Alfonso Montella

University of Naples Federico II | UNINA · Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Pile-up (PU) crashes, which involve multiple collisions between more than two vehicles within a brief timeframe, carry substantial consequences, including fatalities and significant damages. This study aims to investigate the real-time traffic, environmental, and crash characteristics and their interactions in terms of their contributions to severe...

Speed management is an integral part of the Safe System approach and tackling unsafe speeds is the first action to fix a transport system that fails to protect people. There is a consensus that where traffic speeds are a safety issue, lowering the speed limit is considered "reasonable and safe" for conditions. Nevertheless, not only should a speed...

Cycling provides numerous benefits to individuals and to society but the burden of road traffic injuries and fatalities is disproportionately sustained by cyclists. Without awareness of the contributory factors of cyclist death and injury, the capability to implement context-specific and appropriate measures is severely limited. In this paper, we i...

Cyclist safety is a research field that is gaining increasing interest and attention, but still offers questions and challenges open to the scientific community. The aim of this study was to provide an exhaustive review of scientific publications in the cyclist safety field. For this purpose, Bibliometrix-R tool was used to analyse 1066 documents r...

Recently, there is a growing interest in road safety assessments based on the examination of the characteristics of the road aimed at identifying the presence of risk factors. This approach, named road assessment program or network wide road safety assessment, is required by the EU Directive 2019/1936 on road infrastructure safety management. Relia...

Walking plays an important role in overcoming many challenges nowadays, and governments and local authorities are encouraging healthy and environmentally sustainable lifestyles. Nevertheless, pedestrians are the most vulnerable road users and crashes with pedestrian involvement are a serious concern. Thus, the identification of pedestrian crash pat...

Background: A growing number of communities are re-discovering the value of their streets as important public spaces for many aspects of daily life, creating the need for a transformation in the quality of those streets. An emerging concept of ‘complete streets’ is to accommodate all users of the transportation system. Methods: In this paper, we pr...

Pedestrians are the most vulnerable road users and pedestrian crashes are a major concern both for their number and their severity. In Italy, pedestrians account for 34% of the road fatalities in urban area. To improve pedestrian safety, this study is aimed at analysing the roadway, environmental, vehicle, driver and pedestrian-related factors that...

Among all crashes involving cyclists, a motorist approaching from behind a cyclist on a shared lane is particularly dangerous and likely to result in serious injuries and fatalities. Previous research has highlighted that inadequate lateral distance and high vehicle speed are among the main contributing factors of crashes involving cars overtaking...

The study aims to investigate the factors that are associated with fatal and severe vehicle–pedestrian crashes in Great Britain by developing four parametric models and five non-parametric tools to predict the crash severity. Even though the models have already been applied to model the pedestrian injury severity, a comparative analysis to assess t...

This study investigated, by means of a dynamic driving simulator experiment, road users' behavior inside the curves of rural two-lane highways related to different advance warning signs, perceptual measures, and delineation treatments. These treatments were intended to warn drivers of the presence of low radius curves and to affect their behavior,...

The main objective of this paper was to analyse the roadway, environmental, and driver-related factors associated with an overrepresentation of frequency and severity of run-off-the-road (ROR) crashes. The data used in this study refer to the 6167 crashes occurred in the section Naples–Candela of A16 motorway, Italy in the period from 2001 to 2011....

Available at https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1c7-SLDQ~nAH The combined contribution to highway safety of pavement surface and geometric design indicators is not well investigated due to the complexity of data collection and high time variability of pavement surface conditions. Introduction of high efficiency equipment for comprehensive road surveys...

Many studies based on spot locations have been conducted to improve highway design consistency to reduce accident rates. Traffic accidents had a strong relationship with environmental sustainability in terms of emissions and natural resources consumption. This study based on driving a simulator can produce continuous drivers’ behavior profiles to f...

(1) Background: A growing number of communities are re-discovering the value of their streets as important public spaces for many aspects of daily life, thus creating the need for a transformation in the quality of streets. An emerging concept is to accommodate all users of the transportation system, a concept that has been labelled ‘complete stree...

Methods based on crash data analysis are effective in identifying intersections with a potential for safety improvement. However, it is well recognized that crash data suffer from several shortcomings and that there are clues to safety other than crash occurrence. The systemic approach is an alternative method to address safety issues. In this appr...

