1.
Traffic sign
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Traffic signs or road signs are signs erected at the side of or above roads to give instructions or provide information to road users. The earliest signs were simple wooden or stone milestones, later, signs with directional arms were introduced, for example, the fingerposts in the United Kingdom and their wooden counterparts in Saxony. Such pictorial signs use symbols in place of words and are based on international protocols. Such signs were first developed in Europe, and have adopted by most countries to varying degrees. Traffic signs can be grouped into several types, for example, Annexe 1 of the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals, which on 30 June 2004 had 52 signatory countries, defines eight categories of signs, A. Special regulation signs F. Information, facilities, or service signs G. Direction, position, a rather informal distinction among the directional signs is the one between advance directional signs, interchange directional signs, and reassurance signs. Advance directional signs appear at a distance from the interchange. A number of countries do not give information for the road ahead, advance directional signs enable drivers to take precautions for the exit. They often do not appear on lesser roads, but are normally posted on expressways and motorways, while each nation has its own system, the first approach sign for a motorway exit is mostly placed at least 1000 m from the actual interchange. After that sign, one or two additional advance directional signs typically follow before the interchange itself. The earliest road signs were milestones, giving distance or direction, for example, in the Middle Ages, multidirectional signs at intersections became common, giving directions to cities and towns. In 1686, the first known Traffic Regulation Act in Europe is established by King Peter II of Portugal and this act foresees the placement of priority signs in the narrowest streets of Lisbon, stating which traffic should back up to give way. One of these still exists at Salvador street, in the neighborhood of Alfama. The first modern road signs erected on a wide scale were designed for riders of high or ordinary bicycles in the late 1870s and early 1880s. These machines were fast, silent and their nature made them difficult to control, moreover their riders travelled considerable distances, the development of automobiles encouraged more complex signage systems using more than just text-based notices. One of the first modern-day road sign systems was devised by the Italian Touring Club in 1895, by 1900, a Congress of the International League of Touring Organizations in Paris was considering proposals for standardization of road signage. In 1903 the British government introduced four national signs based on shape, in 1909, nine European governments agreed on the use of four pictorial symbols, indicating bump, curve, intersection, and grade-level railroad crossing. The intensive work on road signs that took place between 1926 and 1949 eventually led to the development of the European road sign system
2.
Pedestrian
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A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In some communities, those traveling using tiny wheels such as skates, skateboards. In modern times, the term refers to someone walking on a road or pavement. Walking has always been the means of human locomotion. The first humans to migrate from Africa, about 60,000 years ago and they walked along the coast of India to reach Australia. They walked across Asia to reach the Americas, and from Central Asia into Europe, during the 18th and 19th centuries, pedestrianism was a popular spectator sport just as equestrianism still is in places such as Great Britain and the United States. One of the most famous pedestrians of that period was Captain Robert Barclay Allardice, known as The Celebrated Pedestrian and his most impressive feat was to walk 1 mile every hour for 1000 hours, which he achieved between 1 June and 12 July 1809. This feat captured many peoples imagination, and around 10,000 people came to watch over the course of the event. During the rest of the 19th century, many tried to repeat this feat, including Ada Anderson who developed it further. Since the 20th century, interest in walking as a sport has dropped, racewalking is still an Olympic sport, but fails to catch public attention as it did. However major walking feats are still performed, such as the Lands End to John o Groats walk in the United Kingdom, and these feats are often tied to charitable fundraising and are undertaken by celebrities such as Sir Jimmy Savile and Ian Botham as well as by others. Regular walking is important both for health and for the natural environment. Frequent exercise such as walking tends to reduce the chance of obesity, general availability of public transportation encourages walking, as it will not, in most cases, take one directly to ones destination. Roads often have a designated footpath for pedestrian traffic, called the sidewalk in North American English, the pavement in British English, and the footpath in Australian and New Zealand English. There are also not associated with a road, these include urban short cuts and also rural paths used mainly by ramblers, hikers. Footpaths in mountainous or forested areas may also be called trails, pedestrians share some footpaths with horses and bicycles, these paths may be known as bridleways. Other byways used by walkers are also accessible to vehicles, there are also many roads with no footpath. Some modern towns are designed with the network of sidewalks and cycle paths almost entirely separate from the road network, the term trail is also used by the authorities in some countries to mean any footpath that is not attached to a road or street
3.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
4.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
5.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
6.
