Richard Andrášik

Transport Research Centre | CDV · Department of Geoinformatics

An experimental study was conducted to test the effectiveness of olfactory repellents (ORE) as a mitigation measure to reduce ungulate-vehicle collisions (UVC). In the first phase, an extensive field survey was undertaken while employing the Before-After Control-Impact (BACI) study design. On the basis of ungulate mortality, 134 road sections were...

Storms (thunderstorms or windstorms) are common meteorological phenomena in Europe. They produce rain, lightning, strong winds or hail and are capable of causing serious failures in rail transport. We identified 14,786 incidents associated with storms, which took place on the Czech rail network between 2002 and 2021. This represented 5% of all repo...

Road fencing is considered one of the most effective traffic safety measures to avoid wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC). Construction errors during fence installation, intrinsic defects and other inconsistencies allow, however, for wildlife to enter the roads. WVC thus occur even at many fenced places. We analysed WVC, from fenced D10 and D11 motor...

Dendrogeomorphic (tree-ring based) methods are an effective tool for determining the spatial and temporal activity of landslide movements. Moreover, the obtained chronological data can be used for the analysis of their potential triggers. However, the use of tree-ring based chronologies for defining trigger thresholds is very rare and has not yet b...

Global change has manifested itself as climate warming in Central Europe in recent decades. Average daily air temperatures increased by an average of 2 °C between 1982 and 2018. Air temperature changes have affected the timing of the vegetation periods (pheno-phases) and have also influenced the behaviour of animals. We worked with data on wildlife...

Almost one-quarter of primate species are reported to be involved in vehicle collisions. To mitigate these collisions, canopy bridges are used though their effectiveness is not broadly substantiated. We studied bridge impact on 23 years of vehicle collisions (2000-2022: N = 765) with colobus (Colobus angolensis palliatus), Sykes' (Cercopithecus mit...

Our paper deals with three-dimensional nonsteady Navier-Stokes equations for non-Newtonian compressible fluids. It contains a~derivation of the relative energy inequality for the weak solutions to these equations. We show that the standard energy inequality implies the relative energy inequality. Consequently, the relative energy inequality allows...

Train collisions with animals are a common phenomenon in the Czech Republic, causing not only animal mortality, but also crash-related damage to trains. The factors leading, however, to these collisions have not been studied in detail. We collected 2,421 train collisions with roe deer, red deer, fallow deer, and wild boar on the Czech rail network...

In the past, fires around railways were often associated with steam locomotives. Although steam locomotives have disappeared from everyday rail traffic, fires still occur. A vegetation fire near Bzenec (Czech Republic) on 21 June 2018 affected, for example, 124,110 m2 of forest and grassland. The investigation revealed that the fire was caused by a...

Millions of wild animals are killed annually on roads worldwide. During spring 2020, the volume of road traffic was reduced globally as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. We gathered data on wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) from Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Israel, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and for Scotland and England within th...

Many approaches have been developed in order to mitigate wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC), their causes and consequences. Reliable data on the amount and location of killed animals along roads are therefore necessary. The existing WVC databases are usually, however, far from complete. This data underreporting causes problems when identifying the r...

Ungulate–vehicle collisions pose a traffic safety issue as well as wildlife-conservation issues in many countries. While fences are recommended as reliable safety measures for motorways and other high-traffic volume roads, no generally accepted measures of the same efficiency are available for secondary roads. Odour repellents are applied in many c...

We analyzed data from traffic counters installed on 143 Czech roads (motorways and primary roads) which precisely indicated current traffic volume during occurrences of ungulate-vehicle collisions (UVC). One thousand nine hundred ninety-five UVCs were identified over the period 2009–2015 on these 143 road segments. The overall range of annual avera...

Roads represent a threat to biodiversity, primarily through increased mortality from collisions with vehicles. Although estimating roadkill rates is an important first step, how roads affect long‐term population persistence must also be assessed. We developed a trait‐based model to predict roadkill rates for terrestrial bird and mammalian species i...

Knowledge about the cause of differential structural damages following the occurrence of hazardous hydro-meteorological events can inform more effective risk management and spatial planning solutions. While studies have been previously conducted to describe relationships between physical vulnerability and features about building properties, the imm...

The aim of this study was to identify landscape-related factors which could explain the concentration of traffic crashes with large ungulates in a forest environment. We worked with un-gulate-vehicle collisions which took place on the Czech road network in the period 2014-2016 using the application Srazenazver.cz. With the KDE+ method, we chose the...