A large percentage of fatal crashes occur at night: 47 percent in the USA and 36 percent in the EU and the nighttime traffic death rate is 4.4 times higher than in the day. Drivers rely on visual clues to complete the driving task and at night, they rely on their headlights to illuminate the distance ahead, which on average is about 160 feet. Thus,...

Powered two-wheelers (PTWs) are growing globally each year as they are considered an attractive alternative to cars (flexible, small, affordable, fast and easy to park), especially on congested traffic situations. However, PTWs represent an important challenge for road safety. In fact, in 2016, Spain ranked fifth in terms of PTW fatalities among EU...

Presently, there is a critical need to analyze traffic accidents in order to mitigate their terrible economic and human impact. Most accidents occur in urban areas. Furthermore, driving experience has an important effect on accident analysis, since inexperienced drivers are more likely to suffer fatal injuries. This work studies the injury severity...

This paper presents macro-level safety performance functions and aims to provide empirical tools for planners and engineers to conduct proactive analyses, promote more sustainable development patterns, and reduce road crashes. In the past decade, several studies have been conducted for crash modeling at a macro-level, yet in Italy, macro-level safe...

This paper is aimed at obtaining a better understanding of driving behavior on horizontal curves of two-lane rural highways in terms of trajectories in relation to the different curve radii and directions by a driving simulator experiment. The driving simulator experiment involved 50 drivers and eight classes of curve radii, ranging from 125 m to 8...

Purpose – Measures aimed at reducing intersection crashes have high potential to be cost effective since intersections constitute only a small part of the overall highway system but intersection-related crashes constitute more than 50% of all crashes in urban areas and over 30% in rural areas. Roundabouts are a proven safety countermeasure, but sev...

Detection and classification of distresses is a fundamental activity in the road pavement management. Even in the early stages of deterioration, road pavement needs to be monitored to identify problems, evaluating the actual conditions and predicting what the future conditions will be. Monitoring activities through manual/visual inspections are tim...

First step of the development of an effective safety management system is to create reliable crash databases since the quality of decision making in road safety depends on the quality of the data on which decisions are based. Improving crash data is a worldwide priority, as highlighted in the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety ado...

This paper analyses driving behaviour in car-following conditions, based on extensive individual vehicle data collected during experimental field surveys carried out in Italy and the UK. The aim is to contribute to identify simple evidence to be exploited in the ongoing process of driving assistance and automation which, in turn, would reduce rear-...

This paper is aimed at obtaining a better understanding of driving behaviour on horizontal curves in terms of trajectories and to classify trajectories in relation to the different curve radii and directions. The driving simulator experiment performed in the study allowed to analyze drivers’ behaviour at horizontal curves of two-lane rural highways...

To improve design consistency of existing and new roads, several studies developed operating speed prediction models and investigated drivers’ speed behaviour. Most of the existing models are based on spot speed data assuming constant operating speed throughout the horizontal curves and occurrence of acceleration and deceleration only on tangent...

The paper investigates by means of a dynamic driving simulator experiment drivers’ behaviour at curves of rural two-lane highways in relation to different advance warning signs, perceptual measures, and delineation treatments. The tested treatments were intended to alert drivers of the presence of low radius curves and to affect their behaviour bot...

This paper investigated, by means of a dynamic driving-simulator experiment, drivers' behavior at curves on rural two-lane highways in relation to different advance warning signs, perceptual measures, and delineation treatments. The tested treatments were intended to alert drivers to the presence of curves, prompting a reduction in curve approach s...

Point-to-point (P2P) speed enforcement is a relatively new approach to traffic law enforcement. Its technology allows vehicles whose average speed exceeds the speed limit over the controlled section to be fined. It therefore encourages compliance over distances longer than those where spot enforcement policies have been in place.In this paper, a pr...

We developed safety performance functions for rural motorways incorporating design consistency measures.•We developed safety performance functions for different crash characteristics.•Consistency parameters are based on continuous operating speed models.•Consistency in driving dynamics, operating speed, and inertial speed resulted significant expla...

