The master’s thesis deals with upgrading of the Dluhonice railway station. The aim is design the station to suit the operation and the requirements of the manager. The integral parts of the thesis are adjustments to the railway superstructure, substructure and drainage system of the station.

Drivers overtaking cyclists on rural roads create a hazardous scenario due to the potentially high impact speeds and, therefore, severe consequences in case of a crash [1]. Díaz Fernández et al. analyzed crashes between cyclists and motorized vehicles from various data sources, including insurance reports and crash databases, and concluded that this scenario is particularly dangerous and new safety countermeasures are needed [2]. Other studies have shown that particularly the side-swipe risk through. aerodynamic forces due to low lateral clearance and high overtaking speed affects both the objective and subjective safety of the cyclist [3], [4]. Furthermore, recent work by Gildea et al. showed through a self-reported survey among cyclists that a significant amount of side-swipe crashes and near-crashes with lower severity of injuries remains unreported [ 5]. This underlines the importance of investigating further in what situations the side-swipe risk for cyclists increases and how it can be decreased effectively. Previous research investigated how driver behavior in overtaking is influenced by infrastructural elements such as lane widths [6], road markings [6], [7], parked cars [7], and the presence of road crossings. However, the effect of sight distance on driver behavior has not gained much attention yet. Therefore, this work analyzed the influence of sight distance on driver behavior and the resulting safety implications for the overtaken cyclist.

Many studies have examined the level of risk perceived by cyclists when they are being passed by motor vehicles (e.g., Beck et al., 2021; Rasch et al., 2022) and others have reported that drivers with negative attitudes towards cyclists self-report higher levels of driver aggression towards cyclists (e.g., Delbosc et al., 2019; Fruhen & Flin, 2015; Haworth et al., 2018). However, self-reported behaviours may not reflect a driver's observable behaviour (Fruhen et al., 2019). Lamondia and Duthie (2012) proposed that LPD is an indicator of the driver's degree of respect for a cyclist but other driver factors may also be important. Little is known about how accurately drivers canjudge lateral passing distance (Haworth et al., 2018) or whether some unsafe passes could simply reflect poor driver understanding of cyclist needs when sharing roadways. The general finding that LPDs are lower when there are parked cars or oncoming vehicles (Rubie et al., 2020), suggests that drivers may leave inadequate LPDs if they perceive that moving into the opposite side of the road poses a risk to themselves or their vehicle. Rasch et al. (2022) is one of the few studies to measure drivers' perceptions of the risk to themselves in overtaking cyclists. Some studies have examined how different motor vehicle speeds influence perceived risk of the passing motor vehicle for cyclists (Apasnore et al., 2017; Garcia et al., 2020; Llorca et al., 2017; Rasch et al., 2022) or drivers (Rasch et al., 2022), generally finding that cyclists perceive higher motor vehicle speeds are more hazardous. This paper examines (1) whether negative attitudes towards cyclists influence perceptions ofrisk: to the cyclist in passing events, (2) the factors associated with driver perceptions of the risk to themselves, and (3) if increases in motor vehicle speed are associated with higher levels of perceived risk to the cyclist and driver in the passing event. [From: Introduction]

Cyclists' perception of car drivers as 'aggressive' and potentially dangerous is an important reason why they demand dedicated cycling infrastructure or cycle on the footpath even when it is illegal. Cycling infrastructure is built on main roads only. On minor roads cyclists and drivers share the road which might lead to conflicts. We tried to explore such a situation from the perspective of a car driver who drives behind a cyclist and has no opportunity to overtake with the legal safety margin. In such a situation, drivers have several options to react. The only legal option is to adapt their own speed to the cyclist's speed, wait until there is enough room and overtake then. Some drivers show other reactions which might frighten the cyclist and/or increase the risk of a crash: honking, shouting, close following, close overtaking and others. Cyclists might avoid roads where they made or expect such experiences, cycle on the footpath, cycle in the dooring zone of parking cars. Noncyclists observing such driver behaviour might decide better not to cycle at all. These reactions work against the political aims to increase the modal share of cycling and walking and improve traffic safety for nonmotorized road users. What are the differences between drivers who perform actions which are aggressive more or less often? Which role do their attitudes and mobility habits play? We expected that drivers who see cyclists on the road as less legitimate perform more aggressive acts [1, Oldmeadow]. We expected a positive correlation between perceived legitimacy of aggressive acts and the frequency of their performance. Road users have different general aims lik.e speed and safety. There are also more situation specific aims like expressing one's anger. We expect that drivers see behaviour which is in accordance with their aims as more legitimate [2, Varet] and show it more often. We expect that car drivers who show more aggressive behaviour blame cyclists more for the situation [3, Pimentel]. We expect that persons who cycle more often behave in a less aggressive manner because they see the situation also from the perspective of the cyclist. Aggressive drivers commit more traffic violations [4, King] and thus have a higher risk of receiving a fine. We expected that persons who report more aggressive behaviour have got more fines for traffic offences. [From: Introduction]

