Search

Road traffic crashes are currently one of the main causes of deaths in the world and many efforts have been made to develop effective interventions to reduce them. Mindfulness has risen as a method for improving mental and physical well-being and has been hypothesized as potentially beneficial for driving performance. This has led to some commercial ventures based on such hypothesis, despite that the empirical evidence backing up them is still limited. Besides, at the moment there is not yet a clear account of the specific mechanism underlying this proposals. So, it seems plausible that the relationship between mindfulness and driving performance is indirect, and that personality traits such as conscientiousness and neuroticism may play a mediation role between mindfulness and driving performance. A sample of 98 drivers between the ages of 19 and 29 completed questionnaires assessing mindfulness, anxiety trait and anxiety state, and the big five personality traits. Driving performance was assessed in a driving simulator. A mediation model was fitted with conscientiousness and neuroticism set as mediators of the effects of the relationship between the subject’s mindfulness levels and the driving performance.

To improve the safety of bicycle users, some countries have enacted, or considered enacting, mandatory helmet legislation. Of course, the enactment of such legislation in a country assumes that its citizens will be well-informed of it, and consequently, will use the helmet more frequently than before. However, in the survey described in this paper we found that many people are not aware of the legislation in force in their own country, or, even if they know, they may not necessarily behave as dictated by the law. Thus, the effects of mandatory helmet legislation may be somewhat different than desired or expected. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to ascertain the role of cyclists' knowledge of the law in their country as a mediator between the law and the actual use of the helmet. Respondents from seventeen countries participated in an international survey about cyclists' habits, and answered questions about helmet legislation, and frequency of helmet use. The results indicate that the main effect of mandatory helmet legislation on the frequency of use of the helmet is mediated by the perception that such a law exists in their country-even when in fact sometimes it does not exist. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The belief in conspiracy theories predicts behaviors related to public health such as the willingness to receive vaccines. This study applies a similar approach to an aspect of road safety: the use of smartphones while driving. A representative sample of 1706 subjects answered a series of questions related to what can be regarded as erroneous or conspiracy beliefs against restricting or banning the use of smartphones while driving. The results show that those having such conspiracy beliefs reported a greater use of smartphones behind the wheel.

The birth of a child marks the beginning of a new developmental period for the parents. These changes have positive but also negative aspects, such as the increase in fatigue experienced by mothers during this period of time, which can be very limiting and lead them to postpone other life or work goals. However, despite the widespread nature of this problem, there is a lack of information about the duration of this fatigue, with estimates ranging from three months to six years, this prevents mothers from planning this period of their lives adequately. The current study evaluated fatigue in a Spanish sample of 67 women with infants less than two years old and drew a comparison with another sample of 46 women with similar characteristics who were not caring for an infant at that time in order to determine the differences between them and how fatigue in the former group evolves depending on the age of the infant. The results show that fatigue is effectively maintained until at least two years after the birth of the infant.

Mothers attending infant children usually experience high levels of fatigue, and fatigue has been shown to be related to car crashes through attentional errors, among other causes. The current study investigates the effects of fatigue on the attentional errors while driving of women attending infant children. A sample of 112 women—67 attending infant children and 45 not attending—filled out self-report questionnaires assessing acute fatigue, chronic fatigue, and attention-related driving errors. A mediational analysis showed that women attending infant children had higher levels of fatigue, and that chronic fatigue, but not acute fatigue, was related to attentional errors while driving.

A better understanding of Driving Patterns and their relationship with geographical driving areas could bring great benefits for smart cities, including the identification of good driving practices for saving fuel and reducing carbon emissions and accidents. The process of extracting driving patterns can be challenging due to issues such as the collection of valid data, clustering of population groups, and definition of similar behaviors. Naturalistic Driving methods provide a solution by allowing the collection of exhaustive datasets in quantitative and qualitative terms. However, exploiting and analyzing these datasets is complex and resource-intensive. Moreover, most of the previous studies, have constrained the great potential of naturalistic driving datasets to very specific situations, events, and/or road sections. In this paper, we propose a novel methodology for extracting driving patterns from naturalistic driving data, even from small population samples. We use Geographic Information Systems (GIS), so we can evaluate drivers’ behavior and reactions to certain events or road sections, and compare across situations using different spatial scales. To that end, we analyze some kinematic parameters such as speeds, acceleration, braking, and other forces that define a driving attitude. Our method favors an adequate mapping of complete datasets enabling us to achieve a comprehensive perspective of driving performance.

