Work-related fatal injuries in parking lots, 1993-2002

PROBLEM: Although parking facilities are a common feature of the landscape in the United States, little is known about their safety. METHOD: A dataset of parking lot fatalities for 1993-2002, created from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injury (CFOI) research file, was analyzed. RESULTS: The most common events in parking lots were contact with objects (15%), pedestrian fatalities (13%), homicides (36%), and suicides (11%). The perpetrators of parking lot fatalities, compared to all workplace homicides, were more likely to be known to the victim. CONCLUSION: The 206 work-related fatalities per year in parking lots present challenges to the safety community. Although much of the risk results from the usage of motor vehicles, violent acts are even more prominent. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Because homicides are most prevalent in parking lots, both administrative and environmental measures may lower the risk of homicide. Although difficult to assess, various elements of the design of parking facilities may have an influence on the occurrence of injuries.     

Impacts of Off-Road Vehicles (ORVs) on Macrobenthic Assemblages on Sandy Beaches

Sandy beaches are the prime sites for human recreation and underpin many coastal economies and developments. In many coastal areas worldwide, beach recreation relies on the use of off-road vehicles (ORVs) driven on the shore. Yet, the use of ORVs is not universally embraced due to social conflicts with other beach user groups and putative environmental consequences of vehicle traffic on sandy shores. Such ecological impacts of ORVs are, however, poorly understood for endobenthic invertebrates of the intertidal zone seawards of the dunes. Consequently, this study quantified the degree to which assemblages of intertidal beach invertebrates are affected by traffic. The study design comprised a series of temporally replicated spatial contrasts between two reference sites (no ORVs) and two beaches with heavy ORV traffic (in excess of 250,000 vehicles per year) located in South-East Queensland, Australia. Macrobenthic assemblages on ORV-impacted beaches had significantly fewer species at substantially reduced densities, resulting in marked shifts in community composition and structure. These shifts were particularly strong on the middle and upper shore where vehicle traffic was concentrated. Strong effects of ORVs were detectable in all seasons, but increased towards the summer months as a result of heavier traffic volumes. This study provides clear evidence that ORVs can have substantial impacts on sandy beach invertebrates that are manifested throughout the whole community. Demonstrating such an ecological impact caused by a single type of human use poses a formidable challenge to management, which needs to develop multi-faceted approaches to balance environmental, social, cultural, and economic arguments in the use of sandy shores, including management of “beach traffic.”     

在用轻型汽油车尾气超标现状调查分析及治理措施

对郑州汽车尾气排放量所占份额较大的在用轻型汽油车进行较长时间的调查，将不同产地，车型，厂牌的汽车尾气超标状况进行了排序，同时对超标的原因进行了分析提出了治理措施与对策。     

小议机动车尾气污染的控制对策

随着城市机动车保有量的不断增长,机动车尾气污染问题已经成为城市空气污染最重要的来源,控制机动车尾气污染也已经成为改善城市大气环境质量的当务之急.本文力图通过对发达国家机动车尾气控制的经验的借鉴及中国目前状况的对比分析,为降低中国机动车尾气污染排放提供些思考和建议.     

Injury-severity analysis of lane change crashes involving commercial motor vehicles on interstate highways

Introduction: One of the challenging tasks for drivers is the ability to change lanes around large commercial motor vehicles. Lane changing is often characterized by speed, and crashes that occur due to unsafe lane changes can have serious consequences. Considering the economic importance of commercial trucks, ensuring the safety, security, and resilience of freight transportation is of paramount concern to the United States Department of Transportation and other stakeholders. Method: In this study, a mixed (random parameters) logit model was developed to better understand the relationship between crash factors and associated injury severities of commercial vehicle crashes involving lane change on interstate highways. The study was based on 2009–2016 crash data from Alabama. Results: Preliminary data analysis showed that about 4% of the observed crashes were major injury crashes and drivers of commercial motor vehicles were at-fault in more than half of the crashes. Acknowledging potential crash data limitations, the model estimation results reveal that there is increased probability of major injury when lane change crashes occurred on dark unlit portions of interstates and involve older drivers, at-fault commercial vehicle drivers, and female drivers. The results further show that lane change crashes that occurred on interstates with higher number of travel lanes were less likely to have major injury outcomes. Practical Applications: These findings can help policy makers and state transportation agencies increase awareness on the hazards of changing lanes in the immediate vicinity and driving in the blind spots of large commercial motor vehicles. Additionally, law enforcement efforts may be intensified during times and locations of increased unsafe lane changing activities. These findings may also be useful in commercial vehicle driver training and driver licensing programs.     

