A 6-year survey of road traffic accidents in Southwest China: Emphasis on traumatic brain injury

Background: The objective of this study is to provide an up-to-date overview of the patterns of injuries, especially traumatic brain injury (TBI) caused by RTAs and to discuss some of the public health consequences. Methods: A scientific team was established to collect road traffic accidents occurring between 2013 and 2018 in Chongqing, Southwest China. For each accident, the environment-, vehicle-, and person- variables were analyzed and determined. The overall injury distribution and TBI patterns of four types of road users (driver, passenger, motorcyclist and pedestrian) were compared. The environmental and time distribution of accidents with TBI were shown by bar and pie chart. The risks of severe brain injury whether motorcyclist wearing helmets or not were compared and the risk factors of severe TBI in pedestrian were determined by odds ratio analysis. Results: This study enrolled 2131 accidents with 2741 persons of all kind of traffic participants, 1149 of them suffered AIS1+ head injury and 1598(58%) died in 7 days. The most common cause of deaths is due to head injury with 714(85%) and 1266(79%) persons died within 2 hours. Among 423 persons suffered both skull fracture and intracranial injury, 102 (24.1%) have an intracranial injury but no skull fractures, while none of the skull fractures without intracranial injury was found. Besides, motorcyclists without a helmet were at higher risks for all the brain injury categories. The risk of pedestrian suffering severe TBI at an impact speed of more than 70 km/h is 100 times higher than that with an impact speed of less than 40 km/h. Conclusion: It is urgently needed to develop a more reliable brain injury evaluation criterion for better protection of the road users. We believe that strengthening the emergency care to head injury at the scene is the most effective way to reduce traffic fatality.     

Amphibian Encounter Rates on Roads with Different Amounts of Traffic and Urbanization

Abstract: Although amphibians have relatively high rates of road mortality in urban areas, the conditions under which traffic threatens the survival of local amphibian populations remain unclear. In the Sandhills region of North Carolina (U.S.A.), we counted living and dead amphibians along two transects (total length 165 km) established on roads in areas with varying degrees of urbanization. We found 2665 individuals of 15 species, and amphibian encounter rates declined sharply as traffic and urban development increased. Regression‐tree models indicated that 35 amphibians/100 km occurred on roads with <535 vehicles/day, whereas the encounter rate decreased to only 2 amphibians/100 km on roads with >2048 vehicles/day. Although mortality rate peaked at higher traffic levels (47% dead on roads with >5200 vehicles/day), the number of dead amphibians was highest at low levels of traffic. This suggests that areas where amphibian mortality is concentrated may actually contain the largest populations remaining on a given road transect.     

网络重要基础设施脆弱性评价模型及其应用

为了评价网络重要基础设施的脆弱性,基于网络图论,构建一个数学规划模型。利用ArcGIS将网络重要基础设施的弧段和节点赋值,将网络拓扑结构以数字形式表示;利用数学规划软件对该模型进行优化求解,得出网络重要基础设施中的脆弱性组件(弧段或节点)。结果表明这些组件的破坏会使网络脆弱性达到最大值,需要对这些组件进行优先防护。将该模型应用于京津冀高速公路交通网络系统,得到该交通网络系统的脆弱性路段。     

限速值对信号交叉口交通安全的影响分析

为研究交叉口进口道车辆限速值对交叉口的安全和运行产生的影响,通过微观仿真平台,分析车辆在交叉口限速分别为30,38和46 km/h时的车均延误、车均行程时间,并将车辆行驶轨迹输入安全辅助评价(SSAM)软件中展开分析。结果表明,车辆限速值的提高对车均延误的影响不大,但会减小车辆在进口道的车均行程时间。另外,限速值从30 km/h提高到46 km/h,引起的碰撞时间(TTC)、后侵占时间(PET)数值变化不显著,但使总冲突数从42个增加到59个。     

