Current Abstracts (EBSCO)

PURPOSE. The concept of a smart city, which is relatively new, is analysed from different aspects, including sustainability. Due to rapid urban development, smart city and sustainable city synergy has become an approach supported by the authorities. Hence, the paper aims at assessing and ranking the European Union (EU) capitals in the context of the smart sustainable city (SSC). DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH. The paper assesses and ranks 19 EU capitals according to 41 indicators. The assessment was done in four steps. First, each target SSC indicator was accessed for each city. Second, the scattering results of each city in the list of indicators were noted. Third, the indicators were ranked using the VIsekriterijumska optimisacija i KOmpromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method. And fourth, both scattering and ranking results were compared. FINDENGS. The comparison of the scattering and ranking results revealed that almost the same cities share the top ten positions. Although two cities fell out of the top ten, the overall results reinforce the reliability of the research results. Amsterdam ranked as the Number 1 SSC, and Helsinki took the second position. ORIGINALITY/VALUE. A comparison of a wide range of indicators highlights the current situation and the disparities between EU capitals. The results could help local and national authorities and policymakers increase the sustainability and smartness of cities.

Fiscal decentralization has been widely discussed at various levels and from various perspectives. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (the OECD), similar to the World Bank, also pays great attention to it. Fiscal decentralization has always been an interesting investigation topic, and the researchers, in addition to considering the future of the economy, study this problem from different perspectives, i.e. geographic, political and others. The effect of fiscal decentralization on the economic development of the state has been investigated by various authors. Three different hypotheses provide the proofs of the positive effect of fiscal decentralization. The main advantage of fiscal federalism are efficient and adequate public services which are provided locally through the mobility of the citizens, voting power and competition between the local governments in the created ecosystem. The potential advantages of the competition among the local government powers are similar to the advantages associated with the competition on the private markets. The paper is focussed on fiscal decentralization of the state. It aims to investigate the theoretical aspect of the impact of fiscal decentralization on the economic development to calculate the index of fiscal decentralization and to evaluate the effect of fiscal decentralization on the economic development in the particular states of the European Union. Thus, Bulgaria and Lithuania have the lowest fiscal decentralization index of EU-13 (0.28), while the Czech Republic has the highest index (0.46). The researchers have proved the effect of fiscal decentralization on the economic development of the EU-13 states to be statistically significant and positive. The originality of this paper is that it introduces a theoretical model for evaluating the fiscal decentralization effect on the economic development and assesses the fiscal decentralization effect on the economic development of the particular EU-13 states.

The study of ancient stone pavements represents the necessary premise for planning and execution of treatments that considers the necessity of conservation. The approach to the integrated management of information derived through H-BIM has been applied to Via del Vesuvio, one of the main roads in the archaeological site of Pompeii in Naples, Italy. The digital terrain model was carried out using Autodesk Infraworks software. Then, using Autodesk Civil 3D and Revit software, the road was digitalized creating the 3D model that included road geometric information resulting from an on-site survey, material characteristics for each pavement layer, construction period and related construction cost information. Finally, based on the existing research works available in the literature review, using Autodesk Naviswork software, it was possible to implement in the 3D model the BIM fourth dimension, namely, the time related to the construction of Via Del Vesuvio in different eras. The interoperability between the adopted BIM authoring software was exploited. The adopted procedure can be considered a benchmark case in the technical literature of H-BIM for stone pavements, highlighting the advantages in the design field.

Soil, or soil structure modulus of deformation, is one of the main design parameters for road engineering and traffic infrastructure design of, for example, highways, railways, runways and embankments. It is also the main soil improvement criterion. When creating any road structure with codified design resistance, one employs structural layers of certain thicknesses and modulus of deformation. Both values need to satisfy the minimum values in accordance with codified requirements. This paper analyzes correlations for the widely applied in engineering practice methods to determine the soil stiffness. The static test methods acknowledged to be exact enough for determining the modulus of deformation for the primary and secondary loadings. As dynamic test methods require significantly less time and financial resources, they are widely accepted in engineering practice. The dynamic methods determine only the dynamic modulus of deformation. Design practice aims to relate it with the static modulus of deformation of the secondary loading. Many countries propose codified correlations, with differing levels of conservatism, to convert the dynamic modulus of deformation into the static one. Developed correlations between the results of the static plate load test and the dynamic plate load tests processed from own test results of different soils are presented and a comparative analysis with other proposed correlations is given.

