RESUMEN
Over the past few decades, a growing attention has been directed toward cycling due to its positive impacts on social, economic, and health aspects. Various countries are adopting and implementing strategies to promote cycling as a daily mode of transport. The main objective of this study is to improve cyclists' safety by investigating the impact of different layouts of on-road cycle lanes at two-lane two-way roads on drivers' interactions with cyclists using driving simulator. Three layouts of on-road cycle lanes were tested and compared, namely, uncolored, colored, and island separation, along with a control case where no cycle lane was provided. In addition, the impact of road alignments (straight sections, left and right curves) and the presence of an opposing vehicle were investigated. The driving simulator at Qatar University was used to conduct this study. A total of 92 subjects participated in this study. According to the results, on-road cycle lanes can significantly increase the safety of cyclists compared to shared lanes with motorized traffic. Moreover, the results showed that the drivers' intrusion to the opposite lane in the presence of opposing vehicles can be eliminated by providing on-road cycle lanes. That is, drivers' crash risk can also be reduced through the provision of on-road cycle lanes. Comparison of different on-road cycle lane treatments showed that uncolored cycle lanes outperformed the other layouts in terms of lateral clearance between the driver and the cyclist for right and straight alignments. On the other hand, the colored cycle lane showed better results for the left alignment. The findings of this study could be useful for designing on-road bicycle infrastructure to eliminate possible vehicle-cyclist and vehicle-vehicle conflicts and minimize crash risk.
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Accidentes de Tránsito , Conducción de Automóvil , Humanos , Accidentes de Tránsito/prevención & control , Ciclismo , Qatar , Planificación Ambiental , SeguridadRESUMEN
Road safety audit (RSA) is a method used to proactively identify safety risks in road projects from planning, design, and construction stages. The effectiveness of the implementation of RSAs varies across the globe. This paper provides an understanding of road safety auditor's opinions and attitudes by using data collected from an online questionnaire filled by 408 road safety experts with varying demographic and technical backgrounds. Results demonstrated that majority of respondents agreed that RSA is an effective tool to improve road safety. Compared to high-income countries, respondents from low- and middle-income countries had less knowledge about RSA and less access to RSA guidelines. The results also indicate that many road safety auditors have a misunderstanding of the independence requirement for conducting RSA. The results of this paper can be used to inform and develop improved guidance to improve RSA generally and promote RSA as an effective road safety engineering tool.
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Accidentes de Tránsito , Actitud , Humanos , Encuestas y Cuestionarios , SeguridadRESUMEN
Despite the international efforts to improve pedestrian safety in different regions of the world, pedestrian fatalities still account for around one-third of annual road traffic deaths. Residential areas are commonly characterized by high pedestrian flows, making pedestrian safety a highpriority public health issue. Different types of treatments such as ITS-based, road markings, and physical treatments have been implemented to improve pedestrian safety, however, their efficiency varies between different locations worldwide. Therefore, this study aims to compare different innovative crosswalk treatments and to investigate their impacts on driving behavior in residential areas using a driving simulator. In our study, we juxtapose five different types of treatments with the untreated control condition. The treatments included two ITS-based solutions [LED pavement lights (ITS_LED) and Variable Message Sign (ITS_VMS)]; two different road markings [yellow zigzag marking (Marking_zigzag) and white road narrowing marking with the word SLOW written in the middle (Marking_narrowing)] and a physical road narrowing treatment (Physical_narrowing). Each of the tested conditions (control condition and treatment conditions) was tested with a Yield/Stop-controlled marked crosswalk located in a residential area with a posted speed limit of 50 km/h for two different situations. In the first situation, there was no pedestrian at the crosswalk (Situation PA), while in the second situation, a pedestrian was present at the crosswalk (Situation PP). Sixty-one volunteers possessing a valid Qatari driving license participated in the experiment. The study results showed that compared to the control condition, Physical_narrowing, ITS_VMS, and Marking_narrowing conditions helped to improve the yielding rates by 12.7 %. In terms of drivers' speed behavior, even though a pedestrian was not present at the crosswalk in Situation PA, physical_narrowing performed best by lowering the mean travel speed by around 10.1 km/h at the conflict location compared to the control location. Finally, the participants rated the physical_narrowing condition highest among the tested conditions. Based on the findings of the study, we conclude that the physical_narrowing treatment outperform other studied treatments since it significantly limits the freedom of drivers to maneuver, forcing them to slow down and give priority to crossing pedestrians.
