Autonomous Braking System: for Automobile Use

Road fatality and injury are a worldwide issue in the transportation industry. Road traffic accidents are becoming increasingly significant due to higher mortality, injury, and disability across the world, particularly in developing and transitional economies. Eighty-five percent of the total road traffic fatalities occur in developing nations, with Asia-Pacific accounting for roughly half of them. A variety of factors influence road safety, including technological, physical, social, and cultural factors. The purpose of this research was to design an autonomous braking system (AuBS). Using the Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Intelligent System (ANFIS), a DC motor, sensors, and SAuBS have been developed to customize the traditional hydraulic braking system. The genetic algorithm has been developed to simulate the fundamental characteristics of the automotive braking system. The AuBS system goal is to slow the car without the driver's help infrequent braking when the vehicle is moving at slower speeds. When the ANFIS performance is compared to that of the AuBS model, it is discovered that the ANFIS performs roughly 15% better.

Determinants of Accident Occurrence among Commercial Motor Cycle Riders in Kaloleni Sub-County, Kilifi County, Kenya

Motorcycle accidents remain one of the main global concerns despite extensive research and interventions. The African region has the highest road fatality rates globally, in spite of being the least motorized region. Kenya has an estimated road fatality rate of 20.9 per 100,000 people, higher than that of the European region. There has been an increased use of motorcycles in Kenya over the last decade, so has the number of deaths from motorcycle injury. This study was aimed to establish the determinants of accident occurrence among commercial motorcycle riders in Kaloleni sub-County, Kilifi County, Kenya. A self- administered structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 279 commercial motorcycle riders. Factors associated with accident occurrence were analysed using both bivariate and multivariate analysis. Results showed that 29.2% of the respondents had been involved in a road traffic accident in the past 12 months by the time of the study. Factors that were independently associated with motorcycle accidents included riding experience of more than 8 years (p = 0.040), alcohol use (p = 0.040), slippery roads (p = 0.020) and pot holes on roads (p = <0.001). Moreover, participants acquired their riding skills from friends (64.9%) or self-trained (33.6%). It can be concluded that motorcycle accidents is still a major public health problem in the study area due to the recorded high rate. Thus, it is recommended that all motorcyclists should be well trained and issued with riding license after attending formal training, and strict penalties imposed against anybody contravening road traffic rules. Moreover, roads should be continuously improved to reduce accident rates.

THE INFLUENCE OF OVERALL CONSUMPTION LEVEL ON ROAD FATALITIES IN BRAZIL FROM 1996 TO 2017

Several studies in economics evidence the influence of economic activity on road accidents. This study contemplates this relationship for the case of Brazil, more precisely, we examine the relationship between road fatality rates and one measure of economic activity in particular: the overall level of consumption per capita. In Brazil, we observe a certain similarity in the evolutionary pattern between consumption and road fatalities. The empirical evidence presented in this paper suggests that most of the month-to-month variations in road fatality rates can be explained by seasonal fluctuations and variations in the consumption level of the current month and of a few preceding months. Controlling for seasonal fluctuations, variations in consumption answer for 22% of the month-to-month variations in road fatality rates according to the model proposed in this paper. These results preconize consideration of the level of economic activity when evaluating the effect of interventions in the Brazilian traffic context, under the risk of over or underestimation of their true effects. Equally important, the consideration of economic activity can contribute to the accuracy of forecasts related to traffic.

Road Investment and Traffic Safety: An International Study

The aim of this study is to analyse whether the economic resources invested in roads—both investment in construction and expenditure on maintenance and conservation—have any influence on road fatality rates. Since this is a complex problem, and because there are many factors that can influence the fatality rate, other variables related to specific transport, socioeconomic and meteorological factors are also considered. The study was carried out using a panel data model, modelling road mortality as a function of 12 variables. The scope of the study is international, focusing on the interurban road network. Data were collected from 23 European countries for the period 1998–2016. The main results obtained are that both expenditure on road maintenance and conservation and the proportion of motorways in the total road network contribute to reducing road mortality. Contrariwise, greater investment in construction leads to an increase in the fatality rate.

Investigating the Availability and Usage of Seatbelts in Malawi for Policy Review and Formulation

Road fatalities remain a major public health concern as over 1.3 million people across the world die in road accidents annually, and another 20-50 million sustain injuries. Malawi, with vehicle ownership about 437,416, has not been an exception to this, with reported fatality rates of 35 crash deaths per 100,000 population, possibly due to limited understanding of factors that contribute to such high road fatality rates. This may have resulted in implementing inappropriate and ineffective mitigation measures. Thus, the overall objective of this study was to investigate the availability, including their functionality and usage of seatbelts in motor vehicles, which could possibly be one of the major factors for increase in road fatalities. To establish the rates of availability, ncluding their functionality and usage of seatbelts in motor vehicles, primary data through survey for a sample of 1,200 vehicles were investigated. The independent ariables of data were cross tabulated with the dependent variables to establish these rates. Chi-square test was also performed to establish the significance of associations between the cross tabulated variables. The analysis found that Malawi’s drivers and assengers poorly comply with seatbelt laws. The overall seatbelt usage rate was 35.8%. In this regard, where over 90% of motor vehicles in Malawi have functional seatbelts, poor enforcement of existing seatbelt laws and awareness on the dangers of not using eatbelts could account for the low usage.

