Esta dissertação trata do uso de dispositivos de proteção lateral. Tão importante quando o projeto da rodovia é o projeto do seu entorno, que está diretamente relacionada à segurança dos veículos desgovernados que saem da pista, seja qual for o motivo. O entorno viário deve ser tal que as conseqüências da saída de pista sejam minimizadas, provendo um entorno livre de obstáculos (sejam árvores, postes, terrenos não atravessáveis, etc.) que possam causar danos severos aos seus motoristas, ou utilizando dispositivo de proteção lateral, na impossibilidade de eliminar os obstáculos agressivos, como estratégias complementares da redução dos danos decorrentes das saídas de pista. Na revisão bibliográfica realizada, os conceitos básicos relacionados com proteção lateral, critérios de seleção do tipo de dispositivos e de posicionamento, além da análise das recomendações para os tratamentos de segurança dos dispositivos de drenagem, foram analisados com o objetivo de identificar os estudos que deram origem aos critérios recomendados tradicionalmente (procurando destacar os pontos importantes que esclarecem a aplicação de tais critérios). Além das recomendações tradicionais, também foram analisados os modelos compreensivos, que tratam de forma mais explícita as saídas de pista e a presença dos dispositivos de proteção lateral, considerando o produto de probabilidades condicionais que envolvem as probabilidades de ocorrência de saídas de pista, a probabilidade da saída de pista estar na envoltória do obstáculo, a probabilidade da distância lateral de saída de pista ser suficiente para haver um impacto, a probabilidade de ocorrência de danos ao motorista e seus ocupantes e o custo associados a estes danos. O trabalho de campo desenvolvido analisou a prática do uso de dispositivos de proteção lateral em uma rodovia paulista examinando a observância às recomendações para o uso de dispositivo de proteção lateral e analisando a relação entre as recomendações para o uso de proteção lateral e a ocorrência de acidentes. Os resultados obtidos demonstram que existe carência de aplicação em locais onde os dispositivos são recomendados pelos critérios tradicionais e por critérios ampliados. Estes critérios tradicionais e ampliados foram também comparados baseados nos conceitos de sensibilidade e especificidade, porém, pouco se pode concluir com a utilização dos dados de acidentes obtidos. / This research provides a review of the recommended criteria for the use of lateral safety devices. As important as the roadway design is the roadside design, that is directly related to the safety of vehicles that encroach on the roadside, regardless of the reason. The roadside must mitigate the consequences of run-off-the-road accidents, providing a contiguous area free of obstacles (trees, poles, unrecoverable grounds, etc.) which can cause severe injury to the vehicle occupants, or deploying lateral protective devices, when it is impossible to remove the hazards, both as complementary strategies for reducing damages from run-off-the road accidents. In the literature review, the basic concepts related to roadside protection, the warrants for selecting the type and placement of devices, besides the analysis of recommendation for the safety treatment of drainage devices, were analyzed to identify the studies which gave rise to the traditionally recommended criteria (trying to emphasize the important points that explain the application of such criteria). In addition to traditional recommendations, the comprehensive models were also analyzed, which deals more explicitly with the encroachments and the presence of lateral safety devices as the product of conditional probabilities that involve the encroachment probability, the probability of the encroachment occurring in a hazard envelope, the probability that the vehicle will encroach laterally far enough to reach the hazard, the probability of injury to the driver and passengers, and the cost associated with this injury. Then, the field work analyzed the practice on the use of lateral protective devices in a highway of the State of São Paulo, examining the observance to recommended criteria for using lateral protective devices and analyzing the relationship between the recommendations for the use of lateral protective devices and accident history. The results have shown that there is a deficit in the deployment on sites where the devices were recommended by traditional criteria and improved criteria. This traditional and improved criteria was also compared based on sensitivity and specificity concept, but no valuable conclusions was obtained with the use of accident data available.

