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Children's mobility and the opportunity to get around the city on their own has decreased and is today limited to a large extent by unsafe traffic situations. Due to their limited independent mobility, children are excluded from the urban space and its facilities. Independent mobility can be related to several dimensions of children's social, physical, mental and cognitive wellbeing. The purpose of this study is to investigate if and in what way autonomous buses can contribute to children's independent mobility and, using children's experiences, provide insights into this before the introduction of autonomous buses in cities and public transport systems. To do so, the two research questions ''How can autonomous buses in the transport system contribute to children's independent mobility?'' and ''What prerequisites are necessary for autonomous buses to contribute to children's independent mobility?'' are answered. The survey is based on a case of introduction of autonomous buses in urban environments. Three focus groups with students in a primary school were conducted with the aim of gaining the participants' experiences. The results indicate that the introduction of autonomous buses in an urban area can contribute to children's independent mobility in several ways and that the buses have certain characteristics that enable them to be adapted to children's conditions. The low speed of the shuttles, which is often seen as an obstacle when it comes to time efficiency, has a positive effect on perceived safety in this case. The mobility solution is also child-friendly in that it is accessible in terms of trip planning and payment. However, it is important to consider the risk that the bus might replace active transportation modes, like cycling. To avoid this, autonomous shuttles should be integrated in a way that complement, not compete with, active travel.

The interest in operating autonomous vehicles is growing and several demonstration sites using automated shuttles have been established all over the world. Major work is involved in setting up an automated shuttle operation that involves more than identifying the relevant site, including adhering to current regulations and obtaining approval, as well as a considerable amount of preparation and commissioning required at the site. The shuttle must pass relevant national vehicle regulations, and the operation site has to undergo a site assessment. This paper is based on lessons learned achieved from setting up automated shuttle operations in three different areas in Europe: Brussel (Belgium), Linköping (Sweden) and Turin (Italy). The focus is on the practical aspects of operation. Through the experience we have gained of setting up demonstration sites at three locations in Europe, we have identified the need to summarise the lessons learned from preparing AV shuttle operation sites in order to facilitate the implementation of other operation sites. Hence, this paper aims to consolidate lessons learned during preparation and implementation of automated shuttle operations in near urban environments and to identify the path toward future implementation The three sites operate different brands and number of shuttles, different types of infrastructure and varying local conditions. The focus here was on generic lessons learned and not to understand differences between brands and operators. It is clear that further development of the AV shuttles is vital to ensure that they operate smoothly in complex traffic situations considering lane and road width, shared spaces, snow, dust, rain, leaves, birds, etc. Adapting the road infrastructure to enable the shuttles to run in the autonomous mode should be avoided, instead the shuttle development should prioritise fitting into the existing traffic environment and eco system. Mitigation areas have been identified covering: road infrastructure, weather dependant operation, season dependent operation, improvement of localisation, digital infrastructure, design and working conditions, and citizens’ user experience.

Automated shuttles are already seeing deployment in many places across the world and have the potential to transform public mobility to be safer and more accessible. During the current transition phase from fully manual vehicles toward higher degrees of automation and resulting mixed traffic, there is a heightened need for additional communication or external indicators to comprehend automated vehicle actions for other road users. In this work, we present and discuss the results from seven studies (three preparatory and four main studies) conducted in three European countries aimed at investigating and providing a variety of such external communication solutions to facilitate the exchange of information between automated shuttles and other motorized and non-motorized road users.

