Tougher penalties credited for fewer casualties among young male drivers

A new study out of Western University (London, Canada) has found a significant decline in speeding-related fatalities and injuries among young men in Ontario since the province's tough extreme speeding and aggressive driving laws were introduced in 2007. The study found a sustained reduction of about 58 speeding-related injuries and fatalities a month among males aged 16-24. That means about 700 fewer young men have been injured or killed in speeding-related crashes yearly since the law was passed.

The study led by Evelyn Vingilis, PhD, a professor in Family Medicine, and Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, evaluated the deterrent impact of Ontario's Street Racers, Stunt, and Aggressive Drivers Legislation (Bill 203) and found it is making a difference, not only in the number of convictions but also in reducing the number of collisions.

Under the law, drivers caught going 50 kph over the speed limit or engaging in improper actions that constitute a driving stunt, contest, or race can immediately have their licenses suspended and their vehicles impounded for seven days. Upon conviction, they also face a fine of $2,000-$10,000, license suspension for up to two years or six demerit points, and the possibility of up to six months in jail. The penalties get even more severe with a second conviction.

"First of all we looked at males and females, and then we looked at younger and older individuals because we know from my earlier research, that street racing and extreme speeding is an activity that typically younger males are more likely to engage in," said Vingilis. "What we found was a substantial reduction in the number of convictions for extreme speeding for males, and no change for females because they were pretty low any way. And importantly, we found a significant decrease in the number of motor vehicle casualties of males 16 to 24 -quite a significant reduction."

Vingilis says the study's findings support deterrence theory to the effect that certain, swift and severe sanctions can deter risky driving behavior.

The research, conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO), looked at data from January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2011. The law came into effect September 30, 2007, enabling the researchers to compare the data before and after implementation. From the time the new law came into force to the end of 2011, more than 24,000 drivers' licenses were suspended for violating the new street racing legislation, nearly 8,500 of them in the first year alone.

For the 16 to 24 year old male drivers, 1.21% of licensed drivers had their licenses suspended, along with .37 per cent of mature males (aged 25-64). That contrasted with .21 per cent for 16-24 year old female drivers and .07 per cent for 25-64 year old women.

Journal References:

Aizhan Meirambayeva, Evelyn Vingilis, A. Ian McLeod, Yoassry Elzohairy, Jinkun Xiao, Guangyong Zou, Yuanhao Lai. Road safety impact of Ontario street racing and stunt driving law. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 2014; 71: 72 DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2014.05.009 Aizhan Meirambayeva, Evelyn Vingilis, Guangyong Zou, Yoassry Elzohairy, A. Ian McLeod, Jinkun Xiao. Evaluation of Deterrent Impact of Ontario's Street Racing and Stunt Driving Law on Extreme Speeding Convictions. Traffic Injury Prevention, 2014; 140528080958001 DOI: 10.1080/15389588.2014.890721

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Toward smarter underwater drones

The news was not good. An underwater drone armed with the best technology on the planet had descended repeatedly to the bottom of the Indian Ocean, trying to find Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Time after time, it turned up nothing.

If Nina Mahmoudian has her way, the next generation of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) will have a much better chance of getting it right.

AUVs like the one that hunted for Flight 370 are laden with advanced technology, but they have their shortcomings. During a search, they travel in a predetermined pattern, retrieving reams of information and returning it to the surface, where it can be analyzed, says Mahmoudian, a researcher at Michigan Technological University. Thus, they can spend a lot of time gathering data on things that are not, for example, a missing airplane.

"You need an autonomous vehicle that can go deep and explore an area with a sense of what it is looking for," she said. "We want to make a smarter vehicle, one that can search on its own and make decisions on its own."

Mahmoudian is building four of those smarter AUVs, each a little bigger than a loaf of French bread. When they are complete, she will give them something new: better, more powerful brains. That involves revamping their software so they "know" what they are looking for. "AUVs like these could be so much more useful for finding small, hazardous objects like mines, or for detecting problems with cables and pipelines," she said.

