The Safety of “Green Mobility” after the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Design and Adaptation of the World’s Urban Road Networks

A special issue of Safety (ISSN 2313-576X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (26 August 2022) | Viewed by 10842

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy
Interests: design and safety of road intersections; road construction; road safety; traffic and the environmental impact of transport infrastructures
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy
Interests: design and safety of road intersections; road safety; safety of vulnerable road users; roundabout design; airport infrastructure safety
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The health emergency that we have been experiencing worldwide for over a year and a half has also had its effects on the transport sector. The mobility habits of citizens have changed drastically, both in terms of reducing the number of trips and in terms of modal preferences, which increasingly prefer forms that guarantee safety and social distancing. Thus, we have witnessed a vertical collapse in the attractiveness and use of public transport and the consequent greater attractiveness of individual travel methods, both through the classic pedestrian and bicycle movements (including by e-bike) and through the new and innovative electric scooters.

Considering that the post-pandemic impact of COVID-19 will not suddenly disappear, it is essential to review the functionality and safety requirements of road networks, which must be reflected in the planning of adaptation and new construction measures to accommodate the increased use of forms of mobility that fall under the so-called "green mobility", i.e., electric mobility (e-scooters and e-bikes), cycling/pedestrian transport and multimodal transport, which are now seen as the only ways to move more freely again after the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be necessary to create a new urban "normality" and to rethink the rehabilitation and design strategies of the roads in terms of "green mobility". New organizational models for cities have already been developed, such as the "15-minute city" or "soft city" model, based on the idea that all services available to citizens can be reached within a maximum distance of 15 minutes by foot, bicycle, or scooter. It is clear that the green connotation of the "15-minute city" will only be successful if it is supported by a high level of safety of road infrastructures to promote individual mobility based on pedestrians, cyclists, and e-scooters, essentially made up of "vulnerable users" who, as such, need to be adequately protected during their movements, especially at the nodes of the road network (intersections).

The topics of this Special Issue include, but are not limited to:

  • Green mobility and road safety;
  • Safety of urban mobility;
  • Safety of pedestrians/cyclists at standard road intersections;
  • Safety of pedestrians/cyclists at roundabouts;
  • Safety of e-mobility users (e.g., e-bikes and e-scooters) at road intersections;
  • Traffic calming measures for safety of urban streets;
  • Smart infrastructures for safety of vulnerable users;
  • Road safety in a sustainable urban mobility;
  • Green mobility and social distancing;
  • Connectivity, automation and road safety;
  • Application of intelligent technologies for the safety of green mobility;
  • Green mobility challenges for users of different transport modes;
  • Preferences of green mobility (mode and route choice);
  • Rethinking and redesign of urban streets and public spaces;
  • Human factors and travel behavior;
  • Smart infrastructures for safety of vulnerable users;
  • Post-COVID transport policies.

Prof. Dr. Salvatore Leonardi
Dr. Natalia Distefano
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • green mobility
  • urban mobility
  • safety of pedestrians/cyclists
  • e-mobility
  • vulnerable users
  • standard intersections
  • roundabouts
  • traffic calming measures
  • smart urban road infrastructure
  • human factors

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 5243 KiB  
Article
Traffic Safety at German Roundabouts—A Replication Study
by Andreas Leich, Julian Fuchs, Gurucharan Srinivas, Joshua Niemeijer and Peter Wagner
Safety 2022, 8(3), 50; https://doi.org/10.3390/safety8030050 - 6 Jul 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3467
Abstract
Roundabouts are well-known for their ability to improve upon traffic safety, especially for motorized traffic. An in-depth analysis on this topic is known from previous work. It was found that different types of roundabouts have different levels of safety. The work at hand [...] Read more.
Roundabouts are well-known for their ability to improve upon traffic safety, especially for motorized traffic. An in-depth analysis on this topic is known from previous work. It was found that different types of roundabouts have different levels of safety. The work at hand is a replication study for a previous study in this regard. It uses a mix of traditional and a Machine Learning (ML)-based approach, expands on the previous results and replicates some of the previous findings. This was possible especially by using a factor of 10 more roundabouts in the analysis, with considerably less manual intervention. Furthermore, this study could also draw some additional conclusions regarding the safety of bicyclists, which were not included in the original study. Finally, by using cross-validation techniques, a kind of minimal model could be established that needs fewer factors and achieves better prediction quality than straightforward glm models. Full article
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16 pages, 826 KiB  
Article
Assessing School Travel Safety in Scotland: An Empirical Analysis of Injury Severities for Accidents in the School Commute
by Grigorios Fountas, Adebola Olowosegun and Socrates Basbas
Safety 2022, 8(2), 29; https://doi.org/10.3390/safety8020029 - 11 Apr 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3875
Abstract
School travel has been a significant source of safety concerns for children, parents, and public authorities. It will continue to be a source of concerns as long as severe accidents continue to emerge during pupils’ commute to school. This study provides an empirical [...] Read more.
School travel has been a significant source of safety concerns for children, parents, and public authorities. It will continue to be a source of concerns as long as severe accidents continue to emerge during pupils’ commute to school. This study provides an empirical analysis of the factors influencing the injury severities of the accidents that occurred on trips to or from school in Scotland. Using 9-year data from the STATS19 public database, random parameter binary logit models with allowances for heterogeneity in the means were estimated in order to investigate injury severities in urban and rural areas. The results suggested that factors such as the road type, lighting conditions, vehicle type, and age of the driver or casualty constitute the common determinants of injury severities in both urban and rural areas. Single carriageways and vehicles running on heavy oil engines were found to induce opposite effects in urban and rural areas, whereas the involvement of a passenger car in the accident decomposed various layers of unobserved heterogeneity for both area types. The findings of this study can inform future policy interventions with a focus on traffic calming in the proximity of schools. Full article
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