Women seem to use the helmet when riding a bicycle less frequently than men. Two possible explanations for this behavior are that 1) it is less appalling to them because of lack of comfort or other reasons, or 2) they use bicycles in a more cautious way than men so they feel that they do not need the helmet as much. The present paper explores these two explanations in 5,691 cyclists that responded to an online survey conducted in 17 countries as part of an EU COST project. Answers to questions related to the two aforementioned explanations were analyzed graphically and three questions that showed the most conspicuous differences between males and females were identified. These were: ‘Helmets are a problem because they disturb your hair’, ‘I am a fast rider’, and ‘I am a skilled rider’. The responses to these three questions plus their interactions with the gender of the respondent were used as predictors of the proportion of helmet wear. The results showed that: 1) the three questions predicted the use of the helmet, 2) the interaction between gender and hair disturbance was not significant, and 3) the interactions between gender and being a fast cyclist and being a skilled rider were both statistically significant showing that women that regard themselves as slow riders or skillful riders use relatively less the helmet than men in similar conditions.

The search for an efficient method to enhance data cognition is especially important when managing data from multidimensional databases. Open data policies have dramatically increased not only the volume of data available to the public, but also the need to automate the translation of data into efficient graphical representations. Graphic automation involves producing an algorithm that necessarily contains inputs derived from the type of data. A set of rules are then applied to combine the input variables and produce a graphical representation. Automated systems, however, fail to provide an efficient graphical representation because they only consider either a one-dimensional characterization of variables, which leads to an overwhelmingly large number of available solutions, a compositional algebra that leads to a single solution, or requires the user to predetermine the graphical representation. Therefore, we propose a multidimensional characterization of statistical variables that when complemented with a catalog of graphical representations that match any single combination, presents the user with a more specific set of suitable graphical representations to choose from. Cognitive studies can then determine the most efficient perceptual procedures to further shorten the path to the most efficient graphical representations. The examples used herein are limited to graphical representations with three variables given that the number of combinations increases drastically as the number of selected variables increases.

Naturalistic driving can generate huge datasets with great potential for research. However, to analyze the collected data in naturalistic driving trials is quite complex and difficult, especially if we consider that these studies are commonly conducted by research groups with somewhat limited resources. It is quite common that these studies implement strategies for thinning and/or reducing the data volumes that have been initially collected. Thus, and unfortunately, the great potential of these datasets is significantly constrained to specific situations, events, and contexts. For this, to implement appropriate strategies for the visualization of these data is becoming increasingly necessary, at any scale. Mapping naturalistic driving data with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) allows for a deeper understanding of our driving behavior, achieving a smarter and broader perspective of the whole datasets. GIS mapping allows for many of the existing drawbacks of the traditional methodologies for the analysis of naturalistic driving data to be overcome. In this article, we analyze which are the main assets related to GIS mapping of such data. These assets are dominated by the powerful interface graphics and the great operational capacity of GIS software., ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 8 (5), ISSN:2220-9964

