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The rapid development of the online food-delivery industry, has led to not only increases in the number of the crowd-sourced shared food-delivery service drivers on our roads, but also growing urban traffic safety management concerns. This study investigates the decision-making behaviors that exist between delivery drivers, their food-delivery platform and their potential impact on traffic safety. Using the evolutionary game theory, stakeholder decision-making behaviors involving traffic safety within the food-delivery industry were analyzed. From our analysis, several behavioral influencers were identified, including penalties for traffic violations, the opportunity cost of delivery drivers complying with traffic rules, the costs associated with risk and strict management approaches, reputation incentives, costs related to the delivery platform being punished, the probability of compliance with traffic rules, and the probability of adopting a strict management approach by the delivery platform. Our study demonstrates that stabilization strategies used by the food service industry differ when the types of government control measures also differ. When the government takes a more aggressive approach to regulation and control, compliance with the traffic rules and the adoption of strict enforcement measures by management are the only evolutionary stability strategies available to food-delivery platforms. As part of a strict management strategy, appropriate compensation or incentive measures should be provided by the distribution platform. Furthermore, the fines given for traffic violations should be increased to create a safer road environment that has fewer traffic accidents involving food-delivery drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The drivers' yielding distance to pedestrians at midblock crosswalks affects pedestrians' perceived safety. This distance can be influenced by either crosswalk-related or noncrosswalk. In most cases, crosswalk-related features are readily available or easy to collect compared to non-crosswalk features. However, the extent to which crosswalk-related features affect the spatial yielding compliance is not clear. This study evaluated the role of combined crosswalk-related features on drivers' spatial yielding compliance at signalized midblock crosswalks. The study used observational survey data collected from fifteen flash-based signalized midblock crosswalks located in Las Vegas, Nevada. Three logistic regression models, with crosswalk-related features only, non-crosswalk features only, and combined features, were developed and compared. It was revealed that the performance difference between the model with crosswalk-related features only and combined features was insignificant. This study found that the presence of state's law signs, "PED XING" signs, and placement of rectangular rapid flashing beacons (RRFBs) on the advanced pedestrians crossing signs (APCSs), are significant factors for high spatial yielding compliance. On the contrary, the yield line's presence at a distance greater than 40 ft from the crosswalk, presence of one stage crossing, and high Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) negatively affects the spatial yielding compliance. Moreover, the findings suggest that researchers should be careful about excluding the non-crosswalk features from the analysis. To improve spatial yielding compliance, several recommendations that the city planners and engineers can adopt are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary. Every year, many road accidents occur on Polish roads, in which many people lose their lives and health. Therefore, an attempt was made to analyze road accidents in the Piła poviat. The source of the analysis were the authors' observations and statistical data. This study was conducted on a sample of 250 inhabitants. Hence, a questionnaire was used. Most people, more than half, about 56%, travel by car because it is a more convenient and faster means of transport. While 35% of respondents stated that they feel relatively safe on the roads. A majority, 65%, of the respondents did not participate in a road accident. Further, 60% of the respondents replied that there were many accidents in the Piła poviat, and only 11% answered that there were not many accidents. According to the respondents, the biggest cause of the accidents is alcohol, inattention of drivers and haste. Despite the information, advertisements, scale of these accidents, and opinions of family and friends, people still drive under the influence of alcohol. Year by year, the number of accidents on the roads of the Piła poviat is low, but still considerably high. There is no best way to stop this from happening. In Piła itself, circular intersections have been introduced to improve safety, such an operation is one of the methods for smoother traffic. Additionally, in residential areas, there are more speed bumps to reduce the speed of vehicles. The conclusions obtained in this article can be successfully implemented, not only in other cities in Poland but also in Europe as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ) is a universally adopted tool for assessing aberrant driver behaviour. Irrespective of the popularity of the self-report method, the applicability of the DBQ in developing countries like India remained unexamined. The present study aims to analyse the aberrant driver behaviour towards road safety measures using DBQ and investigate demographic variables relationship on aberrant driver behaviour and traffic offences. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis supported the original factor structure. Overall, the results showed that the cross-cultural form of the DBQ is a valid and reliable tool for assessing driving behaviour in India. Results provide valuable information about the impact of demographics on driving behaviour, which will help take preventive measures in road design and traffic management in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today’s road traffic system is functional due to acomplex set of rules. The key element of the system is anatural person in the driver’s seat that makes decisions. These decisions may vary from driver to driver, yet all of them can still be compliant. When talking about autonomous vehicles, there is anotion that they need to be instructed on how to behave in all possible situations. However, autonomous vehicles can adopt the same variety of decisions as human drivers do. On top of that, they can communicate with other vehicles, infrastructure, and the surrounding environment. As aresult, autonomous vehicles can solve tasks together in acooperative manner. Such shift in the capabilities of vehicles is so significant that we should not be asking how to make autonomous vehicles conform to the rules, but instead how to