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The automotive industry is on a continuous transition towards a more sustainable and integrated ecosystem influenced by the fast-paced adoption of Electrical Vehicles (EVs) and the developments of emerging technologies such as Automated Vehicles (AVs). The road transportation sector is also experimenting with the emergent decentralized blockchain technology in various ways ranging from supply chain transparency to insurance and tokenization. Some of the recent use cases are the use of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), unique digital assets designed to be immutable, to certify ownership of a vehicle, the data history of it or just for fan base development. The current paper reviews the literature findings concerning the potential of Non-Fungible Tokens for the automotive industry and proposes a new car ownership and revenue generation model using the ERC-1155 token standard. Our proof-of-concept based on fractional vehicle ownership demonstrates the feasibility of such a model that allows for revenue distribution amongst the vehicle owners according to the percentile invested in the vehicle acquisition.

When dealing with road safety in Africa, one should bear in mind that road safety problems need to be seen in their context as the solutions proposed to address them. While it is relevant to consider international good practices, African stakeholders should become owners of the interventions addressing their problems and take the responsibility for developing and implementing the appropriate solutions, taking advantage of suitable technical assistance, if needed. Based on these considerations, in this paper, a presentation is made of the process used in the European research project SaferAfrica to define suitable Safe System projects in Africa. This project aims at supporting policymakers and stakeholders with evidence on critical risk factors, related actions, and good practices drawn from high-quality data and knowledge. In the project, road safety and traffic management capacity reviews at the country level were carried out in five countries (Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Kenya, and South Africa), following the World Bank guidelines. After conducting such a capacity review, these guidelines recommend the preparation and implementation of Safe System projects, “stand-alone, multisector initiatives targeting high-risk corridors and areas, with outcomes large enough to be reliably measured.” In SaferAfrica, this approach aims at facilitating the implementation of Safe System projects in the considered countries, by identifying detailed short-term improvement plans and producing contextualized terms of reference for some interventions per selected country. These interventions are remedial, they address high-priority concerns and demonstrate the viability of high potential gains within current administrative and legislative frameworks. To design interventions suitable to the existing context, the transferability audit tool was adopted within a “participative” process, involving all possible interested parties, from the institutions to NGOs. Results from the process are presented and discussed.

Introduction: The number of road fatalities have been falling throughout the European Union (EU) over the past 20 years and most Member States have achieved an overall reduction. Research has mainly focused on protecting car occupants, with car occupant fatalities reducing significantly. However, recently there has been a plateauing in fatalities amongst ‘Vulnerable Road Users’ (VRUs), and in 2016 accidents involving VRUs accounted for nearly half of all EU road deaths. Method: The SaferWheels study collected in-depth data on 500 accidents involving Powered Two-Wheelers (PTWs) and bicycles across six European countries. A standard in-depth accident investigation methodology was used by each team. The Driver Reliability and Error Analysis Method (DREAM) was used to systematically classify accident causation factors. Results: The most common causal factors related to errors in observation by the PTW/bicycle rider or the driver of the other vehicle, typically called ‘looked but failed to see’ accidents. Common scenarios involved the other vehicle turning or crossing in front of the PTW/bicycle. A quarter of serious or fatal injuries to PTW riders occurred in accidents where the rider lost control with no other vehicle involvement. Conclusions: Highly detailed data have been collected for 500 accidents involving PTWs or bicycles in the EU. These data can be further analyzed by researchers on a case-study basis to gain detailed insights on such accidents. Preliminary analysis suggests that ‘looked but failed to see’ remains a common cause, and in many cases the actions of the other vehicle were the critical factor, though PTW rider speed or inexperience played a role in some cases. Practical Applications: The collected data can be analyzed to better understand the characteristics and causes of accidents involving PTWs and bicycles in the EU. The results can be used to develop policies aimed at reducing road deaths and injuries to VRUs.

