Road traffic accidents continue to be a public health problem and are a global issue due to the huge financial burden they place on families and society as a whole. Speed has been identified as a major contributor to the severity of traffic accidents and there is the need for better speed management if road traffic accidents are to be reduced. Over the years various measures have been implemented to manage vehicle speeds. The use of speed cameras and vehicle activated signs in recent times has contributed to the reduction of vehicle speeds to various extents. Speed cameras use punitive measures whereas vehicle activated signs do not so their use depends on various factors. Engineers, planners and decision makers responsible for determining the best place to mount a speed camera or vehicle activated sign along a road have based their decision on experience, site characteristics and available guidelines (Department for Transport, 2007; Department for Transport, 2006; Department for Transport, 2003). These decisions can be subjective and indications are that a more formal and directed approach aimed at bringing these available guidelines together in a model will be beneficial in making the right decision as to where to place a speed camera or vehicle activated sign is to be made. The use of optimisation techniques have been applied in other areas of research but this has been clearly absent in the Transport Safety sector. This research aims to contribute to speed reduction by developing a model to help decision makers determine the optimum location for a speed control device. In order to achieve this, the first study involved the development of an Empirical Bayes Negative Binomial regression accident prediction model to predict the number of fatal and serious accidents combined and the number of slight accidents. The accident prediction model that was used explored the effect of certain geometric and traffic characteristics on the effect of the severity of road traffic accident numbers on selected A-roads within the Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire regions of United Kingdom. On A-roads some model variables (n=10) were found to be statistically significant for slight accidents and (n=6) for fatal and serious accidents. The next study used the accident prediction model developed in two optimisation techniques to help predict the optimal location for speed cameras or vehicle activated signs. Pattern Search and Genetic Algorithms were the two main types of optimisation techniques utilised in this thesis. The results show that the two methods did produce similar results in some instances but different in others. Optimised results were compared to some existing sites with speed cameras some of the results obtained from the optimisation techniques used were within proximity of about 160m. A validation method was applied to the genetic algorithm and pattern search optimisation methods. The pattern search method was found to be more consistent than the genetic algorithm method. Genetic algorithm results produced slightly different results at validation in comparison with the initial results. T-test results show a significant difference in the function values for the validated genetic algorithm (M= 607649.34, SD= 1055520.75) and the validated pattern search function values (M= 2.06, SD= 1.17) under the condition t (79) = 5.15, p=0.000. There is a role that optimisation techniques can play in helping to determine the optimum location for a speed camera or vehicle activated sign based on a set of objectives and specified constraints. The research findings as a whole show that speed cameras and vehicle activated signs are an effective speed management tool. Their deployment however needs to be carefully considered by engineers, planners and decision makers so as to achieve the required level of effectiveness. The use of optimisation techniques which has been generally absent in the Transport Safety sector has been shown in this thesis to have the potential to contribute to improve speed management. There is however no doubt that this research will stimulate interest in this rather new but high potential area of Transport Safety.

The sources of natural or virgin coarse aggregates are diminishing in alarming rate and its production is quite expensive, uses a lot of energy, and is not environmental friendly. Hence, utilizing the recycled aggregates like reclaimed or recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) and recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) on road pavement will not only preserve the natural aggregates but also reduce the negative environmental impact. It also helps to conserve the waste landfill sites. The major downside for the use of the recycled aggregate is the quality control during its production. This research characterizes RCA samples obtained from a demolished old foundation and RAP samples from old parking lot and determines their suitability as road pavement materials. Virgin aggregates, recycled aggregates, and several blended mixtures with 20 to 80% replacement of natural coarse aggregate or virgin aggregate (NCA or VA) by weight with RCA and RAP were prepared and tested for resilient modulus (Mr) and California Bearing Ratio (CBR) test. The durability of the virgin aggregate and recycled aggregate were also determined by micro-deval test. The resilient modulus value of 100% RCA and 100% VA was found to be very similar or higher but for 100% RAP the resilient modulus is higher than that of the 100%VA. The Resilient modulus of the RAP blended mixtures increases with the increase in the content of RAP percentage and for the RCA it was not consistent. The CBR values for the blended mixtures decreases with the increase in the percentage of the recycled aggregates. The micro-deval degradation test result for RCA was more than of VA due to presence adhere materials in RCA.

