Exploring the Informal Communication of Driver-to-Driver on Roads: A Case Study of Durban City, South Africa.

Road traffic fatality is rated as one of the ten causes of death in the world and with various preventive measures on a global level, this prediction is only placed on flat terrain and didn’t reduce. Nevertheless, road users’ communication is an essential key to traffic safety. This communication, be it formal or informal between the road users is an important factor for smooth traffic flow and safety. Communication language on roads can be categorized into; formal device-based signal (formal signal), formal hand signal (formal signal), informal device-based signal (informal signal), and informal gesture-based signal (everyday signal). However, if the intent of the message conveys is not properly understood by the other road user, mistakes and errors may set in. Overall, the formal signal is based on explicit learning which occurs during the driving training and the license testing process and the informal, implicit learning occur during the actual driving process on the road unintentionally. Furthermore, since the informal signal is not a prerequisite to driving or taught in driving schools, novice drivers are clueless and thus, might have contributed to errors and mistakes which leads to traffic fatalities. Therefore, this study seeks to document the informal means of communication between drivers on South African roads. Consequently, a qualitative semi-structured interview questionnaire would be used in the collection of informal signals, which were predominantly used on South African roads from driving instructors and thereafter, a focus group of passengers’ car, commercial and truck drivers will be used to validate the availability and their understanding of these informal signals using a Likert-type scale for the confidence level. In conclusion, the information gathered from this study will help improve road safety and understanding of road users especially drivers on the necessity of communication and possible adaptation for other developing countries.

Measuring regional accessibility with public transport – case of Koroška region, Slovenia

Public transport plays a major role in sustainable mobility planning. This is even more obvious on regional level, where distances are often too long for cycling, therefore public transport remains only viable sustainable travel mode. In the process of preparation of regional SUMP, evaluation of accessibility is one of crucial steps. However, accessibility measurement can be a challenging task. In Slovenia, there have been several studies measuring frequency and access to closest stop, ignoring travel speed and destinations that could be reached. However rapid increase in computing power, software development and availability of schedule data in GTFS format, opened an opportunity to evaluate accessibility more precisely. We performed an analysis for Koroška region in Slovenia. Accessibility was measured with OpenTripPlanner with OpenStreetMap data for road network and schedules in GTFS format. Travel times were measured in both directions for all inhabited cells in a grid resolution of one hectare and central settlements of intermunicipal importance. The results of the analysis are important in terms of understanding how many citizens can access settlements of intermunicipal importance with public transport. This will serve as a baseline measure in regional SUMP preparation and will enable future iterations and comparisons. It also enables us to see the gaps in public transport supply and propose improvements. Open-source tools and open data enables this method to be used in other regions as well.

Determination the influence of road factors on the occurrence of traffic accidents with dead pedestrians on the territory of Belgrade by independent estimates

The world is paying more and more attention to the safety of vulnerable road users, and especially the safety of pedestrians. The reason for that is the large representation of vulnerable participants in the total number of victims in traffic accidents. Belgrade stood out as especially unsafe for pedestrians, because their endangerment is higher than the world average, but also higher than in the rest of Serbia. In order to increase the safety of pedestrians, appropriate management measures are applied, which are, as a rule, based on the recognized influencing factors of the occurrence of these accidents. For that reason, it is extremely important to define the real influencing factors in the right way. One of the best tools for recognizing the impact of road factors is the independent assessment of the impact of the road on accidents, which the road manager, according to the Law, is obliged to conduct in the event of a traffic accident with fatalities. The paper analyzes 59 traffic accidents with dead pedestrians, which occurred in the period from 15.05.2019. to 06/02/2021 years on the territory of the city of Belgrade and for which an independent assessment of the impact of the road was conducted. The results indicate that the road factor had an impact on the occurrence of more than half of the traffic accidents with dead pedestrians. Also, the results indicate the existence of a number of different influencing factors, which indicates the need for further implementation of these analyzes. The paper presents characteristic examples of the most commonly identified influencing factors.

Exploring the Informal Communication of Driver-to-Driver on Roads: A Case Study of Durban City, South Africa

Road traffic fatality is rated as one of the ten causes of death in the world and with various preventive measures on a global level, this prediction is only placed on flat terrain and didn’t reduce. Nevertheless, road users’ communication is an essential key to traffic safety. This communication, be it formal or informal between the road users is an important factor for smooth traffic flow and safety. Communication language on roads can be categorized into; formal device-based signal (formal signal), formal hand signal (formal signal), informal device-based signal (informal signal), and informal gesture-based signal (everyday signal). However, if the intent of the message conveys is not properly understood by the other road user, mistakes and errors may set in. Overall, the formal signal is based on explicit learning which occurs during the driving training and the license testing process and the informal, implicit learning occur during the actual driving process on the road unintentionally. Furthermore, since the informal signal is not a prerequisite to driving or taught in driving schools, novice drivers are clueless and thus, might have contributed to errors and mistakes which leads to traffic fatalities. Therefore, this study seeks to document the informal means of communication between drivers on South African roads. Consequently, a qualitative semi-structured interview questionnaire would be used in the collection of informal signals, which were predominantly used on South African roads from driving instructors and thereafter, a focus group of passengers’ car, commercial and truck drivers will be used to validate the availability and their understanding of these informal signals using a Likert-type scale for the confidence level. In conclusion, the information gathered from this study will help improve road safety and understanding of road users especially drivers on the necessity of communication and possible adaptation for other developing countries.

