transport: Assured clear distance ahead

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

In legal terminology, the assured clear distance ahead (ACDA) is the distance ahead of any terrestrial locomotive device such as a land vehicle, typically an automobile, or watercraft, within which they should be able to bring the device to a halt. It is one of the most fundamental principles governing ordinary care and the duty of care for all methods of conveyance, and is frequently used to determine if a driver is in proper control and is a nearly universally implicit consideration in vehicular accident liability. The rule is a precautionary trivial burden required to avert the great probable gravity of precious life loss and momentous damage. Satisfying the ACDA rule is necessary but no…

Evidence: 54 • authority: 72

Braking distance refers to the distance a vehicle will travel from the point when its brakes are fully applied to when it comes to a complete stop. It is primarily affected by the original speed of the vehicle and the coefficient of friction between the tires and the road surface, and negligibly by the tires' rolling resistance and vehicle's air drag. The type of brake system in use only affects trucks and large mass vehicles, which cannot supply enough force to match the static frictional force. The braking distance is one of two principal components of the total stopping distance. The other component is the reaction distance, which is the product of the speed and the perception-reaction t…

Evidence: 39 • authority: 80

The assured clear distance ahead rule: Implications for nighttime traffic safety and the law

Evidence: 39 • authority: 80

Negligence: Breach of Duty: Assured Clear Distance Ahead Doctrine

Evidence: 34 • authority: 92

Expert-level understanding of social scenes requires early visual experience.. We studied 28 late-sighted Ethiopian children who were born with bilateral cataracts and remained nearly blind for years, recovering pattern-vision only in late childhood. This "natural experiment" offers a rare opportunity to assess the causal effect of early visual experience on later function acquisition. Here, we focus on vision-based understanding of human social interactions. The late-sighted were poorer than typically developing peers (albeit better than chance) in categorizing observed social scenes as friendly or aggressive, irrespective of the display format (i.e., full-body videos, still images, or poi…

Evidence: 34 • authority: 92

Consideration of Major Accidents and Disasters in Environmental Impact Assessment Reports for Natural Gas Pipeline Projects in Poland.. The analysis of the Polish environmental impact assessment (EIA) reports (EIARs) for natural gas (NG) projects, preceded by a legislation survey, with regards to the consideration of major accidents and disasters (MADs), showed that although reports prepared after January 1, 2017 contain more detailed information on MADs, none of the reports introduced the concept of risk, understood as the probability of hazards//impacts in combination with their consequences//effects, nor did they present the assessment results of such defined risk. The quality of the EIA…

Evidence: 34 • authority: 72

A robotaxi, also known as robot taxi, robo-taxi, self-driving taxi or driverless taxi, is an autonomous car (SAE automation level 4 or 5) operated for a ridesharing company. Consultancy firms predict that robotaxis operated in an autonomous mobility on demand (AMoD) service could be a large application of autonomous cars at scale, especially in urban areas. Market forecasts suggest they have a positive impact on congestion and parking over private cars, while some firms such as Kearney predict a negative impact due to induced demand. Studies on the impacts on road safety are mixed, with crash rates higher than humans in certain pilots. Robotaxis could also reduce urban pollution and energy…

Evidence: 34 • authority: 72

The geometric design of roads is the branch of highway engineering concerned with the positioning of the physical elements of the roadway according to standards and constraints. The basic objectives in geometric design are to optimize efficiency and safety while minimizing cost and environmental damage. Geometric design also affects an emerging fifth objective called "livability", which is defined as designing roads to foster broader community goals, including providing access to employment, schools, businesses and residences, accommodate a range of travel modes such as walking, bicycling, transit, and automobiles, and minimizing fuel use, emissions and environmental damage. Geometric roadw…