Introduction. Innovative entrepreneurship is one of the applied spheres, in which the implementation of core competencies: knowledge and skills from other areas is complicated nowadays due to challenges and rapid changes. Management systems for small and medium-sized enterprises are not so classical now, but horizontal and, what most importantly – flexible, agile is. Thus, it is proposed to turn to modern models of people management to increase the effectiveness of companies and institutions for future economy development. Aim and tasks. The article appeals to management innovation and the use of the “mobility gap” as one of the most discussed economic problems that are necessary for the urban areas and require an appropriate solution development. The proposal is to use smart logistics for an effective people management system for innovative small and medium enterprises to zoom the weight of the cluster unit. The assertion that the increasing impact of horizontal management in outsourcing services is the way for further development and modernization of tax policy for the local economy. Results. In the nearest future, the character of the local economy will change as communities develops cities, improving the quality of life, ensuring safety and neighbourhood policy and stimulating creative development. And it will create opportunities for cutting-edge initiatives, entrepreneurship and local municipalities, as well as developing relationships and competencies based on innovation and creative interaction between stakeholders in the new digital reality, while remaining people-centred. It is proposed to introduce management innovations into the management system according to the developed model according to the agile method of modernization: “to do” – list; "in progress" and motivation; “to verify” – monitoring; “done” – analysis; and business scaling. And to customize services, it is necessary the high quality achieving, speed that meets the needs of the market, and the quick creating of unique innovations. Conclusions. This methodology has been tested by the project – Erasmus 2020, despite the “lockdown” conditions, by the open data project “City Code” with the aim of creating conditions for sustainable urban development by combining: talents, technologies, tolerance, and should be used to people management of small and medium-sized innovative enterprises.

Road traffic movement at nightfall (twilight) is characterizing by a reduction of light time of the day and the rapid nightfall onset, thus the driver’s eyes have less time to adapt to rapid sudden changes in illumination. The visual perception and the reaction time of the driver in conditions when pedestrians appear in nightfall conditions on the street and road network in a city is considered in the paper. Researched was conducted in uncontrolled pedestrian crossings in nightfall conditions on Ukrainian roads. Regularities of the vehicle’s driver and pedestrians’ interaction in nightfall conditions are obtained. Road traffic accidents occurrence probabilities at the twilight time considering the driver’s reaction time and the car’s movement parameters was analyzed. As a result, a model for estimating the variation the reaction time of the driver when a pedestrian appears in the nightfall (twilight) conditions was calibrated.

Network Safety Ranking and Road Assessment Programme (RAP) are two procedures used in road infrastructure safety management to rank the road sections of a network according to estimated road safety performance. The former uses indicators based on road accidents and their consequences while the latter method is based primarily on inspections of the road infrastructure. The aim of this study was to verify whether there is a relationship between the indicators used within these methods, in order to evaluate if and under which conditions RAP scores contribute to the prediction of accident numbers. The adopted approach is based on the calibration and analysis of a wide array of models in order to reproduce the observed events – injury road accidents, fatalities and injuries - with reference to different aggregations of the original data and in the two reference situations: with and without EuroRAP (European Road Assessment Programme) indicators. . From the obtained results, the introduction of the EuroRAP indicators ends up making the models that explain the frequency of accidents more convincing from a statistical point of view. These indicators, which summarise the road safety performance of a road section, could prove useful in replacing the covariates (e.g. presence of intersections, geometrical and functional features of roads) that are used in the calibration of accident prediction models. However, it should be stressed that not all types of accident are addressed by the EuroRAP approach, and this may represent a limitation for those roadways where such kind of accidents are frequently observed, like rear-end collisions on motorways. Probably, by including these accident types, the explanatory power of the EuroRAP variables would increase, at least on motorways.

The risk of traffic fatalities varies significantly across high, medium and low-income countries. Among the reasons for this in the latter ones, there is often a lack of road safety knowledge and political will. Road safety is a multidisciplinary topic and requires trained professionals able to identify and implement efficient measures in the areas of engineering, enforcement, education and emergency services, taking into consideration social and economic aspects as well. However, in some Eastern Europe Countries there are potential barriers to train adequately professionals, generally due to a lack of specialised training and training standardization. Such an example can be seen in Belarus where, although road safety is a key issue, it is not managed on an evidence-based approach and there seems to be insufficient funding for related research. An initiative towards increasing knowledge capacity is the Be-Safe project (EC Tempus), a joint effort between three EU Universities and four Belarusian Universities. The objective of this paper is to describe the methodology carried out in Be-Safe to develop and test for two years two 1st level Road Safety Master Courses (60 ECTS) in Belarus according to the Bologna process requirements. Initially, a User Needs Analysis was carried out to understand local conditions and needs in terms of teaching and research on road safety. The analysis highlighted a lack of research due to insufficient funding, linguistic barriers and inadequate international relationships. This isolation led to a need of updating contents and methods of courses for students as well as research topics. Then, expected learning outcomes and Masters’ curricula, one for the Technical Universities and one for the Economics Universities, were defined and developed respectively. Finally, Masters’ courses in four Belarusian Universities were tested. Quality results were ensured through a Quality Board and assessment tools to monitor the Masters’ process as a whole.

