Highway design

**A new version 6.2 has recently been added to Academia**. A country-by-country listing of road design standards and similar documents. The document is a work in progress, and all versions are beta version. This version 6.1, "Ghaha edition", was prepared in August 2016 and contains notes on 79 countries, 7 multi-country standards and 3 special topics. Total 128 pages, file size about 1.2 MB. Total views on Academia for previous version were 795.

Intersections are critical places which experience high levels of accidents due to the availability of vehicle movements from different directions. Therefore, there is a need to understand the factors that significantly contribute to injuries at such places. These factors can fall under different dimensions in traffic safety such as environmental conditions, road user behavior, traffic police enforcement, road design and crash characteristics. The paper will analyze the factors related to crash characteristics and traffic signal operation that affect the likelihood of accident severity located at intersections. The data for intersection accidents in Abu Dhabi from 2013 to 2016 were used in this analysis. Ordinal logistic model was considered for the analysis to account for the ordinal nature of severity levels. Several diagnostics tests of the model were preformed such as parameters evaluation, overall model evaluation and prediction accuracy. For parameter evaluation, out of 11 independent variables, 6 were non-significant and dropped from the model. Most of the non-significant variables were related to the driver-at-fault details. The results of the final model showed an overall good fit based on a p-value of less than 0.05, as well as a good accuracy of prediction 84.8%. Finally, odds ratios were estimated to interpret the final results of the model.

It is a crucial task to reduce road crashes by performing analyses and taking appropriate countermeasures to save lives. It has been a major issue for many people and government to reduce the amount of road collisions especially in Iran, since it could be a great threat to this country. Identification of crash black-sites is one of the most important fields in road safety studies. Many highway agencies have been using Geographical Information System (GIS) for analyzing crash data. The GIS based application integrates the information collection capabilities with the visualization. In this paper, Incident features like location, date, type of vehicle involved, and number of persons injured or died are imported in the GIS database. Then, Kernel density is to apply on the prepared data. The main objective is to specify road crash black-spots considering all types of traffic crashes based on their severity using Kernel Density through GIS environment. The results show that more severe crashes take place further from the cities than accidents with only property damages. Also, overlaying all crash types using the suggested SI (severity index) method will generate crash black-sites map which policy makers can use to determine accident-prone zones and take appropriate interventions.

► A kind of Elastic Composite, Reinforced Lightweight Concrete (ECRL.C) with the mentioned specifics is a type of "Resilient Composite Systems (RCS)" in which, contrary to the basic geometrical assumption of the flexure theory in Solid Mechanics, "the strain changes in the beam height during bending" is typically "Nonlinear". (The RCS could be counted as "The Methodically Reinforced Nonlinear Porous Materials", also having the high specific modulus of resilience in flexure.)

♦ Through employing this integrated structure, with significantly high strain capability and modulus of resilience in bending, we can achieve the high bearing capacities in beams with the secure fracture pattern, in less weight.

♦ Due to the system particulars and its behavior in bending, the usual calculation of the necessary equilibrium steel amount to attain the low-steel bending sections with the secure fracture pattern in the beams and its related limitations do not become propounded. Thereby, the strategic deadlock of the high possibility of the brittle fracture pattern in the bending elements made of the usual reinforced lightweight concretes, especially about the low-thickness bending elements as slabs, is unlocked.

♦ This simple, applied technology and the related components and systems can have several applications in the road and building industries. (It can also be used in making the resilient pieces and constructions "with appropriate behavior and high resistance against severe blasts and shocks.)

♦ Regarding the "strategic importance of Lightweight and Integrated Construction in the practical increase of the resistance and safety against earthquake" and considering the appropriate behavior of this "resilient", durable structure against the dynamic loads, shakes, impacts, blasts, and shocks and the possibility of making some lightweight and insulating, non-brittle, reinforced sandwich panels and pieces, this resilient system and its components can especially be useful in the "seismic areas".

♦ This system can also be employed in constructing the vibration and impact absorber bearing pieces & slabs, which can be used in the "Railroad & Subway Structures" too.

