The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of defensive driving as a preventative strategy for road traffic violations and collisions in Zimbabwe. A sample of one hundred defensive driving graduates was used in the study. The descriptive survey method was used and data were collected using a questionnaire schedule. Literature review revealed that the majority of similar s udies by other researchers indicate that defensive driving is effective in preventing traffic violations and traffic collisions. The major findings of the present study showed that: (a) The defensive driving course is effective in preventing traffic violations and collisions; and (b) The defensive driving course should be compulsory in Zimbabwe. In view of these findings, this researcher urges the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe to request the government to make legislation that compels every motorist to attend the defensive driving course. The same organisation should start conducting research on road traffic accidents. / Criminology / MA (Criminology)

In the study, I explored how to achieve sustained road-traffic accidents reduction in Zimbabwe. Road traffic accidents are indiscriminant and each year hundreds of people lose their lives in road traffic accidents in Zimbabwe. A mixed methods research approach was used to conduct the study. The study was therefore done in two phases. Phase 1 was a quantitative survey using questionnaires, and phase 2 was a qualitative case study using semi-structured interviews. A sample of 500 road-users drawn at random from internet databases formed the respondents for the quantitative phase of the inquiry. A further 20 snowball selected participants, formed the qualitative inquiry group. The key findings from the study were that effective intervention planning, timely measurement, adequate resourcing, and inclusive organization development interventions were the key drivers of successful road safety programmes. Additionally, critical interventions for sustainable road traffic safety in Zimbabwe included; community consultation and involvement in road traffic safety strategy formulation and implementation, mainstreaming road traffic safety education in the schools’ curricula, behavioral changes, financial, and engineering interventions. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of defensive driving as a preventative strategy for road traffic violations and collisions in Zimbabwe. A sample of one hundred defensive driving graduates was used in the study. The descriptive survey method was used and data were collected using a questionnaire schedule. Literature review revealed that the majority of similar s udies by other researchers indicate that defensive driving is effective in preventing traffic violations and traffic collisions. The major findings of the present study showed that: (a) The defensive driving course is effective in preventing traffic violations and collisions; and (b) The defensive driving course should be compulsory in Zimbabwe. In view of these findings, this researcher urges the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe to request the government to make legislation that compels every motorist to attend the defensive driving course. The same organisation should start conducting research on road traffic accidents. / Criminology and Security Science / MA (Criminology)

In the study, I explored how to achieve sustained road-traffic accidents reduction in Zimbabwe. Road traffic accidents are indiscriminant and each year hundreds of people lose their lives in road traffic accidents in Zimbabwe. A mixed methods research approach was used to conduct the study. The study was therefore done in two phases. Phase 1 was a quantitative survey using questionnaires, and phase 2 was a qualitative case study using semi-structured interviews. A sample of 500 road-users drawn at random from internet databases formed the respondents for the quantitative phase of the inquiry. A further 20 snowball selected participants, formed the qualitative inquiry group. The key findings from the study were that effective intervention planning, timely measurement, adequate resourcing, and inclusive organization development interventions were the key drivers of successful road safety programmes. Additionally, critical interventions for sustainable road traffic safety in Zimbabwe included; community consultation and involvement in road traffic safety strategy formulation and implementation, mainstreaming road traffic safety education in the schools’ curricula, behavioral changes, financial, and engineering interventions. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

Ce mémoire cherche à faire le point sur l’ouverture des données de l’administration publique, qui s’est généralisée depuis de 2009. Les données ouvertes s’inscrivent dans le mouvement du droit d’accès à l’information, mais se caractérisent par leur caractère proactif : plutôt que d’être diffusée à la demande, les données ouvertes sont divulguées en ligne, généralement regroupées sur un portail. L’ouverture des données vise plusieurs objectifs, dont notamment l’instauration d’un régime de transparence au sein de l’administration publique, et la stimulation de l’activité économique et de la participation citoyenne. Les applications des données ouvertes ont surtout été logicielles, mais nous avons repéré plusieurs sources qui démontrent le potentiel analytique du phénomène. Pour ce faire, les données doivent néanmoins répondre à plusieurs conditions : format, qualité et couverture appropriés, licence adéquate, etc. Nous avons examiné les politiques et pratiques sur deux sites québécois — Données Québec et le portail de données ouvertes de la ville de Montréal — afin de voir si ces conditions étaient respectées. Bien que la situation soit essentiellement convenable, nous avons noté certaines pratiques susceptibles de nuire à la réutilisation des données. Afin d’exposer ces problèmes et de proposer des stratégies pour les résoudre, nous avons procédé à des opérations de nettoyage et d’intégration de données. Nous expliquerons enfin l’intérêt analytique du croisement de plusieurs sources de données, en dépit des difficultés que présente cette approche. / The goal of this masters thesis is to assess the opening of public sector data, a phenomenon that became widespread since 2009. Open data stem from the freedom of information movement, with however a proactive dimension : rather than being provided on demand, open data are published online and usually centralized on a portal. Open data have several goals, in particular the promotion of transparency within the public sector, and the stimulation of both economic activity and civic participation. Open data have been mostly used to create software applications, but we found several sources that demonstrate the analytic potential of the phenomenon. However, to realize this potential, open data must comply with several conditions, such as appropriate format, quality and coverage, adequate user license, etc. We looked into the policies and practices of two Quebec portals — Données Québec and Montreal City open data portal — to see if these conditions were met. While the overall situation was acceptable, we noted some practices that could be detrimental to the reuse of data. In order to illustrate these problems and offer possible strategies to solve them, we performed data cleaning and integration. Finally, we explain the analytic gain of the data integration, despite the difficulties of the operation.

