Gasoline prices and traffic safety in Mississippi

Problem

Limited literature suggests that gasoline prices have substantial effects on reducing fatal crashes. However, the literature focuses only on fatal crashes and does not examine the effects on all traffic crashes.

Methods

Mississippi traffic crash data from April 2004–December 2008 from the Mississippi Highway Patrol and regular-grade unleaded gasoline price data from the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy were used to investigate the effects of gasoline prices on traffic safety by age, gender, and race.

Results

Gasoline prices have both short-term and intermediate-term effects on reducing total traffic crashes and crashes of females, whites, and blacks. The intermediate-term effects are generally stronger than the short-term effects. Gasoline prices also have short-term effects on reducing crashes of younger drivers and intermediate-term effects on older drivers and male drivers.

Impact on Industry

Higher gasoline taxes reduce traffic crashes and may result in additional societal benefits.     

Legislating child restraint usage -Its effect on self-reported child restraint use rates in a central city

Objective

To assess the effect of the newly enacted child passenger safety law, Wisconsin Act 106, on self-report of proper restraint usage of children in Milwaukee's central city population.

Method

A prospective, non-randomized study design was used. The settings used were (a) a pediatric urban health center, and (b) two Women, Infants and Children offices in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Participants included 11,566 surveys collected over 18 months that spanned the pre-legislation and post-legislation time periods from February 2006 through August 2008.

Results

The study set out to assess appropriate child passenger restraint. The results showed that the changes in adjusted proper restraint usage rates for infants between the pre-law, grace period, and post-fine periods were 94%, 94%, and 94% respectively. For children 1-3 years old, the adjusted proper usage rates were 65%, 63%, and 59%, respectively. And for children 4-7 years old, the rates were 43%, 44% and 42%, respectively. There was a significant increase in premature booster seat use in children who should have been restrained in a rear- or forward-facing car seat (10% pre-law, 12% grace period, 20% post-fine; p < 0.0005). There was no statistically significant change over time in unrestrained children (2.1%, 1.7%, 1.7%, p = 0.7, respectively).

Conclusions

The passage of a strengthened child passenger safety law with fines did not significantly improve appropriate restraint use for 0-7 year olds, and appropriate use in 1-7 year olds remained suboptimal with a majority of urban children inappropriately restrained. Although the number of unrestrained children decreased, we identified an unintended consequence of the legislation - a significant increase in the rate of premature belt-positioning booster seat use among poor, urban children.

Impact on Industry

The design of child restraint systems maximizes protection of the child. Increasing reports of misuse is a call to those who manufacture these child passenger restraints to improve advertising and marketing to the correct age group, ease of installation, and mechanisms to prevent incorrect safety strap and harness placement. To ensure accurate and consistent use on every trip, car seat manufacturers must ensure that best practice recommendations for use as well as age, weight, and height be clearly specified on each child restraint. The authors support the United States Department of Transportation's new consumer program that will assist caregivers in identifying the child seat that will fit in their vehicle. In addition, due to the increase in premature graduation of children into belt-positioning booster seats noted as a result of legislation, promoting and marketing booster seat use for children less than 40 pounds should not be accepted. Child passenger safety technicians must continue to promote best practice recommendations for child passenger restraint use and encourage other community leaders to do the same.     

后发地区生态承载力及其评价方法研究——以海峡西岸经济区为例

在区域生态承载力及其与资源、环境承载力相互关系的基础上,针对后发地区敏感的生态环境、强烈的发展愿景和以产业区域转移为主的后发优势战略,阐明了后发地区生态承载力的判定标准和衡量对象,构建了后发地区生态承载力概念模型;与区域生态系统健康评价相结合,运用多目标规划,建立了后发地区生态承载力评价模型,对海峡西岸经济区生态承载力进行了综合评价。目前海西区生态系统所承受的人类干扰总体上较轻,重点产业发展尚未对区域生态系统的结构、功能和健康等级构成威胁。若海西区土地产出率升至2007年上海市土地产出率的75％,海西区及其多数分区生态系统可以持续支撑其重点产业中长期发展。海西区生态系统的承载能力和承载状况具有显著的区域差异,有利于该地区经济社会的健康发展、生态服务功能的持续发挥和区域生态安全的有效保障。     

Considering built environment and spatial correlation in modeling pedestrian injury severity

Objective: This study looks at mitigating and aggravating factors that are associated with the injury severity of pedestrians when they have crashes with another road user and overcomes existing limitations in the literature by focusing attention on the built environment and considering spatial correlation across crashes.