Mahmoudian's AUVs, named ROUGHIEs (for Research Oriented Underwater Gliders for Hands-on Investigative Engineering) will be underwater gliders. Powered only by batteries, they will "fly" slowly through the water simply by adjusting their buoyancy and weight. This will make them safer and more reliable in shallow waters, where a propeller could become tangled in vegetation or injure a person.

That's important, because the ROUGHIEs will not be exploring the middle of the ocean; they are designed for use near the water's edge, which offers a special challenge.

"They come up on the coast, where there's lots of noise, and we want ours to be able to talk with each other, and perhaps to a mother ship, in any environment," she said. "That means they'll have to operate in an area with lots of boats, swimmers and the like."

Her ROUGHIEs offer additional advantages. They will be modular, allowing users to swap out different components depending on what tasks the drones undertake. And they will cost a fraction of the price of a commercial model to build. That makes them ideal for the trial-and-error process inherent in scientific research.

Underwater gliders and other types of AUVs already play an important role in addressing some of today's most pressing environmental, safety and biological challenges. Their uses range from detecting dangerous contaminants, like oil spills, to retrieving evidence of climate change. By arming them with smarter software, they would become even better at doing their jobs, including searching an ocean's depths.

"We need solutions for these cases," Mahmoudian said. "The disappearance of the Malaysian aircraft is a clear example of why we must do this."

The Office of Naval Research is supporting Mahmoudian's effort with a $125,000 grant to build the four low-cost underwater gliders. Members of her team are Byrel Mitchell and Saeedeh Fard, both PhD students in mechanical engineering-engineering mechanics; mechanical engineering undergraduates Eric Wilkening and Brian Page; and Anthony Pinar, PhD student in electrical engineering. Mahmoudian is an assistant professor in Michigan Tech's Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics.

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Unassuming rampant polluters on two wheels: Small mopeds cause more air pollution than cars

They are small, low in consumption and city-friendly but they are by no means ecologically harmless. Mopeds with two-stroke engines are at the top of the list of air polluters in some towns, mainly in Asia, Africa and southern Europe. This despite the fact that they account for only a fraction of total traffic volume. The suspicion that the two-wheelers, that are spared strict emission requirements, are the main contributors to air pollution in many cities has been around for a few years. Now an international research team headed up by the Paul Scherrer Institute has confirmed this suspicion with innovative measurement techniques.

The scientists used a smog chamber developed at PSI to measure the emission of organic aerosols and aromatic hydrocarbons from mopeds in the laboratory and in standard driving cycles. Organic aerosols are small particles which are suspended in air. They account for a major share of fine particles from traffic. By contrast, after being emitted as gaseous substances aromatic hydrocarbons (arenes) can be converted through chemical reactions in the atmosphere in part into secondary organic aerosols and, by extension, into fine particles. In fact, these secondary organic aerosols often account for the main proportion of fine particles. In their original gaseous form some arenes are harmful, too. Benzene, for instance, which is added to petrol is carcinogenic.

The new study shows that during the conversion of exhaust gas from two-stroke mopeds other worrying products are formed. Using chemical analyses the scientists discovered that during the conversion of arenes from moped exhaust gases into aerosols, harmful reactive oxygen species are also formed which can reach the lungs.

High level of emissions even when not moving

Both when standing still and in motion mopeds with two-stroke engines emit amounts of arenes which are several orders of magnitude higher than the limit values admissible in Europe and the USA. According to the study authors, waiting behind a two-stroke moped in traffic may, therefore, constitute a considerable health risk.

The scientists list a number of possible reasons for these elevated emissions. Basically, these are old, well-known problems which are typical for two-stroke engines like incomplete combustion, the high ratio of fuel to air in the fuel mixture or the need to add the lubricating oil directly to the fuel. Problems of this kind only occur to a minor degree if at all with four-stroke engines.