O componente de planejamento faz parte do projeto de desenvolvimento dos veículos autônomos, e é responsável por gerar rotas para o sistema como um todo. Em aplicações em que o veículo deve visitar pontos em intervalos de tempo pré-determinados, o componente de planejamento se enquadra em um problema de roteirização conhecido da literatura, denominado problema de roteirização de veículos com janelas de tempo. Tal problema é uma generalização do problema clássico de roteirização de veículos classificado no grupo de problemas NP-Hard. Esse trabalho apresenta uma proposta de solução para o problema baseada na metaheurística algoritmo genético. Os cromossomos foram representados pela ordem de atendimento dos clientes sem delimitadores de rota. Para quebrar os cromossomos em rotas, foi utilizado um procedimento adaptado baseado em Prins (2004). A população inicial se constitui por uma parte construída com cromossomos criados aleatoriamente e outra parte construída através da heurística de inserção I1 de Solomon (1987), com quatro formas diferentes de inserir o primeiro cliente de cada rota. Na fase de recombinação, foram utilizados quatro tipos de crossover: uniforme, dois pontos, heurístico e PMX, e um operador de mutação baseado em uma busca heurística. A cada geração foram aplicados princípios de elitismo e pós-otimização utilizando a heurística -interchange de Osman (1993). O algoritmo foi testado nos conjuntos C1, C2, R1, R2, RC1 e RC2 de Solomon (1987) e os resultados foram comparados com os melhores resultados encontrados na literatura. / The planning component is a part of autonomous vehicle development project and it is responsible to generate routes for the system as a whole. In applications which vehicle must to visit way points at predetermined intervals of time, the planning component fits into a routing problem known in the literature called routing problem with time windows. This problem is a generalization of the classical vehicle routing problem classified in the group of NP- Hard problems. This thesis presents a solution proposal to problem based on genetic algorithm metaheuristic. Chromosomes were represented by the order of serving customers without delimiters route. To split the chromosomes on routes, it is used a procedure adapted based on Prins (2004). The initial population is constituted by two parts: one with randomly created chromosomes and another constructed through the insertion heuristic I1 of Solomon (1987), with four different ways of insertion of the first customer of each route. In the recombination step, four types of crossover were used: uniform, two points, heuristic, and PMX, and a mutation operator based on heuristic search. In each generation it is applied principles of elitism and postoptimization using the -interchange heuristic of Osman (1993). The algorithm was tested on the sets C1, C2, R1, R2, RC1 and RC2 of Solomon (1987) and the results were compared with the best results found in the literature.

Nos últimos anos, com a necessidade de suprir as demandas por novas infra-estruturas, aliada a falta de capacidade financeira dos governos, as Parcerias Público Privadas (PPPs) surgiram como uma alternativa. Essa participação privada nos investimentos públicos tem trazido resultados positivos nos governos que já as implementaram, como no caso da Inglaterra. No Brasil, a Lei n. 11.079/04 ? ?Lei das PPPs?, foi sancionada produto da percepção daqueles resultados no exterior, conjugada à própria necessidade interna. Com base nas práticas inglesas, a Secretaria do Tesouro Nacional emitiu a Portaria n. 614/06 que estabelece as normas relativas à consolidação das contas públicas aplicáveis aos contratos de PPPs. O critério adotado, segundo a norma, visa refletir a essência da relação econômica entre as partes contratantes, porém encontra-se necessário realizar uma análise em termos da essência econômica do objeto que envolve o contrato de PPP, por ele ser, em última análise, o fenômeno a ser contabilizado. Assim, o objetivo geral desta pesquisa foi identificar se existe concordância entre a essência econômica do objeto do contrato e a forma jurídica dos contratos de Parcerias Público-Privadas na geração de infra-estruturas rodoviárias no Brasil, visando iniciar uma discussão em matéria contábil no âmbito nacional. Para tal efeito se estabeleceram os seguintes objetivos específicos: contextualizar a implementação dos contratos de PPPs no Brasil, caracterizar o formato jurídico das PPPs no âmbito nacional e analisar os pronunciamentos contábeis existentes em relação à categorização dos gastos públicos quando da criação de infra-estruturas. A pesquisa caracteriza-se por ser de natureza exploratória, descritiva, bibliográfica e documental. Os dados foram coletados visando sua estruturação em três unidades de análise: antecedentes das parcerias, contexto econômico e estratégias empreendidas. Além disso, foram analisados os mencionados pronunciamentos contábeis para identificar o critério mantido pela STN até a emissão da Lei das PPPs a respeito da essência econômica da criação de infra-estruturas. O conjunto de análises realizadas permite sugerir que não existe uma concordância entre a essência econômica do objeto do contrato e a forma jurídica dos contratos de Parcerias Público-Privadas na geração de infra-estruturas rodoviárias no Brasil. A forma jurídica desses contratos é abrangente para projetos executáveis em diferentes setores e, portanto, não permite refletir a essência do objeto econômico de cada parceria. Finalmente foram sugeridos temas para futuras pesquisas, principalmente, no sentido de aprofundar a discussão sobre a essência dos projetos PPPs ou aplicando a metodologia utilizada neste estudo a cada setor da economia. / Last years, because of the need of supplying demands for new infrastructures, allied the financial lack of government\'s capacity, Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) have appeared as an alternative. This kind of private participation in public investments has brought positive results to governments that had already implemented them, like England. In Brazil, the Law n. 11.079/04 ? PPPs Law, was born from the perception of those abroad results, conjugated to the proper internal necessity. Based on English practices, the Secretaria do Tesouro Nacional ? STN - emitted the Portaria n. 614/06 that stated norms for public accounts consolidation of PPPs contracts. The adopted criterion, according to the norm, aims to reflecting the essence of the economic relation between the contracting parties, however it needs to accomplish an analysis in term of the essence of the object which involves the PPP contract, due this to being, at the end, the phenomenon to be entered. Thus, the general objective of this research was to identify if there is an agreement in economic essence terms between the PPPs contracts object about road infrastructure generation in Brazil and their legal form, aiming to starting a national discussion at the accounting area. For such effect, these followed specific objectives were pointed: contextualizing the PPPs contracts implementation in Brazil, characterizing the legal form of the PPPs in the national scope and analyzing the existing accounting statements related to the categorizing of the public expenses for infrastructure generation. The study is characterized for being a exploratory, descriptive, bibliographical and documentary research. The data had been collected in order to be structured into three analysis units: the partnerships precedents, the economic context and the undertaken strategies. Moreover, the mentioned accounting statements were analyzed aiming to identifying the STN?s criterion about the economic essence in infrastructure generation, kept until the emission of the PPPs Law. The set of accomplished analyses permit to suggest that there is not an agreement about the economic essence between the PPPs contracts object of the road infrastructure generation in Brazil and their legal form. Such legal form of these contracts is widely applied to execute projects in different sectors and, therefore, it does not allow to reflect the essence of the economic object for each partnership. At the end, subjects for future researches were suggested, specially, in terms of a deeper discussion about the essence of the PPPs projects, or by applying the methodology used in this research for others economic sectors.