Cycling as a mode of transportation has been recording an upward trend in both the U.S. and Europe. Unfortunately, the safety of cyclists has been a point of growing concern. Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) show that the crashes that occur during the events of motorists overtaking cyclists was one of the leading categories involving cyclists in fatal crashes. In support of the efforts to understand the driving behavior of drivers of motorized vehicles while overtaking cyclists, this research project is aimed at developing an algorithm to identify the overtaking events. Most existing quantitative studies on cycling safety leverage instrumented bicycles or vehicles with sensors for extracting naturalistic driving trajectories. Whereas we use data from a recent research that provides naturalistic driving trajectories of road users collected at select intersections in urban areas in Germany using drones equipped with cameras. Using these videos with a data frequency of 25 Hz, the authors of this study have output inD dataset. The inD dataset contains trajectories of road users that are captured in form of coordinates on a two-dimensional plane obtained from the ariel or bird's eye view of the road. Additionally, the data also captures velocity, acceleration, heading angles, dimensions of driver's vehicle etc. Overtaking can be thought of as four phases of approaching, steering away, passing, and returning. Using the inD dataset, we have developed an algorithm to identify events when a driver of motor vehicle overtakes a cyclist. This work fits into our broader goal to contribute to the body of knowledge for improving road safety of cyclists. The work is expected to provide inputs to governmental/ traffic authorities in aspects such as design of intersections and design of bicycle lanes by providing insights into overtaking events. [from Indroduction]

Overtaking maneuver is very complex event influenced by many parameters. The most important parameters are vehicle performance, longitudinal slope, the speed at the beginning of the maneuver, the reaction time of the driver. Overtaking distance at CSN 73 6101 is determined on the basis of a simplified physical model. It considers constant speed of vehicles (overtaking and overtaken) and it does not consider a longitudinal gradient of road. This calculation is used for several decades and it is required to verify this procedure. That was the purpose of this work. Detailed physical model was performed for several types of passenger vehicles, performance curves and gear changes were included too. Distances between vehicles at the beginning and in the end of the maneuver were chosen with regard to reaction times of drivers. Distances were compared with conclusions of observation studies. Input values of some parameters were determined by own measurement and compared with data reported in the literature. The analysis was performed using the video camera positioned at the front and rear of the vehicle. For selected vehicle were conducted simulations testing the influence of particular parameters. The parameters with the biggest influence were longitudal slope of the road and rolling friction. To achieve results useful for a possible regulations update for the design of roads another simulation models for 43 variants of passenger cars with different engines and transmissions were done. The vehicles were divided into categories based on engine capacity and engine power (up to 1400 ccm, over 1400 ccm; 66 kW to over 66 kW). Results were compiled in tabular form that could be used to discuss modifications to CSN 73 6101 Design of roads.

