Safety modeling for two‐way left‐turn lanes and a procedure to identify two‐way left‐turn lane segments with safety concerns

In the past, two‐way left‐turn lane (TWLTL) median treatments have been frequently used in Florida to inexpensively improve traffic and safety performances. In order to identify factors that may have significant impacts on safety operations in TWLTL sections and to identify TWLTL locations that present existing and future safety concerns, a research project was carried out and results are summarized in the paper. In the research, a three‐year crash history database with crashes and section characteristics from a total of 1688 TWLTL sections all over Florida was developed and used. A negative binomial regression model was developed to determine the statistical relationship between the number of crashes per mile per year and several variables such as traffic volume, access density, posted speed, and number of lanes. In regard to the methodology, in order to identify locations with safety concerns, several steps are needed: development of real crash data distribution, determination of statistical distribution models that better represent the actual crash data, determination of percentile values for the average number of crashes, estimation of crash rates for sections with the same characteristics, estimation of critical values for the variables corresponding to the percentile values for average number of crashes, calculation of tables of critical average annual daily traffic values, and generation of a list of TWLTL locations with critical safety concerns. Results presented in the paper have been used in real applications. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A fuzzy stochastic approach to the multicriteria selection of an aircraft for regional chartering

This article deals with the problem of decision support for the selection of an aircraft. This is a problem faced by an airline company that is investing in regional charter flights in Brazil. The company belongs to an economic group whose core business is logistics. The problem has eight alternatives to be evaluated under 11 different criteria, whose measurements can be exact, stochastic, or fuzzy. The technique chosen for analyzing and then finding a solution to the problem is the multicriteria decision aiding method named NAIADE (Novel Approach to Imprecise Assessment and Decision Environments). The method used allows tackling the problems by working with quantitative as well as qualitative criteria under uncertainty and imprecision. Another considerable advantage of NAIADE over other multicriteria methods relies in its characteristics of not requiring a prior definition of the weights by the decision maker. As a conclusion, it can be said that the use of NAIADE provided for consistent results to that aircraft selection problem. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The speed control effect of highway tunnel sidewall markings based on color and temporal frequency

The low‐luminance monotonous environment in the middle section of highway tunnels offers few reference points and is prone to cause severe visual illusion. Thus, drivers tend to underestimate their driving speed, which can induce speeding behaviors that result in rear‐end collisions. Therefore, discovering low‐cost methods of traffic engineering that reduce this visual illusion and ensure a steady driving speed is an important challenge for current highway tunnel operations. This study analyzes the effects of sidewall markings in typical highway tunnels, specifically observing how their colors and temporal frequencies affect the driver's speed perception in a low‐luminance condition. A three‐dimensional model of the middle section of highway tunnels was built in a driving simulator. Psychophysical tests of speed perception were carried out by the method of limits. The precision of the simulation model was then checked by comparing the results to field test data. The simulation tests studied the stimulus of subjectively equal speed and reaction time in relation to sidewall markings in different colors (red–white combined, yellow–white combined, and blue–white combined). Furthermore, based on the optimal color, the effects of sidewall marking with different temporal frequencies (0.4, 0.8, 1.2, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, and 32 Hz) on the speed perception of drivers were also analyzed. The test results reveal that the color and temporal frequency of sidewall marking have a significant impact on the driver's stimulus of subjectively equal speed and reaction time. The subjects have the highest speed overestimation and an easy speed judgment with the red–white combined sidewall marking. Within the temporal frequency range of 4.45–7.01 Hz, the subjects have a certain degree of speed overestimation (less than 20%), and the speed perception is sensitive to the temporal frequency changes. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

新建地铁车站零距离下穿既有线区间影响分析

暗挖隧道下穿既有地铁施工,势必会引起既有地铁结构附加变形和差异沉降,影响其结构及运营安全,需要进行变形和内力分析,以便采取必要保护措施.文章以某暗挖车站密贴下穿既有地铁区间为例,采用FLAC3D和SAP 2000模拟,分析既有地铁区间变形和内力发展规律,评价结构和运营安全受影响的程度,为安全保护提供决策依据.     

城市燃气管道第三方损坏的评价方法

第三方损坏评价是指对由于各种外力作用而使管道受损的可能性进行分级.根据影响第三方损坏因素的情况,采用故障树分析法和模糊综合评判法相结合的数学模型进行评价.通过故障树分析,得到引起第三方损坏的各种因素的重要度.再将之作为模糊综合评判法的权重向量,求得第三方损坏的综合评判向量,最后按照最大隶属度原则确定各管段第三方损坏可能性的等级.     

埋地输油管道在线大修安全开挖距离分析

对于埋地管道,大修时保证安全开挖是非常重要的。综合考虑管道挖开修复段的长度、沿管线分布的土壤特性、输送油品的物性、管道压力以及重埋后受力情况等相关因素,建立了管道挖开情况下的力学模型。根据模型的特点,计算出开挖时管道的最大综合应力,从而确定管道开挖的安全长度。     

Do people drive safer when accidents are more expensive: Testing for moral hazard in experience rating schemes

Using individual policies and claims data from the Croatian mandatory motor insurance we test the theoretical proposition that under moral hazard, experience rated pricing scheme should generate the negative state dependence in claims, i.e. that drivers should drive more safely after they had an accident. The empirical challenge in these tests is to disentangle the state dependence from unobserved heterogeneity. We propose a simple approach based on the explicit reliance on the cost of future accidents function which is used to filter out the pure incentives effect, whereas the bonus-malus scale is used to control for pure heterogeneity. Our results confirm the existence of negative dependence in claims indicating the presence of significant moral hazard effect. Increasing a 3-year cost of having an accident by approximately US$20 decreases the probability of having an accident by 6.5%.     

Collision course? The North Airfield Safety Study at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)

The LAX North Airfield Safety Study was undertaken by an Academic Panel consisting of the present authors, and was based in large part on a simulation that was conducted at FutureFlight Central at NASA Ames Research Center. The primary aim of the study was “to estimate as specifically as possible the level of future safety associated with several geometrical configurations of the LAX North Airfield.” This paper describes the study, and how it combined information from human-in-the-loop simulations at NASA with historical data from LAX and other US airports about runway incursions and collisions. The analysis indicated that, even under its existing physical layout, LAX North would experience very low risk of runway collisions at traffic levels projected for 2020. That risk could be reduced by about half if the North Airfield runways were reconfigured, and some reconfigurations would also add appreciably to the operational efficiency of the airport. But because the “baseline” level of risk is so low, the Study concluded that “it would be difficult to construct a compelling case on safety grounds alone for reconfiguring the North Airfield.”     

汽车灯丝的断裂形式及特征分析

文章结合汽车灯泡的特性,探讨灯丝在正常使用过程中和肇事碰撞时的断裂形式,并对灯丝的断裂特征和断裂原因进行分析,为交通管理部门进行相关的事故原因调查提供技术支持。