China's Rural Roads in the New Era(Ⅰ)The State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China

Preface China's non-profit making rural roads constitute the most extensive component of transport infrastructure and serve a significant majority of the population.They are the primary,if not the sole transport channel in rural areas,and play a critical role in assisting the rural population in their travels,improving their wellbeing and living environment,and advancing the modernization of agriculture and rural areas.

The Value of Rural Access Roads: The Case Study of Chepyuk and Mitira Wards in Bungoma and Kirinyaga Counties

In this paper we assess the impact of road network on rural regions development using a case study of Chepyuk and Mitira wards. The two case study areas were selected owing to their comparable agro ecological conditions but different political orientation. The wards have identical agro economic activities due to their similarity in climatic and ecological conditions. Household incomes earned from agricultural enterprises and bid rent per unit area of land are used as indicators of development. The condition of road network is used as an indicator of accessing the rural regions in various seasons of the year. The study provides evidence of the economic advantages associated with better market access, primarily due to the good road infrastructure in Mitira compared to Chepyuk. The good road condition is advantageous to Mitira ward residents allowing them to access other markets hence improving the farm gate value of their products. On the other hand, the prices for Chepyuk products are cheap due to constrained market access necessitated by the poor road condition. For instance, the average price of a liter of milk in Chepyuk ward is Kshs.36.65 compared to Mitira where it goes at Kh.55.08. It therefore implies in Chepyuk milk has to be sold at lower price since access to alternative markets is constrained by poor road condition. The disparity in the road network quality has been occasioned by investment policy by both colonial and consecutive post-independence governments which have given preference to the region where Mitira region is located. This is against the constitutional requirement which proposes an equalization fund for infrastructure development to regions lagging behind in terms of development.

Innovation Analysis of Rural Agricultural Economic Management Model in the Context of the Belt and Road Initiative

[Objectives]To explore innovative strategies for rural agricultural economic development in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative.[Methods]This research adopts the method of literature review and field research,systematically combs the research results related to the Belt and Road Initiative and rural agricultural economic management,and deeply understands the actual situation of rural agricultural economic management.[Results]The research shows that in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative,the rural agricultural economy is facing new development opportunities and challenges,but there are also some problems.In the new period,we should accelerate the innovative development of rural agricultural economy by promoting market-oriented reform,strengthening scientific and technological innovation,optimizing the industrial structure,deepening international cooperation and other measures.The Belt and Road Initiative provides an important opportunity for the innovation of rural agricultural economic management.Rural agricultural economic management should be actively integrated into the Belt and Road construction to improve the level of rural agricultural economic management.[Conclusions]This study provides useful exploration and reference for the innovation of rural agricultural economic management models,which helps to promote the healthy development of rural agricultural economy and achieve the goal of rural revitalization.

Structural Design of Asphalt Pavement for Low Cost Rural Roads

On the basis of the equivalent axle load action frequency, the traffic classifications of rural roads as well as their corresponding types are classified. The asphalt pavement structure, road surface types and thickness of the rural roads are suggested for the various action frequency of the equivalent axle load. Furthermore, the roadbase thickness graphs are provided according to different equivalent axle load action frequency with different roadbed modulus and road surface modulus taken into account.

A Novel Network Screening Methodology for Rural Low-Volume Roads

Low-volume roads (LVRs) are an integral part of the rural transportation network providing access to remote rural areas and facilitating the movement of goods from farms to markets. These roads pose unique challenges for highway agencies including those related to safety management on the highway network. Specifically, traditional network screening methods using crash history can be effective in screening rural highways with higher traffic volumes and more frequent crashes. However, these traditional methods are often ineffective in screening LVR networks due to low traffic volumes and the sporadic nature of crash occurrence. Further, many of the LVRs are owned and operated by local agencies that may lack access to detailed crash, traffic and roadway data and the technical expertise within their staff. Therefore, there is a need for more efficient and practical network screening approaches to facilitate safety management programs on these roads. This study proposes one such approach which utilizes a heuristic scoring scheme in assessing the level of risk/safety for the purpose of network screening. The proposed scheme is developed based on the principles of US Highway Safety Manual (HSM) analysis procedures for rural highways and the fundamentals in safety science. The primary application of the proposed scheme is for ranking sites in network screening applications or for comparing multiple improvement alternatives at a specific site. The proposed approach does not require access to detailed databases, technical expertise, or exact information, making it an invaluable tool for small agencies and local governments (e.g. counties, townships, tribal governments, etc.).

