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Road Safety as a Pillar of Sustainable Transportation

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2022) | Viewed by 11427

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Gianfranco Fancello

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari, 09123 Cagliari, Italy
Interests: maritime transport and logistics; human factors; active and passive safety; relations land use transport; transport planning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Patrizia Serra

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari, 09123 Cagliari, Italy
Interests: sustainable transportation systems; decision support systems; human factors and transport safety; maritime logistics; transportation planning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The concept of sustainable transportation has been traditionally declined in the three components: social, environmental and economic. However, there is another component that should be considered when aiming to design a truly sustainable transport system: safety. Sustainability and safety are two closely interrelated concepts that both concern the conservation of resources. While sustainability is typically associated with environmental resources, safety is about human resources and the safeguarding of human life. The basic principle is that a transportation system cannot be sustainable if it is not safe for humans and that nothing is more valuable than human life. Road safety can be described as not only the measures taken to reduce the risk of road traffic injuries and deaths, but also the feeling of being safe within the road system and the assurance that the user will not be severely injured or killed in that system. Safety is now acknowledged in global environmental policies as essential to achieve sustainable development and should be a prerequisite for mobility, especially in developing countries where the number of road deaths is still too high. Safer transportation and mobility are central to sustainable development, because they can strengthen economic growth and increase accessibility due to a safe and affordable transportation system.

As part of this Special Issue, we invite both original and review papers that discuss methodologies, case studies, conceptual and theoretical studies relevant to the implementation of sustainable and safe transport in urban and rural areas. The papers can target different domains including, but not limited to:

- Indicators and decision support tools to assist road network managers in planning, monitoring and managing road safety interventions;

- Human factors studies analysing the role of the human component in transport safety and the driving behaviours;

- Interactions between transport safety and organization of urban space: how transport safety affects urban planning and vice versa;

- Transport safety as a prerequisite for smart and sustainable cities;

- Implementation of innovative engineering measures for road safety and protection of vulnerable road users (a.o., traffic calming interventions, active and passive safety, etc.);

- Safety assessment methods for roads using metrics and analytical approaches based on road traffic accident databases;

- Transport policies enabling safer mobility;

- Analytical approaches based to inform development of efficient measures.

- Big data applications to facilitate safe and sustainable transport.

Prof. Dr. Gianfranco Fancello
Dr. Patrizia Serra
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

road safety
sustainable development
sustainable transport
road accidents
safety management
driving behaviour
road safety implications
road safety strategies
road safety planning
human factors

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 1747 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Evaluation of a Public Technology-Based Traffic Enforcement Program

by Gila Albert, Dimitry Bukchin and Tomer Toledo

Sustainability 2021, 13(21), 11966; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su132111966 - 29 Oct 2021

Viewed by 1434

Abstract

While police enforcement is a well-known means of reducing traffic violations, it is also recognized that other agents should be involved in creating sustainable deterrence. This paper describes and evaluates the Israeli Road Guards program, a new and unique type of traffic enforcement, which enables simple technology-based enforcement of traffic violations by citizens. In its 24 months of operation, more than 3400 volunteers who submitted over 64,000 violation reports were involved in this program. Each report went through a rigorous evaluation process. More than 80% of the submitted reports were rejected in the various stages of the procedure. In 13.7% of the cases a notice letter was sent, and in 4.3% of cases (reflecting the most severe offenses) a citation was issued by the police. The monthly rate of report submission by the volunteers was at its highest initially, then decreased and stabilized after about six months at 1.4 reports per month. The proportion of active volunteers also decreased over time to a level of 0.26 at the end of the study period. The violation types reported within the program differed substantially from those captured by police enforcement. These differences are likely due to the manner in which each mode of enforcement was performed. The most common violations reported by volunteers were lane deviations, red light running and driving on the roads’ shoulders, which are easily documented by means of video recordings. They are also associated with higher crash risks. Thus, the results show that such public technology-based traffic enforcement, which can be carried out during regular daily driving and does not require anyone to make extra trips, may efficiently complement traditional police enforcement. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Road Safety as a Pillar of Sustainable Transportation)

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16 pages, 2656 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Highway Deceleration Lane Safety: Effects of Real-Time Coaching Programs on Driving Behavior

by Federico Orsini, Mariaelena Tagliabue, Giulia De Cet, Massimiliano Gastaldi and Riccardo Rossi

Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 9089; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13169089 - 13 Aug 2021