Police crash reports are often the main source for official data in many countries. However, with the exception of fatal crashes, crashes are often underreported in a biased manner. Consequently, the countermeasures adopted according to them may be inefficient. In the case of bicycle crashes, this bias is most acute and it probably varies across countries, with some of them being more prone to reporting accidents to police than others. Assessing if this bias occurs and the size of it can be of great importance for evaluating the risks associated with bicycling.This study utilized data collected in the COST TU1101 action "Towards safer bicycling through optimization of bicycle helmets and usage". The data came from an online survey that included questions related to bicyclists´ attitudes, behaviour, cycling habits, accidents, and patterns of use of helmets. The survey was filled by 8655 bicyclists from 30 different countries. After applying various exclusion factors, 7015 questionnaires filled by adult cyclists from 17 countries, each with at least 100 valid responses, remained in our sample.The results showed that across all countries, an average of only 10% of all crashes were reported to the police, with a wide range among countries: from a minimum of 0.0% (Israel) and 2.6% (Croatia) to a maximum of a 35.0% (Germany). Some factors associated with the reporting levels were type of crash, type of vehicle involved, and injury severity. No relation was found between the likelihood of reporting and the cyclist´s gender, age, educational level, marital status, being a parent, use of helmet, and type of bicycle.The significant under-reporting - including injury crashes that do not lead to hospitalization - justifies the use of self-report survey data for assessment of bicycling crash patterns as they relate to (1) crash risk issues such as location, infrastructure, cyclists´ characteristics, and use of helmet and (2) strategic approaches to bicycle crash prevention and injury reduction. Fil: Shinar, D.. Ben Gurion University of the Negev; Israel Fil: Valero-Mora, P.. Universidad de Valencia; España Fil: van Strijp-Houtenbos, M.. Institute For Road Safety Research, Netherlands; Países Bajos Fil: Haworth, N.. Queensland University Of Technology Qut; Australia Fil: Schramm, A.. Queensland University Of Technology Qut; Australia Fil: de Bruyne, G.. Universiteit Antwerp; Bélgica Fil: Cavallo, V.. Ifsttar - French Institute Of Science And Technology For Transport, Development And Networks; Fil: Chliaoutakis, J.. Technologiko Ekpaideutiko Idrima, Kritis; Fil: Dias, J.. Instituto Superior Tecnico; Portugal Fil: Ferraro, O.E.. Universita Degli Studi Di Pavia; Fil: Fyhri, A.. Transportokonomisk Institutt; Fil: Sajatovic, A. Hursa. University Of Zagreb, Faculty Of Textile Technology; Fil: Kuklane, K.. Lund University; Suecia Fil: Ledesma, Ruben Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Mascarell, O.. Ben Gurion University of the Negev; Israel Fil: Morandi, A.. Universita Degli Studi Di Pavia; Fil: Muser, M.. Working Group On Accident Mechanics; Fil: Otte, D.. Medizinische Hochschule Hannover (mhh); Fil: Papadakaki, M.. Technologiko Ekpaideutiko Idrima, Kritis; Fil: Sanmartín, J.. Universidad de Valencia; España Fil: Dulf, D.. Universitatea Babes-bolyai Din Cluj-napoca; Fil: Saplioglu, M.. Suleyman Demirel Universitesi; Fil: Tzamalouka, G.. Technologiko Ekpaideutiko Idrima, Kritis

The primary goal of naturalistic driving studies is to provide a comprehensive observation of the driver's behaviour under real-life conditions by measureing a great number of parameters at high temporal frequencies. Achieving this goal, however, is a complex endeavor that faces many challenges such as the complexity of the vehicle instrumentation during the phase of data collection, and the difficult handling of large data volumes during the phase of data analysis. These drawbacks often cause episodes of data losses. Improving the technical aspects of the collection of naturalistic data is of paramount importance to increase the return of the investment made in it. An aspect to consider is the control of the quality of data obtained. The procedures commonly applied often present a high workload and low levels of reliability in the results. For this reason, new and more efficient procedures should be implemented. This study proposes an innovative methodology for the quality control of these data through geographic information systems (GIS), which permit a fast, efficient and effective data evaluation. Relative and absolute errors can be located through cartographic representation obtained with GIS. Some graphical examples about the detection of the errors are shown.

