The problem of estimating and tracking the fundamental frequency of a periodic signal is formulated in Bayesian terms and a solution is proposed. For multichannel measurements both simulated and experimental data show that the estimate improves when more data channels are used for the estimation. The method is tested on a multichannel vibration measurement from the interior of a passenger car. ...

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death and acquired disability in children over age 1 in the United States. In 1998 alone, 697 children under age 6 died as occupants in motor vehicles, and nearly 100,000 were injured. This Issue Brief describes findings from Partners for Child Passenger Safety, the nation's largest surveillance system of children in car crashes, and points to impr...

Traditional vehicle air conditioning systems condition the entire cabin to a comfortable range of temperature and humidity regardless of the number of passengers in the vehicle. The A/C system is designed to have enough capacity to provide comfort for transient periods when cooling down a soaked car. Similarly for heating, the entire cabin is typically warmed up to achieve comfort. Localized he...

A frequently asked question of Foundation staff is "What is the safest car color?" Psychological studies show that color has an effect on behavior, and there are other studies about color and conspicuity, but there are very few studies examining the impact of car color on crash rates. "Colors can create conditions that can cause fatigue, increase stress, decrease visual perception, damage eyesi...

Using a portable emissions measurement system, 16 gasoline passenger cars were tested on a fixed route consisting of different types of roads in Macao and the data were normalized with the vehicle-specific power bin method. The normalized HC, CO and NOX emission levels of the seven passenger car samples with model year older than 2000 were 3.19 ± 5.04, 14.59 ± 22.88, 2.57 ± 2.12 g/km, respectiv...

Time headway is a significant traffic flow parameter that affects the capacity and safety of highways and freeways. Time headways are broadly used in different areas of traffic and transport engineering such as capacity analysis, safety studies, car following and lane changing behavior modeling, and level of service evaluation. In this paper, the time headway distribution is investigated for an...

The world total of passenger cars is expected to go from the current one billion to >2.5 billion by 2050. Cars for domestic use account for ~74% of the world's yearly production of motorized vehicles. In North America, ~80% of the commuters use their own car with another 5.6% travelling as passengers. With the current life-expectancy of 78.6 years, the average North American spends 4.3 years dr...

in the present paper, employing a complete model of a passenger car, contribution of various components and assemblies in the frontal crash energy absorption is determined. thickness of components with more remarkable contribution is increased to improve the occupant safety. furthermore, effects of substituting the metallic bumper with one fabricated from gmt materials on the frontal crash beha...

This study estimated the effectiveness of seat belts in reducing injuries and estimated the associated economic benefits using state of Kansas data. The estimation process included three stages. In the first stage, seat belt effectiveness in reducing injuries to motor vehicle occupants was estimated. Crash data from Kansas Accident Reporting System (KARS) database was used to accomplish this es...