Low-cost interventions in road infrastructure for mitigating accidents: a driving simulator study

• Grant number: 21/10727-1
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: May 01, 2022
• End date: October 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Transportation Engineering - Vehicles and Control Equipment
• Principal Investigator: Ana Paula Camargo Larocca
• Grantee: Ana Paula Camargo Larocca
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Ali Pirdavani

Abstract

Every year, close to 6,500 deaths from traffic accidents are registered in the State of São Paulo (Infosiga SP and Detran. SP), with four times this number of permanent physical damage, and close to 39,000 hospitalizations of residents of the state. Of this total, 82% are men and 44% are aged between 20 and 39 years. The total corresponds to a rate of 15 deaths for every 100,000 inhabitants (DATASUS). The nearly 70,000 accidents recorded on São Paulo's highways, in 2017, for example, resulted in a cost of R$4.9 billion to the State's economy - with health spending as the main component. Of the total costs of road accidents, R$ 2.7 billion refer to expenses with people (how much the person who died did not generate in terms of income, treatment, hospitalization, and removal costs). There is also the loss of vehicles and repairs that, eventually, the highways had to go through after the incidents, which also exceed R$ 2 billion. Because of this fact, traffic accidents are a serious problem resulting from the impact on morbidity and mortality, particularly in the younger population, not only in the State of São Paulo but worldwide. Accident rates, especially those with fatalities, reveal the need for effective investments in road infrastructure, training of drivers, and expansion of educational campaigns focused on traffic safety. Since human behavior and vehicle maintenance conditions are factors that cannot be fully controlled by public agencies and private companies responsible for the management of road systems, there is a need to seek the implementation of appropriate actions in areas subject to control, aiming to reduce the probability of accidents and their severity With this in mind, the road engineering area has been constantly seeking solutions to reduce the problem of road accidents, with the great challenge being the implementation of highly efficient and, above all, viable techniques economically. This project proposes to work on the road infrastructure to eliminate points that can influence serious accidents - the critical points, focusing on solutions of greater technical and economic feasibility, where there is no possibility of changing the geometry of the road, from combined solutions in the coating pavement and horizontal and vertical signage using a driving simulator. The research project is an innovation in the sense of identifying the best alternatives in critical stretches of high and medium accident criticality, by isolating or combining pavement and signaling solutions, without changing the geometric design of the road. Additionally, it will associate the recording of drivers' physiological data, such as response time and activation of brain metabolism, drowsiness, and fatigue, from the records of pupil dilation with the eye-tracking equipment. Thus, complements of horizontal and vertical signaling will be studied, without introducing a large number of devices that may, on the contrary, reduce the driver's attention to the stretch, supported by the improvement of the driver's perception of risk with the use of a driving simulator, equipped as a system of eye-tracking, to guide investigations and generate results to define the interventions that will be carried out in the field. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

BARBOSA MENDES, OLGA BEATRIZ; CAMARGO LAROCCA, ANA PAULA; SILVA, KARLA RODRIGUES; PIRDAVANI, ALI. Assessing the Performance of Highway Safety Manual (HSM) Predictive Models for Brazilian Multilane Highways. SUSTAINABILITY, v. 15, n. 13, p. 20-pg., 2023-07-01. (21/10727-1)

COSTA, ALEX TAIMA; FIGUEIRA, AURENICE C.; LAROCCA, ANA PAULA C.. An eye-tracking study of the effects of dimensions of speed limit traffic signs on a mountain highway on drivers' perception. TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH PART F-TRAFFIC PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOUR, v. 87, p. 12-pg., 2022-04-04. (18/12762-6, 21/10727-1)

RIBEIRO, RUY SANTOS; ALBARRACIN, ORLANDO YESID ESPARZA; LINHARES, GUILHERME RODRIGUES; LAROCCA, ANA PAULA C.; BERNUCCI, LIEDI LEGI B.. A Sustainable Approach to How Roadway Recognition Affects Drivers' Speed Choice. SUSTAINABILITY, v. 16, n. 15, p. 16-pg., 2024-08-01. (21/10727-1)