Naturalistic driving is an experimentation model that allows us to recognise the driving modes observing the driver's behaviour at the wheel of a set of people in natural conditions during long periods of observation. This research methodology aims at increasing the representativeness of the data collected in opposition to data stemming from highly controlled laboratory experiments. However, naturalistic driving research designs produce large volumes of data that are difficult to handle. Thus, it is very important to work with suitable methods for representing and interpreting data, allowing us to observe the variability of the results. The aim of this study is to implement a new methodology adapted to the particularities of the naturalistic method that allows us to retrieve the positioning information through a georeferencing process of the available data. This method is the first step (preprocessing) to achieve a more clear and intuitive representation (cartographic representation) using Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

The methodology of naturalistic driving observation aspires to observe the driver and his environment while driving in natural driving settings. It is of great importance in research on road safety as this method of observing road users eliminates the disadvantages of traditional methods like simulator studies or interviews. However, it produces vast such amounts of data and challenges data reduction and data analysis. Therefore automatic methods for filtering critical incidents based on thresholds for numerical data are often applied to select the data to be analysed. This study reports a small-scale field trial in Valencia, Spain, which was conducted within the promoting real life observation for gaining understanding of road user behaviour in Europe project. The analysis of the numerical data using thresholds resulted in a great number of false alarms and did not identify safety-critical sequences. In contrast, video analysis revealed a number of critical events that had not been previously detected using the numerical parameters. The study conveyed the importance of continuous video recording in these kinds of studies and showed that the methodology of data reduction for naturalistic driving studies requires further development in order to be able to capture all the relevant incidents automatically.

ViSta is a project that focuses on dynamic and interactive graphics for statistics and was initiated by the late Forrest W. Young at the beginning of the 1990s. For over approximately 20 years, Forrest and other collaborators, including the authors of this article, have used ViSta for experimenting with these kinds of graphics in different settings, applying them to different scenarios of data and statistical analysis, searching to develop the right combination of features most appropriate in each case. In this time, ViSta evolved quite considerably, going through what we reckon were three different stages, namely: the initial one setting forth the foundations of ViSta; the second period where versions 5 and 6 of ViSta were released; and the consolidation period when a book summarizing the lessons learnt in the project was published. This book was titled ‘Visual Statistics: Seeing your data with interactive and dynamic graphics’ and was completed in the last days of life of Forrest, who continued to work enthusiastically in the project even though his health was seriously deteriorating during that time. This article is a tribute to this work, but also describes the innovative features of ViSta, many of which are still relevant today. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A 1644 diagram by Michael Florent van Langren, showing estimates of the difference in longitude between Toledo and Rome, is sometimes considered to be the first known instance of a graph of statistical data. Some recently discovered documents help to date the genesis of this graphic to before March 1628, and shed some light on why van Langren chose to display this information in this form. In the process, we discovered three earlier versions of the 1644 graph and one slightly later reproduction. This article describes these early attempts on the solution of “the problem of longitude” from the perspective of a history of data visualization. This article has supplementary material online.

The following study will explore the link between mindfulness, driver inattention and a number of driving performance variables that were tested using the SIMUVEG driving simulator. 67 subjects between the ages of 19 and 27 completed the mindful attention awareness scale, attention-related driving errors scale and attention-related cognitive errors scale questionnaires, and were evaluated in two driving performance measures: time to line-crossing and mean speed. The results did not show a correlation between driving performance and mindfulness measures; they did show low but significant correlations with driver inattention measures. A regression analysis suggested that the specific measure of driver inattention is a predictor of driving performance, but the more general measures are not. These results are relevant to the assessment of psychological variables associated with driving performance. Fil: Valero Mora, Pedro. Universidad de Valencia. Instituto Universitario de Trafico y Seguridad Vial; España Fil: Pareja, Ignacio. Universidad de Valencia. Instituto Universitario de Trafico y Seguridad Vial; España Fil: Pons, Diana. Universidad de Valencia. Instituto Universitario de Trafico y Seguridad Vial; España Fil: Sánchez, Mar. Universidad de Valencia. Instituto Universitario de Trafico y Seguridad Vial; España Fil: Montes, Silvana Andrea. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata; Argentina Fil: Ledesma, Ruben Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata; Argentina