structure the rules so that they can conform with autonomous vehicles. This paper aims to present aposition on the latter question. Firstly, it describes key features of autonomous vehicles. Secondly, it takes into account relevant legal research in the field of autonomous mobility and identifies the problems that autonomous vehicles pose to the concept of liability. Finally, it provides asummary of key elements for atheoretical legal framework that can encompass autonomous vehicles. An autonomous vehicles vigilance system is proposed as apart of asolution to the liability problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circulating vehicles have priority at modern roundabouts. Entrance vehicles can enter the roundabout when there is a time gap larger than the critical gap; otherwise, the vehicles need to wait until there is a large enough gap. The gap acceptance theory was used to analyze the entrance capacity of roundabouts, which can be derived by queuing theory involving two vehicle streams. The paper introduces the main styles of headway distribution, which are named as bunched exponential distribution or M3 distribution. The calculation model of free stream ratio is also introduced. The entrance capacity models can be classified by different entrance vehicle types, which are piecewise function or linear function, or by different critical gap types, which are constant or stochastic function. For each form, the typical capacity expressions are given. The calculation values show a very small difference between these kinds of models. The capacity value based on the critical gap of stochastic function is more realistic and more complex in function style. Some conclusions were derived that drivers' nonhomogeneous and inconsistent character is more realistic than the fixed critical gap and following gap. The calculation results of capacity are similar to the field capacity under the assumption of homogeneity and continuance, with only a minor percent deviation. Finally, the paper points out additional problems and the suggested research in capacity of roundabouts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explicit traffic control measures are absent in uncontrolled intersections which make them susceptible to frequent conflicts and resulting collisions between vehicles. In developing countries like India, drivers at such intersections do not yield to higher priority movements which cause more crashes between vehicles. The objective of this study is to analyze and model the gap acceptance behavior of minor street drivers at uncontrolled T-intersections considering their aggressive nature. Three intersections in the northeast region of India have been selected as the case study area. Preliminary analysis of the data revealed that drivers behave aggressively, not because they have to wait for a long time at the stop line, but because of their lack of respect for traffic rules. Binary logit models are developed for minor road right turning vehicles which show that gap acceptance behavior is influenced by gap duration, clearing time and aggressive nature of drivers. The equations obtained were used to estimate the critical gaps for aggressive and non-aggressive drivers. Critical gaps are also calculated using an existing method called clearing behavior approach. It is also shown that the estimation of critical gap is more realistic if clearing time and aggressive behavior of drivers are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Connected vehicles are able to proactively change speed to adapt to the prevailing traffic condition. Even in the mixed traffic environment, connected vehicles may function as leading vehicles, hence influencing the driving pattern of following nonconnected vehicles. This article proposes a cell‐based simulation approach to model the proactive driving behavior of connected vehicles. First, a state variable of connected vehicles is introduced to track the trajectory of connected vehicles. Then the exit flow of cells containing connected vehicles is adjusted to simulate the proactive driving behavior, such that the traffic light is green when the connected vehicle arrives at the signalized intersection. The second part of the article conducts numerical tests to examine the effect of the proactive driving behavior of connected vehicles. Extensive test results consistently show that the presence of connected vehicles contributes significantly to the smoothing of traffic flow and vehicular emission reductions in the network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novice drivers are considered as the riskiest group of drivers due to caused accidents and injuries related to inexperience and propensity to take risks on the road. Thus, prospective analysis of importance of driving learning history for the novice drivers' future involvement in traffic violations or road accidents is extremely encouraged. This study is aimed to evaluate the importance of learning to drive experience and driving test (theory and on-road) performance for the prediction of objective traffic rules violations and later accident involvement in Lithuanian novice drivers. 598 learner drivers who obtained their driving licence for the first time participated in the longitudinal study. Information concerning their learning to drive experience before taking driving test, theory test and on-road driving test performance was obtained in the first stage of the study. Later information on the number of recorded traffic offenses committed by participants and number of accidents during the first year of their independent driving was obtained from the police records. The results showed that worse driving theory test performance, but not on-road driving test performance was related to the fact of being fined for traffic rules violations. While age and experience of learning to drive were not important predictors of being a traffic offender. Gender and length of independent driving were also important predictors for later traffic violations. This research was funded by a grant from the Research Council of Lithuania (grant No. GER- 005/2015). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the sixth in a series of reviews of research on graduated driver licensing (GDL) published in the Journal of Safety Research , the present review covering the period mid-2012 through 2016. In the two decades since GDL programs began to be introduced on a widespread basis in the United States, a vast amount of research has been published. The current review discusses recent research and the present state of knowledge on the following topics: characteristics of the novice driver population; effects of GDL on crashes for ages 16–19; the learner and intermediate periods; night and passenger restrictions; cellphone laws; GDL for older novices; enforcement of GDL rules; and programs attempting to influence GDL compliance and safe driving practices in general. GDL stands out as a successful policy for reducing teen driver crashes and is worth building on to extend its benefits. Strengthening existing GDL programs has the most potential for producing further crash reductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Pay-As-You-Drive (PAYD) automobile insurance, the premium is fixed based on the distance traveled, while in usage-based insurance (UBI) the driving patterns of the policyholder are also considered. In those schemes, drivers who drive more pay a higher premium compared to those with the same characteristics who drive only occasionally, because the former are more exposed to the risk of accident. In this paper, we analyze the simultaneous effect of the distance traveled and exposure time on the risk of accident by using Generalized Additive Models (GAM).We carry out an empirical application and show that the expected number of claims (1) stabilizes once a certain number of accumulated distance-driven is reached and (2) it is not proportional to the duration of the contract, which is in contradiction to insurance practice. Finally, we propose to use a rating system that takes into account simultaneously exposure time and distance traveled in the premium calculation. We think that this is the trend the automobile insurance market is going to follow with the eruption of telematics data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A case study located in Auckland, New Zealand, was used to quantify the magnitude of savings that may result if the SCATS adaptive traffic control system contains an explicitly combined queue estimation and offset adjustment on a cycle-by-cycle basis. A validated SATURN traffic model was used to evaluate five scenarios that represent the short-run and long-run efficiency gains resulting from progressive signal adaption with an objective of queue minimisation on the main corridors. Optimisation was applied both area-wide, and on selected arterial corridors, using a combined split/offset optimisation routine with responsive driver behaviour to achieve a network-wide and corridor-specific efficiency gain. The modelling heuristic evaluates the efficiency of both the Equisat and P0 optimisation policies that would mimic a more progressive adaption of signals under SCATS. Results for the long-run area-wide optimisation can produce network-wide travel-time savings in the order of 20% and a reduction in transient queues of 28% if only selected corridors are optimised, with a 5% reduction in journey time over an average 8-min journey. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The representative path set between an origin and destination (OD) pair is useful for various transportation areas such as traffic assignment, travel information service, and traffic management. With the development of telecommunication technology, a car navigation system now collects trajectory-type data that can show the routes generated by drivers. Thus, the travel paths of individual travelers are available for the transportation study. Unfortunately, the availability of individual path data cannot guarantee direct application to the transportation model because it does not give us the significant path set between the OD pairs. Every driver in the real world has different starting and finishing points, yet these points are in a same origin and destination zone. In this study, a new methodology to determine the representative path set between an OD pair based on vehicle trajectory data is developed. This new model is tested with simulation data and compares various results according to clustering parameters. Experimental results indicate that the developed model correctly clustered representative paths, and these could represent subtrajectories from various trajectory data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study estimates the safety effect of illumination on accidents at highway-rail grade crossings in the United States, using data from exhaustive data from Federal Railroad Administration database covering the period 2002-2011. Using mixed logit modeling approach, the study explores the determinants of driver injury severity at unlighted highway-rail grade crossings compared with lighted highway-rail grade crossings in the United States. Several key issues are explored including availability of relevant highway-rail grade crossing accident inventory data; relevant data element structures; specification and estimation of models to estimate driver's injury severity with lighting and without lighting; and techniques to interpret model parameters. Overall, highway-rail grade crossing lighting improves safety by reducing the probability of high-level injury severity through improvements in driver's visibility compared with unlighted intersections. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vehicles in the condition of car-following perform different features comparing their motion in free traffic, and the discrepancy reflect driving style, which serves as important part of uncertainly of traffic. Several phenomena and driving characteristics, such as hysteresis in velocity-spacing curve, were found and utilized to improve the understanding of driving and some other safety study. Here we show that the hysteresis phenomenon is discrepant between drivers in stop-and-go waves (a special case of car-following which is relative stable), and the diversity which indicates driver style (such as aggressive and timid) is quantified using some low order car-following models. By calculating driving characteristics and examining the trajectory data in NGSim dataset, we demonstrated the safe distance – which was usually considered adiabatically on velocity – was significantly affected by driving characteristics. We further analyzed statistical properties of driving characteristics in NGSim data, and on eventual we provided a classification method to evaluate security of car-following behavior and to adjust the safe distance for different drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multivariate, layered nature of traffic accident analysis (TAA) determines that any TAA method must be categorized according to causational factors and encompass all four basic traffic elements, i.e. driver, vehicle, road and environment. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used to sequence accident causation factors according to their relative importance, with the purpose of singling out the most influential ones. The Apriori algorithm is then applied to analyze the degree of an accident or the level of influence. Through applications, the method proves itself capable of determining the type and severity of accidents caused by multiple factors. The method also demonstrates improvement in the accuracy and efficiency of calculation in dealing with large data samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driver's propensity describes the physiological and psychological states of a vehicle driver and can be used as a dynamic measurement of driver characteristics and an important index for determining factors that may affect driver characteristics such as emotional state and decision preference. Drivers with different propensities behave differently under the same traffic situations; therefore, it is an important concept for studying traffic flow theory and developing new vehicle warning systems. In this study we focused on the prediction of driver's propensity, and an overall consideration of the physiological and psychological indexes which influence the prediction were investigated. Psychological measurements, simulated driving, and vehicle tests were conducted and a prediction model for driver's propensity was established. Validation results showed that the method in this paper was a better predictor of driver's propensity than previous methods, and the new model provides a basis for further study of dynamic characteristics and recognition of driver's propensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an incompatibility between how transport engineers think drivers behave in roadworks and how they actually behave. As a result of this incompatibility we are losing approximately a lane's worth of capacity in addition to those closed by the roadworks themselves. The problem would have little significance were it not for the fact a lane of motorway costs approx. £30 m per mile to construct and £43 k a year to maintain, and that many more roadworks are planned as infrastructure constructed 40 or 50 years previously reaches a critical stage in its lifecycle. Given current traffic volumes, and the sensitivity of road networks to congestion, the effects of roadworks need to be accurately assessed. To do this requires a new ergonomic approach. A large-scale observational study of real traffic conditions was used to identify the issues and impacts, which were then mapped to the ergonomic knowledge-base on driver behaviour, and combined to developed practical guidelines to help in modelling future roadworks scenarios with greater behavioural accuracy. Also stemming from the work are novel directions for the future ergonomic design of roadworks themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing traffic simulations often consider normative driver behavior. Drivers do not always use physically delineated lanes: sometimes drivers use the entire road surface. Thus, current traffic simulations do not reproduce all observed urban and suburban traffic phenomena. To improve the validity of urban and suburban traffic simulations, we propose to consider driving context and driver behavior in terms of occupied space. We endow driver agents with an ego-centered representation of the environment based on the concept of affordances and virtual lanes. Affordances thus identify the possible space occupation actions afforded by the environment and by other agents. The proposed model was implemented using our ArchiSim tool. We show that this model is more efficient and realistic than existing models. The experiments also reproduce real traffic situations and compare simulated data to real data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to study the impacts of distressed pavement on driving safety, the drivers’ driving behavior and driving characteristics need to be analyzed. By analyzing the drivers’ characteristics, driving behavior’ and braking characteristics of vehicles, relation between static legibility distance of the distressed pavement under different driving conditions and dynamic legibility distance during driving is revealed via statistical analysis. The relation between vehicle speeds, braking performance, and the minimum safety legibility distance is developed. The recommended static legibility distances for different speed limits are proposed, which would be useful to improve the driving safety under adverse road conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

White-on-blue logo signs on the sides of highways are typically used to notify drivers of food, gas, and lodging at an upcoming interchange. The current research assessed driver performance and attention allocation in a simulated freeway driving task when exposed to six-panel logo signs, nine-panel logo signs, mileage guide signs, and roadway work zones both with and without an in-car navigation device. The objective was to identify the impact of signage types on driver behavior under realistic driving conditions. Results revealed glance durations and fixation frequencies to guide signs to be significantly lower than with six-panel and nine-panel logo signs, but no differences were found between six-panel and nine-panel logo signs. There were also statistical differences among the independent variables for speed deviation and lane deviation, but magnitudes were not large enough to be considered practically significant in terms of driving safety. Overall, there were minor differences in sign processing time between logo signs and mileage guide signs, but such differences did not translate to degradations in vehicle control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Traffic signs are an integral part of the traffic control plan and they provide road users with necessary information on the upcoming situation. This paper aims to examine the level of understanding of traffic sign imagery used in different countries and to track participants' eye movement when they encounter unfamiliar signs. Tobii eye tracking glasses were used to track gaze differences between familiar and unfamiliar traffic signs. Our findings show that sign characteristics (such as the amount of information on the sign) and the observer's knowledge of the sign meaning have a significant impact on eye behaviour. Signs containing more information (loaded with more content) and unfamiliar to the participant systematically produced the longest overall and average fixations and gazing duration. Given that longer gaze time for unfamiliar traffic signs presents a potential traffic hazard, we evaluated the need for standardization of traffic signs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that speech-based interventions can mitigate driving anger and enhance road safety. The present study found that both positive and negative comments can reduce anger state and perceived workload, and improve driving performance. In addition, positive comment including description of the driving environment and comment on drivers is more effective than negative comment intervention, which is indicated by larger effect size and higher user satisfaction and acceptance. The research findings could provide practical implications on the design of in-vehicle intelligent agents for driving behavior intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]