♦ Here, the "Resilient Composite Systems (RCS)" and particularly, the ECRLC as a type of the RCS have been concisely presented. [By the way, an instance of the said new structure and its components and the results of some performed experiments (as bending loading and compressive loading of the slabs made of this structure, similar to ASTM E 72 Standard) have been shown in the related pictures & figures.]
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/ ● Key Words: Strength of materials (solid mechanics), Civil (construction), Materials, Earthquake (resistance and safety), Resilient concrete (flexible concrete, bendable concrete, elastic concrete), Composite concrete, Lightweight concrete, Reinforced concrete, Fibered concrete, Lightweight and integrated construction, Rail (railroad, railway), Subway, Road, Bridge, Resilience, Energy absorption, Fracture pattern, Non-linear, Strain changes, Beam, Ductility, Toughness, Insulating (insulation), Thin, Slab, Roof, Ceiling, Wall (partition), Building, Tower, Plan of mixture, Insulating reinforced lightweight pieces, 3d, Sandwich panel, Dry mix, Plaster, Foam, Expanded polystyrene (EPS), Polypropylene, Pozzolan, Porous matrix (Pored matrix), Mesh (lattice), Cement, RCS, ECRLC
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/ ► Contents:
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* ABSTRACT
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* I. INTRODUCTION
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* II. WHAT ARE THE RESILIENT COMPOSITE SYSTEMS
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- A. General Review
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- B. Components
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. - 1) Mesh or Lattice
. - 2) Fibers or Strands
. - 3) "Matrix" With the Suitable Hollow "Pores (Voids)" and/or "Lightweight Aggregates" in its Context
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- C. More Explanations About the RCS
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- D. Why Are These Systems Called "Composite"?
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- E. The General Structural Particulars and Functional Criteria as the Necessary Specifications of the Compound Materials Generally Called "Resilient Composite Systems"
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. - 1) General Structural Criteria
. - 2) Functional Criteria (Required Specifications)
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* III. "ELASTIC COMPOSITE REINFORCED LIGHTWEIGHT CONCRETE (ECRLC)" AS A TYPE OF THE RESILIENT COMPOSITE SYSTEMS (RCS)
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- An Instance of the Lightweight Concrete That Could be Used in Making the ECRLC
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* IV. REVIEW OF SOME EXPERIMENTS, AND MORE DESCRIPTION ABOUT ECRLC
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* V. SUPPLEMENTARY ELEMENTS
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* VI. APPLICATIONS
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* VII. FINAL REVIEW
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* ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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* REFERENCES 
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***
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/ ● General Review:
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• A kind of "Elastic Composite, Reinforced Lightweight Concrete" with the said specifics is a type of the "Resilient Composite Systems (R.C.S.)" in which, contrary to the basic geometrical assumption of flexure theory in the Solid Mechanics, the strain changes in the beam height during bending is typically "Non-linear".
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• Indeed, the RCS, as the Elastic Composite, Reinforced Lightweight Concrete (ECRLC), do not behave as most of the solid materials in bending.
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• In the "Resilient Composite Systems", distributed pores and/or appropriate lightweight aggregates or beads, accompanied by the reticular structure of the strengthened conjoined matrix, bring about the expedient internal shape changes during bending and continuing the elasticity in bending with the said nonlinearly pattern. This means better distribution of the stresses and strains and better utilizing the potential capacities of the employed reinforcements in bending and tension; whereas, in the usual lightweight concretes for instance, distributed hollow pores (such as the gas bulbs in the cellular concretes) or lightweight aggregates (such as Plastic, Rubber or polystyrene beads or any other kind of lightweight aggregates such as Perlite and Vermiculite) decrease the modulus of resilience in bending and could increase "the possibility of beam fracture of brittle and primary compressive type" in bending (compared to the concrete with higher density) according to the case.
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• In this way, by using the mentioned method to make the said particular composite systems, we could considerably increase the modulus of resilience and bearing capacity in bending "together with" significant decrease of the weight and also the possibility of beam fracture of primary compressive type. Through making these particular integrated functioning systems, for the first time, the said (paradoxical) properties have been concomitantly fulfilled in "one functioning unit" altogether.
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• Respect to the special pattern of the strain changes during bending in the particular Resilient Composite System termed ECRLC, this system as an integrated functioning unit with the reticular arrangement and texture has more strain capability (particularly within the elastic limit), energy absorption and load bearing capacities in bending compared to the usual reinforced concrete beams.
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• Thereby, through employing this applied structure, solving some of the main problems in lightweight concretes application, especially the deadlock of brittle and insecure being of fracture pattern in many of the usual reinforced lightweight concrete structures, is provided; reaching to the high bearing capacities in bending elements (even with low dimensions & weights) is to hand, and getting access to a simple and practical opportunity for "qualitative development of possibilities of using lightweight concretes" (especially with oven-dry densities of < 1350-1400kg/m3 and compressive strengths of <14-17mpa, and even with oven-dry densities of < 800kg/m3) is conceivable.
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• Naturally, by more studies in the field, these structures and their applications in various fields could be developed more.
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/ ► FULL TEXT (Open Access):
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- http://arxiv.org/abs/1510.03933 
( https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1510/1510.03933.pdf ) ;
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. Kamyar Esmaeili: "Elastic Composite Reinforced Lightweight Concrete as a Type of Resilient Composite Systems";
The Internet Journal of Innovative Technology and Creative Engineering (IJITCE); 2012; 2(8): 1-22.
- http://ia800305.us.archive.org/34/items/IJITCE/vol2no801.pdf [Also archived at: http://www.webcitation.org/6B2pFPpBh ] ;
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- https://www.scribd.com/doc/11530978/Elastic-Composite-Reinforced-Lightweight-Concrete-ECRLC-as-a-type-of-Resilient-Composite-Systems-RCS-http-arxiv-org-abs-1510-03933 ; 
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- https://sites.google.com/site/NEWSTRUCTURE1 ;
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- https://sites.google.com/site/newstructure1/publications-page/ELASTIC%20COMPOSITE%2C%20REINFORCED%20LIGHTWEIGHT%20CONCRETE%20AS%20A%20TYPE%20OF%20RESILIENT%20COMPOSITE%20SYSTEMS.pdf ;
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- http://www.pdf-archive.com/2015/09/22/elasticcomposite-reinforcedlightweightconcreteasatypeofrcs/elasticcomposite-reinforcedlightweightconcreteasatypeofrcs.pdf ;
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- The link to the document in PDF format on this site:
file:///C:/Users/pc5/Downloads/ELASTIC_COMPOSITE_REINFORCED_LIGHTWEIGHT.pdf ;
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- ...

