The effects of a steer assist system on bicycle postural control in real-life safety challenges

With aging, the sensory, motor, and central nervous system deficiencies lead to inadequate bicycle postural control in older cyclists. Similarly, variety in riding skills leads to different bicycle postural control strategies. Cycling seems to be an automated task but keeping the bicycle stable at low speed, pedaling, and steering requires...

Autonomous Shipping Systems: Designing for Safety, Control and Responsibility

Circuit Design Considerations for Power-Efficient and Safe Implantable Electrical Neurostimulators

This paper presents the main circuit design considerations for power-efficient and safe implantable electrical neurostimulators. Related to medical applications, low-frequency (LF) stimulation for generating new action potentials and kilohertz-frequency alternating current (KHFAC) for blocking unwanted neural activity are introduced,...

The perceived safety and spatial behaviour in three different neighbourhoods in Rotterdam

There is a difference between registered safety and perceived safety. An inquiry was done to register how people use space in three different neighbourhoods from different time periods during a weekday. The following spatial parameters were taken into account: Axial and angular analyses with topological and metrical radiuses of the street and...

A Proposal for Some Modifications of EN 1997-1 Design Approaches

All Eurocodes are currently under a critical review, while the work for a second generation of codes are about to start in 2015. For the geotechnical design EN 1997-1 is facing high demands for harmonization and simplification of the present code. The paper presents some proposals for improving the code regarding ultimate limit state (ULS)...

Impact of distracting activities and drivers' cognitive failures on driving performance

The rapid increase in the availability of smart phones and other infotainment devices, and their widespread use while driving, contributes significantly to car crash rates. This is since the human brain has limited capacity and cannot perform two tasks at the same time, but rather switches from one to another rapidly. Understanding of the impact...

Preliminary results from a field experiment on e-bike safety: Speed choice and mental workload for middle-aged and elderly cyclists

To study the safety of e-bikes for the elderly, an experimental field study was conducted, using instrumented bicycles and comparing two age groups: older cyclists, n= 29, mean age = 70, SD = 4.2 and middle-aged cyclists, n = 29, mean age = 38, SD = 4.3. All were regular cyclists. They rode a fixed route with a length of about 3.5 km: once on an...

Reducing travel delay by in-car advice on speed, headway and lane use based on downstream traffic flow conditions - a simulation study

A new advisory ADAS system is implemented in micro simulation to asses the effects on traffic flow as well as on safety. The system uses loop detector data from which situations may be recognized where advices are given to drivers in-car. Advice is given on speed, headway and lane use. Effectively the system allows drivers to respond to...

Safety at construction sites in multi-functional urban locations

Safety against inundation: The dutch approach

The most urbanized part of the Netherlands is situated below sea level and is protected by dikes. By act of parliament allowable inundation frequencies for each part of the country are fixed. In case of two dangers (river run-off and storm surge) it is a problem to determine design values for dikes. Guidelines are developed to solve these...