A concept for Safe-Driving-Trainings with a focus on risky behavior and safety related attitudes has been evaluated. 519 participants have been tested before and after the training by means of a questionnaire with the topics: technical driving competence, awareness of risks, and propensity for anticipation. A control group (131 subjects) was used to check for the possibility of response artifacts. Three months later, 92 members of the treatment group and 25 members of the control group have been tested again. The results show significant positive changes in driving competence, risk awareness, and safety related attitudes, especially anticipation, due to the training. Compared to the control group the participants have become more risk aware and they regard of risk avoiding behavior as more important. The results show that this concept for Safe-Driving-Trainings has not only short-term but, more importantly, long-term positive effects on the safety-relevant attitudes and cognitions of young drivers.
This paper will outline ETSC's contribution to the European Union's road safety policy 2011-2020. It will present some of the main recommendations from ETSC's Blueprint for the 4th Road Safety Action Programme and will introduce the response to the European Commission's Road Safety Policy Orientations 2011-2020 (published July 2010). The second framework document presented is the Transport White Paper (published March 2011). The paper will focus on new targets and the new vision set for Europe's Road Safety policy picking out some issues in particular such as traffic law enforcement and the protection of vulnerable road users. It will argue that by reinforcing the current Road Safety Policy Orientations, the EU will be better placed to reach its new ambitious goal of halving road deaths by 2020 and the longer term zero casualty vision.
There is a need to continue to set the right vehicle safety policy priorities in the future. Research has to point out the most cost efficient and safety relevant measures to further reduce the number of road traffic casualties. The overall development shows that the constant and rapid decrease in the number of road casualties slows down. New innovations need to enter the vehicle market soon, in order to continue the success achieved in the last decade. Priorities for vehicle safety are driven by safety and mobility demands. It is necessary to keep a strong lid on all aspects of elderly and vulnerable road users. The fraction of powered-two-wheelers (PTW) is a priority group. PTWs have a risk of being involved in an accident, 14times higher than that of a passenger car. However, the figures do also show that every second fatality is a car occupant. Therefore passenger car safety remains to be top priority. Heavy goods vehicles are overly represented in fatal accidents, addressing the need to make these vehicles more compatible with other road users. These facts highlight the necessity not only to increase vehicles" self protection, but also to make cars - and trucks - more compatible and safe. Cycling is a strongly increasing mode of transport. This is a further reason to demand better protection for cyclists and pedestrians from car design and car active and integrated safety systems. Another priority for future vehicle safety is related to demographics. It is less known that the purely demographic effect will be superimposed by an increasing wish of elderly people to be mobile. However, elderly people show deficits concerning their biomechanics. This emphasizes the need for better and more adaptive restraint systems, but also further technological challenges and demands for active safety systems. However, in order to progress, current technological limitations have to be overcome. Cost benefit considerations, but also consumer acceptance and desires, will drive this process.
It is commonly agreed that active safety will have a significant impact on reducing accident figures for pedestrians and probably also bicyclists. However, chances and limitations for active safety systems have only been derived based on accident data and the current state of the art, based on proprietary simulation models. The objective of this article is to investigate these chances and limitations by developing an open simulation model. This article introduces a simulation model, incorporating accident kinematics, driving dynamics, driver reaction times, pedestrian dynamics, performance parameters of different autonomous emergency braking (AEB) generations, as well as legal and logical limitations. The level of detail for available pedestrian accident data is limited. Relevant variables, especially timing of the pedestrian appearance and the pedestrian's moving speed, are estimated using assumptions. The model in this article uses the fact that a pedestrian and a vehicle in an accident must have been in the same spot at the same time and defines the impact position as a relevant accident parameter, which is usually available from accident data. The calculations done within the model identify the possible timing available for braking by an AEB system as well as the possible speed reduction for different accident scenarios as well as for different system configurations. The simulation model identifies the lateral impact position of the pedestrian as a significant parameter for system performance, and the system layout is designed to brake when the accident becomes unavoidable by the vehicle driver. Scenarios with a pedestrian running from behind an obstruction are the most demanding scenarios and will very likely never be avoidable for all vehicle speeds due to physical limits. Scenarios with an unobstructed person walking will very likely be treatable for a wide speed range for next generation AEB systems.