Os critérios atualmente empregados para a definição da configuração do separador central em rodovias levam em consideração principalmente a massa de exposição ao risco. Para isso, analisam a largura do canteiro central e o VDM (volume diário médio). No entanto, para implantação de rodovias em pista dupla ou para a duplicação de rodovias existentes, a definição da largura do canteiro central bem como do possível emprego de dispositivos de contenção central muitas vezes não é uma tarefa simples, pois depende da análise conjunta de alguns fatores como os custos da movimentação de terra, da desapropriação, das soluções possíveis para drenagem, do atendimento à distância de visibilidade de parada, entre outros. Além disso, deve ser avaliado qual o impacto da configuração proposta para a separação central da rodovia na redução do custo social dos acidentes. Essa ultima avaliação é mais delicada e de difícil mensuração. Este texto apresenta a revisão bibliográfica dos principais critérios existentes nacionais e internacionais com relação ao separador físico central e aborda a questão das características dos acidentes que envolvem saída de pista. Através do estudo de caso de uma rodovia hipotética, foram analisados conjuntamente os custos de implantação da rodovia, a distância de visibilidade disponível e os custos dos acidentes para diferentes configurações de canteiro central. Por fim, foi apresentada uma análise benefício / custo incremental que, após avaliação mais precisa dos custos sociais dos acidentes, poderá ser empregada para tomada inicial de decisão quanto ao separador físico central da rodovia a ser empregado. / Criteria currently used to choose median or median barriers configurations on divided highways take into account mainly the risk exposure mass. For this, median width and ADTV (average daily traffic volumes) are analyzed. However, for deployment of divided highways or duplication of existing ones, the definition of median width as well as the potential use of median barrier is not always a simple task, because it depends on the joint analysis of factors such as earthmoving costs, land acquisition costs, drainage possible solutions, stop sight distance, among others. Furthermore, the impact of the proposed median configuration in reducing the social cost of accidents should also be estimated. This thesis presents a literature review of existing national and international median solution criteria and address the characteristics of run off the road accidents. Through a case study of a hypothetical highway, were analyzed jointly highway construction costs, available sight distance and accident costs for different widths of median. Finally, an analyze cost / benefit incremental, that could be used for making the initial decision about the central physical separator highway after proper calibration of social costs of accidents is presented.