Wearing a safety restraint system is one of the most effective measures to substantially reduce the risk of serious or fatal accidents. Despite their benefits, a survey in 2015 revealed that on average 62 out of 100 Italian front car occupants wore their seat belt and only 15% of the rear seat passengers were regularly wearing their seat belt. According to several studies, one’s (driving) behaviour is based on a combination of attitudes toward the behaviour, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control. The present study aims at understanding factors contributing to the low wearing rates in Italy. The data used are based on a questionnaire survey carried out among a representative sample of more than 1.000 Italian drivers within the ESRA project (European Survey of Road users’ safety Attitudes). The survey involved 17 European countries and covered several themes on (un)safe traffic behaviour and attitudes among which those related to the use of seat belts and child restraint systems. Two methods of investigation were adopted: the comparison between the Italian situation with the European best performers, pointing out the relevant difference with the included selected European Countries, and the use of regression models to study the association between several explanatory variables and self-declared behaviours related to the use of safety restraint systems. The main results show a high acceptability of risky behaviour in Italy and a relevant contribution of age and gender in shaping attitudes towards unsafe traffic behaviours. A number of recommendations are proposed to change people’s unsafe behaviour and attitudes in Italy, providing both enforcement and voluntary (e.g. campaigns, education and training, incentives) measures.

Africa is the worst performing continent in road safety: the fatality rate, 26.6 per 100.000 inhabitants, is almost three times that of Europe’s and fatalities per capita are projected to double from 2015 to 2030 (WHO, 2015). This is mainly due to the fact that Emerging Economies are experiencing increases in traffic, for which their traffic systems are not sufficiently prepared. On one hand, there is a significant demand for data and knowledge to be used for road safety-related decision making. On the other hand, there is a substantial lack of a reliable and detailed knowledge on road casualties in terms of the number of road accidents and fatalities occurring and, on the factors, leading to road accidents or affecting their consequences. When official data are poor or missing these could be integrated with other sources. The objective of this paper is to describe the African Road Safety Observatory (African RSO), a participative web portal developed in the field of the "SaferAfrica – Innovating dialogue and problems appraisal for a safer Africa" project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program. The African RSO combines traditional functions of analyzing and sharing road safety performance data and provide knowledge and information, with the more innovative ones: a Dialogue Platform and the crowdsourcing tool. The Dialogue Platform is dedicated to experts and stakeholders and aims at encouraging and facilitating a constructive engagement and dialogue on road safety in Africa, producing knowledge to inspire road safety funding, policies and interventions in Africa and providing recommendations to update the African Road Safety Action Plan and the African Road Safety Charter. The crowdsourcing tool allows African citizens to report and highlight road safety needs, to share opinions as well as to discuss solutions in their own Countries.

The interaction between drivers and pedestrians at a pedestrian crossing is studied using the method of ergonomic design. The galvanic skin response (GSR) and changes of the heart rate of drivers have been measured to monitor any emotional state change when encountering a pedestrian at a pedestrian crossing. If the driver moves away from the pedestrian standing at the roadside edge, the driver experiences a minimal emotional change. However, if there is no vehicle speed and path variation, the driver experiences significant shift in the GSR and heart rate, thus highlighting a possible increase of the stress level. It was based on the research where the distance and current speed have a significant impact on the drivers and pedestrians with the following consequences for their health. To assess the influence of a pedestrian presence on the road on drivers, it was proposed to use the angular velocity of the vehicle with respect to pedestrians. The probability of the pedestrians presence in a dangerous condition for drivers at different distances and speeds of pedestrian crossing made it possible to find an optimal pedestrian position on the road. Thus, the paper proposed a safe distance for pedestrians on the road at a pedestrian crossing in order to reduce the driver stress level in the traffic flow.

Motor vehicle accidents are a leading cause of death and injuries among children of different age worldwide, though many of these incidents are preventable. Buckling young children in age- and size-appropriate car seats, booster seats, using seat belts and also fixing them in appropriate position can lead to a significant reduction of serious and fatal injuries. The key factors simultaneously influencing restraint use include vehicle type, driver’s gender and age, driver’s belt use, child’s age, the presence of other child or adult passenger etc. Furthermore, time of day and day of week also influence child passenger sitting and his behavior. Cross-sectional studies are observational in nature and are known as descriptive research, so application of the method of cross-sectional analysis allow collecting data from many different individuals at a single point in time and observing variables without influencing them and at the same time to provide understanding parents’ attitude towards children safe transportation.