In the boreal forest of Alberta, oil exploration has brought roads into previously undisturbed areas. Peatlands cover vast areas of the boreal forest, transmit water across the landscape, provide habitat for wildlife, and store carbon sequestered from the atmosphere. Roads crossing peatlands is inevitable, and little is known about how roads impact plant communities, water chemistry, and water tables. Few studies of large fen complexes have been conducted in the continental boreal forest, nor have many investigated the impact of roads. Understanding the relationships between species, water chemistry, and microtopography provides insight into the nature of continental fens and how they respond to disturbance. I examined plant communities and water chemistry characteristics of an undisturbed fen and compared the data to nearby peatlands that were disturbed by mineral haul roads. This study determined the control study site was an acidic fen with a pH generally less than 4.0 and four community types were recognized. Most of the complex was very wet, open, oligotrophic poor fen, with a treed, oligotrophic, species poor area extending between two water tracks. As the fen narrowed following its drainage, site type changed to mesotrophic poor fen, with mesotrophic rich fen communities in some marginal areas. The water table was very stable. The road sites showed signs of enriched water chemistry and changed plant communities within 50 meters of the road upstream. Downstream plant communities were less effected. Water tables appear to be influenced both upstream and downstream differently.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:27:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:05:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Tese (Doutoramento) / IPEN/T / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN-CNEN/SP

Submitted by Amanda Silva (amanda.osilva2@ufpe.br) on 2015-03-10T14:56:16Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) PÉ NAS ENCRUZILHADAS - final.pdf: 743882 bytes, checksum: 7b75e3568106158c5e44755c4b9d91ef (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-10T14:56:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) PÉ NAS ENCRUZILHADAS - final.pdf: 743882 bytes, checksum: 7b75e3568106158c5e44755c4b9d91ef (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-26 / Esta tese estuda os processos de tradução, literário e cultural, de On the Road, romance de viagem de Jack Kerouac, para Brasil, Argentina e México. Para compreender melhor o contexto do gênero, da obra e de suas versões; o presente estudo descreve antes um panorama da literatura de viagem ao longo da História, e discorre sobre a tradução como prática cultural e política. Depois, acompanha o desenvolvimento da literatura, da viagem e da literatura de viagem nos Estados Unidos da América até o surgimento da Geração Beat; para então analisar a recepção crítica de On the Road em seu contexto de origem. Por fim, compara as traduções da obra mais famosa de Kerouac para as línguas espanhola e portuguesa; elenca autores, obras e movimentos que dialogam com o livro; para concluir com a importância de se pensar a cultura contemporânea a partir do movimento, ao invés de pensá-la a partir de territórios.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:27:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:05:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / A crescente preocupação com o nível de risco associado ao transporte de materiais perigosos levou várias instituições internacionais a empenhar esforços na avaliação de risco em nível regional. Seguindo essa tendência, o objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar os mais recentes processos de análise de riscos decorrentes do transporte rodoviário de materiais perigosos. No presente trabalho foram avaliadas 21 metodologias de análise de riscos, desenvolvidas por vários autores e para diversas localidades. Em especial, duas foram revistas e discutidas: um método recentemente desenvolvido pelo Instituto Federal Suíço de Tecnologia (Nicolet-Monnier e Gheorghe, 1996) e a estratégia delineada pelo Center for Chemical Process Safety - CCPS (1995), levando em consideração a estimativa do risco individual e social. Também foram aplicados os modelos de Harwood et al. (1990) e de Ramos (1997), adaptados por Hartman (2003) à realidade das estradas do Estado de São Paulo. A extensão dessas metodologias foi explorada, a fim de encontrar as suas vantagens e desvantagens. Como estudo