A review of computational intelligence methods for traffic management systems

One of the most important challenges in modern city life is to enable effective and efficient traffic management system. Recently, computational intelligence methods have become increasingly popular for traffic management system design, application, and monitoring. Computational intelligence methods are often deployed for managing traffic, that is for reducing mileage, congestion, the use of fuels, and environmental impact. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, to present the three main areas in a computational intelligence approach, namely neural networks, fuzzy logic systems, and evolutionary computation. Second, to emphasize their impact on various traffic management domains, including traffic flow forecasting, traffic light control, traffic fatalities prediction, traffic sign detection, and optimization of transportation networks.

Mobility Trends and their effect on Traffic Safety During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Case Study Republic of Croatia

Safety analysis focuses on how traffic safety can change while mobility analysis is used to determine how people change travel behavior. The integration of mobility, safety and behavioral data related to COVID-19 can provide valuable insights to decision makers. Wide availability of mobile sensors has given us the opportunity to be able to assess changes in the performance and mobility of transport systems in, almost real time. The researchers also measured the impact of COVID-19 on human mobility using public mobile location data available from many companies such as Google and Apple, which is very useful for changing human mobility. The platforms produce aggregated metrics of daily mobility, including the purpose of travel, the mode of travel, and imputations of social demographics. Based on a comprehensive data set of people who participated in the collected accident data and mobile device data, we record the impact of COVID-19 on traffic safety. The paper systematically and statistically approaches the assessment of road safety in Croatia during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Characteristics of traffic flows at roundabouts in the city of Banja Luka before and during COVID-19 crisis

COVID-19 pandemic caused many restrictive measures. Most of these measures were in the relationship with the restrictions of mobility which caused some differences in traffic flow demands. In this paper the comparative analysis of traffic flow characteristics at roundabouts in the City of Banja Luka was conducted. The analysis included two different states of traffic condition: the first one, normal condition before COVID-19 crisis, and the second one, during the state of emergency caused by the pandemic. The analysis shows the difference between some of motorized vehicle and pedestrian traffic flow parameters.

Mobility Trends and their effect on Traffic Safety During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Case Study Republic of Croatia

Safety analysis focuses on how traffic safety can change while mobility analysis is used to determine how people change travel behavior. The integration of mobility, safety and behavioral data related to COVID-19 can provide valuable insights to decision makers. Wide availability of mobile sensors has given us the opportunity to be able to assess changes in the performance and mobility of transport systems in, almost real time. The researchers also measured the impact of COVID-19 on human mobility using public mobile location data available from many companies such as Google and Apple, which is very useful for changing human mobility. The platforms produce aggregated metrics of daily mobility, including the purpose of travel, the mode of travel, and imputations of social demographics. Based on a comprehensive data set of people who participated in the collected accident data and mobile device data, we record the impact of COVID-19 on traffic safety. The paper systematically and statistically approaches the assessment of road safety in Croatia during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A review of computational intelligence methods for traffic management systems

One of the most important challenges in modern city life is to enable effective and efficient traffic management system. Recently, computational intelligence methods have become increasingly popular for traffic management system design, application, and monitoring. Computational intelligence methods are often deployed for managing traffic, that is for reducing mileage, congestion, the use of fuels, and environmental impact. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, to present the three main areas in a computational intelligence approach, namely neural networks, fuzzy logic systems, and evolutionary computation. Second, to emphasize their impact on various traffic management domains, including traffic flow forecasting, traffic light control, traffic fatalities prediction, traffic sign detection, and optimization of transportation networks.

Determination the influence of road factors on the occurrence of traffic accidents with dead pedestrians on the territory of Belgrade by independent estimates

The world is paying more and more attention to the safety of vulnerable road users, and especially the safety of pedestrians. The reason for that is the large representation of vulnerable participants in the total number of victims in traffic accidents. Belgrade stood out as especially unsafe for pedestrians, because their endangerment is higher than the world average, but also higher than in the rest of Serbia. In order to increase the safety of pedestrians, appropriate management measures are applied, which are, as a rule, based on the recognized influencing factors of the occurrence of these accidents. For that reason, it is extremely important to define the real influencing factors in the right way. One of the best tools for recognizing the impact of road factors is the independent assessment of the impact of the road on accidents, which the road manager, according to the Law, is obliged to conduct in the event of a traffic accident with fatalities. The paper analyzes 59 traffic accidents with dead pedestrians, which occurred in the period from 15.05.2019. to 06/02/2021 years on the territory of the city of Belgrade and for which an independent assessment of the impact of the road was conducted. The results indicate that the road factor had an impact on the occurrence of more than half of the traffic accidents with dead pedestrians. Also, the results indicate the existence of a number of different influencing factors, which indicates the need for further implementation of these analyzes. The paper presents characteristic examples of the most commonly identified influencing factors.