OBJECTIVE To determine the rate of handheld mobile telephone use among motor vehicle drivers. DESIGN AND SETTING Observational study of motor vehicle drivers at three times (10: 00-11: 00; 14: 00-15: 00; 17: 00-18: 00) on three consecutive Fridays in October 2002 at 12 highway sites in metropolitan Melbourne. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Rates of mobile phone use overall and by sex and age group, ...

The benefit of wearing a rear seatbelt in reducing the risk of motor vehicle crash-related fatalities and injuries has been well documented in previous studies. Wearing a seatbelt not only reduces the risk of injury to rear-seat passengers, but also reduces the risk of injury to front-seat occupant who could be crushed by unbelted rear-seat passengers in a motor vehicle crash. Despite the benef...

OBJECTIVE The objective of this article is to explore relationship between older drivers and their passengers (co-pilots) and potential implications of in-vehicle navigation technology on their driving safety. METHODS Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 44 healthy, community-dwelling older adults (aged 60-83) or 22 married couples. Males identified themselves as drivers and females...

BACKGROUND This study estimated the modal shift associated with the implementation of a public bicycle share program in Montreal, Canada. METHODS A population-based sample of adults participated in two cross sectional telephone surveys. Self-reported travel behaviors were collected at the end of the first (fall 2009) and second (fall 2010) season of implementation. The sample included 2502 (M...

Following the occurrence of unexpected events and natural disasters, a highly important relief operation is the transferring of relief commodities from the distribution centers (CDs) to shelters. In this paper, a three-level network consisting of depot of vehicles, distribution centers and shelters has been considered for routing and scheduling of relief vehicles through introducing a multi-obj...

BACKGROUND Methods of suicide and suicide rates in England and Wales have fluctuated considerably since the 1960s. AIMS To review the changes that have occurred in suicide rates in England and Wales between 1960 and 1997. METHOD Suicide rates, derived from total annual suicides and the estimated annual resident population, were obtained from the Office for National Statistics. RESULTS Sui...

In recent years, car-sharing systems have been announced as a way to increase mobility and to decrease the number of single-occupant vehicles, congestion, and air pollution in many parts of the world. This study presents a linear programming model to optimize one-way car-sharing systems for electric cars considering the depreciation costs of chargers and vehicles as well as relocation cost of v...

Pedestrians are among the most vulnerable road users. Speed of vehicles is considered as one of the major causes of danger for pedestrians crossing the street. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to devise suitable solutions to reduce speed of vehicles. One of these solutions is installation of Pedestrian Refuge Islands (PRI) in very wide midblocks. With regard to fluctuations in pedestrian a...

Bicycles held an important position in transportation of China and other developing countries. As accidents rate involving electronic and regular bicycles is increasing, the severity of the bicycle safety problem should be paid more attention to. The current research explored the effect of sunshields (a kind of affordable traffic facility built on stop line of non-motor vehicle lanes (According...