Mid-sized metropolitan areas face very different challenges and transportation planning issues than those faced by larger metropolitan areas. This is especially true in the area of safety conscious planning (SCP). Conflicting organizational cultures and limited staff and technical tools are major challenges in SCP efforts for mid-sized metropolitan areas (200,000 to 600,000 population). This study surveyed mid-sized metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and conducted seven case studies of mid-sized metropolitan areas to better understand the challenges and opportunities facing SCP in such a context. The national survey and case studies focused on long range planning, data collection, human resources, technical analysis, and collaboration aspects of SCP as applied today. The results indicate that the majority of mid-sized MPOs have incorporated safety consideration into their long range transportation plans vision, goals and objectives, but some mid-sized MPOs are more proactive in the quantitative analysis of project safety outcomes than others. The dissertation recommends that the institutional and technical issues faced by mid-sized MPOs can be overcome by engaging all government levels of planning in SCP efforts that identify a safety champion in the management ranks, encourage state departments of transportation to provide mid-sized MPOs with more tools and training in SCP, promote a stronger relationship between the Governor s Safety Representative and the MPO, and create a more comprehensive forum for collaboration among safety professionals.

This study adopted the traffic conflict technique, investigated and applied it for evaluation of freeway weaving section safety performance. Conflicts between vehicles were identified based on the state of interactions between vehicles in the traffic stream at microscopic level. The VISSIM microscopic simulation model was employed to simulate traffic operation. Surrogate safety measures were formulated based on deceleration rate required to avoid crash and these simulation-based measures were statistically compared and validated using crash data collected from the same study site. Three study sites located in Houston and Dallas areas were selected. Geometric and traffic data were collected using various technique including the use of traffic surveillance cameras and pneumatic tubes. The study revealed the existence of links between actually observed crashes and the surrogate safety measures. The study findings support the possible the use of microscopic simulation to evaluate safety performance of weaving areas and other transportation facilities.

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<p>The purpose of this thesis was to determine which perceptual cues drivers use to identify pedestrians that may constitute a risk in traffic. Methods chosen were recordings of pedestrian behaviour in Linköping by means of a stationary video camera as well as video camera mounted in a car. Interviews on the recordings from the mobile camera were conducted with taxi drivers and driving instructors.</p><p>Results include that drivers not only react to pedestrians they believe will behave in a dangerous way, but also react to pedestrians that probably not will behave in such a way, but where the possibility still exists. The study concluded that it was not possible to determine how risky a pedestrian is considered to be by only using behavioural factors such as trajectory or position on the sidewalk, and distance. It is necessary also to include environmental factors, mainly where the pedestrian and car are positioned in relation to the side of the road, so that the behaviour of the pedestrian can be interpreted.</p>

<p>Child pedestrian safety is one of the biggest safety issues regarding planning of a well arranged urban traffic. The fact that vulnerable road users suffer most from traffic incidents also raises concern for children. Children need special care while considering traffic safety. The factors are various that they differ from adults by many aspects. For their physically smaller size, immature ability to judge the traffic situations, lack of experience about traffic and mental deficiencies like losing concentration after short periods, they are much more susceptible to the traffic hazards than adults. Various studies have been carried and many applications regarding child and school pedestrian safety worldwide and the most hazardous periods were found as afternoon hours. Age factor generally is flexible but as the child grows older, mobility increases and risks become larger. The risk factors also include the social and economical environment that children living in good life standards suffer less than those are not. Education is also crucial on adopting the sense of road safety on children’s perspective. Simulation based studies have proved to be effective in order to draw child’s attention to the subject, however it should be combined with field trips to gain a more realistic and solid idea about the matter. Besides, engineering measures rise up as another milestone where roadside and land use planning is important. Traffic calming measures have proved to be effective to warn road users and thus form a safer traffic environment for children. Special applications for school zones such as flashing lights, narrowed crossways or 30km/h areas have been effective. The case study concerns the evaluation of child pedestrian safety in the vicinities of various accidents previously happened in Norrköping. Two methods were used to examine the degree of safety for the places of incidents. For locations near an intersection, road safety audit and traffic conflicts technique were applied, while, for the incident points along streets, only road safety audit technique was used. It is stated that, because of the multivariable aspect of the problem, collective application of various safety evaluation solutions would give better idea on the risk of the location and possible improvements for the future.</p>