The paper, focusing on the importance to develop sustainable urban logistics plan (SULP) and to implement a demand model system for the assessment of future scenarios, presents a methodology for setting up a SULP modelling, using different sources of data (i.e. automatic traffic counts, floating car data, surveys with retailers and transport operators). The methodology is applied to the functional urban area (FUA) of Bologna (Italy). In particular, it was used for assessing the new city logistics scenarios of the Bologna’s SULP where a set of measures have been proposed for improving city sustainability and livability.

Urban Freight Transport (UFT) is a fundamental component of city life. It involves a vast range of activities resulting from relationships among different actors with conflicting needs and goals. Manufacturers are interested in fast and on-time deliveries, retailers require complete assortment and frequent deliveries, citizens wish to have easy access to goods while not losing their quality of life and City Authorities have to face negative externalities related to UFT (i.e. congestion, air and noise pollution, and safety). Concretely, few cities have a well-developed and comprehensive city logistics strategy because authorities generally focus their attention on passenger transport. When city logistics measures have been conceived and implemented, frequently private requirements have not been considered sufficiently. The European Commission includes the lack of data and understanding of freight flows among the main obstacles to the improvement of operational efficiency and planning process for a sustainable UFT in economic, social and environmental terms. Also, the research community raises the issue of the unavailability or the low quality of data on urban freight and the need to identify effective data collection methods in order to understand processes and actors’ behavior and then define appropriate city logistics solutions. The NOVELOG EU project is providing city authorities and practitioners with a new framework aimed at systematizing all data to be collected, directly or indirectly, and to be elaborated in order to understand and represent the different aspects of the UFT sector. In order to achieve a complete knowledge, the framework approaches this sector according to four main thematic pillars: 1) profile of major supply chains served in the urban area under study; 2) mapping of urban freight and service trips activity; 3) organizational and legal framework; 4) procedural and technological methods and innovations. The present paper introduces the framework and the guidance it provides to its target audiences.

This paper deals with a first attempt to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of a sharing mobility scenario for the central area of Rome in the year 2035. The main aspects of the proposed scenario focus on the use of electric automated vehicles, on car sharing, on limitations of the use of private cars and on road pricing in the central area of the city. The results indicate a technical and financial feasibility of the scenario.

One of the measures that can reduce the negative effects of road accidents is the quick arrive of emergency vehicles to the accident area. This measure requires an effective location in space and on time of these vehicles. This location can be decided after an analysis of the available data in order to find the spatial and temporal characteristics of road accidents.

Increasing sustainability of urban transport systems is a crucial objective of all strategic plans both at national and European level. Different strategies and measures can be adopted to improve the efficiency of transport systems, according to a large set of factors that can affect the results of the implemented actions. A comprehensive study has been carried out in order to define a methodology able to define effective and efficient strategies and measures, allowing to increase the sustainability level of different kinds of cities, from small-medium sized to large metropolitan areas. The methodology has been tested on a group of 50 Italian cities, whose characteristics have been analysed through an initial set of more than 200 indicators. Three main groups of indicators have been taken into account: State indicators, Sustainability indicators, Policy indicators. The main aim has been to identify existing relationships between Sustainability and Policy indicators for cities showing commonalities in terms of State indicators. A correlation analysis allowed to identify 53 relevant indicators from the initial set of 200, while a cluster analysis, based on a hierarchical model, allowed to group the cities into five different groups, according to their population size and density. Correlations between relevant indicators have also been analysed within each group, while linear regression models have allowed to describe some functional relations between Policy and Sustainability indicators. A benchmarking exercise has allowed to identify strategies and measures adopted by the best performers within each group, hence defining possible paths to a better sustainability level for the remaining cities. Finally, recommendations for a correct urban mobility planning procedures have been produced.

