Natalia DistefanoUniversity of Catania | UNICT · Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture
Natalia Distefano
Doctor of Engineering
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44
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258
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Citations since 2017
Publications
Publications (44)
In recent years, numerous turbo-roundabouts have been built in many European countries. To date, there are no turbo-roundabouts in Italy and even the regulations do not provide for their implementation. Turbo-roundabouts are considered the ideal alternative to multi-lane roundabouts as they have numerous advantages. However, they offer better opera...
The speed value of 30 km/h should not be exceeded in urban areas, both to ensure safety requirements for all categories of users and to improve the overall quality of life in urban areas. Moreover, it is necessary not only to comply with the prescribed maximum speed, but also to ensure a uniform speed by limiting the variations in relation to the a...
![Performance requirements for CE Series of Lighting Classes [19].](profile/Natalia-Distefano/publication/360835803/figure/tbl1/AS:1159536027148288@1653466340134/Performance-requirements-for-CE-Series-of-Lighting-Classes-19_Q320.jpg)
Roundabouts have become a common type of intersection design in many countries. The area of the center island can be used to install a photovoltaic system to power local loads such as lighting systems. The objective of this study is to evaluate the degree of self-sufficiency that a roundabout can achieve depending on the availability of the area fo...
This paper poses the question of the redesign of urbanized arterial roads following a multi-objective approach. These infrastructures usually have wide lanes that allow high speeds and low safety conditions, resulting in the roads with the highest accident rates in suburban areas. However, since they experienced a rapid urbanization, they need to b...
Longer life expectancy is leading to an increase in the average age of the European population. In 2018, 20% of the population was over 65 years old. In 2070, 30.3% of the population will be over 65. Older people prefer to walk in their neighborhoods but they rely on cars as their primary mode of transportation, which allows them to maintain their...
A model is proposed for allocating safety resources to various hazard sites. Due to budget constraints, allocation of resources for necessary countermeasures is a critical issue in safety improvement programs. Therefore, the Decision Maker needs a tool that can prioritize the identified countermeasures looking at several objectives, the most import...
It is commonly acknowledged that the human factor and the interaction between the human factor and the road environment are among the most common causes of road accidents. Physiological signals can provide a real-time assessment of the driver's state because they can be collected continuously without interfering with the driver's task performance o...
Walking has recently been one of the most popular forms of mobility proposed in many urban plans and in the new concept of sustainable mobility. This study investigated pedestrian behavior when crossing the legs of urban roundabouts. Pedestrian crossing behavior was analyzed using video recordings made at seven crosswalks located on urban roundabou...
Studies looking at roundabout safety have generally focused on drivers, overlooking the importance of the safety of vulnerable users such as pedestrians. Crosswalks at roundabouts are useful for pedestrians and increase safety. They should be placed to attract the maximum number of pedestrians, who would otherwise cross the road haphazardly. In thi...
The accessibility of urban contexts is closely connected to analysis of geometric and functional details that can influence the actions of road vulnerable users. The correct design of the spaces and their accessibility must consider all age groups and problems related not only to safety but also to perception and comfortable movement. This research...
Even though roundabouts have been shown to provide significant safety and operational benefits, they generally are more complex and difficult to navigate than most other road segments. This study intends to contribute for a better understanding of the factors affecting the drivers’ unsafe behaviours at single-lane roundabouts. Unsafe behaviours are...
This study investigated the nature and causes of unsafe driving behavior at roundabouts
through an on-road study. Four urban double-lane roundabouts with different layouts were selected
for an on-road study. Sixty-six drivers (41 males and 25 females) aged 18–65 years took part in
the study. Unsafe behaviors observed during the in situ survey were...
Although converting an intersection into a roundabout has been shown to result in fewer injury accidents for both motor vehicle drivers and pedestrians, the effect on bicyclists’ safety is unclear or even negative. This study focuses on roundabouts without bicycle facilities (i.e., mixed traffic conditions) and makes use of semi-automated video obs...
Introduction: Pedestrians aged over 65 are known to be a critical group in terms of road safety because they represent the age group with the highest number of fatalities or injured people in road accidents. With a current ageing population throughout much of the developed world, there is an imminent need to understand the current transportation re...
The benefits of mobility in later life and active ageing have been widely documented and evidenced. Despite its clear benefits, physical activity levels among older people fall short of recommended levels. Older people can have feelings of fear when walking in the outdoor environment. In order to facilitate mobility in later life, it is important t...
![ICAO's severity classification [1]](profile/Natalia-Distefano/publication/341941021/figure/tbl1/AS:899077059395584@1591368083014/ICAOs-severity-classification-1_Q320.jpg)
Safety is one of the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) strategic objectives to foster a global civil aviation system. Statistically, almost 40% of aviation accidents occur at airports, the most frequent type is runway excursion. The assessment of accident severity is an essential part of safety assessment methods. In this study, a...
Road traffic injuries claim more than 1.2 million lives each year in the world and have a huge impact on health and development. It is commonly acknowledged that the human factor and the interaction between the human factor and the road environment are among the most common causes of road accidents. Intersections are among the most complex road env...
Pedestrians aged over 65 are known to be a critical group in terms of road safety because they represent the age group with the highest number of fatalities or injured persons in road accidents. It is therefore important to identify and characterize how old pedestrians perceive pedestrian paths with respect to their age related declines in perceptu...
