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Road design should ensure the correct behaviour of drivers in terms of speed and level of attention. Nevertheless, in some cases users are not able to visualize the carriageway enough correctly, owing to the misled road layout or the loss of visibility. In this research, road safety management was assessed with the driving and visual behaviour of users, considering the impact of different configurations of pedestrian crossings and road signs in order to reduce accidents. Even if users focus their attention on the zebra crossing (60%) and the vertical sign (24%), 16% of them have had no perception of the pedestrian crossings. This result shows how pedestrian crossings represent critical points that could compromise the safety of vulnerable users also in relation to speed. In fact, driving behaviour highlights 50 km/h of the average speed at 100 meters before the crosswalk, which allows having a too short time to stop the vehicle in safety. Moreover, the maximum speed underlines that users drive beyond the limit imposed by the road’s rules. It is thus necessary to require the implementation of road infrastructure so as to modify the driving behaviour. Starting from the Road Safety Review, it was then possible to detect the critical issues and correlate a visual and kinematic analysis so as to intervene accurately.

In recent decades, urban settlements have been greatly affected by globalisation, climate change, and economic uncertainty. When designing cities, these factors should be taken into account and adapted to the different contexts involved. The redevelopment of degraded urban areas is the first step toward achieving the sustainability aims set out in the Sustainable Development Goals. In this context, evaluation methods are required in the decision-making process, considering different social, economic, and environmental aspects to define the correct policies and actions for city redevelopment. In this paper, an evaluation methodology is proposed in order to obtain a priority scale of interventions for urban regeneration. Starting from on-site inspections to better know the current scenario, a set of indicators is established to evaluate the urban quality. Criticalities and potentials emerge through SWOT analysis and, with the ANP-BOCR method, the priority scale of the identified scenarios is defined. This decision-making approach was applied to the case study of the Rimini Canal Port, in the northeast of Italy, which is a degraded area of the city. This methodology is a tool that can be used in the future by decision makers (DMs) for the redevelopment of small port areas within similar urban contexts.

Cyclists are one of the main categories of road users particularly exposed to accident risk. The increasing use of this ecological means of transport requires a specific assessment of cyclist safety in terms of traffic flow and human factors. In this study particular visual tracking tool has been used in order to highlight not only the main critical points of the infrastructure, where a high level of distraction is recorded but also the various interactions with different road users (pedestrians, vehicles, buses, wheelchairs, cyclists). In order to confirm the critical points of the infrastructure and the trend of workload, a similar circuit was reproduced in a bicycle simulator, which also allowed a meaningful comparison of cycling behaviour. The cycling performance was also evaluated both from an objective point of view, with the count of frames related to each category of visualization, and a subjective one, through the questionnaires. The results show the crossing as a critical point because of only 4/3% fixation for both simulated and real tests in order to confirm the significance of the comparison between the two experiments. The high attention rate resulting from frame-by-frame analysis also points to a clear difference in the perception of users, who feel with a low workload.

Asphalt pavements inevitably deteriorate over time, requiring frequent maintenance work to ensure the proper serviceability of the road network. Small interventions, such as resurfacing for pavement preservation, are preferable to reconstruction at the end of roads’ in-service lives as they limit environmental- and economic-related impacts. Thin asphalt overlay (TAO) mixture represents a suitable maintenance solution to restore the functional properties of road surfaces. Due to the increasing awareness of the depletion of non-renewable resources and the importance of promoting the circular economy, this study evaluated the possibility of using fully recycled TAO mixes by investigating their volumetric and mechanical properties. Two eco-friendly TAO mixes were designed using recycled aggregates from reclaimed asphalt pavements, a municipal solid waste incinerator, and steel slags in order to meet EN 13108-2 requirements. The TAO mixes differed in regard to the type of bituminous binder (neat/SBS-modified bitumens) and fibres (natural/synthetic) employed. The preliminary results demonstrated that the presence of recycled aggregates did not negatively affect the workability and the mechanical performances of the two sustainable mixtures in terms of stiffness, tensile resistance, rutting and moisture susceptibility. Of these, the TAO mix with neat bitumen and synthetic fibres showed enhanced mechanical performance highlighting the structural effects of the used fibres.