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Conducción de Automóvil , Peatones , Humanos , Accidentes de Tránsito/prevención & control , Planificación Ambiental , Seguridad , CaminataRESUMEN
The main objective of this study is to investigate the status of traffic safety and the public perception of traffic safety during the during COVID-19 pandemic. Three different data sets are used in this study: road crash and traffic violation data from Qatar, and two separate questionnaire surveys (from general public and road safety experts). Results showed that during COVID-19 period, the total number of crashes in Qatar significantly reduced during the pandemic compared with the previous 5 years. However, the rates of serious and fatal injuries significantly increased. Regarding the general public perceptions, more than 80% reported that roads became safer while driving behaviours improved during the pandemic. On the other hand, more than 50% of the experts disagreed that roads became safer, 55% disagreed that driving behaviours improved and 70% agreed that less attention from governments was directed toward road safety during the pandemic. The findings from this study could help policy makers to understand the road safety status during the pandemic to make appropriate adjustments in the traffic laws and regulations on a temporary basis. This could help in reducing crash-related injuries and as a result reduce pressure on health and other emergency services.
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Conducción de Automóvil , COVID-19 , Accidentes de Tránsito , COVID-19/epidemiología , Humanos , Pandemias/prevención & control , Qatar , SeguridadRESUMEN
Work zones are established to provide a safe environment for all road users and road workers. However, based on the statistics, they can be considered as crash prone zones due to changes in the road alignments and the posted speed limits. In this driving simulator study, we aimed at investigating the safety impacts of a newly proposed system composed of graphical and animation-based variable message signs (VMSs) in the state of Qatar. The proposed VMS condition was compared with a control condition that was designed following the Qatar Work Zone Traffic Management Guide. A total of seventy subjects were invited to participate in the experiment voluntarily. Study results showed that in the VMS condition, drivers reduced their traveling speeds in advanced compared to the control condition. Drivers' traveling speed in the VMS condition was significantly reduced by 6.3 and 11.1 km/h on the leftmost and the second leftmost lanes, respectively. Next, the results uncovered that the proposed system motivated drivers to initiate early lane changing maneuvers, i.e., 150 m earlier than the control condition. Finally, the VMS condition was effective in stimulating drivers to keep larger headways with a merging vehicle. In sum, the proposed VMS system outperformed the control condition in terms of speed reduction, early merging, and higher headways between the through and the merging vehicle.
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Accidentes de Tránsito , Conducción de Automóvil , Accidentes de Tránsito/prevención & control , Humanos , Qatar , SeguridadRESUMEN
Road traffic crashes (RTCs) are globally acknowledged as increasing threat to society, because they can affect many lives when they result in severe injury or fatality. In the State of Qatar RTCs are getting more awareness and attention, aiming to improve the traffic safety in the country. This study is an exploratory research providing different analyses of the crash data for seven consecutive years, ranging from 2010 to 2016, which is obtained from the Traffic Department in the Ministry of Interior for the State of Qatar. The objectives aim to evaluate the trend of RTC rate over time and create understanding of the influencing factors related to RTC frequency. Time series analyses show an increasing trend of RTCs leading to severe injury and a slight decreasing trend for fatal RTCs. Secondly, different RTC severity levels are related to diverse RTC causes. Furthermore, the results revealed that crashes with severe injuries or fatality for drivers as well as pedestrians are found to be significantly affected by seasonal weather variations, with the highest vulnerability in winter and autumn season. This study therefore suggests the implementation of strategies to prioritize the traffic safety of road users during the crash-prone winter and autumn seasons.