This paper briefly reviews the history of dynamic-interactive graphicsfor statistics, introduces an example of such graphics, and provides a fewglimpses as to the current state of things and the future trends we envision.The general conclusion is that dynamic-interactive graphics for statistics arethriving more than ever as they shift from the desktop to the internet. Thus,dynamic-interactive graphics are becoming increasingly important as they: 1) provide non-experts in statistics with the means to carry out analyses on their own; and 2) teach the basic concepts of statistics to students and practitioners with low to moderate mathematics skills. Their increasingpopularity makes the lessons learned over the past 26 years of research on the subject more important than ever. Este artículo revisa brevemente la historia de las gráficas dinámicas interactivas en estadística, introduce un ejemplo y muestra del estudio actual del arte y las tendencias hacia el futuro. La conclusión general es que las gráficas dinámicas interactivas para la estadística son más populares que nunca y se han desplazado del computador a la Internet. Su importancia en ascenso se debe a que: 1) brindan a los no expertos en estadística los medios para llevar a cabo análisis; 2) enseñan los caminos básicos a estudiantes y practicantes con habilidades bajas o moderadas en matemáticas. Su popularidad hace que las lecciones aprendidas sobre los últimos 26 años sean más importantes que nunca. Fil: Valero Mora, Pedro. Universidad de Valencia; España Fil: Ledesma, Ruben Daniel. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Mar del Plata; Argentina

It is not without amusement that we sometimes notice how dangerously some in-vehicle technologies were regarded in the past, and that are now are seen as innocuous. Radios in cars, for example, were deemed such a source of dangerous distraction when they were introduced that it was proposed to ban them in some states of the US. Fortunately, nowadays, we can behold these old views as very naive, as it has been clearly demonstrated that they were completely unfounded - or has it?

The modules in the statistical package ViSta related to categorical data analysis are presented These modules are: visualization of frequency data with mosaic and bar plots, correspondence analysis, multiple correspondence analysis and loglinear analysis. All these methods are implemented in ViSta with a big emphasis on plots and graphical representations of data, as well as interactivity for the user with the system. These provide a system that has shown to be easy, useful, and powerful, both for novice and experienced users.

A spreadplot is a visualization that simultaneously shows several different views of a dataset or model. The individual views can be dynamic, can support high-interaction direct manipulation, and can be algebraically linked with each other, possibly via an underlying statistical model. Thus, when a data analyst changes the information shown in one view of a statistical model, the changes can be processed by the model and instantly represented in the other views. Spreadplots simplify the analyst's task when many different plots are relevant to the analysis at hand, as is the case in regression analysis, where there are many plots that can be used for model building and diagnosis. On the other hand, the development of a visualization involving many dynamic, highly interactive, directly manipulable graphics is not a trivial task. This article discusses a software architecture which simplifies the spreadplot developer's task. The architecture addresses the two main problems in constructing a spreadplot, simpl...

The purpose of this paper is to describe a simple program for computing log-linear analysis based on a direct manipulation interface that emphasizes the use of plots for guiding the analysis and evaluating the results obtained. The program described here works as a plugin for ViSta (Young 1997) and receives the name of LoginViSta (for Log-linear analysis in ViSTa). ViSta is a statistical package based on Lisp-Stat. Lisp-Stat is a statistical programming environment developed by Luke Tierney (1990) that features an object-oriented approach for statistical computing and one that allows for The purpose of this paper is to describe a simple program for computing log-linear analysis based on a direct manipulation interface that emphasizes the use of plots for guiding the analysis and evaluating the results obtained. The program described here works as a plugin for ViSta (Young 1997) and receives the name of LoginViSta (for Log-linear analysis in ViSTa). ViSta is a statistical package based on Lisp-Stat. Lisp-Stat is a statistical programming environment developed by Luke Tierney (1990) that features an object-oriented approach for statistical computing and one that allows for Computing and Visualizing Pedro Valero-Mora and Forrest W. Young interactive and dynamic graphs.