In recent years, emissions into the atmosphere have been brought to the attention of the authorities and some action has been taken to try to solve the problem. One is the application of EU legislation 2008/50/EC, which requires states adhering to this law to constantly monitor air quality and subsequently find solutions to reduce the impact of emissions. The data show that 20% of emissions come from transport, 70% of which come from private vehicles. Sustainable mobility can be a possible solution to reduce pollution and traffic congestion. The promotion of cycling, as part of sustainable mobility, is a required action to achieve the objectives pursued. This research aims to define the quality of infrastructure and accessibility of railway stations to the use of bicycles. The approach used was to define a technical checklist to estimate the criticalities of the structure in a quantitative way. An example is the case study developed in the Emilia-Romagna region (Italy) within the PREPAIR project where 33 railway stations were classified and analyzed. In the end, the checklist was effective in defining the necessary interventions and the required activities and can be used in similar cases during the decision-making processes.

The increasing need to reduce emissions and the environmental impact of urban areas to meet European decarbonisation goals motivates the selection of the Rimini Canal Port as a case study within the FRAMESPORT project, part of the European Interreg Italy–Croatia programme. A preliminary historical–documental and urban regulations analysis of the context allowed the identification of the main criticalities and potentials through a SWOT analysis. The central role of the stakeholders enabled the creation of a successful participatory co-design process developed through online surveys. Critical issues that emerged during the data collection phase were prioritised through a BOCR model, a powerful multi-criteria analysis tool. The project phase then focused on the resolution of the two main critical issues that emerged: the improvement of cycle/pedestrian paths, and the raising of the flooding docks in the Canal Port area. This article intends to demonstrate the strong influence of soft mobility in urban regeneration projects, and how an improvement of the quality of cycle/pedestrian paths can increase the quality of urban spaces. The new paths create a green infrastructure that contributes to a reduction in pollutant emissions through the promotion of sustainable mobility systems and an increase in green urban spaces.

Drivers’ yielding behavior to pedestrians during nighttime was assessed in seven different conditions of crosswalk lighting: (a) baseline condition with standard road lighting; (b) enhanced LED lighting that increased lighting level from 70 to 120 lx; (c) flashing orange beacons on top of the backlit pedestrian crossing sign; (d) in-curb LED strips on the curbsides of the zebra crossing with steady light emission; (e) in-curb LED strips with flashing light emission; (d) all previous devices activated with in-curb LED strips in steady mode; (e) all previous devices activated with in-curb LED strips in flashing mode. For every condition 100 trials were recorded with a staged pedestrian that initiated a standardized crossing when a vehicle was approaching. The frequency of drivers’ yielding was computed for each condition. A significant increase for yielding compliance was recorded from standard road lighting to enhanced dedicated lighting (19–38.21%), and from enhanced dedicated lighting to the seventh condition with the flashing beacons and the flashing in-curb LED strips activated (38.21–63.56%). The results showed that the integrated lighting-warning system for pedestrian crossings was effective in increasing motorists’ yielding to pedestrians during nighttime.

The human factor plays an important role in the successful design of infrastructure to support sustainable mobility. By engaging users early in the design process, information can be obtained before physical environments are built, making designed spaces more attractive and safer for users. This study presents the collected data of a virtual reality (VR) application in which user perception has been evaluated within an urban redevelopment context. The area under consideration is the Canal of the Port of Rimini (Italy), a degraded area not connected to the city center. The redevelopment of degraded urban areas is the first step towards achieving the sustainability aims set out in the Sustainable Development Goals. Prior to this work, evaluation methods were developed in the decision-making process, considering different social, economic, and environmental aspects in order to obtain a priority scale of interventions for urban regeneration. Architectural solutions were proposed to represent targeted and specific interventions that are designed precisely for the context to which they are dedicated in order to make the Canal Port area a continuum with its urban context and to improve its perception by tourists and inhabitants. To assess these proposed infrastructure modifications, two models of VR were created, one relevant to the current condition and one representing the future condition after redevelopment of the area. Virtual visits to the Canal of the Port of Rimini were created under two scenarios, namely, the current situation and the future situation after redevelopment of the infrastructure. Then, human participants were involved through two different questionnaires. The first allowed participants validate the VR model created by comparing it with the real context, while the second served to evaluate the perceptions of users by comparing the two VR models of the canal before and after the intervention. The results of this empirical research highlight the benefits of engaging users early in the design process and improving the user experience before implementing renovation of the infrastructure.

