Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Daily Mobility of the Elderly Living in Small Cities in Lodz Province.

The article presents a study into the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on the daily mobility of those over 60 residing in small towns in the Lodz Province. The study determines the impact on the trip destination, trip frequency, preferred means of transport, distance and duration of trips, and length of the target activity. To achieve these objectives, a survey was conducted using the CATI technique (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing), which comprised 500 residents of small towns in the Lodz Province aged 60+, who were divided into three classes of small towns (by population size). In order to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the daily mobility of those over 60, the tools the authors decided to use descriptive statistics and hypothesis testing. Overall, the pandemic was found to have had only a minor impact on the changes in transport behavior of those over 60 in small towns. Only 9% of respondents declared any effect on their daily mobility. The impact mainly involved a reduction in travel time and frequency, primarily among the oldest residents. Since a low level of daily mobility leads to low social activity, especially for the elderly-with a consequent sense of loneliness or even depression-towns should take measures to improve the already poor situation, one that has been further exacerbated by the pandemic.

Determining vehicle pre-crash speed in frontal barrier crashes using artificial neural network for intermediate car class.

This paper introduces a new, innovative approach to pre-crash velocity determination, namely the artificial neural networks. A perceptron based on a database obtained from NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) with numerous data concerning frontal vehicle crash tests: i.e. vehicle mass, deformation zone and deformation coefficients C1-C6. Part of the database entries were used to train the network to develop consistent accuracy and the remainder was used as validation and training sets.