Il est communément admis que la poésie et le discours politique entretiennent des relations problématiques. Platon avait disqualifié le poète du débat et de la sphère politique, le poète étant alors écarté du langage-instrument. Après la guerre, les mots d’ordre visaient à motiver le poète ou plus généralement l’écrivain à sortir de « l’inaction du texte », de l’inutilité textuelle. Aimé Césaire, chantre de la Négritude, poète, homme politique, essayiste et dramaturge, a su magistralement conjugué les genres littéraires au sein de son œuvre en dépassant la contradiction entre sa poésie et sa politique, que beaucoup lui ont reproché. En effet, nombreux sont ceux qui ont critiqué son action politique jugée contradictoire d’avec son message poétique. Mais de quelle contradiction s’agit-il ? Quelles sont les modalités de cette contradiction? En quoi peut-on parler de contradiction et de dépassement ? Quel processus est mis en place pour établir la « poésicratie » d’Aimé Césaire ? Le lien établi entre la poésie et la politique a nécessité une force créatrice intellectuelle, littéraire et dramaturgique hors du commun de la part du poète, Aimé Césaire, héritier Thotien, homo-creator et homo-pragmaticus. Cette fureur de création a engendré un coup d’Etat à la fois littéraire et politique historique qu’il convient ici, d’analyser et d’exposer par l’examen de la problématique des rapports et la théorie de l’inversion que nous avons établie. L’élévation du poète-oiseau, du poète-prophète et la recherche effrénée du « moi césairien » ont motivé la quête de sens du fondamental. Le « moi poétal » d’Aimé Césaire se pense et s’élabore dans un processus analytique herméneutique pour découvrir le « Moi-Nègre », c’est-à-dire l’Essentiel et l’universel. C’est l’écrit qui épouse l’être éclaté et le transcende en un homme unifié pour découvrir la puissance du mot. Poésie, politique et théâtre, voilà le triptyque teinté d’humanisme et de révolte qui façonne la stratégie du renversement césairien pour faire face à la puissance de l’hermétisme de la contradiction. / It is collectively admitted that the poetry and the political speech maintain problematic relations. Platon had disqualified the poet of the debate and the political sphere, the poet being then moved away by the language-instrument. After the war, watchwords aimed at motivating the poet or more generally the writer to go out of " the inactivity of the text ", of the textual uselessness. Aimé Césaire, bard of the Negritude, poet, politician, essayist and playwright, knew masterfully combined literary genres within its work by exceeding(overtaking) the contradiction between its poetry and its politics(policy), for whom many people blamed him(her). Indeed, many are those who criticized his(her,its) political action(share) considered contradictory from its poetic message. But what contradiction is it a question? What are the modalities(methods) of this contradiction? In what can we speak about contradiction and about overtaking? What process is set up to establish Aimé Césaire's poésicratie "? The link established between the poetry and the politics(policy) required an outstanding intellectual, literary and dramaturgic creative strength on behalf of the poet, Aimé Césaire, the heir Thotien, the gay man(woman) - creator and gay man(woman) - pragmaticus. This fury of creation engendered a coup d'état at the same time literary and political historic that it is advisable here, to analyze and to expose(explain) by the examination of the problem of reports(relationships) and the theory of the inversion which we established. The rise of the poet-bird, the poet-prophet and the wild search(research) of " I césairien " motivated the collection(quest) of sense(direction) of the fundamental. " I poétal " of Aimé Césaire thinks and develops in a hermeneutic analytical process to discover " I Negro ", that is the Main part and the universal. It is the paper which marries him(her,it) to be burst and transcends him(it) in a man unified to discover the power of the word. Poetry, politics(policy) and theater, here is the triptych tinged with humanism and with revolt which shapes the strategy of the reversal césairien to face(to deal with) the power of the hermetism of the contradiction.

Autonomous vehicles have in recent years grownin popularity. An autonomous car has the potential to safelymaneuver in an efficient manner. This in combination with thefocus on increased road safety has put higher emphasis onimplementing an overtaking controller. Model Predictive Control(MPC) is very useful because it can handle linear constraintsand works for autonomous driving. I implemented the controlsystem in Python and did tests on its overtake capability usingdifferent velocities, car distances and initial speeds. Constraintswere implemented so that the autonomous vehicle did not collidewith another vehicle or drive outside the road when overtaking.The results show that a safe overtake could be performed undercertain conditions. The MPC algorithm is proven useful butdifficult to optimize. / Autonoma fordon har lyckats locka till sig mer populäritet under de senaste åren. En autonom bil har möjligheten att manövrera på ett säkert och effektivt sätt. Detta i kombination med ett fokus att öka vägsäkerheten har lagt större press på att implementera reglersystem för omkörningar. Modell prediktiv reglering (MPC) är användbar för den kan hantera linjära bivillkor och fungerar till autonomon körning. Ett reglersystem är implementerat i Python och testades på sin omkörningförmåga med olika hastigheter, avstånd och begynnelse hastigheter. Implementationen utformades med bivillkor som att det autonoma fordonet inte ska krocka med ett annat fordon eller köra utanför vägen i en omkörning. Resultaten visar att det gick att köra om på ett säkert sätt med vissa förutsättningar. MPC algoritmen har visat sig användbar men svår att optimera. / Kandidatexjobb i elektroteknik 2020, KTH, Stockholm

Current design methods in transportation engineering do not simultaneously address the levels of risk and service associated with the design and use of various highway geometric elements. Passing sight distance (PSD) is an example of a geometric element designed with no risk measures. PSD is provided to ensure the safety of passing maneuvers on two-lane roads. Many variables decide the minimum length required for a safe passing maneuver. These are random variables and represent a wide range of human and vehicle characteristics. Also, current PSD design practices replace these random variables by single-value means in the calculation process, disregarding their inherent variations. The research focuses on three main objectives. The first goal is to derive a PSD distribution that accounts for the variations in the contributing parameters. Two models are devised for this purpose, a Monte-Carlo simulation model and a closed form analytical estimation model. The results of both models verify each other and differ by less than 5 percent. Using the PSD distribution, the reliability index of the current PSD criteria are assessed. The second goal is to attach risk indices to the various PSD lengths of the obtained distribution. A unique microscopic simulation is devised to replicate passing maneuvers on two-lane roads. Using the simulation results, the author is able to assess the risk of various PSD lengths for a specific design speed. The risk index of the AASHTO Green Book and the MUTCD PSD standards are also obtained using simulation. With risk measures attached to the PSD lengths, a trade-off analysis between the level of service and risk is feasible to accomplish. The last task is concerned with applying the Highway Capacity Manual concepts to assessing the service measures of the different PSD lengths. The results of the final trade-off analysis show that for a design speed of 50 mph, the AASHTO Green Book and the MUTCD standards overestimate the PSD requirements. The criteria can be reduced to 725 ft and still be within an acceptable risk level. / Ph. D.