As an important part of sustainable mobility, intermodality aims at improving the efficiency and attractiveness of a travel made by different means of transport, resulting in a seamless experience for travellers. The Inter-Connect Project was set up as a study to reduce environmental impact caused by motorised transport, thus enhancing sustainable mobility of passengers. The whole analysis developed through the creation of integrated connections among different transport modes - road, rail, and sea transport considering different factors related to sustainability such as social (quality of life, transfer safety and comfort), economic (efficiency, employment, productivity) and environmental factors (emissions, biodiversity, environmental protection). The study was realized in the ADRION area developing different solutions aimed to promote transport integration among partner States: Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia. The cooperation between the partner states led to align some goals and policies, to share knowledge, data and resources, between different institutions and organizations. To this end, the study methodology followed a bottom-up approach to ensure each entity involved was willing to cooperate, in order to overcome any legal, infrastructural, and operating barriers, and to supply the best intermodal solutions to facilitate passengers. Potential improvements introduced to promote intermodality in the eight Inter-Connect study cases were examined from a transnational, national, and regional point of view to identify their strengths and weaknesses. Each partner of the Inter-Connect Project developed their projects thus enhancing and promoting the use of intermodal transport modes for passengers.

The effectiveness of roadwork signs on drivers’ safety is a poorly investigated topic. The present study examined visual fixations of 29 participants to work zone signs, while driving 27 km along rural roads. The drivers’ visual fixations on the work zones signs were recorded with an eye tracking device, synchronized to a GPS recorder that collected kinematic data. The routes crossed 23 roadwork zones, including a total of 69 vertical work zone signs. Visual behaviour to roadwork signs were compared to visual behaviour to permanent vertical signs. The results revealed that drivers glanced at both temporary and permanent signs along the roadwork areas with a similar 40% frequency. In addition, they glanced at single roadwork signs more often and for longer than at multiple-roadwork signs. The main findings of this paper lead to conclude that driver behaviour, investigated by comparing instant speed and visual fixations, is frequently unsafe.

The aim of this research is to define a breakage limit for the fastening system of the "Eurobalise" device of the ERTMS/ETCS rail signalling system on the European railways. The widespread presence of the system along the European railway line and the increasing of high-speed lines have led the research to find design solutions able to increase the attack system strength, avoiding its detachment from the sleepers. Mechanical tests on tensile, shear and bending configurations have been carried out to evaluate the jointing systems between Eurobalise and sleepers. Additional full-scale tests allowed the definition of the load actions and of the breaking points. The connection between balise and sleepers is able to react to the train’s aerodynamic actions, confirming the system reliability even for the passage of high-speed trains. Through the experimental approach were defined standard test procedures useful to improve the sheet data of this kind of fastening system.

Negative effects of a massive use of cars, such as congestion, air pollution, noise, and traffic injuries, are affecting the cities everywhere. Recently introduced shared vehicles, such as e-scooters and electric bicycles, could potentially accelerate the transition towards sustainable mobility. Although these vehicles are becoming increasingly common and accepted within regulatory frameworks, some local governments are not yet ready to integrate e-scooters into their transport systems. Indeed, the legislation is unclear as it is not easy to determine whether the e-scooter is more like a bicycle or a vehicle. Moreover, it is difficult to predict the impact of e-scooters on road traffic, as well as the type of road infrastructure chosen by e-scooter drivers or the possible interaction of such vehicles with weak road users, such as pedestrians or cyclists. This study showed an analysis of speed and behaviour of e-scooter drivers in the city of Trondheim (Norway) to investigate how to manage this mode of transport. A total of 204 e-scooters were observed on six different roads in the city centre. The speed of e-scooter drivers was measured by a speed tracker (average value 15.4 km/h) and their behaviour recorded by a hidden observer in the field. Gender, age, distance from pedestrians, speed adaptation to the environment, and type of vehicle used were registered for each e-scooter. Through a Binomial Logit analysis, the data obtained were used to analyse the type of road infrastructure preferred by e-scooter drivers. Results showed that the cycle path is more widely used with percentage value from 60% to 90% of users. In addition, the probability of choice depended mainly on the road environment. The aim of this analysis was to assist local authorities in regulating the safe use of e-scooters and developing appropriate policies for their integration into cities.

