http://localhost:8081/jspui/handle/123456789/18876 2026-04-20T01:20:51Z 2026-04-20T01:20:51Z Khan, Abdul Basit http://localhost:8081/jspui/handle/123456789/20411 2026-04-13T06:34:10Z 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: EFFECTS OF DRIVING CHARACTERISTICS ON TRAFFIC SAFETY AND MANAGEMENT Authors: Khan, Abdul Basit Abstract: The changing landscape of transportation in India due to evolving industrial development and national economic growth has a significant impact on traffic safety and management. In this thesis, we extensively explore driving characteristics, including rash driving, dangerous driving, as well as distractions both inside and outside the vehicle as determinants of crash. While many people commonly link road accidents on national highways and expressways in India to factors like drunken driving or excessive speeding, prevailing misconceptions about the root causes of accidents on some select highway and expressways. To accomplish this we conducted an analysis that involved gathering accident data specific to our sample area. This dataset was supplemented with information about the circumstances and factors contributing to each accident. Our goal was to unravel the chain of events leading to accidents on these highways and debunk the myth that alcohol-impaired or excessively fast drivers are solely responsible for them. Contrary to belief our findings consistently highlight poor driving characteristics as the main cause of accidents, on NH 58 and the Yamuna Expressway. This finding carries implications. There is a need to shift our focus towards addressing the characteristics of driver as a factor, in improving traffic safety. While drunken driving and speeding are certainly factors in accidents it is the combination of driver behaviors that is of utmost concern. Building on this understanding our research delved into assessing driving skills that are lacking. We designed a questionnaire to gather responses from drivers and used machine learning techniques to thoroughly analyze the collected data. Our objective was twofold; to gain an understanding of how poor driving characteristics contributes to accidents and to develop strategies for promoting road safety. This objective led us to discover insights. By examining rash driving, dangerous driving, and distracted driving behaviors we were able to predict the risk of crashes. These insights not only shed light on the connections, between these behaviors and accident likelihood. It has also helped us create targeted interventions aimed at promoting safer driving practices. Furthermore, our research went beyond examining driving characteristics. We delved into the complexities of how different combinations of driving characteristics interact with each other. By utilizing techniques such, as the Random Forest feature importance method and heat maps we were able to identify patterns that have a higher risk of causing accidents as well as those with lower probabilities of crash occurrence. This detailed analysis unveiled connections between driving characteristics and distractions providing us with a comprehensive understanding of the factors that contribute to road accidents. Expanding our study’s scope further we also explored the impact of roadside hoardings and billboards on driving characteristics and crash risks specifically focusing on truck drivers. We collected data meticulously through driver monitoring systems and front facing cameras to predict risks based on driver's engagement in poor driving. Similar to our objectives we also examined how combinations of these characteristics influence crash risk. The investigation, which took into consideration the particular circumstances encountered by truck drivers, provided details about the interactions between the built environment/roadside hoardings, poor driving practices, and crash risk. Now that we have this knowledge, we may implement specific actions meant to improve traffic safety.

2024-01-01T00:00:00Z Choudhary, Ankit http://localhost:8081/jspui/handle/123456789/20323 2026-04-09T07:42:09Z 2024-05-01T00:00:00Z

