Field study on the behavior of right-turning vehicles in Malaysia and their contribution on the safety of unsignalized intersections

Behavior of right turning vehicles in the context of safety is characterized by their use of turning indicators and compliance with the stop rule. They are influence by the width of the carriageway and the variation in volume on the major road with respect to the traffic moving in the near and far side direction. Other factors affecting the behavior are the speed and spacing between vehicles moving on the major road. Lack of adequate past knowledge on the effect of geometric variation in terms of road width and directional variation in volume on the safety of unsignalized intersections have provided the motivation for this study. This paper focuses on the many factors that affect the behavior of right-turning vehicles resulting into conflicts. A brief account of the unique indigenous maneuver termed as the “Weaving Merging Right Turn” (WMRT) is provided and its effectiveness with respect to conventional right turn is evaluated. Data of 39,016 vehicles collected on 10 sites between January and June 2014 was analyzed. Multiple accidents were observed only on sites which had near side traffic volume greater than far side traffic volume. This result remains consistent with sites having single as well as multiple lanes per direction on the major roads. The number of conflicts for vehicles performing the WMRT was 2.5 times less as compared to the conventional right turn. Moreover WMRT was found to be the maneuver of choice for right turning motorcyclists with 60% of them opting for it over the conventional right turn on intersections having major road width less than 9 m. None of the motorcyclists, which were involved in a traffic conflict, were observed to use their turning indicator. Moreover none of the motorcyclists, which experienced a traffic conflict, were found to comply with the stopping rule at sites with major road width less than 9 m. On sites with major road width greater than 9 m, 45% of motorcyclists, involved in a traffic conflict, complied with the stopping rule as compared to 79% by vehicles other than motorcycles.     

Using naturalistic data to assess e-cyclist behavior

In Europe, the use of electric bicycles is rapidly increasing. This trend raises important safety concerns: Is their use compatible with existing infrastructure and regulations? Do they present novel safety issues? How do they impact other traffic? This study sought to address these concerns, using instrumented electric bicycles to monitor e-cyclists’ behavior in a naturalistic fashion. Data was collected from 12 bicyclists, each of whom rode an instrumented bicycle for two weeks. In total, 1500 km worth of data were collected, including 88 critical events (crashes and near-crashes). Analysis of these critical events identified pedestrians, light vehicles and other bicycles as main threats to a safe ride. Other factors also contributed to crash causation, such as being in proximity to a crossing or encountering a vehicle parked in the bicycle lane. A comparison between electric and traditional bicycles was enabled by the availability of data from a previous study a year earlier, which collected naturalistic cycling data from traditional bicycles using the same instrumentation as in this study. Electric bicycles were found to be ridden faster, on average, than traditional bicycles, in addition to interacting differently with other road users. The results presented in this study also suggest that countermeasures to bicycle crashes should be different for electric and traditional bicycles. Finally, increasing electric bicycle conspicuity appears to be the easiest, most obvious way to increase their safety.     

The effects of traffic wardens on the red-light infringement behavior of vulnerable road users

In some Chinese cities, traffic wardens are employed to maintain traffic order at the intersections with a high mixed traffic flow in peak hours. The main work of a traffic warden is to advise pedestrians and riders to wait at the appropriate area during red light periods. In many other countries, there are also traffic wardens at the areas with dense crowds or vehicles, such as at some large parking lots near parks and shopping malls. This paper investigated the effects of traffic wardens on the crossing behavior of pedestrians, cyclists and electric bike riders at signalized intersections. A total of 795 samples with traffic wardens and 773 samples without traffic wardens at intersections in Beijing, China were observed. Logistic regression and multivariate analysis of variance were used to test the effect of traffic wardens on the red-light crossing behavior. The results indicated that the presence of traffic wardens would significantly reduce by 21% red-light infringement behavior of vulnerable road users. However, the effects of traffic wardens were different among different groups. The effect of traffic wardens on reducing the violation rate for pedestrians was smaller compared to cyclists and electric bike riders (8% vs. 23% and 27%, respectively). The effect of traffic wardens was significant for the individuals approaching straight ahead the intersection, while it was not significant for the individuals approaching from the left and right sides of the observed direction. The possible reasons for the different effects and some practical countermeasures to reduce red light infringement were discussed. This study provides insights into the effects of traffic wardens on enhancing the safety of vulnerable road users under mixed traffic conditions. It is useful for the administrators to evaluate the supervision performance of traffic wardens and make informed decisions to employ traffic wardens at locations with dense crowds or vehicles.     