Sustainable Maintenance of Rural Roads in Slovakia

Systematic approach to the maintenance of rural road network is a very important issue from the viewpoint of public costs. Most countries developed custom PMS （pavement management systems） based on deterministic or probabilistic approach. The main goal is to ensure safety and continuity of road traffic on road network with low intensity and lower technical requirements. Article presents PMS used for Slovakia rural road network based on road construction diagnostics, traffic volume, climate factors and evaluation of maintenance works economics effectives by using of software tools like HDM-4 developed by World Bank. Local road administrators of rural road networks often lack the software equipment, most PMS, however effective, are often cumbersome, demanding in regard to energy, know-how and software equipment. The majority of local road administrators of rural road networks thus resort to non-effective reactive maintenance strategies. This article describes an easy to use method, based on predetermined maintenance repair and rehabilitation standards. A simple method, based on road user cost, is introduced that administrator can use to prepare a list of road section eligible for repair according to their repair priority.

Contribution of Rural Roads to Access to-and Participation in Markets:Theory and Results from Northern Ethiopia

Road accessibility is considered to be one of the major factors influencing (or correlated to) rural households’ access to- and participation in markets. However, there are few studies that investigate this important topic. This paper, therefore, explores the issue from both theoretical and practical perspectives with household and village level data from Northern Ethiopia. It is generally assumed that road accessibility significantly contributes to both access to- and participation in markets by rural households. The results in this study, however, suggest that neither participation in major markets nor the amount of purchased agricultural inputs use are significantly different for households with respect to the degree of road accessibility in the study area. Nevertheless, the situation seems somewhat better in locations with good access to roads. On the other hand, the results in this study confirm that road accessibility significantly contributes to reducing farm gate prices of manufactured goods and increasing farm gate prices of agricultural goods.

High-Risk Rural Road Safety Study and Determining the Crash-Reduction Factors for High-Risk Rural-Road Usage

More than 32,000 motorists are killed on U.S. roads and streets annually, and approximately 54% of the accidents occur on rural roads. In an attempt to address and reduce these fatalities, the current transportation act, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equality Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETY-LU), elevated the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) to a core program and included a $90,000,000 High-Risk Rural Road Program (HRRRP) to address and significantly reduce traffic fatalities and incapacitating injuries on rural major or minor collectors, and/or rural local roads. While there were many challenges to properly implement the HRRRP in counties, this study provided important information that was needed to identify the predominant crash types on HRRRP-eligible roads and compiled a list of countermeasures for the predominant crash types that were identified on Kansas’ high-risk rural roads. For the gathered countermeasures, crash reduction factors (CRFs) were also provided from the literature review, and their values were validated by conducting interviews with Kansas county engineers/officials. This study provided valuable information for the county engineers and local government officials while they worked on improving the safety of high-risk rural roads using HRRRP funds.

Rural Road Investment and Economic Growth

The relationship between rural road①systems and economic systems is interconnectedness.The stimulating effects of investments in rural road infrastructure can be divided into three stages:investment,use,and upgrading.This paper presents this three-stage model of rural road construction to explain the process of stimulating economic growth by investing in rural roads.The investment stage produces a multiplier effect as the investment stimulates the economy.The use stage promotes the development of industries,which determines the stimulation effects of the investment.The upgrading stage produces economic growth leading to the upgrading of additional infrastructure,which generates more investments and also has a multiplier effect.Finally,the total revenue from the three stages,minus their total costs,allows for the calculation of Net Present Value(NPV).The investments can be deemed effective if the NPV is greater than zero.

A New Road to Rural Prosperity

AT peak tourist season, 32-year-old Li Lianfen sees her husband and son just once a week. She has converted her home in Shicheng (Stone City) Village in Beijing’s Miyun County into an inn. City people come here to stay and enjoy the beauty and tran-quility of the mountains around her village. As she has no time to look after her son, he attends a primary school in the county seat 20 kilometers away. His father is a teacher at the middle school nearby. They both stay there in the accommodation provided.