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2830

Abstract

Real-time coaching programs are designed to give feedback on driving behavior to usage-based motor insurance users; they are often general purpose programs that aim to promote smooth driving. Here, we investigated the effect of different on-board real-time coaching programs on the driving behavior on highway deceleration lanes with a driving simulator experiment. The experiment was organized into two trials. The first was a baseline trial, in which participants drove without receiving any feedback; a cluster analysis was then performed to divide participants into two groups, based on their observed driving style. One month later, a second trial was carried out, with participants driving on the same path as the first trial, this time receiving contingent feedback related to their braking/acceleration behavior. Four feedback systems were tested; overall, there were eight experimental groups, depending on the clustered driving style (aggressive and defensive), feedback modality (visual and auditory), and feedback valence (positive and negative). Speed, deceleration, trajectory, and lateral control variables, collected before and onto the deceleration lane, were investigated with mixed ANOVAs, which showed that the real-time coaching programs significantly reduced speeds and maximum deceleration values, while improving lateral control. A change toward a safer exit strategy (i.e., entering the lane before starting to decelerate) was also observed in defensive drivers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Road Safety as a Pillar of Sustainable Transportation)

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19 pages, 544 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sustainable Public Safety and the Case of Two Epidemics: COVID-19 and Traffic Crashes. Can We Extrapolate from One to the Other?

by Tsippy Lotan and David Shinar

Sustainability 2021, 13(6), 3136; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13063136 - 12 Mar 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1873

Abstract

COVID-19 and motor vehicle crashes (MVC) are both considered epidemics by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), yet their progression, treatment and success in treatment have been very different. In this paper, we propose that the well-established sustainable safety approach to road safety can be applied to the management of COVID-19. We compare COVID-19 and MVC in terms of several defining characteristics, including evolvement and history, definitions and measures of evaluation, main attributes and characteristics, countermeasures, management and coping strategies, and key success factors. Despite stark differences, there are also some similarities between the two epidemics, and these enable insights into how the principles of sustainable road safety can be utilized to cope with and guide the treatment of COVID-19. Major guidelines that can be adopted include an aggressive policy set at the highest national level. The policy should be data- and science-based and would be most effective when relying on a systems approach (such as Sweden’s Vision Zero, the Netherlands’ Sustainable Safety, and the recommended EU Safe System). The policy should be enforceable and supplemented with positive public information and education campaigns (rather than scare tactics). Progression of mortality and morbidity should be tracked continuously to enable adjustments. Ethical issues (such as invasion of privacy) should be addressed to maximize public acceptance. Interestingly, the well-established domain of MVC can also benefit from the knowledge, experience, and strategies used in addressing COVID-19 by raising the urgency of detection and recognition of new risk factors (e.g., cell phone distractions), developing and implementing appropriate policy and countermeasures, and emphasizing the saliency of the impact of MVC on our daily lives. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Road Safety as a Pillar of Sustainable Transportation)

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21 pages, 618 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Relating Reactive and Proactive Aggression to Trait Driving Anger in Young and Adult Males: A Pilot Study Using Explicit and Implicit Measures

by Veerle Ross, Nora Reinolsmann, Jill Lobbestael, Chantal Timmermans, Tom Brijs, Wael Alhajyaseen and Kris Brijs

Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 1850; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13041850 - 08 Feb 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2560

Abstract

Driving anger and aggressive driving are main contributors to crashes, especially among young males. Trait driving anger is context-specific and unique from other forms of anger. It is necessary to understand the mechanisms of trait driving anger to develop targeted interventions. Although literature conceptually distinguished reactive and proactive aggression, this distinction is uncommon in driving research. Similar, cognitive biases related to driving anger, measured by a combination of explicit and implicit measures, received little attention. This pilot study related explicit and implicit measures associated with reactive and proactive aggression to trait driving anger, while considering age. The sample consisted of 42 male drivers. The implicit measures included a self-aggression association (i.e., Single-Target Implicit Association Test) and an attentional aggression bias (i.e., Emotional Stroop Task). Reactive aggression related positively with trait driving anger. Moreover, a self-aggression association negatively related to trait driving anger. Finally, an interaction effect for age suggested that only in young male drivers, higher proactive aggression related to lower trait driving anger. These preliminary results motivate further attention to the combination of explicit and implicit measures related to reactive and proactive aggression in trait driving anger research. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Road Safety as a Pillar of Sustainable Transportation)

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