Noise pollution
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Noise pollution or noise disturbance is the disturbing or excessive noise that may harm the activity or balance of human or animal life. The source of most outdoor noise worldwide is caused by machines and transportation systems, motor vehicles, aircraft. Outdoor noise is summarized by the environmental noise. Poor urban planning may give rise to noise pollution, since side-by-side industrial and residential buildings can result in noise pollution in the residential areas, documented problems associated with urban noise go back as far as Ancient Rome. Outdoor noise can be caused by machines, construction activities, and music performances, noise-induced hearing loss can be caused by outside or inside noise. High noise levels can contribute to cardiovascular effects in humans and an incidence of coronary artery disease. In animals, noise can increase the risk of death by altering predator or prey detection and avoidance, interfere with reproduction and navigation, Noise pollution affects both health and behavior. Unwanted sound can damage psychological health, Noise pollution can cause hypertension, high stress levels, tinnitus, hearing loss, sleep disturbances, and other harmful effects. Sound becomes unwanted when it interferes with normal activities such as sleeping, conversation. Chronic exposure to noise may cause noise-induced hearing loss, less addressed is how humans adapt to noise subjectively. Indeed, tolerance for noise is frequently independent of decibel levels, however, Murray Schafers soundscape research was groundbreaking in this regard. In his eponymous work, he makes compelling arguments about how humans relate to noise on a subjective level, other key research in this area can be seen in Fongs comparative analysis of soundscape differences between Bangkok, Thailand and Los Angeles, California, US. Acoustic overexposure can lead to temporary or permanent loss of hearing, an impact of noise on wild animal life is the reduction of usable habitat that noisy areas may cause, which in the case of endangered species may be part of the path to extinction. Noise pollution may have caused the death of species of whales that beached themselves after being exposed to the loud sound of military sonar. Noise also makes species communicate more loudly, which is called Lombard vocal response, scientists and researchers have conducted experiments that show whales song length is longer when submarine-detectors are on. If creatures do not speak loudly enough, their voice will be masked by anthropogenic sounds and these unheard voices might be warnings, finding of prey, or preparations of net-bubbling. When one species begins speaking more loudly, it will mask other species voice, marine invertebrates, such as crabs, have also been shown to be negatively affected by ship noise. Larger crabs were noted to be affected more by the sounds than smaller crabs
7.
Air pollution
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Air pollution occurs when harmful substances including particulates and biological molecules are introduced into Earths atmosphere. It may cause diseases, allergies or death in humans, it may cause harm to other living organisms such as animals and food crops. Human activity and natural processes can both generate air pollution, indoor air pollution and poor urban air quality are listed as two of the worlds worst toxic pollution problems in the 2008 Blacksmith Institute Worlds Worst Polluted Places report. According to the 2014 WHO report, air pollution in 2012 caused the deaths of around 7 million people worldwide, an air pollutant is a substance in the air that can have adverse effects on humans and the ecosystem. The substance can be particles, liquid droplets, or gases. A pollutant can be of natural origin or man-made, pollutants are classified as primary or secondary. Primary pollutants are usually produced from a process, such as ash from a volcanic eruption, other examples include carbon monoxide gas from motor vehicle exhaust, or the sulfur dioxide released from factories. Secondary pollutants are not emitted directly, rather, they form in the air when primary pollutants react or interact. Ground level ozone is a prominent example of a secondary pollutant, some pollutants may be both primary and secondary, they are both emitted directly and formed from other primary pollutants. Substances emitted into the atmosphere by human activity include, Carbon dioxide - Debate continues over whether carbon dioxide should be classified as an atmospheric pollutant, because of its role as a greenhouse gas it has been described as the leading pollutant and the worst climate pollution. Against this it is argued that carbon dioxide is a component of the atmosphere, essential for plant life. This question of terminology has practical effects, for example as determining whether the U. S. Clean Air Act is deemed to regulate CO2 emissions, CO2 increase in earths atmosphere has been accelerating. Sulfur oxides - particularly sulfur dioxide, a compound with the formula SO2. SO2 is produced by volcanoes and in industrial processes. Coal and petroleum often contain sulfur compounds, and their combustion generates sulfur dioxide, further oxidation of SO2, usually in the presence of a catalyst such as NO2, forms H2SO4, and thus acid rain. This is one of the causes for concern over the impact of the use of these fuels as power sources. Nitrogen oxides - Nitrogen oxides, particularly nitrogen dioxide, are expelled from high temperature combustion and they can be seen as a brown haze dome above or a plume downwind of cities. Nitrogen dioxide is a compound with the formula NO2
8.
