Safety

Applying Safety Improvements to Fleet Vehicles

Cooper, Douglas L.
Sharafsaleh, Mohammad (Ashkan)
Ragland, David R.
Begley, Loida
Kim, Yong Hee
Jin, Eui Jae
2007

The safety of both employees and the motoring public is of paramount importance to Caltrans, resulting in a continuing effort to improve the operating vehicle fleet. The potential safety changes that are the focus of this project are those that involve safety equipment enhancement over and above the original specifications for the vehicle or outside of the scope of the original equipment design or purpose, such as rear view backup video cameras.The motivation for this project was Division of Equipment (DOE) managers' need for an objective strategy to address safety equipment deployment...

An Evaluation of the Consequences and Effectiveness of Using Highway Changeable Message Signs for Safety Campaigns

Rodier, Caroline, PhD
Finson, Rachel S.
Lidicker, Jeffrey
Shaheen, Susan A., PhD
2010

Changeable Message Signs (CMSs), which are also called dynamic or variable message signs, are programmable signs used on highways worldwide to provide drivers with real-time information, such as traffic updates, roadwork warnings, and other traffic and safety-related information. CMSs allow motorists to take immediate action in response to information—to slow down or change routes, for example, which leads to safer driving conditions and less congestion. More recently, in California and throughout the U.S., CMSs have been used as part of public campaigns to promote roadway safety by...

Small Cars In Neighborhoods

Bosselmann, Peter C.
Cullinane, Daniel
Garrison, William L.
Maxey, Carl M.
1993

Focusing on neighborhood travel, this study first reviews the development of vehicles and roads suited to such travel. It then considers community development trends that might encourage or thwart the adoption and use of such vehicles. Demands for vehicles and travel patterns are then treated, followed by discussions of safety and regulation topics and cost benefit issues.

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...

Bicycle Safety in Bogotá: A Seven-Year Analysis of Bicyclists’ Collisions and Fatalities

Carvajal, G
Sarmiento, OL
Medaglia, A
Cabrales, S
Rodríguez, D
Quintsberg, A
Lopez, S
2020
Road safety research in low- and middle-income countries is limited, even though ninety percent of global road traffic fatalities are concentrated in these locations. In Colombia, road traffic injuries are the second leading source of mortality by external causes and constitute a significant public health concern in the city of Bogotá. Bogotá is among the top 10 most bike-friendly cities in the world. However, bicyclists are one of the most vulnerable road-users in the city. Therefore, assessing the pattern of mortality and understanding the variables affecting the outcome of bicyclists’...

Comparative Analysis of Pedestrian Injuries Using Police, Emergency Department, and Death Certificate Data Sources in North Carolina, US, 2007–2012

Sandt, LS
Proescholdbell, S
Evenson, K
Robinson, W
Rodriguez, D
Harmon, K
Marshall, S
2020
Pedestrian safety programs are needed to address the rising incidence of pedestrian fatalities. Unfortunately, most communities lack comprehensive information on the circumstances of pedestrian crashes and resulting injuries that could help guide decision-making for prevention program development and implementation. This study aimed to evaluate how three commonly available data sources (police-reported pedestrian crashes, emergency department [ED] visits, and death certificates) define and capture pedestrian injury data, and to compare the distribution of pedestrian injuries and fatalities...

Providing In-Vehicle Soft Safety Alerts Using Mobile Millennium Data and Vehicle Event Information

Nowakowski, Christopher
Gupta, Somak Datta
Myers, Scott
Shladover, Steven
Butler, Joe
Bayen, Alex
2012

The Mobile Millennium project provided a platform for aggregating traffic information across various sources, including infrastructure sensors, commercial data feeds, probe vehicles, and probe cell phones. The Networked Traveler project provided the California PATH instrumented research vehicle platform used to both deliver vehicle probe data back to the infrastructure and to generate Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) alerts to the drivers of those vehicles. The main theme of this collaboration project was to demonstrate the potential to create Enhanced Probe Vehicles (EPVs) by...

Onboard Monitoring and Reporting for Commercial Vehicle Motor Safety

Cooper, Doug
Dickey, Sue
Johnston, Scott
Kim, ZuWhan
Koo, Thomas
Kretz, Paul
Kuhn, Kenny
Lu, Xiao-Yun
Margulici, JD
Misener, James A.
Nowakowski, Christopher
Robin, Jerry
Spring, John
Walker, Martin
2007

This final report describes the process and product from the project, Onboard Monitoring and Reporting for Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety (OBMS), in which a prototypical suite of hardware on a Freightliner Century Class truck was developed and tested.The OBMS suite allows for online measurement of a set of driving characteristics which are indicators of unsafe driving behavior. These characteristics include speed, following distance, lane keeping performance, safety belt use, and the use of turn signals. Feedback can be provided to the driver, either directly via real time feedback or...

Radio Frequency ID Tags to Enhance Safety

Misener, Jim
Li, Kang
2009

This project was originally conceived and executed to deliver a proof-of-concept of a near-term “cooperative vehicle-highway system” using a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tagging system to significantly improve the reliability of rear-end truck-based forward collision warning (FCW) systems. A hardware apparatus was developed but proved difficult and relatively costly to design and prototype; however, one set of RFID apparatus was delivered by our Raytheon subcontractor to PATH, then it was tested at PATH. Because of range limitations it did not perform to the extent that it could...

Multi-Channel Medium Access Control for Dedicated Short Range Communications

Mak, Tony K.
Laberteaux, Kenneth P.
Sengupta, Raja
Ergen, Mustafa
2006

This paper describes a medium access control (MAC) protocol to enable multi-channel operation for dedicated short range communication (DSRC). In particular, we focus on the challenge of supporting potentially high-bandwidth commercial or info-tainment communications between vehicle and roadside in hotspots over several service channels, while concurrently enabling time-critical vehicle-vehicle communication for safety in a separate channel. In our architecture, within hotspots, communication is aided by one of the access points in the hotspot. This access point is designated the...