Les travaux de cette thèse portent sur la navigation des véhicules autonomes, notamment la planification de trajectoires et le contrôle du véhicule. En premier lieu, un modèle véhicule plan est développé en utilisant une technique de modélisation qui assimile le véhicule à un robot constitué de plusieurs corps articulés. La description géométrique du véhicule est basée sur la convention de Denavit-Hartenberg modifiée. Le modèle dynamique du véhicule est ensuite calculé en utilisant la méthode récursive de Newton-Euler, qui est souvent utilisée dans le domaine de robotique. La validation du modèle a été conduite sur le simulateur Scaner-Studio développé par Oktal pour les applications automobiles. Le modèle du véhicule développé est ensuite utilisé pour la synthèse de lois de commande couplées pour les dynamiques longitudinale et latérale du véhicule. Deux correcteurs sont proposés dans ce travail : le premier est basé sur les techniques de commande par Lyapunov, le second utilise une approche ”Immersion et Invariance”. Ces deux contrôleurs ont pour objectifs de suivre une trajectoire de référence donnée avec un profil de vitesse désirée, tout en tenant compte du couplage existant entre les dynamiques longitudinale et latérale du véhicule. En effet, le contrôle couplé est nécessaire pour garantir la sécurité du véhicule autonome surtout lors de l’exécution des manœuvres couplées comme les manœuvres de changement de voie, les manœuvres d’évitement d’obstacles et les manœuvres exécutées dans les situations de conduite critiques. Les contrôleurs développés ont été validés en simulation sous Matlab/Simulink en utilisant des données expérimentales. Par la suite, ces contrôleurs ont été validés expérimentalement en utilisant le véhicule démonstrateur robotisé (Renault-Zoé) du laboratoire Heudiasyc financé par l’Equipex Robotex. En ce qui concerne la planification de trajectoires, une méthode de planification basée sur la méthode des tentacules sous forme de clothoides a été développée. En outre, une méthode de planification de manœuvres qui s’intéresse essentiellement à la manœuvre de dépassement a été mise en place, afin d’améliorer et de compléter la méthode locale des tentacules. Le planificateur local et le planificateur de manœuvres ont été ensuite combinés pour établir une stratégie de navigation complète. Cette stratégie a été validée par la suite sous Matlab/Simulink en utilisant le modèle de véhicule développé et le contrôleur basé sur Lyapunov. / In this thesis, the trajectory planning and the control of autonomous vehicles are addressed. As a first step, a multi-body modeling technique is used to develop a four wheeled vehicle planar model. This technique considers the vehicle as a robot consisting of articulated bodies. The geometric description of the vehicle system is derived using the modified Denavit Hartenberg parameterization and then the dynamic model of the vehicle is computed by applying a recursive method used in robotics, namely Newton-Euler based Algorithm. The validation of the developed vehicle model was then conducted using an automotive simulator developed by Oktal, the Scaner-Studio simulator. The developed vehicle model is then used to derive coupled control laws for the lateral and the longitudinal vehicle dynamics. Two coupled controllers are proposed in this thesis: In the first controller, the control is designed using Lyapunov control techniques while in the second one an Immersion and Invariance approach is used. Both of the controllers aim to ensure a robust tracking of the reference trajectory and the desired speed while taking into account the strong coupling between the lateral and the longitudinal vehicle dynamics. In fact, the coupled controller is a key step for the vehicle safety handling, especially in coupled maneuvers such as lane-change maneuvers, obstacle avoidance maneuvers and combined maneuvers in critical driving situations. The developed controllers were validated in simulation under Matlab/Simulink using experimental data. Subsequently, an experimental validation of the proposed controllers was conducted using a robotized vehicle (Renault-ZOE) present in the Heudiasyc laboratory within the Equipex Robotex project. Concerning the trajectory planning, a local planning method based on the clothoid tentacles method is developed. Moreover, a maneuver planning strategy focusing on the overtaking maneuver is developed to improve and complete the local planning approach. The local and the maneuver planners are then combined in order to establish a complete navigation strategy. This strategy is then validated using the developed robotics vehicle model and the Lyapunov based controller under Matlab/Simulink.