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Risk Assessment in Traffic and Transportation II

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Transportation and Future Mobility".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2023) | Viewed by 8196

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering (DICIV), University of Salerno, 84084 Fisciano, SA, Italy
Interests: transportation engineering; risk analysis; methods and models for statistical analysis of road accidents; computational fluid dynamics modeling of fire in tunnels; people evacuation process; tunnel resilience; risks due to the transport of hydrogen and electric vehicles; concrete spalling; road pavement combustion; traffic simulation
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Co-Guest Editor
Department of Chemical Engineering Materials Environment, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Rome, Italy
Interests: QRA; CFD modeling of fires and explosions of dust, gas, and hybrid mixtures; the safety of Li-ion batteries; modeling of forest fires; catalytic abatement of carbonaceous particulates from diesel engines; pyrolysis and combustion of coals, biomasses, and their mixtures; coal gasification; food engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Co-Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Calabria, 87036 Rende, Italy
Interests: transportation; road traffic simulation; road traffic safety; mobile computing applied to transportation systems; smart traffic lights; road safety performances
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The consequences of road accidents and/or of fires in tunnels might be very severe in terms of: (i) fatalities and injuries; (ii) damage to vehicles and structures; (iii) impact on the traffic flow and its disturbance for the transportation of goods; and (iv) their effect on transport economy. As a result, there is a need to provide a greater in-depth scientific knowledge for a sustainable road development, since mobility demand is expected to increase significantly in the coming years. In this respect, risk analysis is an important tool that can be helpful in improving and/or optimizing the safety level of traffic and transportation of goods. This Special Issue calls for papers with innovative contributions that provide results of emerging research, and future directions of knowledge in the context of risk assessment of the road environment. Potential topics include but are not limited to engineering measures for road safety, advanced traffic control systems, new standards for road design, innovative equipment for the safeguarding of users, and transport of dangerous goods.

The aforementioned topics need to be focused on open roads and/or tunnels.

Prof. Dr. Ciro Caliendo
Dr. Paola Russo
Dr. Vittorio Astarita
Guest Editors

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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

  • risk assessment
  • safety level
  • open roads
  • tunnels
  • traffic flow
  • transport of dangerous goods
  • transport economy