This paper provides an overview of the experiences using Highly Instrumented Cars (HICs) in three research Centres across Europe; Spain, the UK and Greece. The data collection capability of each car is described and an overview presented relating to the relationship between the level of instrumentation and the research possible. A discussion then follows which considers the advantages and disadvantages of using HICs for ND research. This includes the obtrusive nature of the data collection equipment, the cost of equipping the vehicles with sophisticated Data Acquisition Systems (DAS) and the challenges for data storage and analysis particularly with respect to video data. It is concluded that the use of HICs substantially increases the depth of knowledge relating to the driver's behaviour and their interaction with the vehicle and surroundings. With careful study design and integration into larger studies with Low(ly) instrumented Cars (LICs), HICs can contribute significantly and in a relatively naturalistic manner to the driver behaviour research.

This paper discusses the use of interactive graphics to teach multivariate data analysis to Psychology students. Three techniques are explored through separate activities: parallel coordinates/boxp...

ggplot2: Elegant Graphics for Data Analysis is a new addition to the UseR! series by Springer, probably the fastest expanding source of resources for computational statistics at the current moment. The books in this series are all linked with R, either presenting a new package developed by the own authors of the book or describing how to applying statistical techniques with the different packages available in R. ggplot2 is an implementation in R of The Grammar of Graphics (Wilkinson 2005) a systematic approach to the specification of statistical graphics that was introduced in a book previously reviewed in the Journal of Statistical Software by Cox (2007). This implementation has been developed by Hadley Wickham, who is also the author of the book reviewed here.

s not available for BookReviews

s not available for BookReviews

This paper offers a visual tour throughout ViSta 6.4, a freeware statistical program based on Lisp-Stat and focused on techniques for statistical visualization (Young 2004). This travel around ViSta is based on screen recordings that illustrate the main features of the program in action. The following aspects of ViSta 6.4 are displayed: the program's interface (ViSta's desktop, menubar and pop-up menus, help system); its data management capabilities (data input and editing, data transformations); features associated to data analysis (data description, statistical modeling); and the options for Lisp-Stat development in ViSta. The video recordings associated to this tour (.wmv files) can be visualized at http://www.jstatsoft.org/v13/i08/ using the Internet Explorer navigator, or by clicking on the figures in the paper.

Lisp-Stat seems to be quite inert nowadays. However, there is no widespread agreement about what actually killed it, or even whether it has really passed away or not. Here we present the papers included in this special issue of the Journal of Statistical Software about it. Some of the included papers are about what Lisp-Stat was able to do in the past, other give testimony of the current state of health of Lisp-Stat, and other analyze whether there is any chance of its eventual recovery. We believe that the diagnosis performed here will appeal not only to people interested in Lisp-Stat but to all those involved in the development of statistical languages, as it provides hints as to what elements could make them succeed or fail.

This paper offers a visual tour throughout ViSta 6.4, a freeware statistical program based on Lisp-Stat and focused on techniques for statistical visualization (Young 2004). This travel around ViSta is based on screen recordings that illustrate the main features of the program in action. The following aspects of ViSta 6.4 are displayed: the program's interface (ViSta's desktop, menubar and pop-up menus, help system); its data management capabilities (data input and editing, data transformations); features associated to data analysis (data description, statistical modeling); and the options for Lisp-Stat development in ViSta. The video recordings associated to this tour (.wmv files) can be visualized at http://www.jstatsoft.org/v13/i08/ using the Internet Explorer navigator, or by clicking on the figures in the paper.

This paper presents a graphical display for the parameters resulting from loglinear models. Loglinear models provide a method for analyzing associations between two or several categorical variables and have become widely accepted as a tool for researchers during the last two decades. An important part of the output of any computer program focused on loglinear models is that devoted to estimation of parameters in the model. Traditionally, this output has been presented using tables that indicate the values of the coefficients, the associated standard errors and other related information. Evaluation of these tables can be rather tedious because of the number of values shown as well as their rather complicated structure, mainly when the analyst needs to consider several models before reaching a model with a good fit. Therefore, a graphical display summarizing tables of parameters could be of great help in this situation. In this paper we put forward an interactive dynamic graphical display that could be used in such fashion.