Seit den 80er Jahren des vergangenen Jahrhunderts erleben schienengebundene Nahverkehrsmittel vielerorts eine Renaissance. Hohe Kapazitäten bei der Personenbeförderung und abgasemissionsfreie Fahrzeuge sind häufig genannte Argumente für den Aus- oder Neubau von Straßen- und Stadtbahnnetzen. Unfälle zwischen Straßen- bzw. Stadtbahnen und anderen, vor allem nichtmotorisierten Verkehrsteilnehmern, sind oft besonders schwer. Hinzu kommt, dass der in Deutschland innerorts seit Jahren zu beobachtende Trend eines Rückgangs von Unfallzahlen und Unfallschwere für Unfälle mit Straßen- und Stadtbahnen nur sehr bedingt zu beobachten ist. In Deutschland existiert grundsätzlich eine Vielzahl aufeinander abgestimmter Verfahren, welche die Verbesserung der Verkehrssicherheit in Straßennetzen sowohl präventiv als auch nachträglich unterstützen. Diese sind leicht verständlich aufgebaut und einfach handhabbar. Sie berücksichtigen jedoch das Unfallgeschehen innerorts ganzheitlich und enthalten keine spezifischen Aspekte zu schienengebundenen innerörtlichen Nahverkehrsmitteln. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, Werkzeuge zur Verfügung zu stellen, die zur gezielten Analyse und Verbesserung der Verkehrssicherheit im Zusammenhang mit dem Unfallgeschehen unter Beteiligung von Straßen- bzw. Stadtbahnen herangezogen werden können. Zur Generierung der erforderlichen Datenbasis wurden zunächst die Unfalldaten der Verkehrsbetriebe dreier Städte systematisch vereinheitlicht, georeferenziert und für die weitere Verwendung aggregiert. In einem ersten Untersuchungsschritt wurde anschließend – in Anlehnung an vorhandene Instrumente - ein Verfahren zur Lokalisierung unfallauffälliger Bereiche für Straßen- und Stadtbahnunfälle entwickelt. Zu diesem Zweck wurden Kenngrößen der räumlichen Autokorrelation herangezogen, um über ein einheitliches, objektiv quantifizierbares Instrument für Vergleiche zwischen Netzen mit unterschiedlichen Sicherheitsniveaus bzw. Variationen von Betrachtungszeitraum und einzubeziehenden Teilkollektiven der Unfälle zu verfügen. Hierbei wurden Kriterien zur Lokalisierung unfallauffälliger Bereiche unter Voraussetzung des Einhaltens räumlicher und zeitlicher Stabilität abgeleitet. Zur Identifizierung und Quantifizierung infrastruktureller und verkehrlicher Einflüsse auf das Unfallgeschehen mit Straßen- und Stadtbahnen wurden in einem weiteren Schritt Unfallprognosemodelle erstellt, die das Unfallgeschehen mit entsprechenden Parametern verknüpfen und auf diese Weise Aussagen zu den Einflüssen einzelner Merkmale erlauben. Dabei wurden unterschiedliche Formen der Modellbildung vorgenommen: Neben Grundmodellen zur gemeinsamen Abbildung aller Unfälle wurden Modelle mit Differenzierungen nach Unfallschwere, infrastrukturellen Ausbauformen und Unfalltypen geschätzt und miteinander verglichen. Dies beinhaltete in einer ersten Stufe auch einen Vergleich zweier Städte untereinander, indem die Modelle zunächst stadtfein geschätzt und anschließend einander gegenübergestellt wurden. Dabei haben sich die typfeinen Modelle als methodisch überlegen in Zuverlässigkeit und Genauigkeit erwiesen, sie wurden daher in einer zweiten Stufe mittels Anwendung auf ein unabhängiges Kollektiv in Form der Daten einer dritten Stadt validiert. Im Ergebnis konnten Kriterien zur Identifizierung auffälliger Bereiche von Unfällen mit Straßen- und Stadtbahnen zur Verfügung gestellt werden. Ferner wurde abgeleitet, welche Ausprägungen entwurfstechnischer und betrieblicher Parameter das Unfallgeschehen in welchem Maße beeinflussen. Damit wird ermöglicht, im Rahmen der Verkehrssicherheitsarbeit Maßnahmen zielgerichtet und effizient in Bereichen, die entsprechende Effekte hinsichtlich der Verbesserung der Verkehrssicherheit erwarten lassen, einzusetzen. Ferner können Maßnahmenalternativen szenarienbasiert analysiert und (z. B. bei Neu- bzw. Umbaumaßnahmen) verglichen werden, indem die Maßnahmenwirkung auf das Unfallgeschehen mit Straßen- und Stadtbahnen quantitativ prognostiziert wird. / Since the 1980s, urban rail has been experiencing a renaissance. High capacities and emission-free vehicles are frequently cited arguments for the expansion or new construction of tram and light rail networks. Accidents between trams and other road users are often serious. Further, the trend of declining accident numbers and accident severity that has been observed in Germany for many years can only be observed to a very limited extent regarding accidents involving trams. In Germany, there are a large number of coordinated procedures that support the improvement of traffic safety in road networks. However, they consider the accident situation in urban areas in a holistic way and do not contain any specific aspects concerning trams. The aim of the present work is to provide tools that can be used for the analysis and improvement of traffic safety regarding trams. In order to generate the required database, the accident data of the transport authorities of three cities were systematically standardized, georeferenced and aggregated. In a first step, a procedure for the localization of black spots was developed. For this purpose, methods of spatial autocorrelation were used in order to have an objectively quantifiable instrument for comparisons between networks with different safety levels or variations of the period of time. As a result, criteria for the localization of black spots were derived under the condition of keeping spatial and temporal stability. In order to identify and quantify infrastructural influences on the occurrence of tram accidents, generalized linear accident prediction models were developed in a further step. Different levels of modeling were used: In addition to basic models for the common representation of all accidents, models with differentiations according to accident severity, infrastructural parameters and accident types were estimated and compared. In a first stage, this also included a comparison of two cities with each other by first estimating the models on a city-by-city basis and then comparing them with each other. The type-specific models proved to be best in reliability and accuracy, and were therefore validated in a second stage by applying them to an independent data set from a third city. As a result, criteria for identifying black spots could be provided. Furthermore, it was derived which characteristics of infrastructural design and operational parameters influence the occurrence of accidents and to what extent. This enables an efficient application of measures in the context of road safety work. Furthermore, alternative measures can be analyzed and compared, e. g. on the basis of scenarios.