Engineering
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The term Engineering is derived from the Latin ingenium, meaning cleverness and ingeniare, meaning to contrive, devise. Engineering has existed since ancient times as humans devised fundamental inventions such as the wedge, lever, wheel, each of these inventions is essentially consistent with the modern definition of engineering. The term engineering is derived from the engineer, which itself dates back to 1390 when an engineer originally referred to a constructor of military engines. In this context, now obsolete, a referred to a military machine. Notable examples of the obsolete usage which have survived to the present day are military engineering corps, the word engine itself is of even older origin, ultimately deriving from the Latin ingenium, meaning innate quality, especially mental power, hence a clever invention. The earliest civil engineer known by name is Imhotep, as one of the officials of the Pharaoh, Djosèr, he probably designed and supervised the construction of the Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara in Egypt around 2630–2611 BC. Ancient Greece developed machines in both civilian and military domains, the Antikythera mechanism, the first known mechanical computer, and the mechanical inventions of Archimedes are examples of early mechanical engineering. In the Middle Ages, the trebuchet was developed, the first steam engine was built in 1698 by Thomas Savery. The development of this gave rise to the Industrial Revolution in the coming decades. With the rise of engineering as a profession in the 18th century, similarly, in addition to military and civil engineering, the fields then known as the mechanic arts became incorporated into engineering. The inventions of Thomas Newcomen and the Scottish engineer James Watt gave rise to mechanical engineering. The development of specialized machines and machine tools during the revolution led to the rapid growth of mechanical engineering both in its birthplace Britain and abroad. John Smeaton was the first self-proclaimed civil engineer and is regarded as the father of civil engineering. He was an English civil engineer responsible for the design of bridges, canals, harbours and he was also a capable mechanical engineer and an eminent physicist. Smeaton designed the third Eddystone Lighthouse where he pioneered the use of hydraulic lime and his lighthouse remained in use until 1877 and was dismantled and partially rebuilt at Plymouth Hoe where it is known as Smeatons Tower. The United States census of 1850 listed the occupation of engineer for the first time with a count of 2,000, there were fewer than 50 engineering graduates in the U. S. before 1865. In 1870 there were a dozen U. S. mechanical engineering graduates, in 1890 there were 6,000 engineers in civil, mining, mechanical and electrical. There was no chair of applied mechanism and applied mechanics established at Cambridge until 1875, the theoretical work of James Maxwell and Heinrich Hertz in the late 19th century gave rise to the field of electronics
9.