Adopting Recommendations of a Road Safety Management Capacity Review: addressing a tragic decade of road safety in Romania

This article outlines a capacity review of Romania’s national road infrastructure and road safety in general. Romania’s road fatality rate per 100,000 population has improved overall from a 2008 high of around 15 to the current 2019 value of 9.6. However, the rate has flat-lined with no real improvement for the last decade, stalling at around 9.7 over the period 2011- 2019 and around double the EU rate. Moreover, Romania’s total annual number of road deaths has remained at an average of around 1900 fatalities per annum over this period. Romania has been the worst performing country in the European Union (EU) in recent years, and one of the worst performing countries compared to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations in terms of road safety. The review performed in 2016 found inadequate political leadership and commitment to effective actions to reduce road fatalities, fragmented government road safety activities across a number of regulatory entities, speed limits set at levels that exceed internationally accepted survivable limits, weak traffic law enforcement including a lack of speed enforcement cameras resulting in a failure of drivers to comply with speed limits, and a lack of structured programs to implement human error tolerant road infrastructure constructed according to Safe System principles. A series of recommendations from the capacity review were adopted (as described here) since 2016, although much remains to improve road safety in Romania.

How does mode of travel affect risks posed to other road users? An analysis of English road fatality data, incorporating gender and road type

BackgroundMost analysis of road injuries examines the risk experienced by people using different modes of transport, for instance, pedestrian fatalities per-head or per-km. A small but growing field analyses the impact that the use of different transport modes has on other road users, for instance, injuries to others per-km driven.MethodsThis paper moves the analysis of risk posed to others forward by comparing six different vehicular modes, separating road types (major vs minor roads in urban vs rural settings). The comparison of risk posed by men and women for all these modes is also novel.ResultsPer-vehicle kilometre, buses and lorries pose much the highest risk to others, while cycles pose the lowest. Motorcycles pose a substantially higher per-km risk to others than cars. The fatality risk posed by cars or vans to ORUs per km is higher in rural areas. Risk posed is generally higher on major roads, although not in the case of lorries, suggesting a link to higher speeds. Men pose higher per-km risk to others than women for all modes except buses, as well as being over-represented among users of the most dangerous vehicles.ConclusionsFuture research should examine more settings, adjust for spatial and temporal confounders, or examine how infrastructure or route characteristics affect risk posed to others. Although for most victims the other vehicle involved is a car, results suggest policy-makers should also seek to reduce disproportionate risks posed by the more dangerous vehicles, for instance, by discouraging motorcycling. Finally, given higher risk posed to others by men across five of six modes analysed, policy-makers should consider how to reduce persistent large gender imbalances in jobs involving driving.

How Rapidly Do The Road Fatality Rates of 37 Countries Converge Over Time?

Background: Road crashes kill about 1.3 million people worldwide every year and severely injure an estimated 50 million. This paper examined two associated questions of convergence as to whether countries with initially high fatality rates tend to improve faster catch-up. Also, it was examined whether dispersion of road fatality rates among countries decreased over time. Methods: Using γ convergence and σ convergence, a total of 37 countries with reliable fatality data from 1994 to 2015 were analyzed. Common measures of dispersion include the standard deviation or coefficient of variation. For σ convergence, coefficient of variation was selected. Results: Results indicate that statistically valid patterns of convergence toward both catch-up effect and reduction of dispersion exist for the total group of countries. However, a wide variation in the pattern and speed of convergence was discovered for the subgroups of countries categorized by income level and regions. Conclusion: Convergence method helps to identify the most appropriate reference group for a given country in planning future goals for improving road fatality rate and catch-up speed. The findings from this research indicate that the speed of catch-up among different subgroups of countries varied.

Road Traffic Fatalities in Malawi: The Role of Pedestrian Behaviour Factors

Pedestrian behaviour is one of the major contributors to road fatalities. The negative binomial regression model was found to better agree with road fatality data, and this study used this model to assess the influence of pedestrian behaviour factors on road fatalities in Malawi. The data used in this analysis were crash reports of pedestrian behaviour factors and observed fatalities for the period 2000–2015 obtained from the national database, except for the 2013 data, which were disregarded because they appeared to be incomplete. Whereas pedestrian behaviour factors of walking on roads, crossing outside pedestrian crossings, and other negligent and careless behaviours were found to be positively correlated with road deaths, indicating that road-related fatalities increased with increasing input data, factors of being under the influence of alcohol and crossing at pedestrian crossings demonstrated negligible influence. The study also found that there was a 1% increase in the number of crash deaths for every additional fatal crash involving pedestrians walking on roads. Moreover, an additional 0.5% increase in the number of fatalities was recorded for every fatal crash involving a pedestrian behaviour factor of crossing outside the pedestrian crossing or other negligent behaviour. An increase of 0.3% in the number of the fatalities was seen for every extra fatal crash caused by crossing carelessly or factors other than pedestrian behaviour. Despite coefficient values being small in all variables, which is a major limitation of this study, enforcement can prioritise those variables that increase road-related fatalities or even couple them with other risk factors such as speed.