Characteristics and risk of violation behavior of non-motorists at signalized intersections

Aiming at prevalent violations of non-motorists at urban intersections in China, this paper intends to clarify the characteristics and risks of non-motorist violations at signalized intersections through questionnaires and video recordings, which may serve as a basis for non-motorized vehicle management. It can help improve the traffic order and enhance the degree of safety at signalized intersections. To obtain the perception information, a questionaire survey on the Internet was conducted and 972 valid questionnaires were returned. It is found that academic degree contributes little to non-motorist violations, while electrical bicyclists have a relatively higher frequency of violations compared with bicyclists. The video data of 18 228 non-motorist behaviors indicate that the violation rate of all non-motorists is 26.5%; the number of conflicts reaches 1 938, among which violation conflicts account for 66.8%. The study shows that the violation rates and the violation behavior at three types of surveyed intersections are markedly different. It is also concluded that the conflict rates and the violation rates are positively correlated. Furthermore, signal violation, traveling in the wrong direction, and overspeeding to cross the intersection are the most dangerous among traffic violation behaviors.

Motorists’Perceptions and Attitudes towards Ethanol Blended Fuel in Zimbabwe

Most developing and developed countries have enacted mandatory legislation for use of biofuels(bioethanol)in the transport sector.For most developing countries,the use of biofuels meant to increase energy security,save foreign currency,mitigate climate change,create jobs and rural development.However,motorists have limited knowledge on blended biofuels.This study seeks to investigate the level of awareness and prevailing attitudes of motorists in Zimbabwe where a mandatory ethanol blending policy was recently introduced.The study uses data derived from 200 respondents,to whom a questionnaire was administered.The major challenge faced by motorists is the lack of sufficient information on ethanol blends in general including how they can get their engines modified to take high ethanol blends.About 63.1% were not clear about the technical attributes of ethanol blended fuel especially as it relates to engine efficiency.Secondly,some motorists experienced a number of problems ranging from poor idling(36%),lack of power(19.5%)and difficulties with engine starting(16.5%).Despite all these complaints,54% of the respondents generally exhibit a positive attitude towards ethanol blended fuel and 60.3% said that they were keen to recommend blended fuel to other motorists.An appropriate institutional,legal and policy framework that supports massive awareness campaigns for use of bioethanol for the transport sector can go a long way to dispel negative perceptions associated with ethanol blends.

Characterizing Peak-Time Traffic Jam Incidents in Kampala Using Exploratory Data Analysis

Traffic congestion is associated with increased environmental pollutions, as well as reduced socio-economic productivity due to significant delays in travel times. The consequences are worse in least developed countries where motorized road transport networks are often inefficiently managed in addition to being largely underdeveloped. Recent research on traffic congestion has mostly focused on infrastructural aspects of road networks, with little or no emphasis at all on motorists’ on-the-road behavior (MB). The current study thus aimed to bridge this knowledge gap by characterizing traffic jam incidents (TJI) observed over a period of 80 days in Uganda’s Capital City, Kampala. MB as well as road network infrastructural factors such as road blockage (RB), were captured for each of the observed TJI. A total of 483 peak-time TJI were recorded, and exploratory data analysis (EDA) subsequently performed on the TJI dataset. EDA involved Hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) and K-means clustering of the TJI dataset, as well as a detailed descriptive statistical analysis of both the entire dataset and the emerging TJI clusters. A highlight finding of this study is that 48.2% of the observed TJIs were as a result of on-the-road motorist behavior. Furthermore, the intervention of traffic police officers in a bid to regulate traffic flow was equally responsible for 25.9% of the TJIs observed in this study. Overall, these results indicate that whereas road infrastructural improvement is warranted in order to improve traffic flow, introducing interventions to address inappropriate on-the-road motorists’ behavior could alone improve traffic flow in Kampala, by over 48%. Additionally, in-order to effectively regulate traffic flow in Kampala and other least developed cities with similar traffic congestion management practices, motorists’ on-the-road behavior ought to be factored into any data-driven mechanisms deployed to regulate traffic flow and thus potentially significantly curbing traffic congestion.

Evaluation of the Impact of Queue Trucks with Navigation Alerts Using Connected Vehicle Data

Back of queue crashes on Interstates are a major concern for all state transportation departments. In 2020, Indiana DOT begin deploying queue warning trucks with message boards, flashers and digital alerts that could be transmitted to navigation systems such as Waze. This study reports on the deployment and impact evaluation of digital alerts on motorist’s assistance patrols and 19 Queue trucks in Indiana. The motorist assistance patrol evaluation is provided qualitatively. A novel analysis of queue warning trucks equipped with digital alerts was conducted during the months of May-July in 2021 using connected vehicle data. This new data set reports locations of anonymous hard-braking events from connected vehicles on the Interstate. Hard-braking events were tabulated for when queueing occurred with and without the presence of a queue warning truck. Approximately 370 hours of queueing with queue trucks present and 58 hours of queueing without queue trucks present were evaluated. Hard-braking events were found to decrease approximately 80% when queue warning trucks were used to alert motorists of impending queues.