Road Safety

Seminar: Road Safety

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Session RS 04i

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The speed camera hypothecation pilot - the South Wales experience EVANS, G, City and County of Swansea, UK HUNT, J, Cardiff University, UK ROWLING, J, South Wales Police, UK

In 1998 the United Kingdom Government determined that fine income from speed and red light cameras should be used to fund additional cameras and the associated enforcement costs. This process became known as 'hypothecation' with eight areas chosen to pilot the hypothecation project which had the main objective of improving road safety. South Wales, which had used speed and red light cameras since the early 1990's, was selected as one of the pilot areas. Each of the pilot areas has to satisfy business and safety effectiveness criteria. Expenditure has to be contained within projected revenue and the area is expected to show a reduction in both speed and casualties. Effective organisation and operation of a Partnership are essential if these criteria are to be met. Management of the South Wales Partnership is particularly challenging as it involves seven Local Highway Authorities, South Wales Police, the Welsh Assembly and other interested parties. The paper describes experiences, during the first year of operation, from the viewpoint of the South Wales Partnership. The selection of appropriate locations for Static and Mobile cameras are discussed in relation to the need to meet both business and safety evaluation requirements while also retaining the co- operation and good will of the local population. Management issues are considered, particularly the need for efficiency in the flow of information between partners. Requirements for, and methods of providing, robust data for safety evaluation are described. This information will be of particular value to those Local Authorities who will be included as part of the national rollout of the scheme which is scheduled to start this year. Data describing offences recorded during the pilot, casualties and personal injury accidents, and measures of speed are presented and evaluated to demonstrate the effectiveness of the camera hypothecation project in South Wales. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Session RS 04iii

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Automatic traffic enforcement systems: international approaches WINDER, A, ISIS, France

There has been a worldwide increase in recent decades of the use of automatic measures to enforce traffic regulations. In particular, red light cameras at signalised junctions and speed cameras are widespread in many countries, with fines being posted directly to the vehicle owner. Other applications include camera enforcement for bus lane and HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lane violations, passing railway level crossing when the warning lights are flashing (or weaving through the crossing barriers), evading toll payment and driving dangerously close to the vehicle in front.

Such automatic enforcement systems have resulted in a significant drop in violation rates where they have been deployed, and a fall in the numbers of accidents and casualties. They have also raised significant additional fine revenue for the public authorities. However, there are a number of issues related to technical, operational, financial, legal and public acceptability aspects. These include: • the performance of various types of camera and optical character recognition (for registration plates), particularly at night and in poor weather conditions; • the acceptability of automatic photograph evidence in courts; • the resources required to operate the systems - in some cases, far from reducing police workload, they have imposed a further burden on police resources due to manual checking and processing of citations, and the large increases of fines and appeals to be handled; • the issue of whether the vehicle owner is responsible for the violation in the case of someone else driving the vehicle at the time, and whether the owner has a duty to identify the driver; • privacy issues, such as the right to take a front-view photograph (in order to identify) the driver, and whether photographs should be mailed directly to the owner's address or whether they should be invited to a police station to view it; • the need to demonstrate to the public, politicians and interest groups (e.g. motoring organisations) that automatic systems have an important safety role and are not just a tool for raise additional revenue from the motorist; • the financing of such systems, which can often be a problem in cases where the police or local authority are responsible for the implementation and maintenance but all fine revenue goes to central government coffers. This paper examines different approaches to these issues in Europe, North America and Australia, including examples of pioneering systems and novel approaches, together with examples of successful efforts to make automated enforcement financially viable and to win public support. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Session RS 05i

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Monitoring of the A259 speed management strategy EKINSMYTH, A, West Sussex County Council, UK PEDLER, A, TRL, UK

Following extensive consultation West Sussex County Council formally adopted a new speed management strategy during June 2000. An important aspect of the strategy is revised criteria for speed limit setting, which was developed following local trials. As part of the development of this strategy, West Sussex County Council and TRL undertook a speed management study of the A259 near Worthing, between Wick and Goring. The Wick to Goring section of the A259 comprises 8.2 km of a combination of single carriageway and dual carriageway, all purpose ‘A’ Class road. The speed limits on this section ranged from 30mph to 70mph derestricted. Some sections pass through built-up urban areas, whilst other sections are semi-rural in nature. New development along the route is possible, therefore, the speed management scheme needed to

accommodate increases in vehicle flow. In January 2000 a phased speed management approach was adopted. Phase 1 began with changes to speed limits on identified sections. In March 2000, Phase 2 was initiated which involved reducing a section of dual carriageway to a single lane and utilising this space for the provision of improved cycle facilities. A Pegasus Crossing, as part of a signal controlled junction was also introduced. This work was completed in June 2000. West Sussex County Council has undertaken an extensive monitoring programme. Speed reductions were achieved after Phase 1 and further speed reductions have occurred since Phase 2 was implemented. Despite concerns, results are showing that reductions in road capacity have not led to increased congestion. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Session RS 05ii

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A model for local effects on daily traffic and road risk data BERGEL, R, INRETS, France

A model for correcting road traffic and road risk data for local effects has been developped within a working group of the French Ministry of Transportation, including ONISR (the National Observatory for Road Safety), SETRA (the Technical Service for Roads Studies) and INRETS. Among all determinants, the climatic conditions and the calendar configuration have the major effect on daily data, and a method for monitoring the risk indicators by taking account of these local effects has been implemented on French data. The calendar effects appear around bank holidays on one hand, and at periods of major traffic movements related to the vacation periods on the other hand. About fourty different type of days are concerned, which can be classified in three major classes of days. as for the climate effects, they are measured by the means of three variables (temperature, rain and frost), as a difference to an average daily effect, so that they can be neglected for prediction purposes. We present some results obtained for the 1985-1999 period, for each different indicator (the traffic volume - the number of vehicle-kms-, the number of accidents and the number of victims, on main roads and on motorways), and analyse these indicators' evolution over the period. We show how this method can be transferable to other fields, which are influenced by such local effects and in which daily data are obtainable. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Session RS 06i