Originally presented as the author's Thesis--Zugl.: Technische Universität München, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Psychology. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Improving traffic safety for pedestrians is an urgent task for the Hillsborough County. The objective of this research is to understand the contributing factors that cause pedestrian accidents in Hillsborough County in the State of Florida. Specifically, this research attempts to determine the effects of demographic, land use, roadway and traffic volume factors on the number of pedestrian accidents. Five hypotheses were proposed to examine these factors. GIS was used to perform spatial analysis. Based on pedestrian accident records from 1999 to 2001, accident density map was created using Kernel density method. The value of the accident density was assigned to each census block group, and this value formed a dependent variable of the model. Accident models were developed using negative binomial regression to model the relationship between contributing factors and pedestrian accidents.

Weather conditions have certain impacts on roadway traffic operations, especially traffic safety. Bridges differ from most surface streets and highways in terms of their physical properties and operational characteristics. This research assess the driving risk under different weather conditions through focus group firstly, then it develops a multi-ordered discrete choice model that is used to analyze and evaluate driving risks under both single and dual weather conditions. The data is derived from an extensive questionnaire survey in Shanghai. And the questionnaire includes those factors related to roadway, drivers, vehicles, and traffic that may have significant impacts on traffic safety under severe weather conditions. Considering the actual situation these variables except driver's gender are selected as independent variables of risk evaluation. As a result, different risk levels and corresponding probability are calculated, which are very important to optimize emergency resource allocation and make reasonable emergency measures. Moreover, in order to reduce severe bridge-related crashes, the research develops an ordered probit model to analyze those factors contributing to bridge-related crash severity and to predict probabilities of different severity levels under rainy conditions.

In the past few decades, the number of motorcycles has grown rapidly in developing countries; therefore, motorcycle safety has increasingly become a critical issue, particularly for nations in which motorcycle-related casualties comprise a major proportion of all traffic injuries and deaths. However, few systematic studies have been conducted on enhancing the understanding of the vulnerability of motorcyclists in developing countries. While motorcycle safety has advanced greatly in developed countries, a direct transfer of the experience to motorcycle safety in developing countries may not be appropriate. The objectives of this thesis are to investigate the safety of motorcyclists from four aspects: people, motorcycles, the physical environment, and social environment, and subsequently develop a deeper understanding of motorcycle safety in developing countries. Methodologically, both questionnaire and observational surveys were employed, mainly from June to October 2012, to evaluate the attitudes of motorcyclists towards road safety and their behaviors on roads, respectively. Data from these two surveys are analyzed through different statistical methods (e.g. chi-square test, Binary Logistic Regression, and the Empirical Bayes approach) to provide a more comprehensive view of the various issues related to motorcycle safety. In addition, Maoming, a major city in Western Guangdong Province of Southern China, was chosen as a case study in this thesis, mainly because it shares many motorcycle-related characteristics with other cities in developing countries. This thesis presents four in-depth studies within a coherent framework to explore motorcycle safety in developing countries. The first study is a detailed investigation of motorcycle taxi drivers who transport passengers by motorcycles as an occupation. The results of this study reveal that compared to non-occupational motorcyclists, motorcycle taxi drivers are more likely to undertake unsafe behaviors (e.g., running a red-light or speeding) when in a hurry, driving late at night or early in the morning, although they hold more positive attitudes towards road safety. The second study focuses on another common behavior: not displaying motorcycle license plates. The results suggest that this behavior is significantly associated with not possessing a driving or vehicle license for the motorcycle, thus placing motorcyclists and other road users at risks. The third study elucidates the effects of helmet law enforcement on helmet use. The results indicate that helmet law enforcement exerts a positive but short-lived effect on helmet use, and also suggest that the Naïve Before-and-After approach should not be dismissed, and can be used as a preliminary method in similar research. The last study investigates the effects of vehicular countdown devices (VCDs) as a traffic facility on motorcycle safety. The results show that they exert negative effects on motorcycle safety and may increase the risk of rear-end collisions at intersections. By adopting a coherent theoretical framework, this study is expected to enrich the knowledge of how people, vehicles, the physical environment, social environment and their interactions affect motorcycle safety and to provide suggestions to improve motorcycle safety in developing countries. / published_or_final_version / Geography / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy