R4TLI - 2020

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://192.248.9.226/handle/123/17488

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Browsing R4TLI - 2020 by Author "Amarasingha, N"

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    item: Conference-Abstract
    Self-reported habitual practices and perceptions of young drivers in Sri Lanka
    (Sri Lanka Society of Transport and Logistics, 2020-11) Amarasingha, N; Firdhaws, HMM; Gunaruwan, TL
    It is important to identify the young and inexperienced people’s driving practices and perceptions at a very early phase of their driving exposure so that areas of improvement for safer driving can be identified. This study analyses 400 young and inexperienced drivers’ self-reported habitual practices and opinions through a questionnaire survey. This questionnaire focuses on supervision of early driving, restrictions by parents, accident and traffic offences involving young drivers, and several other habitual driving practices. Analyses are performed using reliability statistics, inter-item correlation, likelihood ratio tests, and parameter estimates. The highest inter-item correlation value obtained is 0.467 which was for overtaking vehicles in restricted areas and speeding short distances to run a yellow light before it changes to red. Driving after alcohol consumption, mobile phone usage, taking an illegal U-turn at restricted areas, indicating signals when changing lanes and overtaking a slow driver from the left were significantly influenced by the choice of young drivers to not use seat belts. These habitual practices while driving highlight the need for early intervention to improve road safety. In conclusion, there is always one or more habitual driving practices that affects other driving habits of young drivers.
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    item: Conference-Abstract
    Vehicle Kilometres Travelled estimates using household travel survey
    (Sri Lanka Society of Transport and Logistics, 2020-11) Gunathilaka, S; Amarasingha, N; Gunaruwan, TL
    Vehicle Kilometres Travelled (VKT) is a key factor in transport planning and managing, since data represent existing road transport demand or pattern in a specific area of concern. In Sri Lanka, the expansion and development of the transport sector should be complemented with timely updated data in order to fulfil current needs as well as future growth scenarios as a developing country. VKT is a valuable indicator in identifying these requirements; however, timely VKT data for the country is not available within transport communities so far. Very few researchers have attempted to estimate timely VKT over the past few years, and this too in few areas of Sri Lanka. This study aimed to estimate VKT in Southern, Northern, and Eastern areas of Sri Lanka using a questionnaire based - household travel survey. Three areas were visited and randomly selected respondents were interviewed on their travel information on weekdays, weekends, special seasons, holidays etc. Other than number of kilometres travelled, travel mode and socio demographic information of respondents, all of which are useful in estimating Personal Kilometres Travelled (PKT)— were collected. Estimating PKT of individuals seems important in Sri Lanka since a majority of people do not own personal vehicles for travelling. PKT always refers to an individual while VKT refers to a vehicle. The travel distances of samples were aggregated to the annual level and weighted based on census and population data in the corresponding area of study in order to estimate VKT/PKT per person per year. Estimated VKT and PKT for the three areas were statistically compared based on selected socio demographic factors. The estimated VKT would be useful in the transport sector as well as in environmental agencies’ computation of emissions and energy consumption in the country.