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This driving simulator study investigated the impact of perceptual countermeasures on driving behavior by creating perceptual effects via pavement markings. Two different marking schemes (i.e. Optical Circles and Optical Bars) were tested separately for road transitions between rural and urban areas where the speed limit reduces from 70 kph to 50 kph. The tested treatments were intended to achieve combined perceptual effects (i.e. increase drivers' attention, perceptual speed and perceptual road narrowing effect) independently. Data were analyzed for 44 participants (30 men and 14 female). The study results showed that the speed was reduced significantly for both road marking treatments, however, the Optical Circle scenario in which circles with increasing size were implemented was the most effective solution. Moreover, standard deviation of acceleration/deceleration and lateral position were not found to be significant due to the treatments. This indicates that drivers did not decelerate or evade vehicles unsafely when confronting the road markings. The obtained results recommend Optical Circles to policy makers for further evaluation as a low-cost speed management tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to investigate about the driving style in different types of roads, with the final aim to establish some domains of road safety based on speeds and accelerations. We identify a tool that can provide an objective indicator of driving behaviour, represented by the percentage of points outside the domain: the more the percentage of points outside the domain is, the more the driving risk is. The proposed work is supported by an experimental survey consisting in the monitoring of real paths ran by drivers. For each path, the instantaneous speed and acceleration along the pattern were registered by means of GPS-enabled smartphones. Three different roads placed in the South of Italy were analysed, and specifically, a minor rural arterial road, a principal rural arterial road, and a freeway. The registered parameters were used for defining a safety domain which establishes if the driver had a safe behaviour or an unsafe one. The proposed methodology starts from the dynamic equilibrium of the vehicle, and arrives to establish a curve expressing the relationship between the speed and the acceleration vectors, which represent the domain within which the driver behaviour can be considered as safe. Having different formulations concerning the friction factor for the three different kinds of road, we obtained three different curves, or domains. Interesting findings were obtained by comparing the results from the proposed methodology for the different types of roads. As expected, the limits of the domain are quite different among the roads, because each road has its own characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Road traffic injuries are a growing public health and development problem. According to the World Health Organization, 1.2 million people are killed and between 20 and 50 million people are injured or disabled in road traffic crashes around the world each year [10]. Most of those killed are in the prime of their lives. In the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, the figures are particularly alarming; traffic accidents kill more than 75,000 people respectively, or between 12 and 45 people per 100,000 inhabitants each year, compared with an EU average of about 6 per 100,000 inhabitants. In Lebanon, a Middle Eastern country of about 4 million inhabitants, over 1000 people are killed every year, with nearly one-third involving vulnerable road users like pedestrians and motorcyclists. More than twice as many are permanently disabled by their injuries. These statistics need to be multiplied and seen in the context of deep family tragedy, of unimaginable grief and anguish, and of tremendous health and economic and disability costs. This study investigates the magnitude of road traffic accidents in Lebanon in order to provide a better understanding of the road safety trauma and assist strategic planning and optional allocation of resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]