GIS-Based Methodology for Crash Prediction on Single-Lane Rural Highways

Due to the need to update the current guidelines for highway design to focus on safety, this study sought to build an accident prediction model using a Geographic Information System (GIS) for single-lane rural highways, with a minimum of statistically significant variables, adequate to the Brazilian reality, and improve accident prediction for places with similar characteristics. A database was created to associate the accident records with the geometric parameters of the highway and to fill in the gaps left by the absence of geometric highway plans through geometric reconstitution or semi-automatic extraction of highways using satellite images. The Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) method was applied to estimate the coefficients of the model, assuming negative distribution of the binomial error for the count of observed accidents. The accident frequency and annual average daily traffic (AADT) were analyzed, along with the spatial and geometric characteristics of 215 km of federal single-lane rural highways between 2007 and 2016. The GEE procedure was applied to two models having three variations of distinct homogeneous segmentation, two based on segments and one based on the kernel density estimator. To assess the effect of constant traffic, two more variations of the models using AADT as an offset variable were considered. The predominant correlation structure in the models was the exchangeable. The principal contributing factors for the occurrence of collisions were the radius of the horizontal curve, the grade, segment length, and the AADT. The study produced clear indicators for the design parameters of roadways that influence the safety performance of rural highways.

Epidemiological Pattern of Road Traffic Injuries among Occupants’ Vehicles in 2012

There has been no precise information regarding occupants’ status and their portion in traffic accident. By using traffic police information, epidemiological pattern of road traffic injuries among occupants’ vehicles was analyzed in 2012. It was a cross sectional study. In this study, traffic police registered data in 2012 were used. Subjects were all occupants who had accident record in 2012 (81585: 77841 injured and 3744 death). Before analyzing, various preparatory steps including data control and merging were done after which data were processed. Findings showed that the mean age of the studied population was 28.7 ± 15.11 years. The highest percentage of accident occurred among car and motorcycle occupants respectively. The risk of death among the injured aged 30 - 59 years and 60+ were 1.20 and 2.23 times more than 30 years (as reference) respectively (p < 0.001). Risk of death among the injured in high ways, main roads and rural roads was 2.84 times more than in urban roads (p < 0.001). The risk of death among the injured was 2 times higher in high ways, main roads and rural secondary roads than streets (p < 0.001). Hence car and motorcycle occupants need urgent attention especially in motorways and high ways, main roads and rural secondary.

“一带一路”沿线规划教育及对华合作初探

城乡规划高等教育合作对推动“一带一路”民心相通具有重要意义,但国内目前对“一带一路”沿线国家城乡规划高等教育的发展及对华合作情况的研究较少。本文收集并梳理了“一带一路”沿线65个国家260所高校所开设的城乡规划及相关专业在师资队伍、课程设置、国际合作等方面的信息,初步总结出“一带一路”沿线国家城乡规划高等教育具有整体水平不高、发展差异显著、产学研用分离、西方色彩浓重四大特征。随后,重点介绍了非洲、东南亚和南亚、中东西亚和中亚等地区代表性高校的城乡规划专业及对华合作情况。最后,从夯实研究基础、平衡区域合作、丰富合作类型、建立合作机制、突出合作重点五个方面提出加强与“一带一路”沿线国家城乡规划高等教育合作的建议。

基于路网提取的公路规模估算方法研究

为了对所辖农村地区耕地区域公路需求规模进行估算,研究了一种基于高分遥感影像道路提取矢量路网的农村耕地区域公路网规模估算方法。综合考虑公路网密度及自然村分布情况,设计了路网估算密度系数、自然村密度系数,以所在地形环境作为分类,充分考虑了农村耕地区域公路建设的实际需求并量化计算。实验表明,与交通运输主管部门实际需求相比,该方法的估算准确率可达到实际需求的92.61%。该方法能够在国土系数法、连通度法等传统方法之外提供一种以遥感影像为基础数据的农村耕地区域公路规模测算方法,弥补了传统方法无法充分利用新一代信息技术数据的不足,是传统方法的有效补充。该方法的设计在适用性的角度上合理。