Small fleet with a big impact

The new study shows that the conventional view that cars and trucks account for the lion's share of fine particles pollution from traffic will have to be revised, at least for specific regions. The researchers have calculated that in the Thai capital Bangkok two-stroke mopeds generate as much as 60 percent of emissions of primary organic aerosols. These two-wheelers only account for 10 percent of fuel consumption by traffic in the city. The calculations are based on the average emission factor of the European mopeds examined in the study. Hence, it probably underestimated the actual emissions of the mopeds circulating in Bangkok.

Ban with tangible results

Field measurements in China confirm the image of these rampant polluters on two wheels. In the city of Guangzhou the concentrations of arenes in the air fell by more than 80 percent in 2005 after a ban on two-stroke mopeds. Just 60 kilometres away in the city of Dongguan with its comparatively strict traffic restrictions, higher aromatic concentrations are measured today than in Guangzhou. The study authors report that in southern European towns the concentration of specific air contaminants could be considerably reduced if two-stroke mopeds were gradually withdrawn from circulation. The EU emission standard for two-stroke mopeds (Euro 2), which is also valid in Switzerland, dates back to 2002. For cars there are now far stricter requirements in Euro 5. From 2017 the EU will, therefore, introduce lower emission limits for small mopeds, too. Furthermore, more environmentally compatible alternatives are already available on the market like electrically driven mopeds which don't cause any noise pollution either. Mopeds with four-stroke engines, although not completely harmless, would be better than two-strokers.

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Traffic control: New tool may help prioritize trains

A new tool could put a delayed train back on schedule. The Traffic Control Centre in Stavanger in Norway is currently testing the tool that will provide an optimum solution in just a few seconds.

Everyone has heard of air traffic controllers -- who sit glued to their screens, making sure that our planes take off and land in the right order. The same applies to trains. These have traffic controllers too, sitting in control rooms in front of huge screens, directing train traffic.

Everyone has their own section and region

There are Traffic Control Centres in Oslo, Trondheim, Drammen, Stavanger, Bergen, Hamar, Narvik and Kristiansand, each one controlling its own region. "Each centre is responsible for traffic in its own region, while individual traffic controllers look after parts of the traffic within that region," explains Arnt Gunnar Lium at SINTEF. "For example, one controller might be looking after trains on the Gj?vik Line, or be responsible for trains running from Drammen to Oslo."

How to handle delays

Traffic controllers follow a fixed timetable that tells them exactly where every train should be and when it should move. The challenge faced by traffic controllers every day is what to do when delays cause the plan to be abandoned. "These days, traffic controllers have fixed rules of prioritisation, the main principle of which is to prioritise trains that are on time -- as well as assessing the overall situation," says Lium. "But the decision a traffic controller makes in one place will also affect traffic somewhere else. So the challenge facing these teams of traffic controllers is how to work together effectively, despite the fact that each centre controls its own region, and each controller at a given centre directs traffic on their own section."

First of its kind -- tested in the field

A group of SINTEF researchers involved in optimisation have developed methods and software designed to prioritise trains in real time. This has resulted in an optimisation tool that has been tested at the Traffic Control Centre in Stavanger. Real-time prioritisation is an extremely difficult task, both in theory and in practice, since many decisions must be made within a short period of time. Should Train A or Train B be sent out first? Should Train C use Platform 1 or Platform 2? Should Train A wait for delayed Train B or not?

"With two or three trains, that isn't too difficult, but when the number of trains increases, there can easily be several billion different solutions, since one decision affects many others," says Carlo Mannino at SINTEF ICT.

By using new mathematical optimisation theories, the researchers have managed to develop a new method that finds the optimum solution in just a few seconds. The tool is the first of its kind in the world -- and has been tested in real operational situations.

No better solutions

Arnt Gunnar Lium shows a map on his screen, which looks like a huge network of spiders' webs. It has red, blue and black lines, and marked stations such as Moi and Stavanger. While the black sections indicate the planned train routes, the red sections show whether something has happened that means that a train is behind or ahead of schedule. If all the trains are on time, obviously it follows the original plan. But if something happens, the new tool shows the optimum solution for how trains should proceed. "You see these blue sections here," says Lium. "These are proposed solutions, and these are in real time. There are no better solutions based on the targets."