The problem of providing adequate wet-road skid resistance on urban roads has received relatively little attention from highway maintenance authorities. This study is an assessment of the potential for reducing accident rates by improving skid resistance levels on such roads. Reasons for the neglect of urban skid resistance are discussed and an assessment made of the scale of the skidding problem in this context. Evidence is presented to demonstrate that the potential for accident reduction is greater than is indicated by the statistics for reported skidding accidents. The pattern of frictional demand and the measurement of skid resistance are discussed, as are the technical difficulties associated with maintaining good skid resistance on heavily-trafficked roads. The performance of conventional surfacing materials is assessed and recently-developed materials are evaluated. It is suggested that the attainment of high skid resistance is inhibited by economic rather than technical factors. Nationally-proposed standards for skid resistance are examined and modifications are suggested for urban use. The problem of defining accident risk at an individual site is examined and the relationship between accident rate and skid resistance investigated using regression techniques with data from the Greater London area. Criteria are developed for identifying sites where an improvement in skid resistance is likely to be effective in reducing accidents and consideration is given to the economic justification for skid resistance improvements. Alternative strategies are considered and a policy is proposed which would be practicable and cost-effective and, it is argued, could lead to a substantial reduction in accident rates.

A critical evaluation of the national profile of energy supply and demand and the associated greenhouse gas (OHO) emissions in China has been conducted. The contribution of the transport sector in China, the road transport sector in particular, to China's overall energy demand and OHO emissions has been assessed and compared with values for other countries. Approaches for reducing energy demand and OHO emissions in the road transport sector worldwide have been reviewed. A detailed bottom-up model has been developed using 'LEAP' software, to estimate future energy demand and OHO emissions in China's road transport sector, incorporating China's recent efforts in alternative fuel promotion. Modelling approach and historical data used have been tested and verified to ensure reliability. Two scenarios have been designed to describe the future strategies relating to the development of China's road transport sector between 2005 and 2030. The 'Business as Usual' scenario is used as a baseline reference scenario, in which the government is assumed to do nothing to influence the long-term trends of road transport energy demand. The 'Best Case' scenario is considered to be the most optimized case where a series of available reduction measures are assumed to be implemented. Energy demand and OHO emissions in China's road transport sector up to 2030 are estimated in these two scenarios. The reduction potential and the relative contribution of each measure have been estimated. A 'life cycle assessment' model for the road transport sector has been developed. The life cycle energy demand and OHO emissions in China's road transport sector are estimated using the model. The reduction potential and the relative contribution of each measure have been re-assessed from a life cycle perspective. Potential impacts on global oil resources, availability and prices are discussed. The importance of life cycle assessment in evaluating the effects of different reduction measures is discussed. Policy implications are presented.

"Abstract. Urbanization has a significant impact on water quality. Urban drainage systems and impervious surfaces accelerate the delivery of pollutants from land areas in watersheds to streams and rivers. The harmful pollutants include sodium and chloride associated with the application of road salts during the winter, metals and oils associated with vehicles and impervious surface. The goal of this project was to access impacts of urbanization on River Meadow Brook and validate a chloride assessment tool. The first phase of this research was a part of a chloride study sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP). The second phase of the projects included flow and water quality monitoring. The first phase of the project involved the development of a linear regression equation to validate a chloride assessment tool that MassDEP had developed and implemented based on historical data. River Meadow Brook, a Massachusetts stream that flows from a non-urban, rural area with relatively low pollutant concentrations to highly urbanized area in Lowell, MA, was chosen for that purpose because of the area’s large concentration of roadways and highways and historically high concentrations of chloride. Water samples and continuous conductivity data were collected for a 7-month period. Using 24 grab samples analyzed at the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) laboratory in Chelmsford, MA, the model was validated with 99.37% confidence using a linear regression equation. Therefore, the relationship between conductivity and chloride was validated. Calculated chloride was used to identify chloride violations of ambient water quality standards in River Meadow Brook. In addition to MassDEP study, the relationship between the percent of imperviousness and various trace metals, anions and total suspended solids was developed to show impacts of urbanization on the stream. The research approach included collection of both water samples and flows to calculate daily pollutant loads. Water monitoring included grab samples and unattended continuous conductivity with a 30-minute recording intervals. Discharge monitoring included collection of flows in River Meadow Brook using a brad- crested dam and the area- velocity technique. A wide variety of cations from a sampling of 5 sites along River Meadow Brook were analyzed using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Cl, sulfate and nitrate were analyzed using the Dionex ICS-2100 Ion Chromatography System. Laboratory results of water quality parameters showed that pollutants associated with impervious surface increase as the stream flows from its headwaters to downstream. The result from the Pearson correlation analysis revealed that sodium, chloride, potassium, vanadium, nickel, copper, arsenic, TSs and pH had a positive relationship with imperviousness while DO and nitrate had negative relationship. The combination of laboratory and field analysis helped to assess the impacts of urbanization and checked against ambient water quality standards. "