Method: Reports for 6,539 pedestrian crashes occurred in Denmark between 2006 and 2015 were merged with geographic information system resources containing detailed information about the built environment and exposure at the crash locations. A linearized spatial logit model estimated the probability of pedestrians sustaining a severe or fatal injury conditional on the occurrence of a crash with another road user.

Results: This study confirms previous findings about older pedestrians and intoxicated pedestrians being the most vulnerable road users and crashes with heavy vehicles and in roads with higher speed limits being related to the most severe outcomes. This study provides novel perspectives by showing positive spatial correlations of crashes with the same severity outcomes and emphasizing the role of the built environment in the proximity of the crash.

Conclusions: This study emphasizes the need for thinking about traffic calming measures, illumination solutions, road maintenance programs, and speed limit reductions. Moreover, this study emphasizes the role of the built environment, because shopping areas, residential areas, and walking traffic density are positively related to a reduction in pedestrian injury severity. Often, these areas have in common a larger pedestrian mass that is more likely to make other road users more aware and attentive, whereas the same does not seem to apply to areas with lower pedestrian density.     

Investigation of hit-and-run crash occurrence and severity using real-time loop detector data and hierarchical Bayesian binary logit model with random effects

Objective: Most of the extensive research dedicated to identifying the influential factors of hit-and-run (HR) crashes has utilized typical maximum likelihood estimation binary logit models, and none have employed real-time traffic data. To fill this gap, this study focused on investigating factors contributing to HR crashes, as well as the severity levels of HR.

Methods: This study analyzed 4-year crash and real-time loop detector data by employing hierarchical Bayesian models with random effects within a sequential logit structure. In addition to evaluation of the impact of random effects on model fitness and complexity, the prediction capability of the models was examined. Stepwise incremental sensitivity and specificity were calculated and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were utilized to graphically illustrate the predictive performance of the model.

Results: Among the real-time flow variables, the average occupancy and speed from the upstream detector were observed to be positively correlated with HR crash possibility. The average upstream speed and speed difference between upstream and downstream speeds were correlated with the occurrence of severe HR crashes. In addition to real-time factors, other variables found influential for HR and severe HR crashes were length of segment, adverse weather conditions, dark lighting conditions with malfunctioning street lights, driving under the influence of alcohol, width of inner shoulder, and nighttime.

Conclusions: This study suggests the potential traffic conditions of HR and severe HR occurrence, which refer to relatively congested upstream traffic conditions with high upstream speed and significant speed deviations on long segments. The above findings suggest that traffic enforcement should be directed toward mitigating risky driving under the aforementioned traffic conditions. Moreover, enforcement agencies may employ alcohol checkpoints to counter driving under the influence (DUI) at night. With regard to engineering improvements, wider inner shoulders may be constructed to potentially reduce HR cases and street lights should be installed and maintained in working condition to make roads less prone to such crashes.     

A study of fatal pedestrian crashes at rural low-volume road intersections in southwest China

Objective: Although intersections correspond to a small proportion of the entire roadway system, they account for a disproportionally high number of fatal pedestrian crashes, especially on rural roads situated in low- and middle-income countries. This article examines pedestrian safety at rural intersections and suggests applicable accident prevention treatments by providing an in-depth analysis of 28 fatal pedestrian crashes from 8 low-volume roads in southwest China.

Methods: The driving reliability and error analysis method (DREAM) is a method to support a systematic classification of accident causation information and to facilitate aggregation of that information into patterns of contributing factors. This is the first time that DREAM was used to analyze pedestrian–vehicle crashes and provide suggestions for road improvements in China.

Results: The key issues adversely affecting pedestrian safety can be organized in 4 distinctive thematic categories, namely, deficient intersection safety infrastructure, lack of pedestrian safety education, inadequate driver training, and insufficient traffic law enforcement. Given that resources for traffic safety investments in rural areas are limited, it is determined that the potential countermeasures should focus on low-cost, easily implementable, and long-lasting measures increasing the visibility and predictability of pedestrian movement and reducing speeding and irresponsible driving among drivers and risk-taking behaviors among pedestrians.

