Objective: A new European Union (EU) regulation for safety barriers, which is based on performance, has encouraged road agencies to perform an upgrade of old barriers, with the expectation that there will be safety benefits at the retrofitted sites. The new class of barriers was designed and installed in compliance with the 1998 (European Norm) EN 1317 standards for road restraint systems, which lays down common requirements for the testing and certification of road restraint systems in all countries of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN). Both the older and new barriers are made of steel and are installed in such a way as to avoid vehicle intrusion, but the older ones are thought to be only effective at low speeds and large angles of impact. The new standard seeks to remedy this by providing better protection at higher speeds. This article seeks to quantify the effect on the frequency of fatal and injury crashes of retrofitting motorways with barriers meeting the new standards.
Methods: The estimation of the crash modification was carried out by performing an empirical Bayes before–after analysis based on data from the A18 Messina–Catania motorway in Italy. The methodology has the great advantage to account for the regression to the mean effects. Besides, to account for time trend effects and dispersion of crash data, a modified calibration methodology of safety performance was used.
Results: This study, based on data collected on 76 km of motorway in the period 2000–2012, derived Crash Modification Factor point estimates that indicate reductions of 72% for run-off-road fatal and injury crashes and 38% in total fatal and injury crashes that could be expected by upgrading an old safety barrier by complying with new EU 1317 standards. The estimated benefit-cost ratio of 5.57 for total crashes indicates that the treatment is cost effective.
Conclusions: The magnitude of this benefit indicates that the retrofits are cost-effective even for total crashes and should continue in any European country inasmuch as the estimated Crash Modification Factors are based on treatment sites that are reasonably representative of all European motorways. 相似文献
The debate concerning occupational safety and health (OSH) interventions has recently focused on the need of improving the evaluation of interventions, and in particular on the need for providing information about why the intervention worked or not, under what circumstances and in which context. Key concepts in the analysis of the context are the drivers, i.e., those factors enabling, fostering or facilitating OSH interventions. However, the concept of driver for an OSH intervention is both confused and contested. Although the term is widely used, there is little consensus on how drivers should be understood, how important they are in different contexts and how they can facilitate interventions. This exploratory study based on interviews with the owner-managers and the safety officers of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) gives an overview of the most characteristic drivers for OSH interventions. The results will be used to make an initial evaluation of SMEs' needs, and will help orient interventions and future research. 相似文献
Objective: Streetcars/tram systems are growing worldwide, and many are given priority to increase speed and reliability performance in mixed traffic conditions. Research related to the road safety impact of tram priority is limited. This study explores the road safety impacts of tram priority measures including lane and intersection/signal priority measures.
Method: A before–after crash study was conducted using the empirical Bayes (EB) method to provide more accurate crash impact estimates by accounting for wider crash trends and regression to the mean effects. Before–after crash data for 29 intersections with tram signal priority and 23 arterials with tram lane priority in Melbourne, Australia, were analyzed to evaluate the road safety impact of tram priority.
Results: The EB before–after analysis results indicated a statistically significant adjusted crash reduction rate of 16.4% after implementation of tram priority measures. Signal priority measures were found to reduce crashes by 13.9% and lane priority by 19.4%. A disaggregate level simple before–after analysis indicated reductions in total and serious crashes as well as vehicle-, pedestrian-, and motorcycle-involved crashes. In addition, reductions in on-path crashes, pedestrian-involved crashes, and collisions among vehicles moving in the same and opposite directions and all other specific crash types were found after tram priority implementation.
Conclusions: Results suggest that streetcar/tram priority measures result in safety benefits for all road users, including vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists. Policy implications and areas for future research are discussed. 相似文献
Maps of freshwater critical loads are used toguide emission strategies for sulphur and nitrogen bothnationally and internationally. Water chemistry data arerequired to calculate critical loads and the production ofnational maps therefore relies on the existence of extensivechemistry datasets. However, the data required to calculatecritical loads are not readily available for all sites. Thisarticle explores how empirical statistical models mightpotentially be used to predict critical loads using nationallyavailable datasets representing a range of catchmentcharacteristics. Initially a global regression model forexplaining freshwater critical load variation across a broadspectrum of catchment types (from lowland agricultural tomountain lakes) throughout mainland Britain is described. Whenattention is focused on more specific catchment types (i.e.upland and non-arable) it is shown that the global model hasless explanatory power. A regionalisation of Great Britain(based on 100 km grid squares) shows that the global modelcannot necessarily be applied successfully within a narrowerregional context. Separate analyses were undertaken on each ofthe regional subsets using backward selection regression. Thevariables emerging as significant predictors variedsubstantially across the regions, as did the explanatory powerof the models. This was also the case when the analysis wasconfined to upland and non-arable catchments. This approachcould be developed so that critical loads assessments can bemade for populations of standing waters rather than simplythose for which water chemistry is available. 相似文献
Abstract Based on the retrospection of researches on carrying capacity, this article reviewed systematically the research progresses on carrying capacity of relative resources (CCRR). Then the viewpoint was put forward that CCRR is not an appropriate method of appraising the regional sustainability, but a sound way to obtain cognition for coordinating spatial location and flow of population and economy. However, as the most popular computing method of CCRR, the Weighting Linear Sum Model is defective in the random of weight choice and the neglect of matching among different resources. Therefore, this article established the Geometric Model on CCRR based on modifying Weighting Linear Sum Model, which can be used to appraise regions where resources are close matching. Employing the Geometric Model, the article empirically analyzed the population and economic CCRR in Hubei Province from 1978 to 2006. The result indicates that the population in Hubei Province is overloading while the economic carrying capacity is abundant compared to the whole country, and the economic insufficiency restricts the population carrying capacity. In the future, Hubei Province will become one of the core developing zones which are characterized by economic conglomeration. 相似文献
Not much has been written about air cleaning from ozone. The aim of this paper was to demonstrate the possibility of adsorption air cleaning from ozone. The second aim was to investigate the dependence of the efficiency of ozone removal from the air on the height of the adsorber layer and on concentrations of ozone, and to obtain empirical formulas for calculating the efficiency of ozone treatment. Equipment for air cleaning from ozone and nitrogen and sulphur dioxides is suggested. 相似文献