Post-license advanced driver training (ADT) addresses different categories of road users such as: novice drivers, professional drivers, company employers and recidivists. These training courses can be carried out on-track or on the road. On-track courses allow participants to gain knowledge on driving physics and experience limits in a safe road environment. On-road courses are more focused on hazard perception and situation awareness. Although extensive research has been done in this field, knowledge of the effects of these courses on road accident risk remains unclear. Previous evaluation of on-track courses did not always show a positive effect on crash rate. For example, post-license training focused on mastery of driving skills can lead to an increase of accident risk, especially on young males. However, research identified several factors that may enhance the effectiveness of driving training. In Europe a new framework for driver education and training has been proposed based on a safe driver hierarchical model (the GADGET model) and the development of a strategy for continuous learning. According to this framework, an evaluation study of on-track post-license advanced driver training has been undertaken in Italy with the main goal of assessing the safety effects of these courses and identifying training aspects to be improved. Besides crash rate, the study aims at assessing also driver behavior, knowledge of risks, self-evaluation and training quality. This paper presents the results of the possible effects of advanced driver training on driving behavior, considering in particular the number and type of violations. For each driver, data on age, gender and driving violations history were extracted from the platform and the national violations database. Three cases were addressed through a before-after analysis with control group. Case 1 considers all drivers who attended an ADT course. Case 2 aimed at understanding the effects of the courses on a specific target group: the traffic violators. Case 3 is similar to Case 2, however the control group was selected in a way that drivers characteristics and the violation rate was similar to the violation rate of the treatment group in the before period.The significance of the differences highlighted was assessed through appropriate statistical tests (i.e. paired t-test and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test). The study showed in general a higher propensity to commit traffic violations after attending an ADT course. These results are in contrast to what expected and show the necessity to diversify the training classes according to the different needs of participants.

Road Infrastructure Safety Management (RISM) refers to a set of procedures that support a road authority in decision making related to the improvement of safety on a road network. Some of these procedures can be applied to existing infrastructure, thus enabling a reactive approach; and other procedures are used in early stages of a project's life-cycle allowing a proactive approach. The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the most well-known procedures and present a series of recommendations for successful road infrastructure safety management. The work described in the paper was completed by the IRTAD sub-working group on Road Infrastructure Safety Management and presented in detail in the respective Report. The methodology followed on this purpose included the description of the most consolidated RISM procedures, the analysis of the use of RISM procedures worldwide and the identification of possible weaknesses and barriers to their implementation, the provision of good practice examples and the contribution to the scientific assessment of procedures. Specifically, the following RISM procedures were considered: Road Safety Impact Assessment (RIA), Efficiency Assessment Tools (EAT), Road Safety Audit (RSA), Network Operation (NO), Road Infrastructure Safety Performance Indicators (SPI), Network Safety Ranking (NSR), Road Assessment Programs (RAP), Road Safety Inspection (RSI), High Risk Sites (HRS) and In-depth Investigation. Each procedure was described along with tools and data needed for its implementation as well as relevant common practices worldwide. A synthesis summarizing the key information for each procedure was also drafted. Based on a survey on 23 IRTAD member countries from worldwide, the lack of resources or tools is the most commonly stated reason for not applying a RISM procedure. This has been frequently found mainly in European countries. Another common reason is the absence of recommendations/guidelines, especially for SPI, RAP, RSI and RSA. This highlights the importance of the presence of some legislation regulating the application of the procedures. Lack of data was found important mainly for SPI, HRS and EAT. Good practices of road infrastructure safety management have been explored in order to find solutions to the issues highlighted by the survey and provide examples about how these issues have been overcome in some countries. Specifically, issues related to data, legal framework, funding, knowledge, tools and dealing with more RISM procedures were addressed. Finally, nine key messages and six recommendations for better Road Infrastructure Safety Management were developed based on the conclusions made.

Introduction Smeed's law defines the functional relationship existing between the fatality rate and the motorization rate. While focusing on the Italian case and based on the Smeed's law, the study assesses the possibility for Italy of reaching the target of halving the number of road fatalities by 2020, in light of the evolving socio-economic situation. Method A Smeed's model has been calibrated based on the recorded Italian data. The evolution of the two indicators, fatality and motorization rates, has been estimated using the predictions of the main parameters (population, fleet size and fatalities). Those trends have been compared with the natural decreasing trend derived from the Smeed's law. Results Nine scenarios have been developed showing the relationship between the fatality rate and the motorization rate. In case of a limited increase (logistic regression) of the vehicle fleet and according to the estimated evolution of the population, the path defined by motorization and fatality rate is very steep, diverging from the estimated confidence interval of the Smeed's model. In these scenarios the motorization rate is almost constant during the decade. Conclusions In the actual economic context, a limited development of the vehicle fleet is more plausible. In these conditions the target achievement of halving the number of fatalities in Italy may occur only in case of a structural break (i.e., the introduction of highly effective road safety policies). Practical application The proposed tools can be used both to evaluate retrospectively the effectiveness of road safety improvements and to assess if a relevant effort is needed to reach the established road safety targets. Keywords Road safety; Trend; Smeed's law Language: en

