Abstract
IntroductionThis paper describes the modification and development of methodologies to assess the impacts of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) applications for Vulnerable Road users (VRUs) in the domains of safety, mobility and comfort. This effort was carried out in the context of the VRUITS project whose aim was to produce results at the EU-28 level.MethodsAn existing safety methodology was modified to take into account specific VRU aspects. The mobility and comfort assessments methodologies were developed in the project.ResultsThe safety, mobility and comfort methodologies were applied to ten ITS applications for VRUs. The first innovation determined how the nine safety mechanisms for ex-ante analysis of ITS applications, including direct and indirect effects, can incorporate the important characteristics of the VRU groups (pedestrians, cyclists and Power-Two-Wheeler riders) in the analysis. The second innovation developed a conceptual model for mobility and comfort. Thirdly, the estimation of quantitative effects, using literature, empirical findings and expert judgement, was developed.ConclusionsThe new safety, mobility and comfort assessment methodologies were applied to calculate the respective effects for VRUs using ITS. These results are ex-ante findings, as very few to no empirical results for ITS applications for VRUs are available. In order to improve the accuracy of the estimates, there is a need for better standardized data and at the European level. Finally, validation of the methods could be done in the future field operational tests focusing on measuring user behavior.
Highlights
This paper describes the modification and development of methodologies to assess the impacts of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) applications for Vulnerable Road users (VRUs) in the domains of safety, mobility and comfort
The method to assess the safety impacts of ITS on vulnerable road users is based on the method introduced by [15], which was developed for the assessment of safety impacts of ITS for cars
The main modifications of the method for the purposes of the VRUITS project were related to: i) nine mechanisms which were updated to cover vulnerable road users i.e. pedestrians, cyclists, moped riders and motorcyclists, ii) the safety impact assessment tool which was updated to include more detailed information on accidents involving vulnerable road users, iii) accident types and circumstances such as age, road layout and lighting which were considered in more detail when relevant for vulnerable road user and when feasible, iv) the calculation of safety effects of exposure changes and v) the expert assessment which was used to enhance the value of estimates for the nine mechanisms
Summary
The safety, mobility and comfort methodologies were applied to ten ITS applications for VRUs. The first innovation determined how the nine safety mechanisms for ex-ante analysis of ITS applications, including direct and indirect effects, can incorporate the important characteristics of the VRU groups (pedestrians, cyclists and Power-Two-Wheeler riders) in the analysis. The second innovation developed a conceptual model for mobility and comfort. Conclusions The new safety, mobility and comfort assessment methodologies were applied to calculate the respective effects for VRUs using ITS. These results are ex-ante findings, This article is part of Topical collection on The Influence of Intelligent Transport Systems on Vulnerable Road User Accidents.
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