Traffic safety and energy efficiency of vehicles are strictly related to driver’s behavior. The scientific literature has investigated on some specific dynamic parameters that, among the others, can be used as a measure of unsafe or aggressive driving style such as longitudinal and lateral acceleration of vehicle. Moreover, the use of modern mobile devices (smartphones and tablets), and their internal sensors (GPS receivers, three-axes accelerometers), allows road users to receive real time information and feedback that can be useful to increase awareness of drivers and promote safety. This paper focuses on the development of a prototype mobile application that can evaluate the grade of safety that drivers are keeping on the road by measuring of accelerations (longitudinal and lateral) and warning for users when it can be convenient to correct their driving style. The aggressiveness is evaluated by plotting vehicle’s acceleration on a g-g diagram specially studied and designed, where horizontal and lateral acceleration is displayed inside areas of “Good Driving Style”. Several experimental tests were carried out with different drivers and cars in order to estimate the system accuracy and the usability of the application. This work is part of the wider research project M2M, Mobile to Mobility: Information and communication technology systems for road traffic safety (PON National Operational Program for Research and Competitiveness 2007-2013) which is based on the use of mobile sensor computing systems for giving real-time information in order to reduce risks and to make the transportation system more safe and comfortable.

This paper shows the results of a study conducted on five different categories of vehicles in a specific test site. The aim was to investigate how the effect of the test site discontinuity determines variations of comfort related to the increase in speed and to the five selected road vehicles of different classes. Measurements were obtained by combining data relating to vibrations in the three reference axes, detected through a vibration dosimeter (VIB-008), and geolocation data (latitude, longitude, and speed) identified by the GPS inside a smartphone. This procedure, through the synchronization between dosimeter and GPS location, has been helpful in postprocessing to eliminate any measurement anomalies generated by the operator. After the survey campaign it was determined that a formulation allows defining a Comfort Index (CI) depending on velocity and five vehicles of different classes. This study showed that the presence of speed bumps, in the test site investigated, appears to be uncomfortable even at speeds well below those required by the Highway Code.

The use of collective transport is strongly influenced by the quality of offered service. One of the overriding factors that affect the modal shift process is the quality of transport systems. To increase the attractiveness of collective transport services and therefore reduce the use of cars, authorities in collaboration with transport companies should take steps to ensure a high level of service quality in the public transport system. The provided quality is the level of quality achieved on daily basis and measured by the customer/user point of view. This research aims to relate service quality perceived by the user to measurements of two environmental indicators, that is, vibration, in reference to which the acceleration transmitted to the body by the vehicle motion and by its vibration will be measured, and noise, in reference to which the Equivalent Sound Pressure Level—Leq (A)—will be measured. Finally, a Comfort Index (CI) (rail) is specified, calibrated, and validated.

This article show a methodology for the identification of road anomalies through the coupled measurements of vertical acceleration and sound pressure levels. The innovative solution of this methodology lays in the possibility to evaluate road anomalies by using the time derivative of acceleration and sound pressure. Furthermore, this methodology has been developed and validated using a commercially available instrumentation possessed by most drivers, such as, smartphones and tablets. The current smartphone devices, in fact, are equipped with GPS, gyroscope and microphone that allow to simultaneously record data relating to geolocation, acceleration and sound pressure. The widespread distribution of this equipment could allow local administration to acquire a large number of surveys carried out by normal drivers and build a large Data Base on road anomalies representative of a whole network of infrastructures with a very small cost. Finally, the application of the methodology overturns current monitoring policies of road infrastructure that can be carried out only by the management staff by crowdsourcing the DB system with continuous real time updates brought by normal road users.