Agent-based simulation (ABS) appears to be a suitable tool for research and application in the field of city logistics. In this paper, an attempt was made to classify the current literature on ABS in urban freight distribution following some homogeneity criteria. A set of six criteria was adopted and relevant papers were classified accordingly. It emerges that agent-based simulation models are suitable for use in simulating urban freight distribution, identifying a set of agents (at most, one agent per stakeholder) that operate to achieve their objectives, following rules, interacting, and learning from experience. However, this approach is still to be fully developed: the applications provided in the literature are only for test cases, refer to small study areas and a limited number of agents.

The paper compares the characteristics of urban freight transport in some European cities, implementing a methodology which uses similar interviews with retailers and transport operators. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the similarities and differences in terms of socio-economic characteristics and commercial structures, and current distribution patterns followed by different transport and logistics operators. The study shows the flexibility of the methodology used in different applicative contexts and points out that there are some different patterns of urban distribution that need to be taken into account when implementing city logistics measures.

Non-motorized transportation modes, especially cycling and walking, offer numerous benefits, including improvements in the livability of cities, healthy physical activity, efficient urban transportation systems, less traffic congestion, less noise pollution, clean air, less impact on climate change and decreases in the incidence of diseases related to vehicular emissions. Considering the substantial number of short-distance trips, the time consumed in traffic jams, the higher costs for parking vehicles and restrictions in central business districts, many commuters have found that non-motorized modes of transportation serve as viable and economical transport alternatives. Thus, local governments should encourage and stimulate non-motorized modes of transportation. In return, governments must provide safe conditions for these forms of transportation, and motorized vehicle users must respect and coexist with pedestrians and cyclists, which are the most vulnerable users of the transportation system. Although current trends in sustainable transport aim to encourage and stimulate non-motorized modes of transportation that are socially more efficient than motorized transportation, few to no safety policies have been implemented regarding vulnerable road users (VRU), mainly in large urban centers. Due to the spatial nature of the data used in transport-related studies, geospatial technologies provide a powerful analytical method for studying VRU safety frameworks through the use of spatial analysis. In this article, spatial analysis is used to determine the locations of regions that are characterized by a concentration of traffic accidents (black zones) involving VRU (injuries and casualties) in Sao Paulo, Brazil (developing country), and Rome, Italy (developed country). The black zones are investigated to obtain spatial patterns that can cause multiple accidents. A method based on kernel density estimation (KDE) is used to compare the two cities and show economic, social, cultural, demographic and geographic differences and/or similarities and how these factors are linked to the locations of VRU traffic accidents. Multivariate regression analyses (ordinary least squares (OLS) models and spatial regression models) are performed to investigate spatial correlations, to understand the dynamics of VRU road accidents in Sao Paulo and Rome and to detect factors (variables) that contribute to the occurrences of these events, such as the presence of trip generator hubs (TGH), the number of generated urban trips and demographic data. The adopted methodology presents satisfactory results for identifying and delimiting black spots and establishing a link between VRU traffic accident rates and TGH (hospitals, universities and retail shopping centers) and demographic and transport-related data.

Many studies investigated the relationship between accident risk factors related to driving behaviour (e.g. distraction, aggressive driving) and the involvement in a road accident. However less attention has been given to aspects related to driver insecurity and the effects of the overall driving patterns. The main target of this research were twofold: 1) The identification of driving behaviour profiles taking into account also insecurity. 2) The analysis of the association between the identified profiles and their accident involvement. A survey was undertaken among a sample of Italian drivers to assess driving distraction, aggressiveness, indiscipline and insecurity. The items of the used questionnaire were mostly derived from the literature (e.g. Driver Behaviour Questionnaire). Behavioural tendencies of drivers to distraction, aggressiveness, indiscipline and insecurity were studied through Multiple Correspondence Analysis. By using Cluster Analysis seven groups of drivers with similar behaviours were identified. A significant association between the seven groups and road accident involvement was found. This statistical approach allows the identification of driving behaviour profiles that could be used for driving training purposes. The answers to the questionnaire can for instance highlight an aggressive and/or insecure driving behaviour thus tailoring the theoretical and practical driving exercises to the specific driver needs, especially for novice drivers.