道路网对美丽乡村建设成效的影响

为使道路网建设有效促进美丽乡村建设水平的提高,对道路网影响美丽乡村建设成效的内在规律进行了系统研究。首先,从人居环境、基础设施、经济条件三个维度解析了道路网对美丽乡村建设的影响作用理论机制;接着,在该机制框架下构建了影响因子体系,并通过集成道路网及其关联的多种地理数据设计了各影响因子的测算方法;最后,应用地理加权回归模型进行了实证研究,分析了各影响因子对西安市美丽乡村建设成效考评结果的实际贡献,并通过诊断贡献强度的空间分异提出了相应的对策建议。研究表明:乡村社会经济系统的复杂性决定了道路网影响美丽乡村建设必然是一个多因素作用的复杂过程,具体来说:与美丽乡村建设成效呈负相关关系的影响因子有水电布设难易度、生态环境扰动度及公共服务稀缺度;与美丽乡村建设成效呈正相关关系的影响因子有生产生活可达度、特色经营适宜度及产业振兴发展度;因乡镇街道级小尺度地方性特征差异,以上6个影响因子各自的局域作用强度会有所不同;借助地理信息系统技术挖掘、整合与道路网相关的各类信息数据,是填补乡村交通研究中常见数据缺口的创新方向。

人工智能赋能低空经济:应用场景与未来方向

低空经济是指以各种有人驾驶和无人驾驶航空器在海拔3000米以下的各类飞行活动作为牵引,辐射带动相关领域融合发展的新兴经济形态和效益。2024年全国两会期间,“低空经济”被写入政府工作报告。报告提出,“积极培育新兴产业和未来产业”“积极打造生物制造、商业航天、低空经济等新增长引擎”。我们可以通过解析人工智能赋能低空经济、大数据驱动的部分应用场景(智慧城市建设、智慧交通运输、智慧路桥监测、智慧农业农村),理解低空经济创造的新质生产力,探讨低空经济推进智慧城乡建设和国家经济发展的逻辑与路径。

乡村水泥路面拼接窄长加宽板受力特性分析

福建省农村公路水泥路面多为4.5m×5m的单板单车道,随着交通量的增加,多加宽2m成为双车道。建立有限元模型,研究新旧板缝间摩擦系数、拉杆间距、土基模量等参数下水泥板加宽2m前后的受力变化,发现新旧路基模量差对板底拉应力影响最大,拉杆间距影响不大,但对板缝两侧弯沉差影响最大。

农村地区道路交通安全综合治理意义及路径分析

农村地区道路交通安全工作是我国平安社会建设的有机组成部分,是确保乡村振兴建设、美丽乡村建设、新农村建设质量的前提条件。针对当前农村道路交通安全问题,需要相关部门结合农村道路特征,分别从安全管理、道路安全、人车安全等角度出发,探究出科学合理、全面有效、操作性强的综合治理策略。

乡村振兴背景下“四宜”乡村规划策略与路径研究——以宁夏青铜峡大坝镇新苇路为例

乡村振兴是当代乡村现代化建设和全面建设小康社会的重大战略决策,实现乡村振兴主要路径是规划先行,科学布局。为加快大坝镇新苇路地区经济发展,推动该地区乡村振兴步伐,设计团队通过对宁夏青铜峡大坝镇新苇路沿线三个行政村走访与调研,针对规划区现状及规划建设中存在问题,提出建设宜农、宜业、宜居、宜游“四宜”乡村规划建设思路。主要围绕提升新苇路景观品质提升,保障农业核心地位,推动产业协调发展,重构乡村文化空间,改善村民居住环境等进行规划建设,进一步提高该地区村民生活质量。

适用于农村公路养护维修的再生骨料混凝土性能改善研究

针对当前再生骨料混凝土抗压强度低、抗裂强度低的问题,开展适用于农村公路养护维修的再生骨料混凝土性能改善研究。选择三种化学改善试剂对适用于农村公路养护维修的再生骨料进行试剂浸泡改善,最终确定将水玻璃作为最优改善试剂。在此基础上,优化再生混凝土配合比。最后,实现再生骨料高吸水率处理。通过对改善结果分析得出,采用新的改善方案可以有效促进再生骨料混凝土抗压强度和抗裂强度的提升。