Title: IMPACT OF PAVEMENT AND GEOMETRIC PARAMETERS ON ROAD SAFETY Authors: Choudhary, Ankit Abstract: Road transportation is more favored as it is cheaper and faster than other modes. However, a higher probability of getting involved in crashes reveals its negative impact. The frequency of road traffic fatalities has escalated pointedly in the past decade. Around 1.35 million people globally lose their lives yearly in these road accidents. Almost all countries around the world are experiencing this inevitable phenomenon, rather than one country. However, developing countries witness a higher number of crashes (about 93%) and crash related deaths despite these countries having approximately 60% of the world's vehicles. As a result, road traffic accidents are a major socio-economic problem in developing countries rather than developed countries. Similarly, India, a developing nation in south Asia, observed more than 0.15 million deaths in 2019 due to Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs). As a result, the social and economic price of these crashes in 2019 was about $ 38.81 billion, roughly about 1.35% of India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). According to (MORTH, 2019) the Ministry of Road Transportation and Highways, these fatalities are about 13% of total fatalities all over the world. Further, statistics show that rural roads (only National and State highways) observed 54.9% of total crashes despite these roads constituting only 5.04% of the total road network. Road accidents are random, as these are influenced by a range of factors. However, these factors are not limited to driver's behaviour or distraction but are also influenced by other external factors such as roadway characteristics (geometric design and pavement surface quality) and vehicle characteristics. Past research shows that inconsistent pavement and geometric design reliably affect ride quality and ultimately subsidize drivers' disruption. However, it is less clear how and to what extent exactly pavement and geometric conditions are related to road crashes. Thus, to contribute to this growing body of knowledge, the study tried to find out the impact of pavement and geometric parameters on rural road crash rate in the context of emergent nations, where crash-related data is rarely available and heterogeneous traffic conditions exist. Though some studies were conducted in this context but are insufficient for developing suitable policies and strategies. Differentiating with past studies, this study tried to identify the impact of pavement surface irregularities on crash frequencies in addition to geometric design variables. In summarized form, this study has made several significant contributions. Firstly, this study conducted a systematic literature survey to provide an overall perspective of significant findings of past research work related to RTAs. The literature provides information about the hierarchy of risk variables, methodological approaches of past studies and the possible types of statistical tools that can be used in safety research. Secondly, this study aims to develop Accident Prediction Models (APMs) that allow respective authorities to identify contributing variables that may significantly impact crashes occurring on rural roads and highways in India. Thus, collision and severity based APMs were developed to achieve the objective as a function of road geometry, pavement surface condition, and traffic parameters. Thirdly, it suggests best practices and approaches to address traffic safety problems with reliance on limited data by comparing the goodness of fit of the developed models. Lastly, it provides conclusions from comparable studies in developed nations, which may not be directly applicable to developing nations due to significant variations in traffic flow, roadway design and roadside features and, most crucially, behavioural factors. Thus, the results of this study shed light on different types of crashes based on the type of location, type of collision, type of severity and type of vehicles involved that occurred on rural roadways in developing nations and generally in India. Thus, it intends to provide a tool for highway engineers to validate their decisions while selecting the best-performing model, as the study highlights significant issues with road safety in emerging nations.

2024-05-01T00:00:00Z Thampan, Aromal http://localhost:8081/jspui/handle/123456789/20273 2026-04-08T07:20:33Z 2024-03-01T00:00:00Z

Title: A LEVEL OF SERVICE FRAMEWORK FOR AIRPORT PASSENGER TERMINAL BUILDINGS Authors: Thampan, Aromal Abstract: The aviation industry has experienced significant expansion over the last two decades. The growing competition among the airlines, introduction of low-cost economy flights, budget terminals, and decreased airfares have contributed to the increase in passenger demand towards this sector. This has escalated the passenger footfall at the landside terminals, resulting in crowding and congestion, building an imbalance between the available airport infrastructure and passenger demand. Due to this scenario, passengers experienced longer queueing times, difficulty navigating crowded areas, increased stress levels, and decreased comfort and satisfaction, resulting in poor travel experiences. In this context, evaluating service quality (SQ) or level of service (LOS) is crucial in complex passenger terminals like airports. Since airports predominantly cater to passengers, the Service Quality (SQ) and benchmarking protocols applied to airports should be primarily based on the perceptions of these end users. Airports adhere to global standards set by the Airport Council International (ACI) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for evaluating passenger service quality. Lately, these standards have been criticized by researchers, as they lack passenger perceptions. Moreover, existing frameworks tend to focus only on specific facilities or certain phases of passenger travel. This study addresses this gap by comprehensively evaluating airport service quality (ASQ) using quantitative onsite measurements of airport terminal buildings and subjective passenger opinions. This research begins with a detailed literature review classifying the existing literature on LOS into two broad study levels. The literature additionally examined the diverse variables encompassed within the research and the various methodologies used, deriving 58 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). From this, the study shortlisted 30 KPIs using expert opinions for evaluating airport LOS and further classified these as major and minor KPIs for the departure and arrival terminals. Passenger surveys using structured questionnaires captured the passenger demography, travel characteristics and the significance of major and minor KPIs from the end user perspective.