Roundabouts have been shown to provide significant safety and operational benefits, but a better understanding of public perceptions of roundabouts is critical in order to assess the contribution of the driving behavior of the users on their safety. Therefore, research on user behavior and preferences is a helpful tool in improving road safety and...
Background: Today, roundabouts are an integral part of the road system. Roundabouts, like all intersections, are complex road environments: their geometric configuration, the signs and markings, the road furniture, the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of traffic, the vehicular conflicts are all elements which weigh the driver workload,...
It is now known that roundabouts offer high levels of safety, but different researches on this type of intersection show that several factors influence the driver’s behavior, causing occasionally wrong driving behaviors that can degenerate into accidents. Understanding driver’s preferences is an important goal in order to encourage an efficient and...
Risk perception, i.e. the ability to "read the road" in relation to potentially dangerous situations in the traffic environment, is strongly related to accident involvement. Human driving behavior is strongly conditioned by the road environment in its entirety, as driving involves complex interactions between the driver and the environment. This st...
Vehicle speed is one of the main risk factors for road traffic safety. To increase the level of road safety, especially in urban areas, measures must be implemented to reduce vehicle speed. The installation of calming measures on a road network is systematically planned way to reduce driving speeds. This paper studies the effectiveness in terms of...
Roundabouts can provide benefits in many ways. They are safer, more efficient, less costly and more aesthetically appealing than standard at-grade intersections (controlled and signalized). The administrations have often identified roundabouts as a proven safety countermeasure for the following reasons: a) reduce overall conflict points and remove...
Pedestrian injury is a major hazard to the health of children in most developed countries. Pedestrian accidents are one of the first causes of injury-related deaths and hospitalizations among children aged 5 to 14 in industrialized countries. This study has a dual objective: 1) to identify the factors affecting Italian parents' propensity to use pr...
Purpose
The risk of aircraft runway excursion, dependent on multiple factors, is related to operating conditions. The purpose of this paper is to identify the correspondence between features belonging to different aspects that occur in runway excursion events, distinguishing between take-off and landing phases.
Design/methodology/approach
To defin...
Pedestrian injury is a major hazard to the health of children in most developed countries. Pedestrian accidents in Italy are one of the first causes of injury-related deaths for children aged 5 to 14 years old in industrialized countries. This study has a dual objective: 1) to identify the factors affecting the parents' propensity to use private ca...
The aim of this paper is to identify the roundabout geometric characteristics affecting the safety perception while the typical maneuvers (entry, circulation, exit) are being carried out. The tool used was an on-line questionnaire, filled out by about 1.650 respondents. Four different dimensionality reduction methods (Cluster Analysis, Corresponden...
Objectives: The aim is to evaluate the effectiveness, in order to speed reduction, of three traffic calming measures: 1) speed table, 2) chicane, 3) road narrowing. Prior Work: Many researches show the effectiveness in reducing the speed of the traffic calming measures. To this effect, field measurements were made on street sections with different...
The term ‘scenario’ is used in the safety field to designate a prototype or a model of an accident process characterised by chains of facts, actions, causal relations and consequences in terms of damage to people and property. The prototypical scenarios, properly realized, provide a basis on which to consider the action to be taken, but also a conc...
U-turn lanes eliminate left turns at intersections and allow the manoeuvre to be made via median crossovers beyond the intersection. However, there are many situations where road infrastructures are characterized by the reduced width of the median. It is clear that, in such situations, we must adopt design criteria that take into account limitation...
More than one accident of three that involve pedestrians in urban area occurs at road intersections. The users’ inproper behaviour, the geometrical characteristics of the intersections, and the high speeds of vehicles are the main causes of pedestrian accidents. In this field, the procedures of road safety analysis (Road Safety Audit and Road Safet...
It is known that speed bumps are devices capable of reducing the speed of vehicles (traffic calming measures). Bumps arranged in sequence are capable of inducing a speed regime almost constant along the road sections in which they are installed. However, the impact of vehicles on the bumps generates noise that is annoying to residents. Many studies...
A practical problem in air transport is how to manage risk and safety. In recent years have been developed special technical and managerial skills to the systematic, forward looking identification and control of hazards throughout the life cycle of a project, program, or activity. Safety Management System (SMS) involves identifying, evaluating, and...
The ISAT algorithm (Interchange Safety Analysis Tool), developed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), provides design and safety engineers with an automated tool for assessing the safety effects of geometric design and traffic control features at an existing interchange and adjacent roadway network. Concerning the default calibration coeff...
Projects
Projects (3)
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/safety/special_issues/safe_road
To identify and to study the main human factors contributing to road risk perception in urban areas, to investigate the driving behaviour and the human-road interaction as a contributing factor to the occurrence of road accidents and, finally, to provide recommendations on how improve road design taking into account the human factor.
The public perception of roundabouts is the subject of own research on right now. The instrument used is a web nationwide survey,
The statistical processing of data acquired by multivariate logistic regression analysis enabled us to build a predictive model of young people perception about the safety performance of roundabouts, considering the variability of geometric characteristics (eg., radius, number of lanes on the circulatory roadway and on the legs) and traffic conditions (e.g., fluid or congested).
The final result of this study is of particular interest since through statistical modeling of data, it possible to understand the differences of public perception of roundabouts in reference to gender, age, road user, etc.