交通活动对公路两侧土壤和灰尘中重金属含量的影响

为了解公路交通带来的重金属污染及其在公路两侧土壤中的分布规律,对相关研究结果的分析表明,含铅汽油、润滑油的燃烧,汽车轮胎、刹车里村的机械磨损等是公路两侧土壤和灰尘中重金属污染的重要来源.机动车辆排放的含重金属颗粒物或直接沉积在路面灰尘中,或通过干湿沉降沉积在公路两侧的土壤中,使得公路两侧土壤和灰尘中重金属出现不同程度的积累.一般地,公路两侧土壤中重金属含量随着距公路距离的增加呈指数形式下降.公路两侧土壤中重金属的含量及其分布格局因受交通流量、车辆类型、地形与路况、绿化带配置和风、降雨等气象条件的影响而异.     

浅谈汽车内空气污染来源及影响因素

随着中国社会经济的不断发展,人民生活水平的不断提高,汽车已逐渐成为人们日常生活中的一部分。然而在世界的范围内,汽车内的空气污染问题已越来越得到重视,但就国内的情况而言,汽车内的空气污染问题却没有随着汽车的普及而得到人们足够的认识。有见及此,本文指出了造成汽车内空气污染的几种主要污染来源及其有可能产生的危害,同时讲述了影响车内空气质量的几种主要因素,并就此给出了相关污染减轻的建议,希望籍此减少汽车内空气污染对人们健康的危害。     

Sustainable design for automotive products: Dismantling and recycling of end-of-life vehicles

The growth in automotive production has increased the number of end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) annually. The traditional approach ELV processing involves dismantling, shredding, and landfill disposal. The “3R” (i.e., reduce, reuse, and recycle) principle has been increasingly employed in processing ELVs, particularly ELV parts, to promote sustainable development. The first step in processing ELVs is dismantling. However, certain parts of the vehicle are difficult to disassemble and use in practice. The extended producer responsibility policy requires carmakers to contribute in the processing of scrap cars either for their own developmental needs or for social responsibility. The design for dismantling approach can be an effective solution to the existing difficulties in dismantling ELVs. This approach can also provide guidelines in the design of automotive products. This paper illustrates the difficulty of handling polymers in dashboards. The physical properties of polymers prevent easy separation and recycling by using mechanical methods. Thus, dealers have to rely on chemical methods such as pyrolysis. Therefore, car designers should use a single material to benefit dealers. The use of materials for effective end-of-life processing without sacrificing the original performance requirements of the vehicle should be explored.     

Deciphering urban traffic impacts on air quality by deep learning and emission inventory

Air pollution is a major obstacle to future sustainability, and traffic pollution has become a large drag on the sustainable developments of future metropolises. Here, combined with the large volume of real-time monitoring data, we propose a deep learning model, iDeepAir, to predict surface-level PM_2.5 concentration in Shanghai megacity and link with MEIC emission inventory creatively to decipher urban traffic impacts on air quality. Our model exhibits high-fidelity in reproducing pollutant concentrations and reduces the MAE from 25.355 µg/m³ to 12.283 µg/m³ compared with other models. And identifies the ranking of major factors, local meteorological conditions have become a nonnegligible factor. Layer-wise relevance propagation (LRP) is used here to enhance the interpretability of the model and we visualize and analyze the reasons for the different correlation between traffic density and PM_2.5 concentration in various regions of Shanghai. Meanwhile, As the strict and effective industrial emission reduction measurements implementing in China, the contribution of urban traffic to PM_2.5 formation calculated by combining MEIC emission inventory and LRP is gradually increasing from 18.03% in 2011 to 24.37% in 2017 in Shanghai, and the impact of traffic emissions would be ever-prominent in 2030 according to our prediction. We also infer that the promotion of vehicular electrification would achieve further alleviation of PM_2.5 about 8.45% by 2030 gradually. These insights are of great significance to provide the decision-making basis for accurate and high-efficient traffic management and urban pollution control, and eventually benefit people's lives and high-quality sustainable developments of cities.     

Research on the recycling industry development model for typical exterior plastic components of end-of-life passenger vehicle based on the SWOT method

In-depth studies on the recycling of typical automotive exterior plastic parts are significant and beneficial for environmental protection, energy conservation, and sustainable development of China. In the current study, several methods were used to analyze the recycling industry model for typical exterior parts of passenger vehicles in China. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges of the current recycling industry for typical exterior parts of passenger vehicles were analyzed comprehensively based on the SWOT method. The internal factor evaluation matrix and external factor evaluation matrix were used to evaluate the internal and external factors of the recycling industry. The recycling industry was found to respond well to all the factors and it was found to face good developing opportunities. Then, the cross-link strategies analysis for the typical exterior parts of the passenger car industry of China was conducted based on the SWOT analysis strategies and established SWOT matrix. Finally, based on the aforementioned research, the recycling industry model led by automobile manufacturers was promoted.