Summary All new vehicle types within the European Union must now be equipped with a driver drowsiness and attention warning system starting from 2022. The specific requirements for the test procedure necessary for type approval are defined in the Annex of EU Regulation C/2021/2639. The objectives of this study were to: (i) investigate how sleepiness develops in professional truck drivers under real‐road driving conditions; and (ii) assess the feasibility of a test procedure for validating driver drowsiness and attention warning systems according to the EU regulation. Twenty‐four professional truck drivers participated in the test. They drove for 180 km on a dual‐lane motorway, first during daytime after a normal night's sleep and then at nighttime after being awake since early morning. The results showed higher sleepiness levels during nighttime driving compared with daytime, with a faster increase in sleepiness with distance driven, especially during the night. Psychomotor vigilance task results corroborated these findings. From a driver drowsiness and attention warning testing perspective, the study design with sleep‐deprived drivers at night was successful in inducing the targeted sleepiness level of a Karolinska Sleepiness Scale score of ≥ 8. Many drivers who reported a Karolinska Sleepiness Scale ≥ 8 during the drives also acknowledged feeling sleepy in the post‐drive questionnaire. Reaching high levels of sleepiness on real roads during daytime is more problematic, not the least from legal and ethical perspectives as higher traffic densities during the daytime lead to increased risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of whether contracts promote innovation and sustainability is an important but overlooked aspect for achieving energy and environmental targets, as well as for creating smart and sustainable cities. In this article, based on the principle/agent problem and Holmström and Milgrom’s work on optimal contracts it is argued that the current general conditions of architectural and engineering consulting agreements in Sweden (ABK 09)—a standard type of contract often used in developer/consultant relations—may not incentivize choices that support the long-term goals of society. Furthermore, although this exploratory study specifically analyses a Swedish standard contract, the question of how contractual incentive structures can optimize real-world performance is a general one, and thus the article’s findings have general applicability. This exploratory study also points to further research into how contractual structures impact climate-neutral buildings. In this way, Swedish consultants who use ABK 09 are incentivized to include low-risk, well-proven, and widely used technologies in order to minimize risks for themselves. This study contributes to resolving this dilemma by suggesting how ABK 09 could be restructured to change the balance between incentives and risk and incentivize innovation and sustainability. As mentioned above, the current study operates at a theoretical level. It discusses six possible changes that would better align the contract with the societal goals of innovation and sustainability.

OBJECTIVE: It is generally believed that professional drivers can manage quite severe fatigue before routine driving performance is affected. In addition, there are results indicating that professional drivers can adapt to prolonged night shifts and may be able to learn to drive without decreased performance under high levels of sleepiness. However, very little research has been conducted to compare professionals and non-professionals when controlling for time driven and time of day. METHOD: The aim of this study was to use a driving simulator to investigate whether professional drivers are more resistant to sleep deprivation than non-professional drivers. Differences in the development of sleepiness (self-reported, physiological and behavioral) during driving was investigated in 11 young professional and 15 non-professional drivers. RESULTS: Professional drivers self-reported significantly lower sleepiness while driving a simulator than non-professional drivers. In contradiction, they showed longer blink durations and more line crossings, both of which are indicators of sleepiness. They also drove faster. The reason for the discrepancy in the relation between the different sleepiness indicators for the two groups could be due to more experience to sleepiness among the professional drivers or possibly to the faster speed, which might unconsciously have been used by the professionals to try to counteract sleepiness. CONCLUSION: Professional drivers self-reported significantly lower sleepiness while driving a simulator than non-professional drivers. However, they showed longer blink durations and more line crossings, both of which are indicators of sleepiness, and they drove faster.

Abstract Introduction The overall aim of this study is to compare day-time driving with night-time driving looking at line crossings during self-reported sleepiness and long blinks. The hypothesis is that high levels of self-reported sleepiness (KSS 9) and long blink duration (>0.15 s) will be less associated with critical events during the day-time compared to night-time. Method The study is based on data from a driving simulator experiment with 16 participants driving 150 km on a typical Swedish motorway scenario twice: once during daytime and once during night time. In total data from 6 segments of 4 km each equally distributed along the drive was averaged and included in the analysis. A Mixed Model Anova was used to test the effects on KSS, Blink Duration and Line Crossings with factors for Session (Day/Night) and Road segment (1–6), and participant as random. In addition, a logistic regression was used to identify when there is a risk for line crossings. Finally, the proportion of line crossings in relation to high KSS values and long blink durations was tested with Fisher’s exact test. Results The results show no differences in the percentage of Line Crossings to the left during high levels of Karolinska Sleepiness Scale during daytime (33%) compare to night-time (40%). However, there was a significant difference between day and night time line crossings while the driver had long duration blinks (4% during daytime and 35% during night-time). Despite these results the most promising predictor of line crossings in each segment of 4 km/h was KSS with an Odds Ratio of 5.4 with a reference value at Karolinska Sleepiness Scale level 5. Conclusion In conclusion, the results do not support the hypothesis that high levels of KSS will result in more frequent line crossings at night time compared to day time. However, the result supports the hypothesis that long blink durations are associated with more line crossings when they appear during night time than during daytime.