Traffic safety, once neglected within the larger history of the automobile in the United States, has finally been getting the attention it always deserved.  Nevertheless historians still sometimes misappraise traffic safety in one era by the standards of another.  Ahistorical assumptions have contributed to misinterpretations—for example, that Americans of the 1920s were extraordinarily tolerant of traffic casualties because they did not respond to them as more recent traffic safety paradigms would prescribe.  As a corrective, four paradigms, approximately sequential, are proposed: Safety First, Control, Crashworthiness, and Responsibility.  Historians are invited to borrow, modify, or replace them, and to consider their applicability to other countries.  Whether these particular paradigms survive review or not, historians who are alert to safety paradigms will produce more reliable scholarship on the history of traffic safety.

RoadTalker

RoadTalker is a safety feature for highways, where a road "sings" audio warning messages in the driver's tire and it is therefore heard inside every vehicle.

I invented RoadTalker (in 1995) in order to provide safety messages to drivers when a lane is about to end or when a construction zone is ahead or similar.  In addition, if a driver begins to doze off and moves a little onto a highway shoulder, a different message, "WAKE UP", could alert the driver.




It appears that recently, in 2008, people must have started to try to use my concept, in Korea and in California, but in both cases, they merely have their textured roadway creating MUSIC and not the far more important AUDIO SAFETY MESSAGES which I see as important.  Maybe they will figure it out some day!

I had invented both permanent and temporary (for construction zones) versions, and I had invented both groove-based versions and ridges-based versions.

Some Museums have asked me to provide them with a modified version of RoadTalker for the walls of their Museums, where a child could wear a simple stethoscope-type headset attached to a stick, where as they dragged the stick along walls, they can hear "secret messages" which no one else (a parent) is aware of!

This new highway safety feature could greatly reduce accidents.  If a tired driver wandered out of a lane, a human voice would be heard speaking a warning message.  Before a lane merged or a construction zone began, a similar audio message would be heard.  ALL vehicles would receive this message, because it would not be electronic, but rather a series of complex bumps or pits that the tires drive over.  You have certainly driven over "steel bridges" where your tires would "sing" from vibrations of your tires on the metal ribs of the bridge deck.

Cities and Towns play a vital role in promoting economic growth and prosperity. Although less than one-third of India's people live in cities and towns. Rapid population growth and accelerated Economic development have been exerting greater pressure on the provision of public services in urban areas in India, Particularly on the delivery of infrastructure services like urban transport. The cities have not come up with development and investments plans in urban transport, which is resulting in chaotic traffic and transport conditions in several cities. Bangalore is the fifth largest metropolis in India and is one of the fastest growing cities in Asia. There has been a phenomenal growth in the population of vehicles as well especially the two and four wheelers in this period due to rising household incomes. In the absence of adequate public transport system, people are using the personalized modes which is not only leading to congestion on limited road network but also increasing environmental pollution. There is high pedestrian traffic in core area and some other areas in Bangalore. Footpath facilities are generally not adequate and their condition is deteriorating. Therefore up gradation of their facilities is very important. Share of cycle traffic has declined over the years. This mode of transport needs to be promoted by providing cycle tracks along the roads. Parking facilities need to be augmented substantially. The Scope of the Project is to provide clear Pedestrian paths and to calculate the Pedestrian Walakability Index for proposed stretch and level of service for the selected area. From achieving these objectives the urban transportation can be made to function smoothly.