Road Safety

Pasquale Colonna, Nicola Berloco, Paolo Intini, Vittorio Ranieri

Road Safety

Technical solutions to a behavioural and technological problem with a scientific approach

All governments of countries provided with a significant road network are orienting their investments towards the enhancement of existing infrastructures, particularly considering road safety. This book is aimed to provide both the scientific background and an operational framework for safety enhancement of existing roads, applicable regardless of the specific country. This book was strongly aimed to be an open access edition, in order to disseminate as much as possible the cutting-edge methods in road safety engineering.

Pages: 150

ISBN: 9788835111863

Edizione:1a edizione 2020

Publisher code: 12000.12

Info about Open Access books

All governments of countries provided with a significant road network are orienting their investments towards the enhancement of existing infrastructures, particularly considering road safety.
This book is aimed to provide both the scientific background and an operational framework for safety enhancement of existing roads, applicable regardless of the specific country.
The scientific background presented includes the main theories about the crash phenomena and driver behavioural models; the basic concepts related to crashes and risk, the road safety management process and how to measure road safety performances and to identify high-risk sites, especially considering the Highway Safety Manual and the European Guidelines. A research focus on the crucial topic of tire-pavement road friction is provided. This book was strongly aimed to be an open access edition, in order to disseminate as much as possible the cutting-edge methods in road safety engineering. In fact, it is aimed at prioritising the human value thanks to the benefits from reduced severe crashes, possibly provided by the guidance of this book. Hence, it has a clear academic and educational purpose, being not intended for commercial purposes.
Based on the presented background, a new design protocol for safety interventions on existing roads is proposed. Moreover, two complete examples of design applications, both in the rural case (two-way two-lane rural road) and in the urban case (a small road network composed of segments and intersections) are provided. The main problems and possible solutions are addressed, considering also the issue of transferability of the methods to different contexts.

Why, as researchers and practitioners, do we work on road safety?
I would like to dedicate this work to all the "YOU" who were known by each of us and who lost their lives in a traffic crash, each of us could dedicate this book to a known person.
Each of us should undertake the task, through our apparently not important job, of giving back the opportunity of the gift of life to people, of being themselves and of being happy, to all the "YOU" that, even unconsciously, will avoid a traffic crash thanks to the methods that this book illustrates.
Someone will thank us. Pasquale Colonna
Pasquale Colonna, Preface
Introduction
The measure of safety
(Criteria for measuring road crashes; References)
The state of knowledge on road safety
(Theories about accidents and behavioural models; Factors influencing crashes; References)
Road safety and risk
(Driving and attention; Risk and safety cost; Safety budget and perceived risk; External risk and internal risk; Road safety, railway safety, air safety; Drivers' familiarity; References)
The regulatory framework
(Italian standards for the safety management of the road network; Guidelines criteria and modalities of road safety checks on designs, of safety inspections on existing infrastructures and of the implementation of the road network safety classification process; Realistic prediction of application times; European standards and strategies for the safety management of the road network; References)
Local project protocol and related issues
(References)
The HSM method
(Road infrastructure safety management and the crash phenomenon; The predictive method; Steps of the HSM method; Advantages of the HSM method; References)
Comparison between Guidelines and HSM
(The crash prediction problem; Crash metrics problems; How to prioritise projects and interventions across the analysed segments and intersections; The concern of identifying alternatives among the countermeasures and how prioritising them; Final project design problem; Data availability problem; References)
The friction diagram method
Road friction, friction capital and friction diagram; Critical analysis of a well-established approach for the friction problem: the III Safety Criterion of Lamm; Rolling motion physics of the tyres; The Friction Diagram Method (FDM); An elementary example of the FDM application; The design critical vehicle and the complete application of the design procedure; How could the friction be linked to future scenarios with autonomous vehicles; References)
Level of Service of Safety (LOSS)
(Definition of LOSS starting from the SPFs; Focus on the relationship between crash rates, traffic density and the number of lanes; LOSS and crash diagnosis; References)
Proposal of the new design protocol
(References)
Application of the HSM method in Europe
(Calibration of existing SPFs (transferred functions) or development of local SPFs; General remarks about the calibration of SPFs; General remarks about the estimation of a local SPF; Example of application of the HSM method in Scotland; References)
Example of design application: rural roads
(Introduction; Reference legislation; General background for the application; Analysis of geometric and functional characteristics; Diagnosis; Selection of countermeasures; Benefit-cost analysis; Focus on countermeasures for accesses and intersections; References)
Example of design application: urban roads
(Introduction; General background for the urban case study; Category and function of the road segments; Geometric reconstruction;
Diagnosis; Modeling and application of the EB predictive method; Selection of countermeasures; Benefit-cost analysis; References)
Future outlook and applications.

Serie: Varie - Open Access

Subjects: Architecture, Design, Art, Urban and Regional Studies

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