Quantification Metrics and Analysis of Human Factor, Workload, and Road Infrastructure

This paper describes how human factors (HF) and user workload (WL) can be used by highway designers and traffic engineers to quantify the potential safety of sections of highway. Users’ WL is a quantitative measure of HF. Both HF and WL are used successfully in other fields, such as aviation when pilots have difficulty in using instruments and in touch-down before the start or end of the runway. The traditional highway approach of gauging success is by counting crashes. But with fatalities exceeding 30,000 a year for more than 20 years, the time is right for a new method of analysis. The author has integrated specific WL metrics into a simplified example to aid designers, traffic engineers, and safety analysts in assessing user problems before building new projects or road upgrades. The example uses static and dynamic WL and alternating renewal (AR) metrics (not used by others) to quantify user WL in highway segments for the purpose of illustrating the variation of design and operational safety conditions. The example can be easily modified when new metrics are created, and it illustrates the use of WL and its associated highway safety implications. In short, the approach is based on common sense with trained engineering experience and logic integrated into data-driven safety analyses. The example is a continuation of an earlier FHWA research study illustrating the application of road safety audits and the Interactive Highway Safety Design Model (IHSDM). The IHSDM, Excel, and Google Earth were used because no funding was available for on-road data collection.

The Evaluation of Experimental Variables for Sustainable Virtual Road Safety Audits

This paper evaluates experimental variables for virtual road safety audits (VRSAs) through practical experiments to promote sustainable road safety. VRSAs perform road safety audits using driving simulators (DSs), and all objects in the road environment cannot be experimental variables because of realistic constraints. Therefore, the study evaluates the likelihood of recommendation of VRSA experimental variables by comparing DSs experiments and field reviews to secure sustainable road safety conditions. The net promoter score results evaluated “Tunnel”, “Bridge”, “Underpass”, “Footbridge”, “Traffic island”, “Sign”, “Lane”, “Road marking”, “Traffic light”, “Median barrier”, “Road furniture”, and “Traffic condition” as recommended variables. On the contrary, the “Road pavement”, “Drainage”, “Lighting”, “Vehicle”, “Pedestrian”, “Bicycle”, “Accident”, and “Hazard event” variables were not recommended. The study can be used for decision making in VRSA scenario development as an initial effort to evaluate its experimental variables.

Identification and Analysis of Problems in the Implementation of Road Safety Audit in Lithuania

Road Safety Audits have already been tightly incorporated in the road design process throughout the world. It has proven to be an effective way of increasing road safety without requiring many resources. The cost-benefit-ratios of Road Safety Audits in developed countries are rather high. In Lithuania, the procedure on Road Safety Audits is fairly new, and the direct links between different problems and their occurrence frequency throughout the years are yet to be determined. In this paper, several audits on road safety, performed between the years 2011 and 2017 by the Road Research Institute of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, is analysed. The trends of most relevant problem types identified in those audits throughout the years for different types of roads and streets are presented. Based on those trends, the causes of some common problems are being recognised. Recommendations on possible solutions are suggested.

Inspection of the lightning condition at pedestrians crossings

The article relates to the problem of numerous accidents on pedestrian crossings on Polish roads, caused mainly by incorrect lighting. Adduced statistics show that a significant number of accidents involving pedestrians occur at pedestrian crossings, which mostly happen during the winter months and hours, which lack solar lighting. These factors show how vital for pedestrian safety is proper lighting. Disturbing statistics have contributed to taking the preventive steps by conducting road safety audits and lighting condition as-sessment in Warsaw in 2016. The article describes the procedure of safety audits carried out in the form of local visions by the use of specialized measurement tools at selected pe-destrian crossings and factors that should be considered when assessing the lighting status of pedestrian crossings. The results of measurements of vertical lighting intensity at pedes-trian crossings, measured for two directions of vehicle traffic, were analyzed. The state of illumination of pedestrian crossings was classified based on the subjective, objective, and final assessment introduced. Comments and recommendations regarding the improvement of the lighting condition at pedestrian crossings were summarized. The conclusions of the final report on the lighting of pedestrian crossings in Warsaw districts were presented, based on which classified the risk factors. After analyzing the obtained measurement re-sults and subjective assessments of auditors, corrective actions were proposed to improve the safety of people at pedestrian crossings.

Contemporary Guidance on Management of Road Safety Audits

Although there is good awareness of road safety audit as a proactive technique for identifying and mitigating road safety related risks throughout Australasia and internationally, local practices in procuring, managing and conducting audits can vary between jurisdictions. This paper provides an overview of recent policy developments and practical guidance in managing road safety audits in Australia and New Zealand. Based on the update (Austroads 2019) of Austroads Guide to Road Safety Part 6 (AGRS), the guidance aims at maximizing alignment with Safe System principles by integrating them into the audit process. This is achieved through improved awareness of practitioners new to the principles and concepts (especially project clients and project managers) and promoting the conduct of audits to realise their harm minimisation benefits.

Evaluation of various GIS-based methods for the analysis of road traffic accident hotspot

In order to establish objective criteria for road traffic accident (RTA) hotspots, this paper examines the application of three different hotspot analysis methods to both identify and rank the RTA hotspots. The three methods selected are the network Kernel Density Estimation (KDE+) method, the Getis-Ord GI* method, and a recently proposed risk-based method that accounts for RTA frequency, severity and socioeconomic costs - STAA method. The study road, Jalan Tutong, is a major dual-carriageway connecting major residential and commercial areas from the west of Brunei-Muara district and beyond to the capital, Bandar Seri Begawan. The RTA data consists of cases reported to the police during a 5-year period from 2012 to 2016. The RTA data were digitised and prepared, before being imported into ESRI ArcGIS 10.2 software for analysis using each of these methods. The outcomes, particularly the location, extent and priority of the RTA hotspots, are subsequently compared to results from road safety audits, in order to determine the relative merits and drawbacks of each method. The findings from the comparative study would be useful to recommend the most suitable method to identify and rank the RTA hotspots for the study road.

The Key Issues of Road Design Found from Road Safety Inspections and Road Safety Audits

In order to reduce accident rate on roads and streets more and more various road safety measures are being imple- mented each year. Nevertheless, road safety problem exists in most countries. For example, even though accident rate in Lith- uania was almost halved (6372 to 3161 yearly accidents) from years 2004 to 2015, fatality rate is still quite high – 8.3 per 100000 people. New regulations, approved in 2008, dictate the need of carrying out road safety audits and road safety inspec- tions for all road and street design projects. This paper presents most common road design errors and methods of fixing those errors based on Vilnius Gediminas Technical University Road Research Institute road safety auditors’ experience from years 2011 to 2016. Most common safety problems are organized and presented in groups ordered by their importance. Recommen- dations on how to improve road safety audit and inspection procedures in the future are formulated, as well as suggestions on improving road project design stage by taking most common flaw priority into consideration.