Within the automotive context camera monitor systems (CMS) can be used to present views of the traffic situation behind the vehicle to the driver via a monitor mounted inside the cabin. This offers the opportunity to replace classical outside rearview mirrors and therefore to implement new design concepts, aerodynamically optimized vehicle shapes and to reduce the width of the vehicle. Further, the use of a CMS offers the potential to implement functionalities like warnings or situation-adaptive fields of view that are not feasible with conventional rearview mirrors. Despite these potential advantages, it is important to consider the possible technical constraints of this technology and its effect on driver perception and behavior. On the technical side next to the field of view and die robustness of die system, aspects as its functionality at day and night as well as under varying weather conditions should be object to scientific investigation. Concerning human machine interaction, it has to be considered, that the perception of velocities and distances of approaching vehicles might be different for CMS as compared to conventional rearview mirrors and potential influences of factors as the Position of the displays or drivers' age should be taken into account. In order to shed light on these and further open issues, BASt is currently conducting a study that will cover the use of CMS under controlled conditions as well in real traffic. The first part of the study will focus on passenger cars, while in a second step the empirical investigation will be extended to heavy goods vehicles, where the potentials as well as the limitations of CMS might differ considerably. The presentation will cover the first part, with regard to the experimental design, implementation and initial results if already available.
To determine whether the model "Accompanied driving from age 17" (AD17) contributes to improvement of young drivers' road safety, two large random samples of novice drivers drawn from the Central Register of Driving Licences (ZFER) held at the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) were compared in terms of the rates of accident involvement and traffic offences at the start of their solo driving career. The samples comprised former participants in the AD17 model and novice drivers of the same age who had obtained a driving licence in the conventional manner immediately after their 18th birthday. Both analysis groups were contacted by post and asked to complete an online questionnaire. In response, 19,000 drivers reported on their first year of solo driving and on the occurrence of any accidents or traffic offences during this period. The analyses were repeated with two "silent" analysis groups comprising a total of 75,000 drivers, for whom any records of traffic offences were retrieved from the Central Register of Traffic Offenders (VZR), with a distinction being made between offences in connection with an accident and other offences. The AD17 model was introduced in all 16 German federal states between April 2004 and January 2008. By the end of 2009, almost one million novice drivers had participated in the model, and almost three-quarters of the target group - so-called "early beginners" who wished to commence solo driving immediately after reaching the age of 18 years - opted for the AD17 model. The phase of introduction of the model was associated with a temporary increase of around five per cent in the demand for driving licences from persons under 19 years of age. During the first year of solo driving, the rate of accident involvement for AD17 participants was 19 per cent lower and the rate of traffic offences 18 per cent lower than for drivers of the same age who had obtained their driving licence in the conventional manner. After adjustment for confounds (e.g. gender and vehicle availability), a reduction in accidents by 17 per cent and in traffic offences by 15 per cent remained as an effect attributable to the model. A comparison on the basis of the distances driven indicated 22 per cent fewer accidents and 20 per cent fewer traffic offences. The results are statistically significant and apply to both male and female drivers. The findings were confirmed in the replication study based on VZR data, with one exception: For female AD17 drivers, and here only for VZR-recorded offences excluding accidents, no significant reduction was found. On the other hand, the rate for female drivers is already lower than that of their male counterparts by three-quarters. Approximately 1,700 injury accidents were prevented by implementation of the model in 2009.
In Germany the number of casualties in passenger car to pedestrian crashes has been reduced by a considerable amount of 40% as regards fatalities and 25% with regard to seriously injured pedestrians since the year 2001. Similar trends can be seen in other European countries. The reasons for that positive development are still under investigation. As infrastructural or behavioral changes do in general take a longer time to be effective in real world, explanations related to improved active and passive safety of passenger vehicles can be more relevant in providing answers for this trend. The effect of passive pedestrian protection " specified by the Euro NCAP pedestrian test result " is of particular interest and has already been analyzed by several authors. However, the number of vehicles with some valid Euro NCAP pedestrian score (post 2002 rating) was quite limited in most of those studies. To overcome this problem of small datasets German National Accident Records have been taken to investigate a similar objective but now based on a much bigger dataset. The paper uses German National Accident Records from the years 2009 to 2011. In total 65.140 records of pedestrian to passenger car crashes have been available. Considering crash parameters like accident location (rural / urban areas) etc., 27.143 of those crashes have been classified to be relevant for the analysis of passive pedestrian safety. In those 27.143 records 7.576 Euro NCAP rated vehicles (post 2002 rating) have been identified. In addition it was possible to identify vehicles which comply with pedestrian protection legislation (2003/102/EG) where phase 1 came into force in October 2005. A significant correlation between Euro NCAP pedestrian score and injury outcome in real-life car to pedestrian crashes was found. Comparing a vehicle scoring 5 points and a vehicle scoring 22 points, pedestrians" conditional probability of getting fatally injured is reduced by 35% (from 0.58% to 0.37%) for the later one. At the same time the probability of serious injuries can be reduced by 16% (from 27.4% to 22.9%). No significant injury reducing effect, associated with the introduction of pedestrian protection legislation (phase 1) was detected. Considerable effects have also been identified comparing diesel and gasoline cars. Higher engine displacements are associated with a lower injury risk for pedestrians. The most relevant parameter has been "time of accident", whereas pedestrians face a more than 2 times higher probability to be fatally injured during night and darkness as compared to daytime conditions.
