnerable road users. The coexistence and combined effect of these measures and their design details must also be taken into account. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the applied traffic calming measures had a considerable bearing on the reduction in speed to the desired level, as assumed in the traffic calming plan. Three street sections starting and ending with different intersection types were chosen to examine the synergy of the applied traffic calming measures. The numbers and speeds of vehicles were measured in three day-long continuous surveys. As it was expected, the amount of speed reduction depended on the hourly traffic volume on a one-way street and various other traffic engineering aspects. The obtained results may be used to modify the existing speed profile models and can guide traffic engineers in choosing the most effective traffic calming measures.

Methods to Reduce Traffic Speed in High-Pedestrian Rural Areas

2003 ◽  
Vol 1828 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Kamyab ◽  
Steve Andrle ◽  
Dennis Kroeger ◽  
David S. Heyer
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Speed Limit ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Speed Reduction ◽  
Traffic Calming ◽  
Reduction Strategies ◽  
Long Term Impact ◽  
The Impact

Many Minnesota counties are faced with the problem of high vehicle speeds through towns or resort areas that have significant pedestrian traffic. The impact of speed reduction strategies in high-pedestrian areas in rural counties of Minnesota was investigated. Speed data were collected at two selected study sites under their existing conditions ("no-treatment" or "before" condition) and after the proposed speed reduction strategies were installed. Second "after" data conditions were collected to study the short-term and long-term impact of the implemented strategies. The traffic-calming techniques employed at the Twin Lakes site consisted of removable pedestrian islands and pedestrian crossing signs. A dynamic variable message sign that sent a single-word message ("Slow") to motorists traveling over the speed limit was installed at the Bemidji site. The research study shows that the traffic-calming strategy deployed in Twin Lakes was effective in significantly reducing the mean speed and improving speed limit compliance in both the short term and long term. Despite proven effectiveness, the deployed speed reduction treatment in Bemidji Lake failed to lower the speed at the study site. The single-word message on the sign and the location of the sign, as well as a lack of initial enforcement, were the primary reasons for such failure.

scholarly journals Speed management as a measure to improve road safety on Polish regional roads

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanisław Gaca ◽  
Sylwia Pogodzińska
Keyword(s):  
Road Safety ◽  
Speed Limits ◽  
Speed Reduction ◽  
Average Speed ◽  
Traffic Calming ◽  
Management Measures ◽  
Speed Management ◽  
Speed Up ◽  
Road Segments ◽  
Local Speed

The article presents the issue of the implementation of speed management measures on regional roads, whose character requires the use of different solutions than those on national roads. The authors briefly described speed management measures, the conditions for their implementation and their effectiveness with reference to environmental conditions and road safety. The further part of the paper presents selected results of the authors' research into the speed on various road segments equipped with different speed management measures. The estimations were made as to the impact of local speed limits and traffic calming measures on drivers' behaviour in free flow conditions. This research found that the introduction of the local speed limits cause reduction in average speed and 85th percentile speed up to 11.9 km/h (14.4%) and 16.3 km/h (16.8%) respectively. These values are averaged in the tested samples. Speed reduction depends strongly on the value of the limit and local circumstances. Despite speed reduction, the share of drivers who do not comply with speed limits was still high and ranged from 43% in the case of a 70 km/h limit, up to 89% for a 40 km/h limit. As far as comprehensive traffic calming measures are concerned, results show decrease in average speed and 85th percentile speed up to 18.1 km/h and 20.8 km/h respectively. For some road segments, however, the values of average speed and 85th percentile speed increased. It confirms that the effectiveness of speed management measures is strongly determined by local circumstances.

scholarly journals Traffic calming measures and their effect on the variation of speed

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hernán Gonzalo Orden
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Field Measurements ◽  
Speed Reduction ◽  
The Road ◽  
The North ◽  
Traffic Calming ◽  
Road Users ◽  
Technical Basis ◽  
Serious Injuries ◽  
North Of Spain

In recent years the number of deaths and serious injuries is decreasing in Spain, but, although the reduction outside the cities has been very strong, inside the urban areas, it has been smaller. This is especially hard if you look at the most vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists. In many accidents the speed factor appears closely linked not only to the number, but also to the severity of the accidents suffered inside the urban areas. Therefore, a reduction in the speed would improve the road safety. There are different measures known as "traffic calming measures" whose objectives are to reduce both the number and severity of accidents that occur on urban areas, by reducing the traffic flow through the streets, as well as the speed of the vehicles. However, the efficiency in speed reduction of each measure is not entirely known. That's the reason why they are implanted, in many cases, with no technical basis. The aim of this article is to show the effectiveness in reducing speed of some of the traffic calming measures. To this effect, field measurements were done on street sections with different types of traffic calming measures, in different places of a city of Burgos, in the north of Spain. These measurements were compared with other ones sited on other streets sections of similar characteristics but without traffic calming measures. Finally the conclusions are shown and some recommendations for improving their effectiveness are given.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/CIT2016.2016.4217

Mechanical Reliability of Silicon Microstructures

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshiyuki Tsuchiya
Keyword(s):  
High Performance ◽  
Measurement Data ◽  
Design Guidelines ◽  
Fatigue Properties ◽  
Mechanical Reliability ◽  
Effective Parameters ◽  
Micro Electro Mechanical Systems ◽  
Device Reliability ◽  
Silicon Microstructures ◽  
Silicon Based

Abstract In this article, an overview of the mechanical reliability of silicon microstructures for micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) is given to clarify what we now know and what we still have to know about silicon as a high-performance mechanical material on the microscale. Focusing on the strength and fatigue properties of silicon, attempts to understand the reliability of silicon and to predict the device reliability of silicon-based microstructures are introduced. The effective parameters on the strength and the mechanism of fatigue failure are discussed with examples of measurement data to show the design guidelines for highly reliable silicon microstructures and devices.

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