The aim of my work was to project a rural road with an inosculation to a bridge in cadastral plain Komařice. During projection I followed valid norms and laws. Two versions of the rural road had been created and after a consultation with the executive of this graduation theses, one of these have been chosen to be worked out into the stage building licence documentation. The designed rural road should improve accessability to the plots, perform a function of antierosive and scenery composition.

A theme of my thesis has been reconstruction project of a rural road network in two alternates. The project must respect valid norms and legal regulations. A lokality is found between two villages in Southern Bohemia, Olešník and Nová Ves. I have worked out the preferable alternate into the stadium of documentation for building licence. Rural road line has projected that way that the trafic situation will be better. Output of my theme is documentation for building licence.

Traffic population in the UK has grown by 27% in 2002 and predicted to continue to an estimated 38% in 2016 and up to 60% by 2031. This means vehicular emissions from road transport may account for higher proportion of total emissions of pollutants resulting in air pollution with its attendant consequences. Although poor air quality concerns has often been linked to urban areas, many rural areas apparently have locations where air quality objectives may be threatened especially in the wake of increasing vehicular population. Thus, this elicits the necessity to investigate the relationship between vehicular emissions and air quality. This study investigated the influence of vehicular traffic on a major trunk road on rural air quality through continuous measurements of nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and hydrocarbon between June 2008 and April 2010 along a major trunk road in a catalogued rural environment in the UK. Collection and analysis of pollutants was by Dräger short-term tubes and Dräger passive diffusion tube techniques. Throughout the sampling period, concentrations of sulphur dioxide were not detected using the short-term tube technique but were detected by the passive diffusion tubes. The study found that variations in mean concentrations of the pollutants were synonymous with traffic frequency and were influenced by meteorological conditions especially wind speed, temperature and relative humidity. Results observed concentration decline trend with increasing distance and showed maximum concentrations during winter, mainly in areas of close proximity to anthropogenic source, and minimum in summer. Values between winter year 1 and winter year 2 monitoring campaigns showed significant difference (P<0.05 and R=0.91) as was in summer year 1 and year 2 (P<0.05 and R=0.94), spring year 1 and year 2 (P<0.05 and R=0.84) and autumn year 1 and year 2 (P<0.05 and R=0.79). When compared with the guidance limits, NO2 Page ii showed exceededance at roadside and 50 m, and at some sample sites, up to 100 m from the road. Conversely, SO2 did not show any exceedance but statistical analyses was mostly significant between concentrations and distance at p≤0.05, suggesting the variability of pollutants, as well as the influence of distance on their temporal and spatial distribution. Results also show that pollutants correlated very well with daily traffic population with strong positive r2 and R-values. Similarly, the study considered the application of hazel leave (Corylus avellana) and ryegrass (Lolium perenne) vegetation samples in monitoring rural air quality. Both samples were collected in different seasons and distances (5m, 50m, and 100m) from the A49 trunk road at four rural sites characterised with diverse traffic densities and anthropogenic activities. The aim was to determine the elemental content and trends within the samples and to investigate the influence of distance from the road, height from ground level, and sampling season on the elemental levels. The levels of Al, As, Ba, Ca, Si, Mg, S, Cd, Cr, Na, Ni, Sb, Se, Sn, Mo, Mn, C, K, P, Cl, Ti, Fe, Zn, and Pb were determined using X-ray fluorescence (XRF), inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer (ICP-MS), and Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive X-ray spectrometer (SEM-EDX). Results show that despite the traffic differentials between the sampling sites, the pollution level of heavy metals were generally low in all sampling site and concentrations of Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Ti exhibited inverse relationship with distance, decreasing in levels with increasing distance from the trunk road. Although root uptake from the soil is a potential source of heavy metals, geochemistry research of the study area did not show any evidence that proves any major heavy metals deposit concerns in the soil. It is therefore possible that heavy metal emissions were deposited in a form that was not readily available for root uptake, thereby narrowing the presence of heavy metal pollutants to other potential Page iii sources. However, this study found high level of heavy metals at the roadside measurements in the order of Zn (0.703 ppm) > Ti (0.346 ppm) > Cr (0.111 ppm) > Cu (0.106 ppm) > Pb (0.026 ppm) > Ni (0.025 ppm). They were found in different magnitudes higher than their respective levels at 50 and 100 m from the trunk road and therefore tend to support traffic origin. Findings from this study show that heavy metals exhibited different degree of correlation between individual elements, ranging from very strong positive to weak, as well as negative correlations. Statistical analyses show that the elements predominantly exhibited statistically significant differences between elements and between distances from the road. Overall, findings from this study demonstrate that both vegetation species prove to be successfully useful in determining the pollution status and trends of traffic-related heavy metals.