Aktive Systeme der passiven Fahrzeugsicherheit zum Fußgängerschutz, sogenannte crash-aktive Fußgängerschutzsysteme, werden seit 2005 zur Erfüllung der gesetzlichen Anforderungen (siehe Verordnung (EG) Nr. 78/2009 und 631/2009) in Serienfahrzeugen eingesetzt. Diese crash-aktiven Fußgängerschutzsysteme stellen im Gegensatz zu den rein passiven Systemen nur eine instationäre Lösung dar. Da die innerhalb der gesetzlichen Anforderungen definierten Testverfahren zur Bewertung stationärer Systeme entwickelt wurden, können derzeit mögliche Risiken instationärer Systeme nicht berücksichtigt werden. Im Rahmen dieses Forschungsprojektes soll ein Bewertungsverfahren für diese crash-aktiven Fußgängerschutzsysteme entwickelt werden, welches das reale Potential dieser Systeme möglichst gut wiedergibt. Basis hierfür soll eine umfangreiche Untersuchung zusätzlicher Risiken bilden. Die hier untersuchten instationären Schutzmaßnahmen werden nur im Falle eines Fahrzeuganpralls gegen Fußgänger aktiviert, der daher zuverlässig erkannt werden muss. Für die hierfür eingesetzten, kontaktbasierten Sensorsysteme stellen Fußgänger mit geringen Lasteinträgen in die Fahrzeugfront eine große Herausforderung dar. Die Lasteinträge hängen von zahlreichen Faktoren, wie bspw. der Höhe der entsprechenden Krafteinleitungspfade sowie der Größe und dem Gewichts des Fußgängers, ab. Mit Hilfe von umfangreichen Anprallversuchen und -simulationen wird gezeigt, dass die bisher eingesetzten Prüfkörper nur zum Teil für die Erfüllung dieser Anforderungen geeignet sind. Für ein geeignetes Prüfverfahren müssen daher neue Prüfkörper entwickelt werden. Durch die Aktivierung der Schutzmaßnahme soll bei den crash-aktiven Systemen vor allem das Verletzungsrisiko beim Kopfanprall verringert werden. Hierfür wird häufig die hintere Motorhaubenkante angehoben, um zusätzlichen Deformationsfreiraum zur Verfügung zu stellen. Die Haubenanhebung kann jedoch auch in zusätzlichen Verletzungsrisiken resultieren, bspw. durch die exponierte hintere Haubenkante oder die Verringerung des Deformationsfreiraums in Folge des Oberkörperanpralls. Ein Ersatzprüfverfahren zur Bewertung der Haubendeformation mit Hilfe des Hüftimpaktors wird vorgestellt. Ein hybrides Testverfahren bestehend aus Simulation und Versuch eignet sich für eine objektive Bewertung dieser Systeme, wobei die entsprechenden Versuchsparameter mit Hilfe der vorherigen Simulation bestimmt werden können.