A number of traffic crash databases at present contain the precise positions and dates of these events. This feature allows for detailed spatiotemporal analysis of traffic crash patterns. We applied a clustering method for identification of traffic crash hotspots to the rural parts of primary roads in the Czech road network (3,933 km) where 55,296...

Report prepared for the objectives of the EnVeROS Intellectual Output 1 (IO1): WVC framework analysis/ Needs assessment report.

Wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) pose a serious global issue. Factors influencing the occurrence of WVC along roads can be divided in general into two groups: spatially random and non-random. The latter group consists of local factors which act at specific places, whereas the former group consists of globally acting factors. We analyzed 27,142 WV...

Concerning three-dimensional models, an analytical solution is often impossible and numerical solution can be unduly complicated. Thus, we need to simplify three-dimensional models, when possible, prior to solving the problem. Recently, several lower-dimensional models for dynamics of compressible fluids were rigorously derived from three-dimension...

We conducted spatial analyses of traffic crashes, which took place in Czechia over 2010-2016, with respect to the road geometry data. The aim of the work was to identify hazardous road sub-segments where higher than expected numbers of traffic crashes occur. The entire Czech road network (58,200 km) was segmented at intersections into 39,074 betwee...

We present the ROCA (ROad Curvature Analyst) software, in the form of an ESRI ArcGIS Toolbox, intended for vector line data processing. The software segments road network data into tangents and horizontal curves. Horizontal curve radii and azimuth of tangents are then automatically computed. Simultaneously, additional frequently used road section c...

This paper is the first dealing with animal-vehicle collisions (AVC) with red and roe deer in South Tyrol, Northern Italy. The Autonomous Province of Bolzano (South Tyrol) has been collecting AVC data since 2012 on the entire provincial road network. Each year, AVC data accounted for more than 700 cases per year, with several socioeconomic and ecol...

Effective measures reducing risk of animal‐vehicle collisions (AVC) require defining high‐risk locations on roads where AVCs occur. Previous studies examined factors explaining locations of individual AVCs; however, some AVCs can form hotspots (i.e., clusters of AVCs) that can be explained by local factors. We therefore applied a novel kernel densi...

Problems with three-dimensional models lie very often in their large complexity leading to impossibility to find an analytical solution. Numerical solutions are sometimes an option, but they can be unduly complicated in the case of three-dimensional models. Frequently, researchers investigate models where one or even two dimensions are almost negli...

We analyzed a database of railway traffic failures which were caused by storms on the Czech railway network between 2010 and 2017. More than 6,000 railway traffic interruptions caused by storms have been recorded. This database, administered by the national railway administrator, does not contain direct losses related to the interruptions. Informat...

Autopsy reports of 119 cyclists who died in two Czech regions between 1995 and 2013 as a result of traffic crashes were studied. In all the study cases, pathologists analyzed whether a helmet could have helped the cyclists survive the crash or not. The crash circumstances from the police reports were then evaluated. The results indicate that helmet...

Wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) amount to 11% of all registered traffic crashes in the Czech Republic causing, apart from numerous deaths and serious injuries to animals, property damage and injuries to car passengers. Odor repellents have the potential to lower the overall number of WVC and allow animals to cross roads at the same time. We teste...

Objective: Alcohol abuse is related to a wide variety of negative health outcomes including mortality in older people. Alcohol abuse in older people is characterised by certain specific features uncommon in general adult population. The main objective of this study was to analyse the autopsy protocols of deceased older people in relation to blood...

Disruptions of railway traffic have many reasons. Tree falls onto railway tracks or overhead lines rank among the most common causes of disruptions of a natural origin. 2039 tree-fall events, containing up to 70 individual trees per event, were registered on the Czech railway network between 2012 and 2015. 32% of them were directly caused by 14 wea...

We present a system for state-wide evidence of animal-vehicle collisions (AVC). The primary part of this system is a geographic database which is connected to a web-map application. AVC data come from the Police via an online system of traffic incidents (JSDI) and from volunteers through a web or mobile interface. Data are processed using automatic...

The landslide risk for the entire Czech road network is presented here. The risk was computed using data on landslide hazard and data on potential impacts of road blockage. Data from the official landslide database were used for landslide hazard computation combined with data from historical records on roads interrupted by landsliding. Vulnerabilit...

Animal-vehicle collisions (AVC) on roads which cause damage to vehicles are registered in an official crash database maintained by the Police in the Czech Republic. We have recently launched an AVC report application www.srazenazver.cz (roadkills in Czech) to provide a map overview of this and additional roadkill on Czech roads. This application is...