Conclusions: Accident prevention treatments are suggested based on their suitability for rural areas in southwest China. These countermeasures include introducing better access management and traffic calming treatments, providing more opportunities for pedestrian education, and enhancing the quality of driver training and traffic law enforcement.     

地铁单面坡隧道列车火灾通风模式研究

针对地铁单面坡隧道连续下坡距离长、提升高度大的特点,以国内某城市地铁线路为研究对象,构建列车火灾通风排烟数值计算模型,并采用1:20模型实验对数值计算精确度进行验证,通过考虑列车起火位置、风机开启模式和隧道断面形式等因素,对火灾烟气扩散过程、疏散平台上方烟气温度和气体浓度进行分析。研究结果表明:列车起火后,单洞单线隧道2端车站应各开启2台隧道风机,单洞双线隧道除开启射流风机外,2端车站应各开启4台隧道风机执行相应的排烟和送风模式进行烟气控制;由于单洞双线隧道中热损失和空气卷吸量较大,火灾烟气温度、CO和CO2浓度均低于单洞单线隧道;采用纵向通风控制烟气逆流的同时,下风向区域的烟气沉降作用较为明显,防排烟设计中应充分考虑列车中部火灾下风向车厢区域的危险性,合理确定应急响应模式。     

寒区公路土质路堑边坡滑塌原因及其防治

通过对寒区路堑土质边坡滑塌现象的调查研究，提出了寒区路堑边坡滑塌的主要原因及影响因素，尤其对“水线”的概念、成因、分布特征以及对边坡稳定性的影响，进行了详细阐述。在此基础上构建了寒区路堑土质边坡稳定性的力学模型。通过对春融期处于饱和状态的不同坡度（1：1，1：1．5，1：1．75）土质路堑边坡土体稳定性进行验算，提出了宜排水固坡不宜削坡稳定的寒区路堑土质边坡稳定措施，即在边坡上挖设树型排水渗沟，采用自身具备反滤层功能的土工材料做下层排水，再利用网状土工格室上层固土并种植喜水根深的马莲草的综合边坡稳定防治技术，并在哈同公路路堑边坡滑塌地段进行了工程应用和实践，经过两个冻融循环，取得了较为理想的防治效果。     

西夫(Schiff)碱侧链聚硅氧烷毛细管柱气相色谱固定相的制备与色谱性能

将合成的西夫 (Schiff)碱侧链聚硅氧烷高分子液晶化合物用作毛细管柱气相色谱固定相 ,具有较高的柱效 ,热稳定性较好 ,最高柱温可达 2 80℃ ,对苯的各种取代物、酚类及多环芳烃有良好的选择性 ,尤其对位置异构体有独特的分离效果。     

Alcohol-related deaths among young passengers: An analysis of national alcohol-related fatal crashes

Introduction: There is consensus that riding with an impaired driver (RWI) constitutes a major threat to public health. The aim of this study was to characterize the factors contributing to the motor-vehicle deaths of 15–20 year-old (y/o) passengers that RWI with a peer. Method: Secondary analyses of the 2010–2018 Fatality Analysis Reporting System. 5,673 passengers aged 15–20 y/o killed while riding in passenger cars with a driver aged 21 or older, 3,542 of these drivers also aged 15–20 y/o. Analyses were conducted between October 2019 and December 2020. Results: Sixty-three percent of the young passengers were killed while riding with a driver 15–20 y/o. Of these drivers, 26.8% had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) >0.00 g/dL and 77.1% had a BAC ≥0.08 g/dL. Compared with those occurring during the day on weekdays, fatalities of young passengers who RWI with a peer driver with a BAC ≥ 0.08 g/dL often occurred on weekend nights (OR = 8.2) and weekday nights (OR = 5.2), and when the passenger and driver were both male (OR = 1.8). Race/ethnicity was not a significant contributor to RWI fatalities. Conclusions: Most 15–20 y/o RWI fatalities occurred on weekends, at night, when the driver was a young peer with a high BAC, and the passenger and driver were male. The high prevalence of fatalities in these high-risk situations suggests that young driver-passenger dynamics may contribute to alcohol-related fatalities. Practical Applications: To curb RWI fatalities among underage passengers, countermeasures should focus not only on underage drinking drivers and riders, but also on drinking drivers of all ages. Prevention should increase focus on situations in which both the young passenger and young driver are males.