In search of surrogate safety indicators for vulnerable road users: a review of surrogate safety indicators

Surrogate indicators are meant to be alternatives or complements of safety analyses based on accident records. These indicators are used to study critical traffic events that occur more frequently, making such incidents easier to analyse. This article provides an overview of existing surrogate indicators and specifically focuses on their merit for the analyses of vulnerable road users and the extent to which they have been validated by previous research. Each indicator is evaluated based on its ability to consider the collision risk, which can be further divided into the initial conditions of an event, the magnitude of any evasive action and the injury risk in any traffic event. The results show that various indicators and their combinations can reflect different aspects of any traffic event. However, no existing indicator seems to capture all aspects. Various studies have also focused on the validity of different indicators. However, due to the use of diverse approaches to validation, the large difference in how many locations were investigated and variations in the duration of observation at each location, it is difficult to compare and discuss the validity of the different surrogate safety indicators. Since no current indicator can properly reflect all the important aspects underlined in this article, the authors suggest that the choice of a suitable indicator in future surrogate safety studies should be made with considerations of the context-dependent suitability of the respective indicator.     

An integrated framework for embedding large-scale dynamic traffic assignment models in advanced traveler information systems

In recent years, increasing attention has been drawn to the development of various applications of intelligent transportation systems (ITS), which are credited with the amelioration of traffic conditions in urban and regional environments. Advanced traveler information systems (ATIS) constitute an important element of ITS by providing potential travelers with information on the network's current performance both en-route and pre-trip. In order to tackle the complexity of such systems, derived from the difficulty of providing real-time estimations of current as well as forecasts of future traffic conditions, a series of models and algorithms have been initiated. This paper proposes the development of an integrated framework for real-time ATIS and presents its application on a large-scale network, that of Thessaloniki, Greece, concluding with a discussion on development and implementation challenges as well as on the advantages and limitations of such an effort.     

Evaluation of pedestrian crosswalk level of service (LOS) in perspective of type of land-use

In India pedestrians usually cross the road at mid-block crosswalks due to ease of access to their destination or the development of adjacent land use types such as shopping, business areas, school and residential areas. The behaviour of pedestrian will change with respect to different land use type and this change in behaviour of pedestrian further reflects change in perceived level of service (LOS). So, it is important to evaluate the quality of service of such crossing facilities with respect to different land-use type under mixed traffic conditions. In this framework, pedestrian perceived LOS were collected with respect to different land-use type such as shopping, residential and business areas. The ordered probit (OP) model was developed by using NLOGIT software package, with number of vehicles encountered, road crossing difficulty as well as safety considered as primary factors along with pedestrian individual factors (gender and age), land-use type and roadway geometry. From the model results, it has been concluded that perceived safety, crossing difficulty, land-use condition, number of vehicles encountered, median width and number of lanes have significant effect on pedestrian perceived LOS at unprotected (un-signalized) mid-block crosswalks in mixed traffic scenario. The inferences of these results highlights the importance of land use planning in designing a new set of pedestrian access facilities for unprotected mid-block crosswalks under mixed traffic conditions. Also the study results would be useful for evaluating pedestrian accessibility taking into account different land-use type and planning required degree of segregation with vehicular movement at unprotected mid-block crosswalk locations.     

Bush-based sensitivity analysis for approximating subnetwork diversion

Subnetwork analysis is often used in traffic assignment problems to reduce the size of the network being analyzed, with a corresponding decrease in computation time. This is particularly important in network design, second-best pricing, or other bilevel problems in which many equilibrium runs must be solved as a subproblem to a master optimization program. A fixed trip table based on an equilibrium path flow solution is often used, but this ignores important attraction and diversion effects as drivers (globally) change routes in response to (local) subnetwork changes. This paper presents an approach for replacing a regional network with a smaller one, containing all of the subnetwork, and zones. Artificial arcs are created to represent “all paths” between each origin and subnetwork boundary node, under the assumption that the set of equilibrium routes does not change. The primary contribution of the paper is a procedure for estimating a cost function on these artificial arcs, using derivatives of the equilibrium travel times between the end nodes to create a Taylor series. A bush-based representation allows rapid calculation of these derivatives. Two methods for calculating these derivatives are presented, one based on network transformations and resembling techniques used in the analysis of resistive circuits, and another based on iterated solution of a nested set of linear equations. These methods are applied to two networks, one small and artificial, and the other a regional network representing the Austin, Texas metropolitan area. These demonstrations show substantial improvement in accuracy as compared to using a fixed table, and demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach.     

A model for the visualization and analysis of elevator traffic

ABSTRACT

Analysis of elevator traffic in high rise buildings is critical to the performance evaluation of elevator group control systems (EGCS). Elevator dispatching methods or parking algorithms in an EGCS can be designed or modified according to analyses of traffic flow. However, interpretation of traffic flow based solely on numerical data may not be explicit and transparent for EGCS experts as well as for other non-expert building administration. In this study, we present a model for visualization and analysis of elevator traffic. First, we present an alternative approach for traffic analysis which we call route visualization. In the proposed approach, we initially decompose elevator traffic into its component parts and investigate each component independently. Then, using superposition of components we obtain a reconstructed model of overall traffic. This modeling approach provides component-based traffic analysis and representation of routes with intensities through data visualization. In the second part we introduce a multi-dimensional analysis of time parameters in ECGS. This approach provides a comparative analysis of several control algorithms such as dispatch or park algorithms for different combinations of traffic components.     