2024-03-01T00:00:00Z Padhi, Arya Prakash http://localhost:8081/jspui/handle/123456789/20270 2026-04-08T07:19:50Z 2024-07-01T00:00:00Z

Title: REFINED TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZATION SCHEMES FOR CONCEPTUAL DESIGN OF STRUCTURES Authors: Padhi, Arya Prakash Abstract: Structural topologyoptimizationhasplayedanimportantroleinrecentimprovementsinengineering and constructionsectors,includingthecrucialtransportationinfrastructure.Theinventionandex- ploitation ofinnovativemathematicalapproachestoengineeringchallengesresultedinthecreation of uniquestructuralsystems.Furthermore,duetothecontinualdevelopmentofnewtoolsandthe constant expansionincomputingcapability,today’sarchitectsandengineershaveaccesstoawide range ofskills.Despiteextensivestudy,thekeybarrierstothewiderimplementationoftopology optimization processesincludechallengesindevelopingsophisticatedmultiphysicsalgorithms,high processing costs,manufacturinglimits,andsoon.Thisstudyaimstosolvesomedifficultiesrelated to algorithmicdevelopmentandcomputingefficiencyandapplythemtoimprovetheperformanceof buildingandbridgestructures. In chaptertwo,topologyoptimizationisrevisitedinthecontextofnonlinearityanddynamicload- ing. TheprimaryfocusisonintegratinggeometricnonlinearitythroughtheTotalLagrangianfor- mulation. AnadditionalquadratictermintheGreen-Lagrangianstrainensuresthepropermodeling of largedeformationstrain,complementingthehyperelasticSt.Venantmaterialmodel.Thestudy employsthedensity-basedtopologyoptimizationmethod,whichpenalizesintermediatedensities.A notable challengearisesfromthepronounceddistortionoflow-densityelements,resultinginnumeri- cal instability.Toaddressthisissue,awell-establishedelementremovaltechniqueisutilized,wherein low-densityelementsareexcludedfromtheconvergencecriteria.Despitealltheseadvancements, topology evolutionthroughdesignvariableupdatingschemesmayleadtoslowerconvergenceoreven divergence.Themaincontributionofthisstudyliesinrevisingthepopularoptimalitycriteriaupdate scheme andmakingsomeimportantmodificationstoit.Specifically,thewayofhandlingtheLagrange multiplier andtheupdatingstepsofthedesignvariablehasbeenmodifiedbasedontheconditional convexlinearizationapproach.Theresultsshowpromisingconvergenceratesandoptimizedshapes. Chapter threediscussesthedynamicresponsetopologyoptimizationprocess.Bothtime-domain and frequency-domaincasestudieshavebeenpresented.Adjointsensitivitieshavebeenusedforall of theobjectivefunctions,namelydynamiccompliance,eigenvalues,andmodalcompliance.Appli- cations tolateralload-resistingframestructuresofbuildingssubjectedtogroundexcitationhavebeen showninadditiontooptimizingtheeigenvaluetoimprovedynamicbehavior.Finally,theoptimized shape ofbridgesuperstructureshapesundermovingvehicularloadinghasbeenstudied.Ithasbeen realized thatdespitethereductioniniterations,thefiniteelementsolverstilltakeshugecomputational time withtherefinementofthegeometry.Thesolutioninthisdirectionhasbeenattemptedinour second researchobjective.

2024-07-01T00:00:00Z