Point-to-point (P2P) speed enforcement is a relatively new approach to traffic law enforcement. Its technology allows vehicles whose average speed exceeds the speed limit over the controlled section to be fined. It therefore encourages compliance over distances longer than those where spot enforcement policies have been in place. In this paper, a p...

To improve highway design consistency, several studies developed operating speed prediction models and investigated drivers' speed behavior. Most existing models are based on spot speed data that assume constant operating speed throughout the horizontal curves and occurrence of acceleration and deceleration only on tangents. To overcome limitations...

In this paper, we evaluated the effects on speed and safety of the point-to-point (P2P) speed enforcement system activated on the urban motorway A56 in Italy. The P2P speed enforcement is a relatively new approach to traffic law enforcement that involves the calculation of the average speed over a section. To evaluate the speed effects, we performe...

Several studies have developed operating speed prediction models. Most of the models are based on spot speed data, collected by radar guns, pavements sensors and similar mechanisms. Unfortunately, these data collecting methods force the users to assume some invalid assumptions in driver behaviour modeling: constant operating speed throughout the ho...

In Spain, 74 % of injury crashes occur on rural two-lane highways. Therefore, one of the strategic priorities detailed in highway safety plans is the specific study of these highways. This study aimed at investigating crash patterns and contributory factors on rural two-lane highways so as to propose specific road safety countermeasures. The analys...

Roundabouts are hastily spreading around the world, mainly because of their good safety performance, and several countries have recently updated their standards and guidelines. However, inconsistencies in design standards and practices are observed. In this paper, a critical review of the Australasian, EU, and US standards and guidelines is perform...

Because the quality of decision making in road safety is dependent on the quality of the data on which decisions are based, efforts to improve the quality, timeliness, and accuracy of crash databases are crucial. A critical review of Australasian, European Union, and U.S. crash databases was performed, and future directions were identified. Major i...

The study of road safety has seen great strides over the past few decades with advances in analytical methods and research tools that allow researchers to provide insights into the complex interactions of the driver, vehicle, and roadway. Data collection methods range from traditional traffic and roadway sensors to instrumented vehicles and driving...

This paper presents a procedure for ranking rural unsignalized intersections that uses quantitative safety evaluations performed as part of the safety inspection process. The procedure might be effective for the selection of cost-effective treatments at intersections and might be quite helpful for administrations that do not have high-quality crash...

Because speeding is one of the most significant contributing factors to fatal crashes, most road agencies attempt to achieve the right operating speed by imposing speed limits. Speed limit violations are prevalent, even on motorways with speed cameras. A problem with speed camera enforcement is that some motorists brake before passing a camera loca...

Aim of the study was the analysis of powered two-wheeler (PTW) crashes in Italy in order to detect interdependence as well as dissimilarities among crash characteristics and provide insights for the development of safety improvement strategies focused on PTWs. At this aim, data mining techniques were used to analyze the data relative to the 254,575...

Crash data collection is crucial for road safety improvement, but Italy is considerably behind the best international practices. To help to bridge this gap, a critical review of international crash databases was carried out and recommendations for improvement of the Italian police crash data collection and the national crash database were formulate...

The paper presents a critical review of the Australasian, EU and US roundabout geometric design standards and guidelines and identifies inconsistencies of the Italian roundabout standard which deserve improvement. As a result, recommendations for improvement of the Italian standard are proposed. These recommendations are mainly based on the concept...

Road safety inspections (RSIs) are becoming an accepted practice in many agencies around the world. A safety assessment procedure based on safety inspections that can be used as a supporting tool in the safety management of low-volume rural roads is presented. From the procedure, a safety index (SI) that quantitatively measures the relative safety...

Exploratory analysis was made of data from pedestrian crashes to detect interdependence and dissimilarities between crash patterns and to provide insight for the development of safety improvement strategies focused on pedestrians. Data-mining techniques, such as classification trees and association rules, were used on data related to 56,014 pedestr...

Aim of the study was to investigate, by means of a driving simulator experiment, drivers' behaviour in terms of speed, deceleration, and lateral position on major approaches of rural intersections in relation to different perceptual cues. In the experiment, ten different design conditions with and without speed-reducing treatments along the approac...

The use of roundabouts improves intersection safety by eliminating or altering conflict types, reducing crash severity, and causing drivers to reduce speeds. However, roundabout performances can degrade if precautions are not taken during either the design or the operation phase. Therefore, additional information on the safety of the roundabouts is...