The objective of this paper is the analysis of road safety management in European countries and the identification of “good practice”. A road safety management investigation model was created, based on several “good practice” criteria. Road safety management systems have been thoroughly investigated in 14 European countries on 2010, by means of interviews with both governmental representatives and independent experts, who filled in an extensive questionnaire. A reliable and accurate picture (“profile”) was created for each country, allowing country comparisons. Then, statistical methods were used to make rankings of countries, and analyse the relationship between road safety management and road safety performance. The results of the analyses suggest that it is not possible to identify one single “good practice”. Nevertheless, there were several elements that emerged as “good practice” criteria. On the basis of the results, recommendations are proposed at national and European level.

This paper is the result of a PhD in Transport Infrastructure, realized at CTL, aimed to investigate issues related to the evaluation of interventions producing changes in traffic configuration and to develop an information system (Road safety Impact Assessment - RIA Module) to be integrated in an existing Decision Support System on road safety.The research created a library of SPF and developed an information system, called “RIA Module”, updating the existing “DSS - ISIDE”, developed by CTL.

The objective of this research is the assessment of current needs for evidence-based road safety decision making in Europe, through the consultation of a panel of road safety experts. The members of this Experts Panel have extensive knowledge of road safety management processes and needs in their country, being either directly involved in decision making, or working closely with decision makers. Two consultation methods were implemented: semi-directive interviews and written contributions. The synthesis of the results was carried out by means of a predefined matrix, in which the road safety management tasks were separated into their components, and were then cross-tabulated with distinct categories of needs. The results provide valuable information on the current and future needs for evidence-based road safety management in Europe. A number of key issues were brought forward with wide consensus among Experts, such as the need to make the consideration of scientific evidence in road safety decisions compulsory in all countries. The establishment of appropriate procedures was emphasized, including institutional arrangements for road safety management, with the necessary links and interactive procedures for local needs. The results also include useful recommendations, for the setting of targets, the use of cost-benefit analyses, the analysis of combined effects of measures, the collection of data on measures implementation, the collection of exposure and behavioural data, the estimation of injury under-reporting and the standardization of analysis methods.

Data collected from in-depth road accident investigations are very informative and may contain more than 500 accident-related variables for a single investigated case. These data may be used to get a more detailed knowledge on accident and injury causation associated with a specific accident scenario. However, due to their complexity, studies using in-depth data at aggregated levels are not common. The objective of this paper is to propose a methodology to analyse aggregated accident causation charts in order to highlight strong and weak relationships between crash causes and pre-crash scenarios. These relationships can be taken into account when developing or assessing new road safety measures (e.g. in-vehicle systems). The methodology has been applied to an in-depth accident dataset derived from the European project SafetyNet. Four different pre-crash scenarios associated with the accident scenario 'vehicles encountering something while remaining in their lane' have been investigated. Even if generalization of these results should be done with care because of database representativeness issues, the methodology is promising, highlighting, for example, a well-defined causation pattern related to vehicles striking a vehicle in rear-end accidents.

The project CityMobil2 has carried out a forward-looking exercise to investigate alternative cybermobility scenarios, including both niche and large-market innovations, and their impacts on European cities and their transport systems. The paper describes the current status of and main trends in automated vehicles, a preliminary vision of the future city with mobility supported mainly by automated vehicles, and freight distribution. The expected positive impacts derive from the development of car sharing, the reduction of space required for parking vehicles, the possibilities for older people or those with disabilities to use cars, the enhancement of safety, and the improvement of efficiency of the transport system.

The applying of simplified schemes, such as cordon pricing, as second-best solution to the toll network design problem is investigated here in the context of multiclass traffic assignment on multimodal networks. To this end a suitable equilibrium model has been developed, together with an efficient algorithm capable of simulating large scale networks in quite reasonable computer time. This model implements the theoretical framework proposed in a previous work on the toll optimization problem, where the validity of marginal cost pricing for the context at hand is stated. Application of the model to the real case of Rome shows us, not only that on multimodal networks a relevant share (up to 20%) of the maximum improvements in terms of social welfare achievable with marginal cost pricing can in fact be obtained through cordon pricing, but also that in practical terms rationing is a valid alternative to pricing, thus getting around some of the relevant questions (theoretical, technical, social) the latter raises. As a result we propose a practical method to analyze advanced pricing and rationing policies differentiated for user categories, which enables us to compare alternative operative solutions with an upper bound on social welfare based on a solid theoretical background.