Pedestrians perceptions for utilization of pedestrian facilities – Delhi,India

Pedestrian fatalities from 2001 to 2009 in Delhi, India show that pedestrians have the largest share in total road fatalities. Though, facilities like pedestrian underpasses and overpasses are provided to cross the road at several locations, all too often pedestrians do not use them. This study was designed to analyze the pedestrians’ perceptions for underutilization of pedestrian facilities.Five hundred pedestrians were interviewed at seven different locations based on available pedestrian facilities such as zebra crossing, pedestrian underpasses and overpasses. Analysis of usage of these facilities showed that usage of underpasses and zebra crossing is less by female respondents. To know the safety and convenience perception of pedestrians with respect to a specific facility, ordinal logit model was used in this study. Results showed that convenience perception is statistically significant (at 95% CI) for the use of zebra crossings.The conclusions drawn from this study can be used to improve the state of pedestrian facilities in Delhi for prioritization of the facilities based on stated preferences.     

Place versus response as the basis of spatial errors made by young infants

Nine-month-old infants search successfully for an object which they have seen hidden in one position, but they frequently continue to search for it there after observing it being hidden in a new position. This error can be explained in terms either of egocentric response perseveration or of perseveration to a particular place in space. In order to distinguish between these hypotheses, 80 infants were presented with a problem consisting of several different conditions which separated response, position on a table, and absolute spatial position as factors leading to errors in search for hidden objects. The results strongly support the egocentric response hypothesis. The reason for this response perseveration strategy is discussed in terms of the lack of active experience of spatial displacements among 9-month-old infants.     

Interference with real world knowledge

Two experiments are described in which subjects studied made-up, fantasy facts about well-known persons and then were asked to verify actual facts about these persons. Reaction time to the actual facts was longer the more fantasy propositions studied about a person. Reaction time was also longer when the verification test involved a mixture of actual and fantasy facts rather than just actual facts. A mathematical version of the ACT model (Anderson, 1976) was fit to the data. It provides a satisfactory fit, better than an alternate model. However, some of the parameter values estimated for the ACT model seemed unreasonable.     

Social enhancement of laughter: an experimental analysis of some companion variables.

Three experiments, investigate companion influences on humorous laughter and smiling. Boys and girls, aged 7 to 9 years, were played humorous recordings through headphones in dyadic and solitary conditions. Experiment I demonstrates that social facilitation effects in laughter and smiling reported in Chapman (1973) generalize to cases where a 2-year age/status difference exists between naturalistic coactors. In Experiments II and III companions were confederates, 2 years senior to subjects. They responded to directions relayed through headphones (coaction conditions) or a concealed speaker (audience conditions). It is shown in Experiment II that subjects' laughter, smiling, and looking are facilitated by increases in the laughter and smiling of coactors and, in Experiment III, that audiences are less effective in promoting high levels of responses. While increments in the coactor's looking enhance smiling and looking, corresponding increases in laughter are not statistically significant. Humor-ratings are associated with behavioral responses in Experiment II, but not Experiment III. Interaction data and results from subsidiary conditions are discussed.     

Mismatching the opponent's offers in negotiation

Mismatching in negotiation involves responding with high demands to the opponent's low demands and with low demands to the opponent's high demands. Prior research has shown that the opponent's demands are often mismatched but that this effect is attenuated when information is available about the outcomes achieved by the opponent from the available alternatives. The present research showed that mismatching was also attenuated when the negotiator knew the location of the opponent's limit (the alternative beyond which the opponent would not concede). Two new interpretations of the attenuation effect were suggested on the basis of this finding. In addition, women were found to engage in more mismatching than men, being particularly likely to exploit a soft opponent.     

The magical number seven and some other features of category scaling: Properties of a model for absolute judgment

A model for absolute judgment is presented. This is derived from a theory of the processes which set and maintain response criteria (M. Treisman & T. C. Williams, 1984, Psychological Review, 91, 68–111) which has been applied to a number of problems in psychophysics. A Thurstonian model is assumed as a basis for absolute judgment, and criterion-setting theory is applied to the criteria in this model. The question is then considered, to what extent can such a model account for the main findings that have been obtained in category scaling? The range of explanations that the model can provide is investigated by means of computer simulation. It appears that features such as the upper limit on information transmission as the number of stimuli increases, the effect of stimulus range on information transmission, the accuracy edge effect, the resolution edge effect, the central tendency of judgment, stimulus and response dependencies, and related phenomena can be reproduced by simulations of the model.