PURPOSES : The purpose of this study is to identify the causes and expected problems of traffic flow in connection with ground roads that are expected to become stagnant owing to the increase in underground road infrastructure, and to derive methods to solve the problem in the future. METHODS : The basic design of underground roads is similar to that of tunnels. However, there is a point where the slope is large as the entering and exiting sections move underground. The ability of a heavy vehicle to assume a mound may vary depending on the slope. Therefore, in this study, a connection path section with a long slope was constructed using VISSIM, a simulation program, and it was verified whether analysis related to the slope and heavy vehicles in an underground road can be performed in the simulation. Subsequently, an analysis was conducted by setting a scenario and an effect index. In particular, this study analyzes internal delay patterns in the event of an unexpected situation on an underground connection road by performing shock wave analysis to analyze speed reduction according to heavy vehicles and slopes. RESULTS : A correlation between the slope of the underground road and decrease in the average speed according to the increasing rate of heavy vehicles was established. It was also possible to analyze the maximum length and duration of the delay connected to the rear in the event of a delay in the underground road and the shock wave speed transmitted to the rear. The analysis showed that the rate of increase in problems owing to delays ranged from 5% to 20% for the ratio of heavy vehicles. In particular, all effect scales increased significantly at a 9% slope. CONCLUSIONS : This study analyzes the causes of land congestion (slope and heavy vehicle mixing rate), which can be a major problem in underground roads in the future. In the future, by establishing lane-specific speed control strategies and lane control strategies based on this study, it will be necessary to derive solutions such as introducing traffic safety on the underground road by minimizing the shock wave delivered to the rear by providing information on traffic communication conditions inside the underground road to individual vehicles.
PURPOSES : This study is to analyze expected effect of a accident decrease when motorcycle safety inspection is introduced. METHODS : Based on the literature review of effect of 4-wheel vehicle inspection, probability of occurring accidents among defective motorcycles are calculated by using the number of estimated defective motorcycles and accidents resulting from defects of motorcycles. Then, the number of decreased accidents which is resulting from eliminating defects of motorcycles by safety inspection is estimated by using probability of occurring accidents among defective motorcycles. RESULTS : If the ratio of eliminating defects of motorcycles is 95% after motorcycle safety inspection, the effects of accident decrease of motorcycle safety inspection are analyzed from 2005 to 2008. As a result, 46,292 defective motorcycles are repaired and 1,376 accidents are prevented when the probability of occurring accidents among defective motorcycles is 2.97%. CONCLUSIONS : This study suggests the expected effect of motorcycle safety inspection is that the inspection can prevent 1,376 motorcycle accidents. However, the number of preventing motorcycle accidents are small, compared with the total number of motorcycle accidents because there are limitations to investigate the causes of defective motorcycle accidents. A more precise analysis of the expected effect of motorcycle inspection is possible when a systematic investigation of the causes of the accidents is implemented.