Education
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Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. Educational methods include storytelling, discussion, teaching, training, Education frequently takes place under the guidance of educators, but learners may also educate themselves. Education can take place in formal or informal settings and any experience that has an effect on the way one thinks, feels. The methodology of teaching is called pedagogy, in most regions education is compulsory up to a certain age. Etymologically, the education is derived from the Latin ēducātiō from ēducō which is related to the homonym ēdūcō from ē-. Education began in prehistory, as trained the young in the knowledge. In pre-literate societies this was achieved orally and through imitation, story-telling passed knowledge, values, and skills from one generation to the next. As cultures began to extend their knowledge beyond skills that could be learned through imitation. Schools existed in Egypt at the time of the Middle Kingdom, plato founded the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in Europe. The city of Alexandria in Egypt, established in 330 BCE, there, the great Library of Alexandria was built in the 3rd century BCE. European civilizations suffered a collapse of literacy and organization following the fall of Rome in CE476, after the Fall of Rome, the Catholic Church became the sole preserver of literate scholarship in Western Europe. The church established cathedral schools in the Early Middle Ages as centres of advanced education, some of these establishments ultimately evolved into medieval universities and forebears of many of Europes modern universities. During the High Middle Ages, Chartres Cathedral operated the famous, founded in 1088, the University of Bologne is considered the first, and the oldest continually operating university. The Renaissance in Europe ushered in a new age of scientific and intellectual inquiry and appreciation of ancient Greek, around 1450, Johannes Gutenberg developed a printing press, which allowed works of literature to spread more quickly. The European Age of Empires saw European ideas of education in philosophy, religion, arts, the Enlightenment saw the emergence of a more secular educational outlook in Europe. In most countries today, full-time education, whether at school or otherwise, is compulsory for all children up to a certain age, formal education occurs in a structured environment whose explicit purpose is teaching students. Usually, formal education takes place in a environment with classrooms of multiple students learning together with a trained, certified teacher of the subject. Most school systems are designed around a set of values or ideals that govern all educational choices in that system, such choices include curriculum, organizational models, design of the physical learning spaces, student-teacher interactions, methods of assessment, class size, educational activities, and more
10.
Speed bump
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Terminology related to road transport—the transport of passengers or goods on paved routes between places—is diverse, with variation between dialects of English. There may also be differences within a single country. This glossary is a listing of road transport terms. 2+2 road A specific type of dual carriageway being built in Ireland, Sweden, access road See frontage road Alternate route or optional route A highway that splits off the mainline and reconnects some distance later. At-grade intersection A junction at which two or more roads cross at the level or grade. Annual average daily traffic A measure of volume of vehicle traffic on a segment of road for a year divided by 365 days to produce an average. Arterial road or arterial thoroughfare A high-capacity urban road designed to deliver traffic at the highest possible level of service, auxiliary route A highway that supplements a major or mainline highway. Beltway See ring road Box junction A road traffic control measure designed to prevent congestion, the surface of the junction is typically marked with a criss-cross grid of diagonal painted lines, and vehicles may not enter the area so marked unless their exit from the junction is clear. Bus lane A lane restricted to buses, and sometimes other vehicles such as taxis. Business route or city route An auxiliary route that passes through the business district of a city. Butterfly junction See stack interchange Bypass An auxiliary route that relieves congestion along the mainline by routing traffic around a city or congested area, can also be used to refer to a segment of road built to reroute the mainline away from a city or congested area. Cant or camber The gradient of the surface at 90° to the direction of travel. Carriageway A width of road on which a vehicle is not restricted by any physical barriers or separation to move laterally. A roadway can comprise one or more carriageways, single carriageways may contain both directions of traffic for the roadway, while multiple carriageways can separate traffic by direction or type. Cats eye A retroreflective safety device used in marking and the first of a range of raised pavement markers. Each ramp allows traffic from one direction of a roadway to access only one direction of the crossroad, Traffic is fully grade separated, it does not need to stop to make any of the connections between the two roadways. Connector or cutoff An auxiliary route that provides a shortcut between two routes or a connection between two routes that otherwise do no connect, constitutional route A highway defined in the constitution of the place in which it is located. No left turn signal in the intersection is then necessary, continuous green T-intersection See seagull intersection Contraflow lane reversal The reversal of direction of traffic in a lane, to facilitate emergency evacuations, roadworks, or events
11.
