In this paper, a different interpretation of sustainable transportation, is introduced, in which sustainability with respect to transportation sector for the selected countries is evaluated. This interpretation characterizes "sustainable development" through "harmonic development". It means sustainable development with special focus on transportation can be measured by the degree of conformity between environment, economy, and social aspects on one hand, and transportation on the other hand. The best indicator to perform such a measurement is elasticity. The database used for the study encompasses a series of national indicators for each country Seventy nine countries were initially selected for detailed analysis for the period of 1980 -1995. The data have been extracted from centralized information sources of international agencies. The key dimensions of sustainable development i.e. social, environmental, and economic characteristics are used. Firstly, a set of sustainable transportation indicators is introduced. These indicators, which in fact are elasticities, show the relative change of non-transportation variables with respect to transportation ones. Second composite indices of three non-transportation groups with respect to four transportation modes are calculated. The composite indices are then aggregated by the Concordance Analysis Technique to achieve comprehensive transportation sustainability indices of countries, and according to these values, the countries are compared, ranked, and classified. Mathematical and statistical analyses of the database support the study quantitatively. The results for the selected indicators and countries show that from sustainable transportation point of view and based on the above-mentioned interpretation of sustainable development, United States is in the ranked first, and Sierra Leon is last among the subset of 79 countries with non-missing data. The results of the study depict an overall scheme for comparative assessment of transportation sustainability of the countries.
Many governments in the developing world face the social and economic consequences of road accidents and mortalities. Hence, more precise evaluation of regional programs to reduce road fatalities has been a concern for many safety professionals. Road safety performance is often measured using various extensions of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), in particular the model proposed by Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes (CCR), which deals only with the radial efficiency as the objective function neither taking into account input excesses nor output shortfalls. The Slacks-Based Measure (SBM) of efficiency overcomes this shortcoming by taking both measurements mentioned above simultaneously. In this regard, the current study aims to employ the SBM in analyzing road safety performance. It is noteworthy that the efficiency of each Decision Making Unit (DMU) can be pessimistically measured using the slacks-based measure of inefficiency such that the anti-efficient DMUs provide the anti-efficient frontier. The results obtained from the optimistic and pessimistic frontiers are nonlinearly aggregated by means of the Evidential Reasoning (ER) algorithm. Furthermore, a Double-Frontier SBM-based Malmquist Productivity Index (DF-SBM-MPI) is provided to analyze the efficiency and technological changes in safety performance from 2014 to 2016. For this purpose, the standard SBM and Super-SBM models are used to compute the optimistic Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI); similarly, the pessimistic MPI is determined by means of the inverted SBM and Super-SBM models. Finally, the obtained MPIs from the two different points of view are geometrically combined to obtain the overall MPI.
Since a significant percentage of crashes occur at black spots, different methods have been proposed to prioritize the modification of these spots and prevent crashes. One of these prevention methods in transportation is the hazard warning systems. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the satisfaction of drivers and their affectability from a map-based warning application is evaluated. To this end, black spots were identified on one of the two-way two-lane highways in the North-West of Iran and 32 male drivers were tested in the intervention group (warning state) and the control group (non-warning state). The evaluation of the warning application was done in two steps. In the first stage, drivers’ affectability between the two groups was compared, where average speed and number of speed limit violations were studied in warning and non-warning states. In the second stage, drivers' satisfaction with application features was examined using questionnaires. The findings showed that the difference in mean speeds at black spots between warning and non-warning states was significant with 95% confidence level and the use of warning application was effective in reducing the number of drivers with speed limit violations at black spots. Most drivers were highly content with the warning from car speakers, advisory warnings and warning distance from black spot, and did not have enough satisfaction with visual warnings, the application installation procedure, and warnings from smartphone speakers. Additionally, the results of the questionnaire revealed that not only warnings did not cause distraction for the drivers, they were effective in increasing their caution. These findings can be used to eliminate the shortcomings of the hazard warning application.
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