de caso o presente trabalho considerou o transporte de amônia ao longo de duas rotas possíveis por rodovias do Estado de São Paulo, incluindo uma parcela significativa de avaliação em área densamente povoada, obtendo-se os resultados utilizando uma das metodologias de analise de risco. A inovação proposta por esse trabalho foi a pesquisa, o desenvolvimento e a introdução de duas variáveis ao modelo proposto por Harwood et al. (1990). Essas variáveis ponderadoras no valor do risco foram: a idade do condutor e a zona de impacto conforme o período do dia em que o transporte foi realizado em função do volume do produto transportado. As alterações propostas têm como objetivo deixar o valor do risco mais sensível em relação ao tipo do produto transportado e a idade do condutor. As principais etapas processuais relacionadas com a análise quantitativa dos riscos para sistemas de transporte são suportadas pelos métodos precedentes para instalações fixas. Especial atenção foi dada à forma de coletar informações locais e para estimar coeficientes que refletissem as condições prevalecentes na região considerada no estudo de caso apresentado. / Tese (Doutoramento) / IPEN/T / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN-CNEN/SP

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Apparu au lendemain de la Seconde Guerre mondiale avec la publication en 1957 d’On the Road de Jack Kerouac et la sortie, 12 ans plus tard, d’Easy Rider de Dennis Hopper, le road novel et le road movie constituent à nos yeux les deux versants de ce que nous avons choisi de nommer le récit de la route. Devant l’absence de réelle étude conjointe entre les deux formes et la persistance d’amalgames, nous souhaitons mettre en évidence ce qui permettrait de distinguer le road novel et le road movie d’autres récits d’errance. Un tel travail nécessite la mise au jour d’un outil d’analyse intermédial permettant d’embrasser de concert des oeuvres relevant d’expressions médiatiques différentes. Nous proposons donc de recourir au concept de chronotope développé par Bakhtine en littérature, et dont il a été démontré il y a peu qu’il est aussi susceptible de s’appliquer à un objet cinématographique. Nous posons que road novel et road movie reposent sur la combinaison d’un ensemble de chronotopes fondamentaux : celui de la route, dans le contexte de la motorisation et des non-lieux de la postmodernité, et celui du seuil, compris comme l’expression du tournant d’une vie. La présence d’une dimension parodique nous amène en outre à mobiliser un autre concept bakhtinien : celui de carnavalesque, qui s’articulerait justement autour des chronotopes de la route et du seuil définis précédemment. Afin de procéder à cette analyse chronotopique, nous nous appuyons sur un corpus d’oeuvres empruntées au répertoire américain, québécois et allemand, en raison notamment des multiples passerelles susceptibles d’être érigées entre ces différentes cultures. / Appearing in the wake of World War II, with the publication in 1957 of On the Road by Jack Kerouac,followed 12 years later with the screening of Denis Hopper’s Easy Rider, the road novel and road movie constitute, we argue, two sides of what we call the road narrative. Faced with a lack of comprehensive studies embracing both sides concurrently, and with recurrent amalgams, we reflect on the components differentiating the road novel and road movie from other types of wandering stories. Such a project calls for the construction of an intermedial apparatus, enabling us to jointly encompass artworks belonging to different media formats. Consequently, we build on the concept of the chronotope, as developed by Bakhtin as a tool for literarycriticism, and recently extended by scholars to cinematographic objects. We show how road novels and roadmovies emerge from the combination of two fundamental chronotopes: that of the road, exemplified by a postmodern universe dominated by motor vehicles and non-places, and that of the threshold, understood as the expression of a critical turn in one’s life. The noted presence of a parodic dimension in road narrativescalls for the introduction of an additional bakhtinian concept: the carnivalesque, which, as we show, can be articulated in relation to the previously defined road and threshold chronotopes. For this chronotopical analysis, we selected artworks from the American, Quebecois and German repertoires, a choice justified by the numerous potential connections to be established between those three different cultures.