Chicane
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A chicane is an artificial feature creating extra turns in a road, used in motor racing and on streets to slow traffic for safety. For example, one form of chicane is a short, shallow S-shaped turn, requiring the driver to turn left and then right again to stay on the road. Chicane comes from the French verb chicaner, which means to quibble or to prevent justice, on modern racing circuits, chicanes are usually located after long straights, making them a prime location for overtaking. They can be placed tactically by circuit designers to prevent vehicles from reaching speeds deemed to be unsafe, a prime example of this is the Tamburello chicane at Imola, which was placed after Ayrton Sennas death at the original corner. At Le Mans, chicanes were placed alongside the 6‑km Mulsanne Straight in order to slow down Le Mans Prototypes, some tracks, such as the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, feature optional chicanes. Faster cars will take the chicane, but slower cars may avoid the chicane because they are not capable of reaching high speeds on the straights. Such chicanes are used at Watkins Glen International and Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, another example is the Tsukuba Circuit in Japan. A chicane was added after Turn 7, creating a right turn and this chicane is used only for motorcycles. It was implemented to divert motorcycles from taking Turn 8, which is a high speed long sweeping left corner, Turn 8 was deemed to be unsafe for motorcycles, as immediately following this is a slow right hairpin corner. This means riders may still have been leaning to the left when being expected to begin braking for Turns 9 and 10, the term is used in other types of racing, including bobsleigh and dogleg, to indicate a similar shift in the course or track. Mobile chicane and moving chicane are terms used to disparage slower drivers. In some cases they may not move out of the way quickly enough to allow competitors in higher positions past and this can cost competitors valuable time and championship points. This same term, applied to traffic calming, can refer to the usage of devices to create a chicane configuration. The Yas Marina Circuits chicanes have become a subject of debate, for example, some of Formula Ones top drivers feel that the chicane after the back straight disrupts the flow of races and impedes overtaking maneuvers. McLaren Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh feels that placing high speed corners after straights is a better option than using chicanes, chicanes are a type of horizontal deflection used in traffic calming schemes to reduce the speed of traffic. Drivers are expected to speed to negotiate the lateral displacement in the vehicle path. Limited accident data for chicane schemes indicate changes in injury accidents, a pedestrian chicane is a kind of permanent fence used at a railway crossing to slow pedestrians down and to force them to observe both directions before crossing the railway tracks. While passing the chicane, one has to turn to the left and to the right, a similar arrangement is sometimes used at the entrances of parks to impede bicycle or car access
12.
Shared space
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Shared space is an urban design approach which seeks to minimise the segregation of pedestrians and vehicles. This is done by removing features such as kerbs, road markings, traffic signs. It has been suggested that, by creating a sense of uncertainty and making it unclear who has priority. This is conducive to an environment for both pedestrians and vehicles. Shared space schemes are motivated by a desire to reduce the dominance of vehicles, vehicle speeds. Shared space design can take different forms depending on the level of demarcation and segregation between different transportation modes. Variations of shared space are used in urban settings, especially those that have been made nearly car-free. As a separate concept, shared space normally applies to semi-open spaces on busier roads, the origin of term is generally linked with the work of Dutch traffic engineer Hans Monderman, who pioneered the method in the Dutch province of Friesland. Prior to the adoption of the term, street design projects carried out in Chambéry, France, the term was used by Tim Pharoah to describe informal street layouts with no traffic demarcation. The term has been applied, especially by Ben Hamilton-Baillie. The European Shared Space project developed new policies and methods for the design of public spaces with streets between 2004 and 2008 under the leadership of Hans Monderman until his death in 2008. A review of the evolution of the shared space concepts is offered in Transport Reviews, Shared space is a design approach rather than a design type characterised by standard features. Hans Monderman suggested that a behavior in traffic is more positively affected by the built environment of the public space than by conventional traffic control devices. A reason for the apparent paradox that reduced regulation leads to safer roads may be found by studying the risk compensation effect, were losing our capacity for socially responsible behaviour. The greater the number of prescriptions, the more peoples sense of personal responsibility dwindles. When you dont exactly know who has right of way, you tend to seek eye contact with other road users and you automatically reduce your speed, you have contact with other people and you take greater care. Monderman has stated that objections are more a matter of communication than design, the UKs Department for Transport issued national guidance on shared space in 2011. Their primary research in Ashford, Kent, suggested that in streets with high volumes of traffic, most people, but particularly women and older people, found the shared space intimidating and preferred the previous layout with conventional crossings. There are wide-ranging reservations about the practicality of the shared space philosophy, Shared space is bitterly opposed by many organisations representing blind, partially sighted and deaf people
Media related to Traffic calming at Wikimedia Commons