• Energy Research

The current literature on public perceptions of autonomous vehicles focuses on potential users and the target market. However, autonomous vehicles need to operate in a mixed traffic condition, and it is essential to consider the perceptions of road users, especially vulnerable road users. This paper builds explicitly on the limitations of previous studies that did not include a wide range of road users, especially vulnerable road users who often receive less priority. Therefore, this paper considers the perceptions of vulnerable road users towards sharing roads with autonomous vehicles. The data were collected from 795 people. Extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) and random forests are used to select the most influential independent variables. Then, a decision tree-based model is used to explore the effects of the selected most effective variables on the respondents who approve the use of public streets as a proving ground for autonomous vehicles. The results show that the effect of autonomous vehicles on traffic injuries and fatalities, being safe to share the road with autonomous vehicles, the Elaine Herzberg accident and its outcome, and maximum speed when operating in autonomous are the most influential variables. The results can be used by authorities, companies, policymakers, planners, and other stakeholders.

Walkability has become a research topic of great concern for preserving public health, especially in the era of the COVID-19 outbreak. Today more than ever, urban and transport policies, constrained by social distancing measures and travel restrictions, must be conceptualized and implemented with a particular emphasis on sustainable walkability. Most of the walkability models apply observation and subjective methods to measure walkability, whereas few studies address walkability based on sense perception. To fill this gap, we aim at investigating the perceived neighbourhood walkability (PNW) based on sense perception in a neighbourhood of Brussels. We designed a survey that integrates 22 items grouped into 5 dimensions (cleanness, visual aesthetics, landscape and nature, feeling of pressure, feeling of safety), as well as the socio-demographic attributes of the participants. Using various statistical methods, we show that socio-demographics have almost no effects on perceived neighbourhood walkability. Nonetheless, we found significant differences between groups of different educational backgrounds. Furthermore, using a binomial regression model, we found strong associations between PNW and at least one item from each grouping dimension. Finally, we show that based on a deep neural network for classification, the items have good predictive capabilities (78% of classification accuracy). These findings can help integrate sense perception into objective measurement methods of walkable environments. Additionally, policy recommendations should be targeted based on differences of perception across socio-demographic groups.

Abstract Architectural techniques have evolved over the century. Presently, climatic conditions require architecture that is more adaptable to the environment. Coastal regions have been recognised to be the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Thus far, limited research has offered some strategies to mitigate the solar effect on thermal comfort and energy demand in coastal tropical regions. To address this problem, this study was conducted with the aim of evaluating, analysing, comparing, and discussing the impacts of passive strategies on thermal comfort and energy consumption (as well as the introduction of photovoltaic panels) in coastal tropical climate regions. All simulations were conducted for a period of one year using the Design Builder software. The results demonstrate that phase change materials (PCMs) have a significant effect on thermal comfort and energy consumption in an office under different coastal tropical climates. The combination of PCMs with thermal insulation has the ability to increase the comfort rate by up to 3% while decreasing the cooling energy consumption by approximately 12% in three studied climate zones. In a naturally ventilated building, the most significant increase in the comfort rate is observed with the introduction of PCMs in combination with thermal insulation, whereas thermal insulation, along with external shading, results in the most significant reduction in the cooling energy consumption of an air-conditioned office building (approximately 19%) in three studied climates. Furthermore, the introduction of photovoltaic panels enables us to generate 43–79% of the total energy consumption of the studied office building.