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Using GIS to analyze statewide traffic crash data in Michigan DATTA, T K, Wayne State University, USA KAR, K, Wayne State University, USA SCHATTLER, K L, Wayne State University, USA

Geographic Information System (GIS) is a powerful tool often used to enhance data analysis for a wide variety of applications by transportation professionals. It provides a means for manipulating vast amounts of data quickly and efficiently. In addition, GIS has the capability of attaching data to maps in order to provide a visual representation to its

users. This paper will describe how GIS was used to analyze traffic crash data at a statewide level in Michigan. Michigan experiences approximately 400,000 total crashes, 1,300 fatalities and 120,000 injuries each year. Such crash losses amount to approximately 9.6 billion dollars worth of societal costs annually. The Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning (OHSP) provides funding to local governmental agencies for variety of safety projects pertaining to alcohol and other drugs, safety belts, aggressive drivers, pedestrian safety, safe communities and traffic engineering. Local agencies will prepare proposals for such projects and based on the merit of their proposal, the OHSP provides the necessary grants. One application of the statewide crash analysis will be to evaluate and prioritize the safety funding proposals submitted by the local government agencies. The authors of this paper have conducted a statewide traffic crash analysis in Michigan using two years of past traffic crash data and various exposure factors including vehicle miles of travel (VMT), population and registered vehicles by each county and city/township. The GIS-based traffic crash data was developed using a commercially available GIS software, TransCAD, often used in transportation system applications. Using the GIS interface, the calculated crash rates were incorporated onto color-coded maps containing the entire roadway network for each county. Queries were performed and pattern analyses were conducted in order to identify the high crash locations for the following crash categories: total, injury, fatality, alcohol-related, deer-related, older-driver related, angle, left-turn head-on, head-on, single vehicle, rear end and pedestrian/bicycle. These analyses were performed for the state as a whole, as well as for each local government jurisdiction. The results were displayed on color maps in order to easily identify which areas in the state and within each county were experiencing high crashes for each of the above mentioned crash categories. The results of this statewide analysis are critical in identifying the problem areas in the state of Michigan and for specific local government jurisdictions. The results will allow the respective governmental agencies to allocate funding to mitigate the traffic crash problems in their high crash areas within their respective communities. By identifying and targeting the high crash areas on the basis of the statewide traffic crash analysis, it will be possible to achieve the overall effect of reducing traffic crashes and injuries in Michigan. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Session RS 06ii

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Evaluation of the effects of large scale use of intelligent speed adaptation in urban areas ALMQVIST, S, Lund University, Sweden HJALMDAHL, M, Lund University, Sweden HYDEN, C, Lund University, Sweden VARHELYI, A, Lund University, Sweden A large-scale trial with Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) in urban area is going on in the Swedish city of Lund, where 300 vehicles are being equipped with ISA. The test area includes the entire city of Lund. However, the ISA system is only active within the 30, 50 and 70 speed limit zones. The system tested is the so called ”active throttle, or

accelerator”. When the driver attempts to exceed the speed limit, the accelerator pedal exerts a counter-force. The performance of the vehicle is not affected at speed levels below the pre-set maximal speed. If necessary, the driver can override the system by pressing the accelerator pedal harder (kick-down function). Each vehicle is also equipped with a display indicating the actual speed limit, a digital map containing all the current speed limits within the test area and a GPS receiver which identifies the position of the vehicle. The test drivers are divided into groups due to gender, age and initial attitude towards the ISA (positive/negative). All 300 vehicles are equipped with data-logging facilities and a flash-memory. This makes it possible to register and save data, among others, on speed, actual speed-limit and position. Data from the data-logging is also used to calculate if travel times change when using ISA and to calculate how the ISA cars’ emissions differ from ordinary cars (ISA cars in the before studies). A selection of 80 drivers are observed using the “Wiener Fahrprobe” method twice, once before the installation and once one year after the installation. A selection of 20-25 drivers are studied to see whether there are differences in workload when driving with and without ISA. All test-drivers are interviewed four times; before their vehicle is equipped with the ISA, after driving with the ISA for one month, at half time and finally at the end of the project. Field studies are carried out in Lund as well as in the control city of Helsingborg. Speeds are measured on links, at junctions and pedestrian crossings, before and after the introduction of the ISA system. The ISA-equipped cars are marked in order to be able to compare them with non-equipped cars. The percentage of cars passing at amber or red at signalised intersections are observed. Interactions between car-pedestrian, car-bicycle and car-car are analysed at sites where the amount of ISA-equipped cars is expected to be high. Preliminary results from the investigations will be presented at the conference. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Session RS 06iii

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The use of GPS-based automatic vehicle location technologies for bus transit: state of practice in the USA and lessons from elsewhere BAIN, R, ITS, University of Leeds, UK This paper reports the results from a recent survey of bus transit operations in North America – specifically looking at their experience with GPS-based Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) technologies and related systems. Additionally, the paper brings forward the results from a similar survey conducted in 1995 and explores the lessons that have been learned over the past six years. AVL technologies nest within the broader field of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Although mature in some areas, a number of these initiatives could be classified as ‘emerging technologies’. As such, the experience of early adopters is likely to shape the way in which these technologies are embraced by a broader market. However, as the author notes, many of the problems that were being encountered in 1995 still challenge the bus transit industry today.