Researchers are using driving simulators to design and assess the automated driving and driver assistant systems, due to the safe nature of experimentation in the virtual environment. The motion cues and accelerations felt by the drivers are essential for an accurate perception of the events and the response of the drivers. In this paper, the vehicle dynamic model and the Motion Cueing Algorithm used for the simulation is described in detail, then driver’s performance and subjective assessments was studied for the braking, chicane and overtaking maneuver in the 3 different gear shifting scenario. The study demonstrates that the presence of the motion cueing feedback in the driving simulation was satisfactory and gave realistic cues for the participants independent of the gear shifting system, however no significant effect was found from the driver’s behavior due to different gear shifting system.

Roundabouts are one of the most used road intersections because, compared to signalized ones, they reduce conflict points between traffic flows and moderate driving speed. Great attention should also be paid to vulnerable road users at roundabouts. According to accident statistics, in fact, accessibility of pedestrians and cyclists is not always ensured. This paper has evaluated the effects on the visibility of pedestrian crossing before and after the displacement of zebra markings, moved before intersections, and the introduction of media refuge islands and “Yield here to pedestrians” vertical signs. The above effects have been assessed by before-after analysis of speed and visual behaviour of drivers approaching the crosswalk. Moreover, the analysis of the drivers’ eye movements has highlighted the most salient elements of the pedestrian crossing. The relation between the drivers’ visual behaviour and the vehicle speed have also been calculated. Results have confirmed that the intervention carried out has increased both visibility and safety of the studied pedestrian crosswalks. Zebra markings and the median refuge island have turned out to be the most glanced elements, respectively seen by 93.75% and 56.25% of the drivers, followed by the “Yield here to pedestrians” vertical sign. The mean distance of first fixation of the crosswalk increased from 21.98 m before the intervention, to 40.69 m after it. The drivers perceived the pedestrian crossings from a longer distance after the intervention, and they continued to glance at the crosswalk while approaching it, enhancing their visual attention.

Road markings visibility is usually assessed by means of the visibility level (VL). Several models have been developed to calculate the visibility distance on the road (Detect/PCDetect, Carve/Tarvip, Cost 331 and CIE 73). These models all approximate the visibility of a marking by estimating the diameter of an ‘equivalent’ disc. In this process, speculative hypotheses are made to calculate this diameter, labelled the equivalent area hypothesis, the equivalent perimeter hypothesis or the equivalent width hypothesis. To compare these hypotheses, a psychophysical experiment was conducted with eight participants and 120 stimuli. It was found that the merit of each hypothesis changed with the diameter of the equivalent disc. Above 0·1°, all the hypotheses gave good results, but the equivalent area hypothesis was found to be the best. Below 0·1°, the equivalent width hypothesis was more accurate, but further investigations are still needed.

The ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System) system has been created to standardize the European railway signals and to improve the performance of the railway network. Nowadays the growing rail traffic demand has carried to the congestion of the railway nodes, which turn out to be the bottle necks of the railway infrastructure. The High-Density European Traffic Management System (HD-ERTMS) has been developed as a solution to resolve this problem because, being perfectly superimposable to the Italian national signalling system, it can be applied without changing the current infrastructure. This paper describes the benefit that it will possible to reach by introducing this new signalling system analyzing the case study of the railway node of Rome.

The concept of intermodality is becoming increasingly important for the development of global communication and environmental sustainability. Creating an intermodal network capable of expanding connections between inland and coastal areas of the same country or between different countries, is fundamental in order to improve mobility and the level of service offered. In Italy numerous projects have been presented to increase national intermodality. An example is the Emilia-Romagna Region which, thanks to the Inter-Connect project, aims of enhancing the accessibility of passengers between the city of Bologna and the coastal areas, by promoting the use of collective transport. In this study, an analysis was carried out on the connectivity between Bologna and Ravenna to reduce the journey time on the railway line and increase the use of collective transport. The analysis included the redesign of the railway stops for a faster and more efficient service, as well as improving user satisfaction. In addition, an integrated bus-train ticket was created to promote the use of public transport. The results showed that this new solution led to have less delays on the line, although the reorganization of the stops involved the cancellation of some of them. Moreover, numerous surveys have shown that the use of an integrated bus-train ticket helps to improve intermodality within cities. The study has also highlighted the need for more efficient ticket advertising campaigns to better inform users.