In years to come, urban areas face the challenge of making transport sustainable in terms of environment and competitiveness. Cycling is a perfect transport means in urban areas. Cyclists have a high casualty rate and should be given special attention in road safety policy. Actions to promote cycling in cities should go together with improving road safety. ICT can be used to develop intelligent applications assisting cyclists to avoid, prevent or mitigate accidents. This paper presents the results of activities focused on the assessment of impacts of ICT on the safety of cyclists, realised in the framework of the EU project SAFECYCLE ( www.safecycle.eu ). E-safety applications were identified that can enhance the safety of cyclists in Europe. Eleven applications were analysed in term of benefits and costs. The results highlighted important differences between European countries in term of awareness about cycling, knowledge about ICT applications and also impacts of these applications.

This study was intended to estimate the presence and number of individual sleep-related risk factors in a sample of diurnal car accidents and to analyze the extent to which these risk factors tended to be more represented in diurnal accidents involving only one vehicle, involving young drivers or occurring on non-urban roads. Two hundred fifty-three drivers involved in diurnal accidents were interviewed immediately after the accidents to assess their sleepiness-related personal conditions and the circumstances prior to the accident (i.e., individual sleep-related risk factors), such as poor sleep, changes in habitual sleeping patterns, prolonged wakefulness, self-reported acute sleepiness and daytime sleepiness, night-shift jobs and insomnia. A total of 12.3% of the drivers were classified as having at least one of the seven risk factors assessed in the study, supporting the general notion that drivers' sleepiness conditions are crucial, even in diurnal driving circumstances in which they are less likely to depend on chrono-biological processes. Furthermore, consistent with the guiding hypotheses, specific sleep-related risk factors were more evident in single (vs. multiple) car accidents, among young drivers and in car accidents occurring on non-urban roads. In summary, sleep-related risk factors seemed to have a negative impact on drivers' safety in circumstances of diurnal driving, especially when the accidents involved young individuals and occurred on non-urban roads. Language: en

The work package 1 of the EC FP7 project DaCoTA investigates road safety management processes in Europe. It has drafted a model to investigate the state of the art of road safety policy-making and management at the national level and to define “good practice”. The DaCoTA “good practice” investigation model recommends no “one-best-way” solutions, either for attaining a particular objective or for organizing the road safety sector, as the national context always needs to be taken in account when determining policies with consequences in terms of road safety or when modelling road safety management processes. The model is put to test and will be enhanced through a campaign of face-to-face interviews with road safety experts and policy-makers, carried out in 2011. By December 2012 several case studies illustrating “good practice” will be made available to policy-makers, road safety experts and the public through the ERSO web site.

An access restriction system (Limited Traffic Zone), in operation from 6.30 a.m. to 6.00 p.m., has been implemented several years ago in the Rome centre to protect the extensive historical and artistic heritage. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of more flexible solutions, combining rationing and pricing policies, several surveys were carried out at night and daytime and demand models were calibrated to simulate possible rationing-pricing schemes. On the basis of such models, direct and cross elasticities of the different options have been analyzed, when a per-trip pricing scheme is applied to cars entering the central area. Elasticities have been evaluated using the “sample enumeration” method. Comparisons have been made between the elasticities of different user groups (systematic vs non-systematic users) and different periods of the day (daytime vs night-time). In daytime, trips made on an occasional basis result to be less elastic to pricing schemes, i.e. respond with behavioural changes relatively less, than trips made systematically. Night-time pricing schemes appear to be more effective in terms of congestion reduction than daytime pricing schemes.

SaferBraIn (an EC-funded project within the FP7) aims at increasing the level of safety of the road transport systems, focussing on Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) in India and Brazil. A Decision Support System (DSS) ([Geographic Information System (GIS)]-based application) is developed to select safety measures to reduce risk of accidents of VRUs, realize corrective and preventive analyses and road safety audits. The “corrective module” relies with analyses of VRUs accident data, identification of causes of accidents, possible countermeasures basing on Cost-Benefit and Cost-Effectiveness Analyses and monitoring of results. The “preventive module” realises road safety inspections and audits with a special focus on VRUs.