Master of Science / Department of Civil Engineering / Sunanda Dissanayake / In the United States, the mileage of unpaved roads is about 1.6 million miles. Total length of unpaved roads in Kansas is about 98,000 miles, of which about 78,000 miles are gravel roads. Most of the gravel roads are not posted with speed limit signs but regulated with a 55 mph blanket speed limit established by the Kansas Statutes. Surface conditions of gravel roads are very likely to change with time, space, and quality of maintenance work, making it even more necessary to have proper control of speeds on gravel roads. Normally used speed regulations and rules for freeways or other types of paved roadways might not be appropriate for gravel roads, especially for those local gravel roads which usually carry very low traffic in rural areas. Based on an extensive literature search, there was no specific rule or references to provide guidelines on how speed limits on gravel roads could be set. Therefore, an effort was made in this study to evaluate the effects of currently posted lower speed limits in some counties in Kansas, based on traffic characteristics and safety on gravel roads, with the intention of providing proper guidelines for setting speed limits on gravel roads in Kansas. In order to study traffic characteristics on gravel roads, field speed studies were conducted with automatic traffic counters on more than forty gravel road sections in seven counties in Kansas. Important speed measures, such as 85th-percentile speed and mean speed, were obtained from the raw data. A group of other related road characteristics were also recorded at the time of field data collection. Crash data on gravel roads were extracted from the Kansas Accident Recording System (KARS) database. Speed analysis on a number of gravel roads where the statutory imposed, unposted speed limit of 55 mph was utilized indicated that they are functioning at a reasonably acceptable level in terms of actual speeds. In order to evaluate whether there were differences in traffic speeds between two counties or groups which have different speed limit settings on gravel roads, t-test was used. The analysis found that there was no significant difference between the mean speeds in two counties, one of which has 35 mph posted speed limit on gravel roads while the other does not post any speed limits. Moreover, the mean speed on the sections with 35 mph posted speed was a little higher than that on gravel roads without any speed limits. Linear models to predict 85th-percentile speed and mean speed on gravel roads were developed based on speed data. Both models indicated that traffic speeds are not significantly affected by the speed limit, but are related with 90% confidence to road width, surface classification and percentage of large vehicles in traffic. Chi-square tests were conducted with the crash data, and the results indicated that the posted 35 mph speed limit on gravel roads had not resulted in either smaller total number of crashes or decreased proportion of severe crashes, compared to gravel roads where no speed limits were posted. Logistic regression models were also developed on four levels of crash severity, which indicated that gravel roads with higher speed limits are likely to experience higher probability of having injury crashes. Two mail-back surveys were also conducted to gather the opinions of county engineers and road users on the subject of suitable speed limits on gravel roads. The majority of county engineers believed that blanket speed limit should be used for gravel roads and does not need to be posted. Three restrictions: changeful road conditions, unpractical law enforcement, and limited funds, are basic reasons why they do not think that gravel roads should be posted. Besides that, a few respondents said 55 mph is too high for gravel roads and needs to be lowered. Majority of the road users suggested that all gravel roads be posted with lower speed limit signs. However, they were more concerned about law enforcement since they believe that posted speeds won't bring any benefits if no law enforcement patrol gravel roads. Based on all aspects looked into in this study, it does not appear that reducing the speed limits and posting it with signs, is going to improve either traffic operational or safety characteristics on gravel roads in Kansas, and therefore is not recommended for new situations.

High speed cornering of an off-road vehicle poses considerable challenges to the development of an autonomous vehicle due to the non-linear dynamics of the tyre road interface as well as those of the vehicle as a whole during high lateral accelerations. Most driver models are developed for low speed applications using linear control methods under the assumption of linear vehicle dy- namics. The dynamics of a vehicle however become highly non-linear as the lateral acceleration increases, thus rendering these linear models unusable during high speed manoeuvres. In this study, two robust driver models for use in an autonomous vehicle capable of path following at both low and high speeds are presented. Both models make use of the relationship between the yaw acceleration and steering rate to control the yaw angle of the vehicle. The first driver model is derived from the simulation of a full non-linear vehicle model in ADAMS. The Magic Tyre Formula is used to model the relationship between the vehicle's yaw acceleration and steer rate as a function of vehicle speed. The second driver model is a mathematical model which incorporates a form of sliding control. The model includes the lateral tyre dynamics as modelled by the Pacejka '89 tyre model. Both driver models are coupled with a gain scheduling proportional derivative controller to reduce the cross-track error. The two driver models were implemented on a Land Rover Defender and experimentally validated by performing a double lane change manoeuvre at speeds up to 80km/h. The vehicle remained stable even though the lateral accelerations experienced were 80% of the vehicle limits. The result is a robust controller capable of path following at various speeds and at high lateral accelerations. Copyright / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering / Unrestricted