Today the use of Construction and Demolition Materials (CDM) can be considered as a suitable solution for the construction or the rehabilitation of road pavements. In this context, it is central to minimizing waste production, favoring the reuse through new production cycles to replace virgin natural raw materials. As illustrated in this study, steel slag has mechanical properties that justify its use as aggregate in the manufacture of bituminous mixes. In road construction, their use is focused on the substitution of fine aggregate and filler in bituminous mixtures. Mechanical characterizations, Marshall stability and indirect tensile resilient modulus (ITSM) tests were used to evaluate the laboratory performance of the mixtures. The research aims are to provide the use of these materials for the construction of the entire road pavement structure, in this study authors used these materials both in the characterization of cementitious layers and in those with bituminous conglomerate. In both cases, the use of steel slag has favored an increase of stiffness in the mixtures.

Driver’s visual attention (eye movements) and driving behaviour (kinematic data) were assessed when approaching an experimental crosswalk that included flashing white in-curb LED strips, flashing orange beacons, backlit ‘Yield here to pedestrians’ vertical signs, and enhanced lighting when a staged pedestrian attempted to cross. An experimental condition in which all devices were active was compared with a control condition in which only enhanced lighting and backlit vertical signs were active. The results showed a significant increase of motorists’ yielding compliance, distance of first fixation to the pedestrian area, standard deviation for horizontal eye movements in the experimental condition. The introduction of flashing in-curb LED strips and flashing orange beacons proved to be very effective in increasing the night-time safety of the pedestrian crossing. Driver’s visual attention (eye movements) and driving behaviour (kinematic data) were assessed when approaching an experimental crosswalk that included flashing white in-curb LED strips, flashing orange beacons, backlit ‘Yield here to pedestrians’ vertical signs, and enhanced lighting when a staged pedestrian attempted to cross. An experimental condition in which all devices were active was compared with a control condition in which only enhanced lighting and backlit vertical signs were active. The results showed a significant increase of motorists’ yielding compliance, distance of first fixation to the pedestrian area, standard deviation for horizontal eye movements in the experimental condition. The introduction of flashing in-curb LED strips and flashing orange beacons proved to be very effective in increasing the night-time safety of the pedestrian crossing. Practitioner summary: The study investigated the effects of flashing in-curb LED strips and beacons on driver’s visual attention (eye movements) and speed when approaching a crosswalk during night-time. The results showed that the combination of these flashing devices significantly increased yielding compliance and the distance of pedestrian detection. Abbreviations: ANOVA: analysis of variance; EU: European Union; HAWK: high intensity activated crosswalk system; LED: light-emitting diode; PHB: pedestrian hybrid beacons; ROI: region of interest; RRFB: rectangular rapid flashing beacons; UK: United Kingdom; US: United States.

This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of some mid-block bicycle crossing elements by analyzing the drivers’ behavior, when approaching the bicycle crossings in a real road experiments with 18 participants. The eye-tracking instrument has been used to monitor the driver’s visual behavior during the test in an instrumented vehicle with GPS (global positioning system) and an inertial measurement unit (IMU). In particular, the drivers’ gaze was investigated frame by frame while approaching the mid-block bicycle crossings. The results showed that the red colored pavement increased the visibility of the mid-block crossing zone to 65.3% with respect to zebra crossing 59.6%. The drivers’ visual field was also narrowed by the portal overhead bicycle crossing sign and, consequently, drivers reduced their velocity and looked more to the vertical signs by 28%. The drivers’ speed reduction helped drivers to see the mid-block crossing elements from a greater distance with a higher fixation duration.

Mineral fillers have a key role in controlling the mechanical characteristics of asphalt concretes (AC). The cohesion properties of bituminous mastics depend upon the fillers used, and, therefore, so do the effective strength of asphalt concretes and the durability of the pavement layers. Recent research has studied the using of waste bleaching clays from the food industry as a substitute of common limestone filler traditionally used in the production of ACs for binder layers. In this paper, a waste bleaching clay is proposed as alternative filler for the production of a porous asphalt (PA) mixture. The waste filler (Ud) comes from two consecutive stages in the industrial process for decolouring vegetable oils and producing biogas from bleaching clays. The aim of this research was to assess the performance of the PA, in terms of physical and mechanical characteristics, when compared to traditional PA. Thus, two porous asphalt mixtures with the same dosages of binder and aggregates gradation were studied in the laboratory: one with traditional limestone filler and one with waste bleaching clay. Tests results are promising in terms of increasing of Indirect Tensile Strength, stiffness, and resistance to permanent deformations.