Construction progress monitoring allows schedule and/or cost deviations to be identified early enough to effectively implement corrective actions. At least 77% of transportation projects experience cost overruns, and as much as 75% of these overruns have been attributed to “real” construction management factors like progress monitoring. Progress is measured on road construction sites in terms of completion percentages at various activity and work package levels. This percentage is then used to identify schedule deviations and support the earned value analysis often used as the baseline for contractor progress payments. Unfortunately, the current methods for producing these completion percentages are not as correct or time efficient as they should be to enable effective project control. The objective of this research is to develop, test, and validate a novel solution for automatically producing completion percentages and progress status determinations that are more correct and time efficient than those generated in current practice. The proposed solution seeks to automatically detect incremental progress on road design layers in 3D as-built point cloud data generated using unmanned aerial photogrammetry and a novel data simulation approach. A parallel as-planned progress estimate is also automatically prepared using 4D information, and the progress status determinations are made by comparing the two results. This solution was tested on 15 datasets (13 simulated and 2 real-world) representing a variety of road designs and progress conditions. The method achieved an average 95% F1 score in layer detection on the real-world data, and mostly outperformed current practice in correctness. The automated processing of as-built and as-planned data to produce the progress estimate took 12 seconds for the real world data, which was indeed faster than the current practice equivalent. Although the research objectives were met, there remains room for further improvement, particularly in regards to the solution’s robustness to occlusions on the monitored surfaces.

<p>In our daily use of the transportation system, we are faced with several road construction work zones. These construction work zones change how road users interact with the transportation system due to the changes that occur in the system such as increased travel times, increased delay times and vehicle stopped times. A microscopic traffic simulation was developed to depict the changes that occur in the transportation system. The impacts of the changes in the transportation system on the human travel behavior was investigated using ordered probit and logit models using five independent variables; age, gender, driving experience, annual mileage and percentage of non-work trips. Finally, a business impact assessment framework was developed to assess the impact of the road construction work zones on various businesses categories such as grocery stores, pharmacy, liquor stores and fast foods. Traffic simulation results showed that the introduction of work zones in the road network introduces an increase in delay times, vehicle stopped times, and travel times. Also, the change in average travel times, delay times and vehicle stopped times differed from road link to link. The observed average changes saw an increase as high as 318 seconds per vehicle, 237 seconds per vehicle and 242 seconds per vehicle for travel time, delay time and vehicle stopped time, respectively, for the morning peak period. An average increase as high as 1607 seconds per vehicle, 258 seconds per vehicle and 265 seconds per vehicle was observed for travel time, delay time and vehicle stopped time, respectively, for the afternoon peak period. The statistical model results indicated that, on a work trip, a high driving experience, high annual mileage, and high percentage of non-work trips makes an individual more likely to change their route. The results also showed gender difference in route choice behavior. Concerning business impacts, businesses in the work zone were impacted differently with grocery and pharmacy stores having the highest and lowest total loss in revenue, respectively.</p>

Ever growing population and increased energy consumption across all industries has resulted in higher atmospheric concentration of the greenhouse gases (GHG) and therefore an increase in the planet's average temperature, which has led to increasingly demanding and more strict legislations on pollutant sources, and more specifically, the automotive industry. As a consequence of all this, the demand for research into alternative energy sources has greatly increased. In this study combustion characteristics, engine performance, and exhaust emission of diesel-ethanol and diesel-gasoline are investigated in an optical direct injection diesel engine. In particular, effects of different substitution ratios and diesel injection strategies are studied when the total fuel energy is kept constant. The three main substitution ratios used in this study include 45% (45% of fuel energy from port-injected ethanol/gasoline and 55% from direct injection diesel), 60%, and 75%. The engine used for this investigation is a Ricardo Hydra single cylinder optical engine running at 1200 rpm. In-cylinder pressure measurement is used for calculating all engine parameters, heat release rate, and efficiency. In addition to the thermodynamic analysis of the combustion parameters, high speed camera was used alongside with a copper vapor laser or the high speed image intensifier in the high speed video imaging for the optical analysis of the effect of the above-mentioned parameters on autoignition and combustion processes, while Horiba particulate analyser and AVL smoke meter were utilized in monitoring and recording emissions for every tested condition. Depending on the testing conditions, such as injection strategy and intake conditions, both dual-fuel operations were able to deliver high efficiency and improved emissions compared to that of a pure diesel engine operation, with the diesel-gasoline operation offering more consistency in improved thermal efficiency, and the diesel-ethanol operation delivering lower emission output. The optical analysis of the combustion represents the main difference in the flame propagation, distribution and quality for each substitute fuel and its substitution percentage, as well as the condition under examination.