Models based on micro-simulation of traffic flows have proven to be useful tools in the study of various traffic systems. Today, there is a wealth of traffic microsimulation models developed for freeway and urban street networks. The road mileage is however in many countries dominated by rural highways. Hence, there is a need for rural road traffic simulation models capable of assessing the performance of such road environments. This thesis introduces a versatile traffic micro-simulation model for the rural roads of today and of the future. The developed model system considers all common types of rural roads including effects of intersections and roundabouts on the main road traffic. The model is calibrated and validated through a simulation study comparing a two-lane highway to rural road designs with separated oncoming traffic lanes. A good general agreement between the simulation results and the field data is established. The interest in road safety and the environmental impact of traffic is growing. Recent research has indicated that traffic simulation can be of use in these areas as well as in traditional capacity and level-of-service studies. In the road safety area more attention is turning towards active safety improving countermeasures designed to improve road safety by reducing the number of driver errors and the accident risks. One important example is Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). The potential to use traffic simulation to evaluate the road safety effects of ADAS is investigated in the last part of this thesis. A car-following model for simulation of traffic including ADAS-equipped vehicles is proposed and the developed simulation framework is used to study important properties of a traffic simulation model to be used for safety evaluation of ADAS. Driver behavior for ADAS-equipped vehicles has usually not been considered in simulation studies including ADAS-equipped vehicles. The work in this thesis does however indicate that modeling of the behavior of drivers in ADAS-equipped vehicles is essential for reliable conclusions on the road safety effects of ADAS. / <p>Report code: LiU-Tek-Lic-2005:60.</p>

Driving simulators and microscopic traffic simulation are important tools for making evaluations of driving and traffic. A driving simulator is de-signed to imitate real driving and is used to conduct experiments on driver behavior. Traffic simulation is commonly used to evaluate the quality of service of different infrastructure designs. This thesis considers a different application of traffic simulation, namely the simulation of surrounding vehicles in driving simulators. The surrounding traffic is one of several factors that influence a driver's mental load and ability to drive a vehicle. The representation of the surrounding vehicles in a driving simulator plays an important role in the striving to create an illusion of real driving. If the illusion of real driving is not good enough, there is an risk that drivers will behave differently than in real world driving, implying that the results and conclusions reached from simulations may not be transferable to real driving. This thesis has two main objectives. The first objective is to develop a model for generating and simulating autonomous surrounding vehicles in a driving simulator. The approach used by the model developed is to only simulate the closest area of the driving simulator vehicle. This area is divided into one inner region and two outer regions. Vehicles in the inner region are simulated according to a microscopic model which includes sub-models for driving behavior, while vehicles in the outer regions are updated according to a less time-consuming mesoscopic model. The second objective is to develop an algorithm for combining autonomous vehicles and controlled events. Driving simulators are often used to study situations that rarely occur in the real traffic system. In order to create the same situations for each subject, the behavior of the surrounding vehicles has traditionally been strictly controlled. This often leads to less realistic surrounding traffic. The algorithm developed makes it possible to use autonomous traffic between the predefined controlled situations, and thereby get both realistic traffc and controlled events. The model and the algorithm developed have been implemented and tested in the VTI driving simulator with promising results.

The diploma work is concerned on evaluation of the existing road network in complex land consolidation Brná and on a new road network´s proposal. The cadastral ground Brná has 275 hectares and is situated in the region Vysočina approximately 17 km far from Pelhřimov.