Vulnerability analysis for large-scale and congested road networks with demand uncertainty

To assess the vulnerability of congested road networks, the commonly used full network scan approach is to evaluate all possible scenarios of link closure using a form of traffic assignment. This approach can be computationally burdensome and may not be viable for identifying the most critical links in large-scale networks. In this study, an “impact area” vulnerability analysis approach is proposed to evaluate the consequences of a link closure within its impact area instead of the whole network. The proposed approach can significantly reduce the search space for determining the most critical links in large-scale networks. In addition, a new vulnerability index is introduced to examine properly the consequences of a link closure. The effects of demand uncertainty and heterogeneous travellers’ risk-taking behaviour are explicitly considered. Numerical results for two different road networks show that in practice the proposed approach is more efficient than traditional full scan approach for identifying the same set of critical links. Numerical results also demonstrate that both stochastic demand and travellers’ risk-taking behaviour have significant impacts on network vulnerability analysis, especially under high network congestion and large demand variations. Ignoring their impacts can underestimate the consequences of link closures and misidentify the most critical links.     

地下交通转换平台射流通风特性及风流组织方式研究

为探究地下交通转换平台内通风系统的合理布局,采用比尺模型试验和CFD模拟相结合的方法,研究射流风机和通风组织对地下交通转换平台内气流运动的影响。结果表明： 1）当联络通道内风机射流朝向敞开段时,为使风机升压系数Kj最大,630 mm、900 mm、1 120 mm射流风机的布设位置应距离敞开段分别大于40、50、65 m; 2）大口径射流风机具有更大的Kj,但占用的断面空间更大,且射流诱导段更长,应根据联络通道长度和高度合理选择射流风机口径; 3）地下交通转换平台的通风组织不宜采用同侧开启方式,采用对角抽吸方式时,联络通道内的污染物混入比最低、通风效率最高。     

大型活动的交通调查及分析

随着我国经济的不断发展,全国各地举行的大型活动越来越多。大型活动产生突增交通量造成周边地区的交通拥挤,而分析大型活动带来的交通拥挤则是以对大型活动的交通调查为基础的。以长春市南岭体育场周围的道路交通系统为基础,对举行足球比赛产生的观众到达高峰和离开高峰进行了实地调查,并通过问卷的方式对观众出行方式及其他与此活动相关的特性进行了分析。     

济南市黄岗路穿黄隧道总体设计与关键技术

济南市黄岗路隧道是目前内地在建直径最大的盾构隧道,穿越地上悬河黄河。结合悬河保护要求高、盾构掘进距离长、承受水压大、开挖断面大、工作井深度深、建构筑物及环境保护要求高等特点,从隧道功能定位、城市客运专用隧道技术标准选取、隧道平纵断面设计、横断面布置及两岸接线考虑等方面,对隧道总体设计方案进行综合分析,介绍关键技术问题设计方案的解决方案,对提高我国城市客运专用隧道、大型水下盾构隧道及穿越黄河隧道建设水平具有重要参考意义。     

面向车联网多点协作联合传输的安全认证与密钥更新方法

未来基于车联网的车路协同和自动驾驶场景要求车-车/车-路等网络通信在保证数据安全的前提下,具备低时延、高可靠的特性,从而保证车辆的行驶安全以及车/人的信息安全。LTE-V2X作为车联网通信方案之一,LTE的多点协作联合传输（Coordinated Multiple Points-Joint Transmission,CoMP-JT）技术不仅可以减少车辆在高速行驶过程中进行基站（Evolved Node B,eNB）切换时的通信中断,还能通过多个基站的协同传输来辅助提高网络的数据传输性能。然而当前LTE标准中的安全密钥管理方案无法满足多点协作联合传输过程中的密钥管理场景。针对该问题,提出一种可用于LTE-V2X车联网通信中多点协作传输切换的安全密钥生成与更新算法。该算法由车辆生成基站切换请求并使用随机数、共享密钥、目标基站公钥对切换请求进行加密、广播;基于密码学特性,目标基站不仅可基于私钥从密文请求中计算出共享密钥,还可以计算得到后续的会话密钥;车辆则可以基于目标基站位置信息、生成请求时的随机数计算出会话密钥,从而实现在只需要1次密钥传输的前提下,达成车辆与基站之间的密钥共享和密钥更新,并从密码学角度针对该密钥生成与更新算法进行验证分析。研究结果表明：在LTE-V2X多点协作传输时的基站切换过程中,该算法能够确保车辆与基站进行后向/前向密钥分离的安全认证以及会话密钥建立;与传统方案相比,所提方法可减少26.4%的基站切换过程中引入的通信时延,基站信道负载均仅为传统方案的1/2,并且随基站小区范围内车辆数目增加,基站的信道负载也仅线性增加,提升了该算法在LTE-V2X车联网场景中的适用性。