Die Ermittlung von Grundunfallkostenraten und Quantifizierung von Zuschlägen für Landstraßenquerschnitte sind Ziel dieses Forschungsvorhabens. Die Ergebnisse sollen eine Bewertungsgrundlage im Handbuch für die Verkehrssicherheit von Straßen (HVS) darstellen. 3.600 km Landstraße aus sechs Bundesländern liegen dem Untersuchungskollektiv zu Grunde. Neben dem mehrjährigen Unfallgeschehen bilden Daten der SIB und Erhebungen aus Streckenbefahrungen die Datengrundlage der Untersuchungen. Die Zuordnung der Streckenabschnitte erfolgte in Anlehnung an den Entwurf der Richtlinie für die Anlage von Landstraßen (RAL) in fünf verschiedene (Regel-) Querschnittsgruppen. Multivariate Modelle zur Beschreibung der Unfallhäufigkeit bilden die mathematische Grundlage der Analyse. Gegenüber monokausalen Betrachtungen weisen sie den Vorteil auf, eine Vielzahl von Einflussgrößen zu erfassen sowie mögliche Abhängigkeiten zwischen verschiedenen Variablen zu berücksichtigen. Für die verschiedenen Straßenquerschnitte und Einmündungen mit Vorfahrtregelung durch Verkehrszeichen wurden jeweils drei Modelle nach Unfallschwere erstellt. Zu Grunde liegende Merkmale wurden auf ihren signifikanten Erklärungsanteil zur Beschreibung der Unfallhäufigkeit geprüft und entsprechend im Modell als Zuschlag berücksichtigt. Auf Basis dieser Ergebnisse wurden Funktionen zum Verlauf der Unfallrate und Unfallkostenrate erzeugt. Grundunfallkostenraten beschreiben das fahrleistungsbezogene Unfallkostenniveau eines Netzelements, welches bei regelkonformem Ausbau der Strecke erreicht werden kann. Da in den Modellen auch Merkmale berücksichtigt sind, die kein Defizit im eigentlichen Sinne darstellen, entspricht die Höhe der UKR ohne jegliche Zuschläge einem Grundniveau. Diesem sind Zuschläge, unterteilt in Defizite und die Streckencharakteristik beschreibende Eigenschaften, zuzuordnen. Anhand der Modelle kann nachgewiesen werden, dass verschiedene Straßenquerschnitte ein unterschiedliches Grundsicherheitsniveau aufweisen. Zwischen Unfallhäufigkeit und DTV besteht ein nichtlinearer Zusammenhang. Die Unfallrate bzw. Unfallkostenrate stellt somit eine vom DTV abhängige Kenngröße dar. In Abhängigkeit des Querschnitts besitzen verschiedene Merkmale einen Einfluss auf die Verkehrssicherheit. Die Größenordnung der Zuschläge kann als Anteil am Grundniveau der UKR beschrieben werden. Die ermittelten Zuschläge wurden ggf. vergleichend betrachtet und im Rahmen einer plausibilisierten Bewertung der Querschnitte angepasst. In Anlehnung an das HVS erfolgt die Darstellung der Berechnung für Grundunfallkostenraten und deren Zuschläge für Landstraßenquerschnitte. Dabei werden zwei verschiedene Ansätze vorgestellt. Die Ergebnisse für Einmündungen mit Vorfahrtregelung durch Verkehrszeichen besitzen empfehlenden Charakter.
Der Weg zur Schule soll für alle Kinder möglichst sicher sein. An vielen Orten gibt es auf dem Schulweg allerdings Gefahrenstellen, zum Beispiel unübersichtliche Kreuzungen, Ampeln mit langer Wartezeit oder sehr schmale Gehwege. In solchen Fällen kann ein Schulwegplan die Sicherheit der Schülerinnen und Schüler deutlich verbessern. Der Schulwegplan ist eine kartografische Darstellung des Umfelds einer Schule, die sichere Querungsstellen, Gefahrenstellen und deren Bewältigung sowie günstige Wege vom Wohnort der Kinder zur Schule aufzeigt. Schulwegpläne sind in den meisten Bundesländern nicht verbindlich vorgeschrieben. Dort, wo Schulwegpläne "empfohlen" werden oder "verbindlich" zu erstellen sind, sind konkrete Hinweise für die Art der Umsetzung in der Regel nicht verfügbar. Der Leitfaden wendet sich deshalb an Laien - Eltern, Schulen, Kommunen, Polizei und alle, die einen Schulwegplan mit vertretbarem Aufwand selbst erstellen wollen. Einleitend werden beispielhaft Schulwegpläne für Grundschulen und weiterführende Schulen vorgestellt. Um in den "Prozess Schulwegplan" einsteigen zu können, werden Informationen zur Startphase gegeben und die nötigen Bestandsaufnahmen und Analysen erläutert. Es wird dargestellt, wie hochwertige Schulwegpläne selbstständig und ohne Zusatzkosten erstellt werden können und wie anschließend eine Wirkungskontrolle zur Überprüfung der Maßnahmen durchgeführt wird. Des Weiteren werden Hinweise auf weitere Vorlagen und Materialien, die ergänzend genutzt werden können, gegeben.