The diploma work is concerned on evaluation of the existing road network in complex land consolidation Plav. The aim of this work was to design reconstructions of existing roads and construction of new field roads and evaluate necessary appropriation of land. Further aim is to design a plan of additional arrangements {--} outplanting of attendant growth, drains e.g. and evaluate the role of road network in soil protection from erosion. The cadastral ground Plav has 510 hectares and is situated approximately 8 km far from České Budějovice. Field survey focused on road network as an integral part and basis for evaluation of real state of analysed area. The road network in analysed area is insuffiecient. Low density of road network, unsatisfactory technical state, neglected or missing attendant growth demand a lot of arrangements. Many reconstructions and constructions of new roads were planed.

Rural roads constitute the most dangerous road category with regard to the number of fatal accidents. In order to increase traffic safety on rural roads it is necessary to take into account not only their inherent properties but also their effect on behaviour. Gert Weller develops a psychological model for driving on rural roads which is validated in three empirical steps: laboratory, simulator and driving experiments. His results provide insight into the possibilities of how driving behaviour on rural roads can be influenced and give practical guidance for the enhancement of rural road safety. The book is written for psychologists in the fields of traffic psychology and human factors research, traffic engineers, road planners as well as for political decision makers in traffic planning departments.:1. Driving on Rural Roads: The Current Situation 2. Applying Existing Models to Driving on Rural Roads 2.1. A Framework 2.2. Individual Differences: Traits and Demographic Variables 2.3. Driving as a Self-Paced Task: Motivational Models 2.4. Perception and Information-Processing 3. A Psychological Model for Driving on Rural Roads 4. Empirical Validation 4.1. Overview and General Course of Events 4.2. The Laboratory Study: The Role of Perceived Road Characteristics 4.3. The Simulator Study: The Role of Cues and Affordances 4.4. On-the-Road Driving Tests: Behaviour and Accidents 5. Empirical Validation: Summary and Conclusions