We present an overview and two case studies of natural hazard impacts on rail transportation systems in the Czech Republic. Flooding, landsliding, heavy snowfall, windstorms and glaze (black ice) are the most common natural processes which occur in this region. Whereas flooding and landsliding usually cause direct damage to the transportation infra...

Improving the road network according to principles of self-explaining roads is a promising way to increase the level of safety; however, there are no universal guidelines on how to measure and improve the self-explaining performance of the existing roads. In order to apply this approach on Czech national roads, the presented study was conducted, co...

Improving the road network according to principles of self-explaining roads is a promising way to increase the level of safety; however, there are no universal guidelines on how to measure and improve the self-explaining performance of the existing roads. In order to apply this approach on Czech national roads, the presented study was conducted, co...

Improving the road network according to the principles of self-explaining roads is a promising way to increase the level of safety; however, there are no universal guidelines on how to measure and improve the self-explaining performance of existing roads. To apply this approach on Czech national roads, the present study was conducted, consisting of...

KDE+ clusters of animal-vehicle collisions from 2013 to 2015 were computed on the Czech road network. We focused on clusters close to intersections of the green and transport infrastructure (104 clusters) and the six most important clusters from each region (78). Other clusters (95) which had the collective risk above 2 were also visualized.

Vibrations of bicycles negatively influence riding comfort. Uneven surface pavement is the principal source of vibrations. We have developed a simple and effective method for objective bicycle vibration measurement using GPS and accelerometer devices mounted on a bicycle. The advantage of this approach is its simplicity and transferability because...

The Czech railway network ranks among the densest in the entire world (entire length is 9,487 km). The majority of railways were built before 1918, however. Only few of them, which form a backbone of the network, were as of 1989 modernized to allow for the fast train connections. Numbers of local tracks, particularly in rural areas and connecting s...

A generally low cycling helmet use is observed in the Czech Republic. Originally, it was not ob-ligatory to wear a cycling helmet. The first change of a law, when cyclists under 15 had to wear helmets, was enacted in 2001. Five years later (2006) the threshold of compulsory helmet wearing was moved to 18 years. No complex research of portion of hel...

Reliable identification of hotspots (clusters) of traffic accidents is a safety issue which has to be addressed. Numerous methods have been used to identify dangerous locations. One of the most promising seems to be the KDE+ method which overcomes the well-known drawbacks of the existing approaches. The KDE+ method is able to objectively determine...

Estimating collective and individual risks is a frequently used approach in the process of assessment of technological systems or proposed constructions. The principal reason for these calculations is to allow the decision-makers to evaluate, whether a planned construction increases the limiting risk above a pre-defined threshold or not. We analyze...

We focused on fairly rare situations involving replacement of a transformer. This routine process can be significantly affected by the current situation on a train and road network. We draw attention to the road network due to its more complicated structure. We identify which main parameters of the network concerning the transportation of the trans...

We present a comparison of animal-vehicle collision patterns which we have computed for selected roads in several countries (e. g. Poland, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the USA). We used the KDE+ method for objective identification of dangerous locations (hotspots, clusters).

A new method for the automatic identification of road geometry from digital vector data is presented. The method is capable of efficiently identifying circular curves with their radii and tangents (straight sections). The average error of identification ranged from 0.01 to 1.30 % for precisely drawn data and 4.81 % in the case of actual road data w...

Abundant research on landsliding exists at the present time. We focused on a somewhat omitted part of landslide research – landslide phases – events during which an increased number of individual landslides have been concurrently activated (Špůrek, 1967; Bíl et al., 2014). Landslide phases are important because their occurrence indicates the presen...

We present a web-map application (www.rupok.cz) designed for visualization of losses caused by natural hazards to the transportation infrastructure. This application is an output of a project in which we analyzed direct, indirect and network-wide impacts of major natural disasters which hit the CZ as of 1997. When natural disasters hit a road netwo...

The main data source relating to traffic interruptions on railways was obtained from emergency reports including unplanned breakdowns, accidents and cases of natural hazards, which are published by the main national carrier (České dráhy) on its webpages, or accessible via RSS channels, e-mails or tweets. Such a database was supplemented with histor...

The map describes data on closed roads and highways due to natural processes. The data are related to individual sections and depicted with circular diagrams. Its size depends on the number of years when the section was interrupted. It also displays the concrete events during which the section was interrupted. Additional information in this map is...

Identification of risk locations within road network is the primary task of its safety management. In this regards traffic accidents have been used as a traditional indicator; however it has also been known that accidents provide retrospective view only, their occurrence is random and their collection is time consuming. On the other hand, various a...

