The occurrence of road traffic accidents is subjected to a variety of causes and one of them is drowsy driving. The presence of drowsy driving has been a critical contributor to road accidents worldwide. The purpose of this study is to analyze attitudes, behaviors, and opinions associated with fatigued or drowsy driving. The data were collected using a questionnaire-based survey in the United Arab Emirates and were descriptively analyzed. The results of the analysis showed that a wide number of drivers (71 percent) admitted that they drive while fatigued at least once a week. Out of all respondents, 27 percent admitted falling asleep behind the wheel before and 7 percent of them were involved in a crash related to nodding off. Moreover, the results also showed that most of the drivers prefer to either listen to the radio or talk to passengers to reduce drowsiness rather than stop and rest or nap. Overall, there is a need to raise awareness about the risk of drowsy driving since people tend to see other factors to be riskier. Also, this study highlights the necessity to counteract fatigued driving with treatments on-road and more education to the public. More research and crash data analysis are highly recommended to reach a clear conclusion and suggest certain treatments.

The presence of road traffic accidents is subjected to various contributing factors including drowsy driving. The occurrence of drowsy driving has been a major cause of road accidents globally. Therefore, this study aims to analyze demographic, socio-economic, daily habits and drowsy-related characteristics associated with fatigued or drowsy driving in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The data were gathered upon a questionnaire-based survey among a sample size of 525 drivers in the UAE. Inputs were given weights upon consulting experts in the field of transportation. Data were analyzed using artificial neural networks (ANN). Daily habits significantly affect the driver’s risk to experience fatigued driving. Socio-economic, drowsy-related, and demographic characteristics followed sequentially. Time of day to experience drowsy driving has the largest importance. Moreover, daily habits such as driving durations, distance driven, and sleeping hours demanded the importance of drowsy driving risk next. Socio-economic characteristic such as the average monthly income was the least significant. Prevalence of sleep-related accidents in the UAE is a fact, where drivers are less concerned about fatigue driving than other traffic safety issues. Raising awareness of drowsy driving among society is a need since people tend to see other factors to be riskier than drowsy driving. The results highlight the need to counteract drowsy driving with treatments on-road and more education to the public.

Asphalt pavements are subjected to major distresses like fatigue, rutting, and low-temperature cracking due to repeated traffic loading and climatic conditions. The modification of the asphalt binder (a major component of an asphalt paving mixture) using additives helps in minimizing the possibility of pavement distresses. The cement additive was used in this study at cement-to-asphalt (C/A) percentages of 0, 10, and 20% by volume. The main objective of the study was to investigate the impact of C/A percentage, temperature, and loading frequency on the rutting resistance of asphalt binders using statistical analysis. Two aging conditions were also used: unaged condition and short-term aging condition in the rolling thin-film oven (RTFO). The dynamic shear rheometer (DSR) test was used to characterize the asphalt binders at ten loading frequencies (0.1, 0.3, 0.6, 1, 1.59, 3, 5, 7, 8, and 10 Hz) and four temperatures (58, 64, 70, and 76°C). These combinations were used to cover a wide range of combined conditions and to follow the high-temperature range for the Superpave performance grade (PG) system. Multiple statistical analyses [the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and correlation tests] were performed to identify the relation between the tested variables and the rutting parameter (G*/sinδ). Findings of the study have shown that the loading frequency has a significant effect on the rutting parameter for unaged and RTFO-aged asphalt binders under different temperatures and using different C/A percentages. Regression analysis was conducted to depict an accurate model that can predict the rutting parameter (G*/sinδ) for each aging condition. Based on the regression analysis, nonlinear power models were developed for the rutting parameter of four groups: unaged unmodified, unaged cement-modified, RTFO-aged unmodified, and RTFO-aged cement-modified asphalt binders with the coefficient of determination (R²) values of 0.986, 0.986, 0.996, and 0.992, respectively. The ANOVA test results showed that the cement addition (represented by the C/A percentage) had a significant impact on the rutting parameter of cement-modified asphalt binders for both aging groups. Furthermore, the correlation tests conducted in this study showed that the temperature and loading frequency had significant effects in the predictive models of the rutting parameter of unmodified asphalt binders and that the temperature, loading frequency, and C/A percentage had significant effects in the predictive models of the cement-modified asphalt binders.