Abstract Purpose The study sought to estimate the effects of centreline milled rumble strips on rural two-lane roads in Sweden in a wide perspective. Traffic safety effects (i.e., fewer crashes and injuries), driver experience, and driver opinions of centreline milled rumble strip usage on rural roads are investigated. Methods To evaluate the traffic safety effects, an Empirical Bayes study comparing the outcome before and-after the introduction of rumble strips was conducted. This study is based on data from 2003–2012 from the Swedish national traffic accident database, STRADA. To capture driver experience and opinions about milled centreline rumble strips, focus groups and road-side interviews were performed. Results The results indicate a significant decrease in all types of severe injury crashes, a 20% (±13%) reduction in the number of fatalities and seriously injured people (all crash types) and a 27% (±18%) reduction in the number of fatalities and severely injured people in single-vehicle crashes. Participants in focus groups and road-side interviews generally favoured centreline rumble strips on rural roads, and up to 90% of the interviewed motorcyclists and commuters stated that the rumble strips would help improve traffic safety. Conclusions Rumble strips in the centre of two-lane rural roads are a countermeasure to help drivers who are unintentionally about to leave the lane, for example, due to sleepiness or inattention. Based on the results of this study, installing centreline milled rumble strips on two-lane rural roads 8–10 meters wide is a measure to consider to increase safety.

The improvements to road safety since the 1970’s are becoming increasingly difficult to sustain in many developed countries. This paper analyses ten Australasian Government road safety strategies against two key criteria: 1. a comprehensive framework for road safety, and 2. the anticipated changing, difficult and unpredictable nature of future transport and its context. The analysis concludes that current Australasian road safety strategies are weak in some areas of content and do not address future challenges. Improvements are suggested to strengthen strategies’ thoroughness and robustness, as well as ways that the strategies can be more resilient to future circumstances.

While road safety in the United States (U.S.) has been continually improving since the 1970's, there are indications that these improvements are becoming increasingly difficult to sustain. Strategic Highway Safety Plans (SHSPs) are prepared by States to guide road safety management, however assessing the appropriateness of these plans remains a significant challenge, especially for the future in which they are to be applied. This study developed a new methodology to assess SHSPs from the perspectives of comprehensive system-based safety management and relevant future issues that can be applied before SHSPs are implemented, thereby avoiding long periods after implementation before assessing the appropriateness of the plans. A rating scale was developed and applied to assess 48 U.S. SHSPs against two key criteria: 1. a comprehensive framework for road safety, and 2. the anticipated changing, difficult and unpredictable nature of future transport and its context. The analysis concluded that current SHSPs have good national oversight with several strengths but were weak in some areas of content and did not address future challenges. Improvements are suggested to strengthen the plans' thoroughness by being consistent with systems theory and practice, as well as ways that these SHSPs can be more resilient to future circumstances. Implementing the recommendations in this paper provides the opportunity to adopt a system-based safety management practice that has been successful in other hazardous industries. Doing so is expected to most efficiently and effectively continue the recent improvements to road safety, which is likely to be increasingly difficult otherwise.

The ice conditions in a regulated river will depend on the climatic changes as well as the changes to the hydropower operation strategies in the future. The existing literature shows that very few studies have been carried out to investigate the impact of climate change on the river ice regime, which is important for operation of hydropower in cold climates. In this study, a series of modelling tools have been used to transform the climate change signal in terms of precipitation and air temperature into cross-section based river ice assessment in a basin with a complicated hydropower system. The study is based on the EURO-CORDEX climate change data extracted from a regional climate model driven by a suite of five general circulation models with three representative concentration pathways. Hydrological model simulation results show that the winter and spring flow will be increased, which will have an impact on the river ice conditions towards the middle and end of this century. Reservoirhydro-power model simulation shows that the production flows in the winter will be increased in the future. River ice model simulation shows the number of days with freezing water temperature are reduced in the future climate, and correspondingly days with frazil ice are reduced at most of the locations in the study area. The future period with ice cover will also be shortened. The paper also demonstrates a general methodology and procedure to simulate future ice conditions in a regulated river combining multiple models and data sets. Key words: climate change, scenarios, river ice, hydropower. L'etat des glaces sur une riviere au debit controle dependra des changements climatiques et des changements des strategies de production d'energie hydroelectrique qui auront lieu a l'avenir. La litterature existante ne comporte que tres peu d'etudes s'interessant aux repercussions des changements climatiques sur le regime des glaces des rivieres, une problematique essentielle touchant la production d'energie hydroelectrique dans les pays froids. Dans la presente etude, une serie d'outils de modelisation a ete utilisee pour transformer les signes du changement climatique, en termes de precipitations et de temperature de l'air, en evaluation des glaces de riviere dans une section transversale, a l'interieur d'un bassin contenant un systeme complexe de production d'energie hydroelectrique. L'etude est basee sur les donnees sur les changements climatiques du programme EURO-CORDEX extraites d'un modele climatique regional base sur une suite de cinq modeles de circulation generale (MCG) associes a trois scenarios devolutions representatives des concentrations <>. Les resultats de simulation des modeles hydrologiques montrent que le debit en hiver et au printemps augmentera ce qui aura des repercussions sur l'etat des glaces vers le milieu et la fin du siecle present. La simulation du modele reservoirenergie hydroelectrique montre que les rythmes de production durant l'hiver seront acceleres a l'avenir. La simulation des modeles de glace de riviere montre que, dans le climat futur, le nombre de jours ou l'eau atteindra le point de congelation diminuera et que, parallelement, les jours ou le frasil se formera seront moins nombreux a la plupart des emplacements ou l'etude a ete menee. A l'avenir, la periode d'apparition de la couverture de glace sera egalement plus courte. En outre, le present article decrit une methodologie et procedure generale visant a simuler l'etat futur des glaces dans une riviere au debit controle et combinant de multiples modeles et ensembles de donnees. [Traduit par le Redaction] Mots-cles: changement climatique, scenarios, glace de riviere, energie hydroelectrique., Introduction With the current scenarios for climate change, hydropower operation in cold regions can be affected both positively and negatively due to changes in the formation of river ice (Beltaos [...]