However, for several decades, Europe has been witnessing demographic ageing. As a result of these changes, a more significant number of elderly road users will be involved in future traffic, and therefore safe mobility management of the older will become an increasingly important issue. Various physical, sensory, and cognitive constraints affecting elderly road users lead to a rise in the likelihood of an accident, which, due to the increased physical vulnerability, cause more serious consequences of road accidents. The findings reported by the authors of an in-depth analysis of accidents for four years have demonstrated that the risk of road fatalities for elderly road users is by one fifth more significant than the average of all age groups, and the pedestrian plays the most critical role in road traffic. To adequately compensate for the observed age-related.

The article describes the method for estimating transport flow parameters using the two-fluid Herman-Prigogine mathematical model developed considering the proposed method of estimating parameters for the system based on the passive processing of navigation data on the movement of vehicles. The efficiency of the suggested algorithms and mathematical models for estimating road traffic flow parameters and the system as a whole was confirmed performing tests using a set of tracks on the main highways of Belarus.

Every day we strive to improve the environment and make it as comfortable as possible, creating new products and new technologies that are literally changing people’s lives. Transport is one of the most important engines of development in the world and, unfortunately, it is one of the most painful taking into account how many people’s lives we are losing in it. Ensuring safe traffic, stabilizing a number of accidents, reducing accidents on motor roads and streets are the most important tasks in the field of transport in Lithuania and the EU today. Lithuania could not be left behind when the EU countries pursued an important goal of halving the number of fatalities by the end of 2010 compared to 2001. Substantial road accident rates are recorded in cities with the highest concentration of road users. The aim of this article is to identify the typical accidents for Lithuanian cities and to compare them with the case of Sweden, which is one of the leading countries in the field of traffic safety. The five largest cities in Lithuania been selected for the analysis, where typical traffic accidents are identified. The analysis will help develop recommendations for changes in traffic infrastructure to ensure safe traffic.

This paper presents a case study of driving speed at horizontal curves in the regional road. The literature review of operating speed at horizontal curves in regional roads expresses the difference between design speed and driving speed. Driving speed was measured in ten horizontal curves on regional road No. 2610. Collected data was compared to the design speed, various design standards, and Operating Speed Prediction Models for traffic in low-volume roads. Based on result analysis, was proposed initial adjusted minimum radius of the horizontal curve based on operating speed. It is justified that proposed corrections based on operating speed ensure a credible speed limit effect on road safety. The performed experiment showed different tendencies comparing measured driving speed with permitted and design speeds. It was determined that dependent on specific curved section drivers tend to exceed posted speed limit from 17% to 98% of cases, and from 41% to 100% − the design speed in the horizontal curve. This research led to identifying the limitations of experimental research methodology. These limitations are related to experimental Site selection with different combinations of alignment elements, traffic, and accident data. A pilot study showed significant results and gave essential insights into the full-scale research plan. The results are expected to benefit both other researchers and the organisations responsible for the development and implementation of normative technical documents for road design.

While many cities around the world qualify themselves as “smart cities”, there is no comprehensive way to evaluate to what extent they are “smart”. This article proposes a framework for comparison of the level of “smartness” of the urban mobility systems. The most relevant indicators that have the greatest impact on smart mobility systems were selected in the course of literature review. The impact of indicators on smart mobility systems is variable. Evaluating smart mobility systems, different authors distinguish between different indicators, which usually do not duplicate. The paper categorizes the indicators of the smart mobility system into five groups, called “factors”: motor travel and congestion reduction measures; pollution reduction measures; travel safety and accident reduction measures; traffic management tools and services; smart infrastructure measures. A number of indicators are attributed to each of the listed groups. A Multiple Criteria Decision-Making method, namely, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, has been used to evaluate the significance of the smartness level used in the research. This method bases the weighting of subjective criteria on expert judgement. Rank correlation is used to determine the consistency of expert opinions. A model has been developed to compare smart mobility systems of individual cities and their infrastructure.

Road Safety Audits have already been tightly incorporated in the road design process throughout the world. It has proven to be an effective way of increasing road safety without requiring many resources. The cost-benefit-ratios of Road Safety Audits in developed countries are rather high. In Lithuania, the procedure on Road Safety Audits is fairly new, and the direct links between different problems and their occurrence frequency throughout the years are yet to be determined. In this paper, several audits on road safety, performed between the years 2011 and 2017 by the Road Research Institute of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, is analysed. The trends of most relevant problem types identified in those audits throughout the years for different types of roads and streets are presented. Based on those trends, the causes of some common problems are being recognised. Recommendations on possible solutions are suggested.