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 1112 KiB  
Article
Assessing the Impact of Increasing Tractor-Trailer Speed Limit on the Safety and Mobility of Three-Lane Highways in Egypt
by Usama Elrawy Shahdah, Sangbin Na and Jong Wan Hu
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(24), 12702; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122412702 - 11 Dec 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1405
Abstract
Currently, the speed limit for tractor-trailers (TTs) on Egyptian highways is 30 km/h lower than the speed limit for passenger cars (PCs). The main purpose of this article is therefore to evaluate the effects of an increase in TT speed limit on both [...] Read more.
Currently, the speed limit for tractor-trailers (TTs) on Egyptian highways is 30 km/h lower than the speed limit for passenger cars (PCs). The main purpose of this article is therefore to evaluate the effects of an increase in TT speed limit on both the traffic safety and mobility of Egyptian three-lane highways, with speed limits of 90 and 100 km/h for PCs. A SUMO simulation model was used in this analysis. Average vehicle delay was used as a measure of mobility, while the simulated conflict ratio based on time to collision (TTC) and deceleration rate required to avoid crash (DRAC) surrogate safety measures were used as performance indicators of safety. All simulated vehicles were equipped with surrogate safety measurement (SSM) devices to extract traffic conflicts, with TTC ≤ 2.50 representing less sever conflicts; TTC ≤ 1.50 s and DRAC ≥ 3.35 m/s2 representing potential conflicts; and TTC ≤ 0.50 s and DRAC ≥ 6.0 m/s2 representing severe conflicts. The results show that increasing the speed limit for TTs would significantly reduce the average delay by approximately 27–76% for traffic volumes 500–2000 vehicle/hr/lane, with TTs comprising 2.5–15% of total traffic volume. Furthermore, in most cases, when comparing the situation after the speed limit increase for TTs with the base case (i.e., TTs with a speed limit of 60 km/h and 70 km/h for highways, and a speed limit of 90 km/h and 100 km/h for PCs), the results show no statistically significant change in the conflict ratio more than 1.0, suggesting that there is no safety change. Furthermore, due to the increase in speed limit for TTs, in some cases and for different thresholds, there is a statistically significant reduction in the conflict ratio, indicating improvements in terms of safety. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Risk Assessment in Traffic and Transportation II)
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48 pages, 6238 KiB  
Article
An Assessment Model for Air Passenger Risk Classification
by Hang Zhou, Yuting Xue, Ziqi Jiang, Fanger Cai and Weicong Li
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(19), 9580; https://doi.org/10.3390/app12199580 - 23 Sep 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1840
Abstract
In order to solve the problem of passenger risk classification, an assessment model for air passenger risk classification based on the analytic hierarchy process and improved fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method is constructed. The existing index systems are improved by the comprehensive method. The [...] Read more.
In order to solve the problem of passenger risk classification, an assessment model for air passenger risk classification based on the analytic hierarchy process and improved fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method is constructed. The existing index systems are improved by the comprehensive method. The index system of passenger risk assessment is established, which includes 23 indexes from five aspects: basic background, personal status, economic situation, personal conduct and civil aviation travel. In addition, the weight of each index is determined by the analytic hierarchy process. An improved method of determining fuzzy relation matrixes is proposed. The single factor evaluation vectors of discrete indexes can be determined according to the results of probability statistics, and the single factor evaluation vectors of continuous indexes are calculated by fitting function. Then the assessment model for passenger risk classification based on the improved fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method is established. According to the characteristic analysis of civil aviation passengers and terrorists, typical passenger samples of high, medium and low risk are set to verify the model. The results show that the evaluation results of typical passenger samples are consistent with the basic assumptions. The model is suitable for risk classification assessment of air passengers. Moreover, the tedious evaluation process is reduced compared with the traditional fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Risk Assessment in Traffic and Transportation II)
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21 pages, 1053 KiB  
Article
Study on Risk of Long-Steep Downgrade Sections of Expressways Based on a Fuzzy Hierarchy Comprehensive Evaluation
by Yifei Zhao, Jingru Li and Xinzhi Ying
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(12), 5924; https://doi.org/10.3390/app12125924 - 10 Jun 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1725
Abstract
The long-steep downgrade sections of expressways are characterized by a large elevation difference, poor horizontal and vertical alignment, and the easy failure of brakes on large trucks. They are sections with a high overall operation safety risk. It is necessary to strengthen the [...] Read more.
The long-steep downgrade sections of expressways are characterized by a large elevation difference, poor horizontal and vertical alignment, and the easy failure of brakes on large trucks. They are sections with a high overall operation safety risk. It is necessary to strengthen the research on traffic risk evaluation. In order to study the traffic safety risks of long-steep downgrade parts of expressways, the fuzzy hierarchical comprehensive evaluation method is used to establish the calculation model. First, an evaluation index system including the target level, rule level, first-level index level and second-level index level is established. The qualitative and quantitative indicators are processed by the set value statistical method and the linear standard method, respectively, so that all indicators can be quantitatively evaluated together. Then, each indicator is assigned a score and divided into five risk levels, and a ridge-shaped fuzzy distribution is used to constitute a membership function for each level. A hierarchical structure model is established with the analytic hierarchy process to determine the affiliation between the upper and lower levels, and the relative weight of each level to the upper level also can be obtained. Finally, according to the hierarchical relevance of each evaluation indicator, a three-level fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model is constructed. The traffic risk evaluation level for long-steep downgrade sections can be obtained, and the probability of the corresponding risk evaluation level can be calculated. Through the risk evaluation of the long-steep downgrade sections of the Fuzhou Yinchuan Expressway in China, this shows that the risk evaluation conclusion obtained by using this evaluation method is consistent with the actual traffic safety situation, which shows that the traffic safety risk evaluation model based on a fuzzy hierarchy comprehensive evaluation is operable. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Risk Assessment in Traffic and Transportation II)
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25 pages, 6961 KiB  
Article
A Simultaneous Analysis of the User Safety and Resilience of a Twin-Tube Road Tunnel
by Ciro Caliendo, Gianluca Genovese and Isidoro Russo
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(7), 3357; https://doi.org/10.3390/app12073357 - 25 Mar 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2406
Abstract
This study complements our previous work with a simultaneous analysis of user safety and road tunnel resilience. We developed a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model and simulated the corresponding egress process to evaluate the risk level of users exposed to different types of [...] Read more.
This study complements our previous work with a simultaneous analysis of user safety and road tunnel resilience. We developed a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model and simulated the corresponding egress process to evaluate the risk level of users exposed to different types of fire, such those which might occur on the undisrupted lane of a partially closed tube tunnel due to a traffic accident, or in the adjacent tube when used for two-way traffic in the case of the complete closure of the tube involved in the accident. The CFD results showed that: (i) better environmental conditions were found with the partial closure of the tube rather than the complete one; (ii) additional benefits can be achieved by activating variable message signs (VMSs) that suggest an alternative itinerary for heavy good vehicles (HGVs) only; (iii) safety issues for human health may arise only in the case of a 100 MW fire, occurring during the complete closure of the tube and the use of the parallel one for two-way traffic. The findings of the CFD simulations were subsequently used to perform a quantitative risk analysis (QRA) based on a probabilistic approach. The findings of the QRA were found to be consistent with those obtained by the tunnel resilience analysis. In particular, the lowest risk level for user safety was found with the partial closure of the tube instead of the complete one, and by activating the VMSs to redirect HGVs only towards an alternative itinerary. This finding was found to correspond to a higher resilience index of the tunnel (i.e., a lower resilience loss due to a traffic accident occurring in a tube). This study increases our knowledge on certain relevant aspects of the operating conditions of tunnels and can serve as a possible reference for tunnel management agencies (TMAs) in their choice of the most appropriate arrangement to recover the functionality of a tunnel taking into account both user safety and resilience at the same time. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Risk Assessment in Traffic and Transportation II)
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