Safety

Estimating Pedestrian Accident Exposure

Greene-Roesel, Ryan
Diogenes, Mara Chagas
Ragland, David D.
2010

We are pleased to present the final report of Caltrans Task Orders 5211 and 6211, “Estimating Pedestrian Accident Exposure.” The project focused on defining pedestrian exposure and evaluating methods for measuring it within the State of California. The project was funded by the California Department of Transportation as part of the California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH) Program of the University of California.Deliverables associated with the project include (I) a protocol report on assessing pedestrian exposure, which is accompanied by a training curriculum and an...

Commercial Motor Vehicles' Safety - A California Perspective

Giuliano, Gen
Zhou, Jiangping
McFerrin, Peter
Miller, Mark A.
2010

This report presents the findings of an examination of commercial motor vehicle crashes in California. Initially, a review of the basic descriptive statistics associated with truck-involved crashes in California was conducted; it covered the time period between January 1995 and December 2004 based on the Statewide Incident Tracking and Reporting System (SWITRS) data base, which contains information about every single motor vehicle accident in the state reported to a law enforcement agency. In addition to examinations of the entire population of truck-involved crashes in the state over the...

Low Speed Collision Dynamics: Second Year Report

Tongue, Benson
Moon, Ahrie
Harriman, Doug
1996

The goal of this project is to develop a user-friendly simulation program which will allow the study of platoon dynamics in both nominal and emergency scenarios. The report discusses the issues investigated during the second phase of the project, including the inclusion of a vehicle model with an engine model, transmission model, a combined lateral and longitudinal controller, and a more detailed collision dynamics model. The overall simulation program includes individual modules that supply control input force, aerodynamic drag force, and road-tire interaction forces.

Evaluation of the Bay Area Incident Response System (BAIRS)

Mauch, Michael
Chung, Koohong
Ahn, Soyoung
Skabardonis, Alexander
2006

The Bay Area Incident Response System (BAIRS) is an integrated Web and GIS based incident tracking system that provides tools to improve California’s Department of Transportation (Caltrans) incident management capabilities. Currently, BAIRS aids District 4 Maintenance respond to and track over 33,000 incidents per year throughout the San Francisco Bay area.The report presents the findings from the evaluation of the BAIRS system based on field data on incidents and traffic conditions. Through the implementation of BAIRS, incident response and clearance times were reduced by about 15%....

The Mass Transit Needs of a Non-Driving Disabled Population

Golledge, Reginald G.
Costanzo, C. Michael
Marston, James R.
1996

This paper examines further characteristics of the activity patterns of blind and vision impaired non-driving populations previously discussed in PATH Database Reference No. The report begins with an exploration of the activity patterns of blind or vision impaired people, followed by an evaluation of the impact of non-driving on employability and movement potential of the disabled non-driving group. The results of a survey of blind and vision impaired users of public transit facilities are then examined. Travel behavior characteristics and travel modes are studied. Possible assistive...

The I-880 Field Experiment: Effectiveness of Incident Detection Using Cellular Phones

Skabardonis, Alexander
Chira-chavala, Ted
Rydzewski, Daniel
1996

This report describes the evaluation of the effectiveness and adequacy of cellular phones for incident detection as an alternative to infrastructure-based surveillance systems. The analysis was part of the I-880 field experiment using the California Highway Patrol's (CHP) Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) incident database. Cellular phones have the highest detection rate among the examined detection sources. Results from the study, however, indicate that incidents reported by cellular phones show greater incident durations than similar incidents reported by the CHP or the Freeway Service...

The Effects of Trucking Firm Financial Performance on Driver Safety

Rodrı́guez, DA
Rocha, M
Belzer, MH
2004

This chapter uses trucking firm-level information to address the paucity of multivariate analysis accounting for the safety effect of various types of truck driver compensation and firm financial performance. Using negative binomial regression models, we find that small firms with high liquidity are correlated with better safety performance. Likewise, small firms that devote a higher share of their revenues to labor expenses tend to have better safety outcomes. Although the dataset is limited in many ways, these associations suggest that small firms may be particularly sensitive to...

Models of Vehicular Collision: Development and Simulation with Emphasis on Safety III: Computer Code Programmer's Guide and User Manual for Medusa

O'reilly, Oliver M.
Papadopoulos, P.
Lo, G.-J.
Varadi, P.C.
1998

This report presents a user's manual and a programmer's guide for the computer program MEDUSA. The program is capable of simulating the impacts of several vehicles. It assumes that the collision are elastic, and is consequently applicable for low relative velocity impacts. A theoretical background of the collision detection algorithm is first given, followed by user's manual and programmer's guide.

The Development of an Accident Database to Structure Land Use Regulations in Airport Runway Approach Zones Part II

Cooper, Douglas L.
Chira-chavala, T.
1998

This report presents and describes the expanded database containing 873 aviation accidents which occurred within five miles of an airport. Section 2 contains a description of the development of the database and a discussion of the criteria used in selecting accidents for the database. Section 3 provides a description of the database itself as well as a set of statistics that provide a comprehensive overview of the accidents. A set of aircraft accident scatter plots developed from the accident data points is presented in section 4. The purpose of these plots is to provide a picture of the...

Analysis and Documentation of Roadway Incident Using Software and Photogrammetric Techniques

Su, Ray J.
Chan, Ching-Yao
2004

This report is a deliverable of a project, TR0002, sponsored by the California Office of Traffic Safety, contracted through California Department of Transportation, and conducted by California PATH. Roadway incidents, besides their direct impacts of property damage, injuries and fatalities, can quickly lead to further congestion or even secondary incidents of nearby traffic. Due to the direct and indirect effects of incidents and congestion afterwards, it is important that post-incident handling proceed as quickly as they can. One primary factor in the delays of incident handling is the...