Reduce delays

The researchers believe that the new tool could reduce delays and result in considerable improvements in punctuality. "The positive thing about a tool like this is that, with relatively cheap research and small investments, it may be possible to reduce the number of cancellations and delays, while making even better use of extremely expensive infrastructure than we do now."

"We're onto something here" Traffic controller ?yvind Bernhard-Melin at the Traffic Control Centre in Stavanger says that he started using the tool in April as a means of supporting his decisions, and has noticed a distinct benefit in some cases. The tests are being carried out on a section of several dozen kilometres between Stavanger and Sira. The image on the browser in front of the traffic controller updates every 15 seconds. As soon as a delay occurs, new sections and proposals are drawn into the image.

"On some days there are no changes," says Meling. "We had eight days in April when every train ran on time. But then we have other days when there are loads of delays. The tool has still not been fully developed, but when it is finished we definitely believe that we will be onto something here," he says.

The traffic controllers will continue with their testing throughout the year, and will provide SINTEF with valuable input which can be used to continue developing the tool.

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3 Things You Need To Learn About The Mercedes AMG Line

What do you get when you combine high performance and a Mercedes, the Mercedes AMG. The Mercedes does not just cater to giving us luxurious cars but also an assortment of high performance vehicles. From sedans to coupes, roadsters to convertibles and SUVs to wagons, the Mercedes AMG delivers.

Now you might just think that they just make it faster. Yes, they do make it faster... and then some more. High performance does not just mean making any car go fast, it means reaching the optimum output the car can achieve. Think about sprinting, you can run bare foot in any clothing and still be fast, but think about putting the proper running shoes and the right clothes when you make your run, with the right gear you can and will go faster. That's how the AMG line of Mercedes works; they don't just make your car go faster, they make them go faster, better.

Now let's go on to the things that I haven't discussed yet.

• The AMG wasn't originally part of Mercedes' production line.

"What?" --- That was the same reaction I had when I learned about it. Apparently, the AMG were an independent engineering group that specialized in Mercedes Benz. How? Two former engineers from Mercedes created AMG. And Mercedes recognizing their work had partnered up with them to create the AMG line, Mercedes' high performance line. (It's just like how the Shelby is to a Ford, Shelby specializes in Ford Mustangs.)

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• The AMG has a different naming system compared to the Mercedes.

What's so different about it? A typical Mercedes would have three numbers, for example their C-Class coupes have the C250 and the C350 coupe. The AMG counterpart for the C-Class would only have two numbers: C63 AMG coupe. It's an easier way of distinguishing a Mercedes AMG from other brands because others have ridiculously long car names or just very hard to pronounce. (Case in point: Koenigsegg, McLaren MP4-12C and many more) See? Their names are as efficient as the cars they make!

• The AMG "Black Series"

No, it's not about the color. As much as a black on black color scheme sounds nice, the Black Series is not concerned about the color. Weight reduction, stabilized suspensions, bucket seats and everything else that would help it go further faster and better, the Black Series have it. Although it is only limited to their two-door line, it makes the AMG one step ahead of the competition.

Now, stop daydreaming about it and it's now time to get in one. The Mercedes AMG, the exquisiteness of the Mercedes and the expertise of the AMG would give you a very solid driving experience. Getting you ahead of the rest in one brand.

Here's a great deal on a 2002 Mercedes-Benz S-Class! This vehicle glistens in the crowded performance sedan segment! Mercedes-Benz prioritized fit and finish as evidenced by: automatic dimming door mirrors, power moon roof, and seat memory. It features an automatic transmission, rear-wheel drive, and a powerful 12 cylinder engine. Is there anything I missed on this? Or anything else you want to know about the AMG line that I did not get to touch on? Let me know on the comments below. Take care and drive safely, Ciao!