The doctoral thesis analyses driver’s conduct while solving situations associated with crossing of pedestrians across the road in cases of various design of pedestrian crossings and at different conditions. The thesis deepens the knowledge of the human factor impact on the occurrence of a traffic accident involved vehicle and pedestrian and thesis also complements knowledge for the needs of the analysis of traffic accidents, especially in solving the pre collision phase and at assessment of possibilities for collision prevention by involved participants. The thesis deals with driver’s conduct, various models of the conduct as well as the thesis focuses on the visual perception, the process of information processing, the driver’s conduct and the reaction time. In terms of the solution suitable types of experiments were designed and implemented. Based on performed measurements a method of processing and evaluating data on drivers’ conduct was found as well as more significant data set was obtained for a detailed analysis of drivers' conduct in different driving situations. The assessed quantities of drivers' conduct were analysed with respect to the dangerousness of driving situations. For these purposes, the categories of the dangerousness of driving situations were defined (situations completely safe, with increased danger, dangerous and critical), into which the analysed driving situations were subsequently included. To enable the quantification of this classification of situations into the categories of the dangerousness, the coefficient of the dangerousness (so called K) was defined. From the detailed analysis of the obtained data, the limit values of this coefficient were determined, and these were subsequently verified using data from the solution of real traffic accidents. Concurrently the analysis verified the suitability of using this hazard coefficient in the analysis of traffic accidents, especially for a detailed assessment of the possibilities of collision prevention.