Buddies, Lovers, and Detours: America and its Road Movies

Is an open road also a democratic one? Zooming in on two films—Queen & Slim (2019) and Unpregnant (2020)—this article discusses American road movie genre from the perspective of 2021, and how contemporary film narratives intersect with race and gender. One movie often drives in another film’s lane, meaning the genre is self-referential. Unfolding in three parts, the article begins by introducing these two films and surveying how they contribute to the road movie genre. It then discusses cars and clothing as characters and concludes by considering surveillance and how these films, in tandem, take the temperature of contemporary American society.

Improving Risk Assessment for Transporting Dangerous Goods through European Road Tunnels: A Delphi Study

Managing the transportation of dangerous goods (DG) through road tunnels is of great importance since it is associated with a serious risk of accidents. The consequences of an accident involving DG, especially in the closed tunnel environment, might be more significant and even more catastrophic compared to the same accident occurring on an open road. This article presents the Greek experience regarding the application of quantitative risk assessment (QRA) methods for the transportation of DG through Greek road tunnels. The modified Delphi method, with the participation of nine experts, is employed to investigate the obstacles to successfully conforming with the mandatory European Union regulatory framework that applies to transport operations within the Trans-European road network. Recommendations are made to improve the applied QRA approach, to facilitate the cooperation between tunnel managers and emergency services, to communicate lessons learned and to enhance the training of risk assessors.

Application of Data-Driven Safety Analysis to Support Port Authority Investment Decisions for Converting Conventional Toll Plazas to Open-Road Tolling

Capital improvement projects have the potential to enhance safety, mobility, and environmental quality, but these projects can include considerable costs. When making investment decisions, it is important for agencies to understand the costs in relation to the potential benefits. For several years, transportation agencies have analyzed and quantified the operational and environmental impacts of proposed projects. More recently, the first edition of the Highway Safety Manual and related resources have provided agencies with the tools needed to quantify the safety impacts of proposed projects. This paper describes the use of data-driven safety analysis methods by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to quantify the direct and indirect safety benefits of the proposed conversion of conventional toll plazas to open-road tolling. The analysis estimated the direct safety benefits (i.e., change in the number of crashes) and indirect safety benefits (i.e., change in travel time, fuel costs, and emissions resulting from crashes). These changes were converted to dollars, providing an estimate of the present value benefits based on the expected service life of the enhanced toll systems. The analysis indicated the conversions could reduce crashes by more than 900 annually, including the prevention of nearly 30 injury crashes annually. Indirect safety benefits included more than 200,000 h in reduced travel time, 335,000 gal of fuel saved, and nearly 3,000 metric tons of CO2 reduced annually. Over the 15-year life cycle, this would provide an estimated benefit of more than $200 million from crashes directly and $367 million in indirect benefits.

The importance of information and communication technologies for increased road safety from the city of Valjevo police perspective

Although traffic is a precondition for the overall social development, it is at the same time a global problem, worldwide and as such it is associated with numerous negative effects from various segments, in addition to the suffering of traffic participants. In order to improve traffic safety on the roads, the police around the world, including Serbia, are constantly trying to apply all the more advanced technologies, which have a wide application in terms of improving safety in general.In this paper, we presented the development of the application of certain technical means within the Ministry of the Interior of Serbia of importance for traffic safety in Serbia, pointed out the importance of a unified information system and automatic number plate recognition. The state of traffic safety on the roads in Serbia and in Valjevo in the period 2014-2018 is given. The aim of the author was to determine how the introduction of specific measure - the use of camera - reflects on the work of the police, whether the number of registered violations is on the increase, or how it reflects on the work of the Misdemeanour Court in Valjevo in terms of increasing the number of convictions and specific sanctions. On the example of the city of Valjevo, through official data over a period of 10 years, we presented the importance of information and communication technologies in detecting two very common traffic violations in the city and sanctioning those violations by the competent Misdemeanour Court. The difference in terms of the number of detected and then sanctioned violations in the period before the start of the use of information and communication technologies in the period 2010-2014 and afterwards, 2015-2019, speaks more than clearly about the importance of wider use of these tools, both in cities but also outside the settlements, on the open road. All this is in the function of increasing traffic safety on the roads in Valjevo and safety in general, because the cameras are becoming increasingly important as they are used to detect the perpetrators of and prove various crimes.

The Temporal Dynamics By Which Drivers Become Aware of Bicyclists Who Use Taillights In Daytime

Bicyclists risk being involved in collisions with motor vehicles, even during daytime. Thus, bicyclists who ride in daylight must enhance their conspicuity. This study assessed the daytime conspicuity benefits of bicycle taillights using eye tracking technology. Participants were driven along an open-road route while wearing an eye tracker and pressed buttons when they detected and recognized a test bicyclist. Participants encountered the bicyclist displaying one of four taillight configurations, and the distances from which they responded to the test bicyclist were recorded. The results revealed that, after participants first glanced at the bicyclist, a significant amount of time was needed to detect and recognize the bicyclist. Further, seat post-mounted lights displayed with or without lights mounted to the heels of the rider’s shoes provided the greatest conspicuity advantage in terms of recognition. This experiment offers useful insights into the optimal light placement options for bicyclists to enhance their daytime conspicuity.