2011—2013年广州市道路交通噪声监测与分析

在2013年10—12月期间,选取了广州市58条道路和20栋噪声敏感建筑物进行噪声监测,与2011—2012年监测数据相比较,综合分析了广州市道路交通噪声的现状和变化规律。分析表明:广州市昼夜道路交通噪声以71 d B和70 d B为中心上下波动。对于2013年监测数据,噪声敏感建筑物昼夜噪声均值为65.1 d B和64.6 d B,夜间最大突发噪声均值为80.7 d B。此外还计算了每条道路的昼夜噪声频率重心,结果显示,广州市道路昼夜交通噪声频率重心分布基本相同,以1 000~2 000 Hz最为集中。     

南京市雨污分流改造及初期雨水污染研究

南京市雨污分流改造经过多年建设施工,基本上从源头上实现雨污分流,避免污水溢流入秦淮河。初期雨水造成的城市非点源污染是受纳水体的重要污染源,在一些实施了分流制排水系统的城市,经过一段时间的运行,周边水体的污染情况改善不是十分明显。白下区雨污分流改造后,为避免初期雨水对内秦淮河污染,以大中桥泵站北截流沟为例,探讨在沿河截流井设提升泵弃流初期雨水,利用现状截流沟蓄水,结合规划改造大中桥泵站新建蓄水池,为今后雨水利用提供条件。     

中小城市污水排水问题及对策研究

为解决中小城市污水排水问题,进一步加强城市排水管理,改善城市水环境,杜绝雨污混排,提高污水处理率,分析和探讨了中小城市在污水排水系统建设、管理、维护中存在的问题,针对排水法规不健全、污水管网不完善、雨污分流难、管理不到位等问题进行原因分析,提出加强排水制度建设、加快排水设施的建设、加强排水管理、加强宣传教育等措施.     

不同模式预测公路交通噪声的区别研究

文章在详细介绍常见公路交通噪声预测模式区别的同时,进行了不同公路项目的设定,对高速公路、一级公路、二级公路、三级公路、四级公路项目分别采用了上述预测模式进行预测,通过不同预测模式下不同公路项目交通噪声的对比、分析,得出"对于一般公路项目,适合在对车速、车型比等参数进行合理校核的基础上,采用HJ/T 2.4-2009中推荐模式进行预测;其它项目,适合通过类比同类项目的交通噪声影响的方法进行预测"的结论。由于本文采用的模式均为行业内认可的模式,其预测结果及表现特点有助于准确地反映和预测公路交通噪声。     

Risk factors in urban road traffic accidents

INTRODUCTION: The urban road traffic accident (RTA) risks for the city of Zagreb, Croatia, from 1999 through 2000 were analyzed with the aim of reducing the increasing injury incidence. METHOD: Simple and bivariate analysis using chi(2), odds ratio, and confidence interval of 95% was used to determine risks in three outcome groups: killed, severely, and mildly injured. RESULTS: There were 528 RTA victims consisting of 260 severely, 213 mildly injured, and 55 killed at the scene of an accident and during transportation. More fatal accidents occurred during night hours (OR=3.78; 95% CI, 2.08-6.85), on urban road links (OR=2.33; 95% CI, 1.30-4.19), and at exceeding speed limit (OR=2.56; 95% CI, 1.43-4.61). More people were injured than killed on urban junctions (OR=5.27; 95% CI, 2.21-12.57). The highest combined risk of dying or being severely injured was found in males, driving at excessive speed, on urban links, and during bad visibility (OR=16.15; 95% CI, 3.901-66.881). CONCLUSION: These results will influence the urban traffic police enforcement measures, which will change inappropriate behavior of drivers and protect the least experienced road users.     

Validation of Urban Emission Inventories

Two emission validation methods are presented. The first method focuses on the precision of the emission factors and the accuracy of modelled traffic flows. Emission factors derived from the COPERT II methodology are compared with on-board emission measurements and modelled traffic flow rates are compared with observations. The second validation method focuses on the completeness of the inventory, i.e. coverage of all sources. The method compares measured pollutant fluxes in the urban plume with the downwind transported and dispersed emissions integrated over plume width and mixing height. Both methods seem to indicate that traffic emission factors used in the urban emission inventories show large uncertainties. Besides the lack of measurement precision this is mainly induced by external influence factors like driving behaviour and vehicle maintenance.