It is a well-known fact today that driver sleepiness is a contributory factor in crashes. Factors considered as sleepiness contributor are mostly related to time of the day, hours being awake and hours slept. Factors contributing to active and passive fatigue are mostly focusing on the level of cognitive load. Less is known what role external factors, e.g. type of road, sound/noise, vibrations etc., have on the ability to stay awake both under conditions of sleepiness and under active or passive fatigue. The aim of this moving base driving simulator study with 19 drivers participating in a random order day and night time, was to evaluate the effect of low-frequency road noise on driver sleepiness and performance, including both long-term and short-term effects. The results support to some extent the hypothesis that road-induced interior vehicle sound affects driving performance and driver sleepiness. Increased low-frequency noise helps to reduce speed during both day- and night time driving, but also contributes to increase the number of lane crossings during night time.

We predict an increase in parr recruitment and smolt production of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) populations along a climate gradient from the subarctic to the Arctic in western and northern Norway in response to future climate change. Firstly, we predicted local stream temperature and discharge from downscaled data obtained from Global Climate Models. Then, we developed a spatially explicit individual-based model (IBM) parameterized for the freshwater stage, with combinations of three different postsmolt survival probabilities reflecting different marine survival regimes. The IBM was run for three locations: southern Norway (~59°N), western Norway (~62°N), and northern Norway (~70°N). Increased temperatures under the future climate regimes resulted in faster parr growth, earlier smolting, and elevated smolt production in the western and northern locations, in turn leading to increased egg deposition and elevated recruitment into parr. In the southern location, density-dependent mortality of parr resulting from low summer wetted-areas reduced predicted future smolt production in comparison to the other locations. It can be inferred, therefore, that climate change may have both positive and negative effects on anadromous fish abundance within the subarctic-Arctic according to geographical region. Nous predisons une augmentation du recrutement de tacons et de la production de saumoneaux des populations de saumons atlantiques (Salmo salar) le long d'un gradient climatique allant de la region subarctique a la region arctique dans l'ouest et le nord de la Norvege, en reponse aux changements climatiques futurs. Nous avons d'abord predit la temperature et les debits de cours d'eau locaux a partir de donnees obtenues de modeles climatiques planetaires transposees a l'echelle locale. Nous avons ensuite elabore un modele base sur l'individu (IBM) spatialement explicit parametre pour le stade en eau douce, avec des combinaisons de trois probabilites de survie post-saumoneau differentes refletant differents regimes de survie en mer. L'IBM a ete execute pour trois endroits, a savoir le sud de la Norvege (~59[degre]N), l'ouest de la Norvege (~62[degre]N) et le nord de la Norvege (~70[degre]N). Les temperatures plus elevees des regimes climatiques futurs se traduisaient par une croissance plus rapide des tacons, une smoltification plus precoce et une production accrue de saumoneaux dans les regions ouest et nord, dont decoulaient une ponte et un recrutement de tacons accrus. Dans la region sud, la mortalite dependant de la densite des tacons decoulant de la reduction des surfaces mouillees estivales faisait en sorte de reduire la production de saumoneaux future prevue par rapport aux autres regions. Il est donc possible de conclure que les changements climatiques pourraient avoir des effets tant positifs que negatifs sur l'abondance de poissons anadromes dans les regions subarctiques-arctiques, selon l'emplacement geographique., Introduction Anadromous salmonids are culturally and economically important species throughout the Northern Hemisphere. However, population abundances of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) are at historically unprecedented low levels in some rivers, [...]