The aim of this paper is to investigate, by means of a dynamic driving simulator experiment, the behavior of road users at rural intersections in relation to perceptual measures designed for increasing hazard detection. In the experiment 10 configurations of tangents were tested: Alt1, base tangent; Alt2, four-leg base intersection; Alt3, intersect...

The paper investigated drivers’ speed behaviour in a section of a rural highway crossing a small urban community in the existing scenario without any traffic calming device and in two different design scenarios with traffic calming in the urban community. Two gateways and four integrative traffic calming devices along the route within the urban are...

The identification of crash hotspots is the first step of the highway safety management process. Errors in hotspot identification may result in the inefficient use of resources for safety improvements and may reduce the global effectiveness of the safety management process. Despite the importance of using effective hotspot identification (HSID) met...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the safety effectiveness of treatments aimed at improving horizontal curve delineation. Different target crash types were considered in the analysis: total, nighttime, daytime, rainy, nonrainy, run-off-road, non-run-off-road, injury, and property damage only. The treatment sites for this study were 15 cur...

In this paper, crash prediction models for estimating the safety of rural motorways are presented. Separate models were developed for total crashes and severe (fatal plus all injury) crashes. Generalized linear modeling techniques were used to rat the models, and a negative binomial distribution error structure was assumed. The study used a sample...

The number of roundabout intersections is quickly increasing around the world, mainly because of their good safety performance. However, roundabout performance can be degraded if precautions are not taken during either the design or the operation phase. Safety review methodologies are well suited for roundabout analysis, but their effectiveness can...

The methodological approach to safety evaluation of two-lane rural highway segments that is presented uses both analytical procedures referring to alignment design consistency models and safety inspection processes. A safety index (SI) that quantitatively measures the relative safety performance of a road segment is calculated from the procedure. T...

Road Safety Inspections (RSI) are recognized as an effective tool for identifying safety issues. However, due to the subjective nature of the process, they may give rise to disagreements which limit their effectiveness. In the framework of the IASP research program sponsored by European Commission, which is focused on rural two-lane highways, a RSI...

Nowadays, Road Safety Inspections (RSI) are recognized as an effective tool for identifying safety deficiencies of road infrastructures. They represent a low cost process for the evaluation of the network safety performance. Its applicability in rural local roads, where accident data generally do not give enough information for the safety analysis,...

Safety reviews of existing roads are becoming an accepted practice in many agencies around the world. These reviews can be highly cost-effective, but the subjective nature of the process can give rise to inconsistencies that limit their effectiveness. To address this issue, a technique to support safety reviews to quantify the safety gains that cou...

Safety reviews of existing roads are becoming an accepted practice in many agencies around the world. These reviews can be highly cost-effective, but the subjective nature of the process can give rise to inconsistencies that limit their effectiveness. To address this issue, a technique to support safety reviews to quantify the safety gains that cou...

Traditional road safety engineering work involves implementing relevant remedial measures at high accident locations. A new approach to road safety management is based on safety reviews of existing roads. Road safety review is aimed at identifying and solving risk factors, by trying to investigate how the road environment is perceived, and ultimate...

The new European Standards EN 1317-1/2 define the performance classes of road restraint systems and induce a growing interest for roadside safety. However, analytical procedures, like benefit-cost analysis, are not used in Europe for the selection of specific roadside safety features at specific locations or for the development of warrants, policie...

Vehicles that collide with highway safety features do not always produce the same effects. The outcome for each vehicle that collides with a feature will be different, depending greatly not only on its mass, velocity, and impact angle but also on the position of its center of mass and on the tire-pavement friction. The ways in which barrier and str...

Nowadays, Road Safety Inspections (RSI) are recognized as an effective tool for identifying safety deficiencies of road infrastructures. They represent a low cost process for the evaluation of the network safety performance. Its applicability in rural local roads, where accident data generally do not give enough information for the safety analysis,...

A methodological approach for the safety evaluation of two lane rural roads which use both analytical procedures referring to alignment design consistency models and the "Safety review" process is suggested. Alignment features and design consistency related to road safety conditions can be effectively evaluated using both Accident Prediction Models...