Die Dissertationsschrift enthält die Entwicklung eines Verfahrens zur Bewertung der Verkehrssicherheit von Streckenabschnitten auf Landstraßen außerhalb von Knotenpunkten. Dabei liegt das Augenmerk auf der Abbildung von Sicherheitsgraden maßgebender Querschnitte und der Identifikation und Quantifizierung von einflussnehmenden Merkmalen. Das Verfahren stellt einen Bezug zu den aktuellen Entwurfsrichtlinien für die Anlage von Landstraßen dar und verknüpft die Bewertungsmethodik mit den Zielen zukünftiger Bewertungsverfahren, wie sie im Entwurf des Handbuchs zur Bewertung der Verkehrssicherheit von Straßen enthalten sind. Grundlage bilden die Daten eines ca. 3.600 km umfangreichen Streckenkollektivs. Beruhend auf den Erkenntnissen der Literaturanalyse erfolgen die Einteilung des Streckenkollektivs in Netzelemente, die Festlegung und Kategorisierung mutmaßlicher Merkmale sowie die Klassifizierung von vier Bewertungsfällen. Die Anwendung Verallgemeinerter Linearer Modelle zur Beschreibung der Unfallhäufigkeit in Abhängigkeit verschiedener Variablen stellt eine Möglichkeit dar, Einschränkungen monokausaler Sicherheitsuntersuchungen aufzulösen. Darüber hinaus bietet das Verfahren die Möglichkeit, das Unfallgeschehen in einen nicht vermeidbaren – dieser entspricht einem Grundniveau – und einen vermeidbaren Teil – Zuschläge aufgrund von Defiziten und Streckeneigenschaften – zu unterscheiden. Im Rahmen einer vergleichenden Unfallanalyse erfolgt die räumliche Abgrenzung von Knotenpunkten, Einflussbereichen und der Freien Strecke. Plangleiche Knotenpunkte weisen eine feste Länge auf, während die Länge der Einflussbereiche variiert. Im ersten Teil der Analyse werden zur Beschreibung der Unfallhäufigkeit der Freien Strecke zwei Ansätze betrachtet. Sowohl für den Ansatz nach Unfallschwere als auch nach Unfalltyp erfolgte eine differenzierte Modellbildung auf Basis mehrerer Teilkollektive je Bewertungsfall. Dies erlaubt eine feinere Verknüpfung von Ursache und Wirkung. Allen Modellen liegt eine Prüfung auf allgemeine Anwendbarkeit zugrunde. Im Vergleich beider Ansätze zeigt sich, dass die unfalltypenfeine Betrachtung eine deutlichere konfliktbezogene Tiefe zwischen streckencharakteristischen Merkmalen und der Unfallhäufigkeit zulässt. Als maßgebend einflussnehmende Merkmale gelten neben der Relationstrassierung und der Querschnittsausprägung auch die Seitenraumgestaltung. Der ermittelte nichtlineare Zusammenhang zwischen Unfallgeschehen und Verkehrsstärke hat zur Folge, Zuschläge als Anteilswert bezüglich des Grundniveaus zu betrachten. Es existieren verschiedene Arten von Zuschlägen. Deren ermittelte Größenordnung variiert in Abhängigkeit von der Merkmalausprägung und der Verkehrsstärke. Im Resultat liegen für alle Bewertungsfälle ein monetär bewertetes Sicherheitsgrundniveau und Zuschlagstabellen vor. Zweiter Bestandteil der Analyse stellt die Bewertung der Einflussbereiche dar. Diese entsprechen dem Bindeglied zwischen den Streckenübergängen und der Freien Strecke. Unter der Annahme, dass die Verkehrssicherheit in diesen Bereichen sowohl von Merkmalen des Streckenübergangs als auch der Freien Strecke beeinflusst wird, erfolgt die Identifikation maßgebender Merkmale, welche den Streckenübergang charakterisieren. Im Resultat werden Einflussfaktoren ermittelt, die den Sicherheitsgrad von Freier Strecke und Einflussbereich ins Verhältnis setzen. Die Bewertung erfolgt ebenfalls auf Basis multipler Regres-sionen typendifferenzierter Unfallkollektive. Es zeigt sich, dass das Verhältnis für einige Arten von Übergängen eine Abhängigkeit von der Verkehrsstärke aufweist. Die Ergebnisse beider Analyseschritte münden in der Bereitstellung eines Verfahrens, welches die Sicherheitsanalyse von Streckenabschnitten unter gegebenen Randbedingungen ermöglicht und einen Variantenvergleich erlaubt.

Motorised countries have more fatal road crashes in rural areas than in urban areas. In Australia, over two thirds of the population live in urban areas, yet approximately 55 percent of the road fatalities occur in rural areas (ABS, 2006; Tziotis, Mabbot, Edmonston, Sheehan & Dwyer, 2005). Road and environmental factors increase the challenges of rural driving, but do not fully account for the disparity. Rural drivers are less compliant with recommendations regarding the “fatal four” behaviours of speeding, drink driving, seatbelt non-use and fatigue, and the reasons for their lower apparent receptivity for road safety messages are not well understood. Countermeasures targeting driver behaviour that have been effective in reducing road crashes in urban areas have been less successful in rural areas (FORS, 1995). However, potential barriers to receptivity for road safety information among rural road users have not been systematically investigated. This thesis aims to develop a road safety countermeasure that addresses three areas that potentially affect receptivity to rural road safety information. The first is psychological barriers of road users’ attitudes, including risk evaluation, optimism bias, locus of control and readiness to change. A second area is the timing and method of intervention delivery, which includes the production of a brief intervention and the feasibility of delivering it at a “teachable moment”. The third area under investigation is the content of the brief intervention. This study describes the process of developing an intervention that includes content to address road safety attitudes and improve safety behaviours of rural road users regarding the “fatal four”. The research commences with a review of the literature on rural road crashes, brief interventions, intervention design and implementation, and potential psychological barriers to receptivity. This literature provides a rationale for the development of a brief intervention for rural road safety with a focus on driver attitudes and behaviour. The research is then divided into four studies. The primary aim of Study One and Study Two is to investigate the receptivity of rural drivers to road safety interventions, with a view to identifying barriers to the efficacy of these strategies.