Identification of risk locations within road network is the primary task of its safety management. In this regards traffic accidents have been used as a traditional indicator; however it has also been known that accidents provide retrospective view only, their occurrence is random and their collection is time consuming. On the other hand, various a...

Objectives: The circumstances and causes of death of 129 cyclists registered in the Olomouc and the Zlín regions, the Czech Republic, between 2005 and 2013 were the subject of this study. Methods: We analyzed the autopsy reports, where the principal cause of death was stated, and obtained a detailed description of the circumstances recorded by t...

We summarize our yearlong experience with the animal-vehicle collision (AVC) report application www.srazenazver.cz. This tool was launched to cover as much as possible AVC sources into one place. This application is accessible through the common web browsers and allows the user to input, edit and browse data gathered by other users. The data is vis...

A functioning road network is a vital part of society. The network consists of road sec- tions and intersections which are usually modeled as a graph composed of nodes and links. The most important property of the network from the point of view of its users is its robustness, which means its ability to endure diverse types of catastrophic events...

Two primary types of traffic accident causes can be identified. The first cause is connected to local conditions of the road infrastructure. The second cause is global and includes factors such as driver behaviour, vehicle state and weather conditions. While the global causes can increase the probability of traffic accident occurrences anywhere...

Context Objective identification of locations on transportation networks, where animal-vehicle collisions (AVC) occur more frequently than expected (hotspots), is an important step for the effective application of mitigation measures. Objectives We introduce the KDE+ software which is a programmed version of the KDE+ method for effective identifica...

The initial value problem for arbitrary order linear ordinary differential equations with constant coefficients is considered. The right-hand side of the equation and the initial conditions are affected by noise. In addition, the values of the right-hand side are given only on a sparse set of discrete points. This type of problem arises in applicat...

Silniční infrastruktura patří mezi nejdůležitější objekty, které lidstvo vytvořilo. Bez ní by nebylo možné přepravovat různé druhy zboží včetně základních potravin a poskytovat základní služby, jako jsou třeba služby zdravotní. Na silniční infrastruktuře tedy stojí celá ekonomika lidské společnosti a bez ní bychom určitě nebyli jako lidstvo tam, kd...

Abstract Cycling comfort consists of several factors. Their relevant values are important in the process of bicycle facility planning. Poor surface pavement quality manifests itself in terms of vibrations of a bicycle. This strongly influences the perception of a cycle track, general cycling comfort and the route choice as well. We introduce dynami...

Shallow landslides are fairly frequent natural processes which emerge as a result of both rainfall and rapid snowmelt in the Flysch Belt of the Outer Western Carpathians. We estimated the total water content thresholds for the previously defined seven phases of increased landsliding which took place between 1939 and 2010 around the Napajedla meteor...

Srážky s velkými savci způsobují škody na vozidle a často i zranění posádky. V rámci České republiky jsme s využitím statistického modelu identifikovali místa, kde opakovaně k těmto kolizím dochází. Hlavním cílem studie však bylo vyhodnotit mortalitu drobných obratlovců na těchto úsecích, která není nikde evidována. Zjistili jsme, že úmrtnost drobn...

Srážky s velkými savci způsobují škody na vozidle a často i zranění posádky. V rámci České republiky jsme s využitím statistického modelu identifikovali místa, kde opakovaně k těmto kolizím dochází. Hlavním cílem studie však bylo vyhodnotit mortalitu drobných obratlovců na těchto úsecích, která není nikde evidována. Zjistili jsme, že úmrtnost drobn...

Shluky dopravních nehod na silniční a dálniční síti České republiky za období 2009 – 2013 / Clusters of traffic accidents on the road and motorway network in the Czech Republic over the period 2009 – 2013

We studied in detail the circumstances and causes of death of 129 cyclists which occurred in the Olomouc and the Zlín region, the Czech Republic, between 2005 and 2013. We analysed the autopsy reports where the principal cause of death was stated. We obtained a detailed description of the circumstances recorded by police officers for the same group...

Disruption of segments of roads can have a significant impact on the vulnerability of the entire network. Natural disasters are frequent causes of disruptions of this kind. This article focuses on determining the risk of road disruptions due to landslides. Our approach is based on methodology widely used in the field of epidemiology. We had availab...

An analysis of traffic accidents caused by animals (animal-vehicle collisions, AVC) on Czech roads was performed using the new two-stepped KDE+ method, which is a statistical approach based on kernel density estimation (KDE) followed by Monte Carlo simulations. This approach is capable of determining whether the accidents on a road section are dist...