Dangerous Traffic Situations Research Articles

A deep reinforcement learning framework for achieving super-human hazard perception in autonomous driving agents

Modeling driver behavior can significantly improve autonomous vehicles and intelligent driver assistance/training systems. Hazard perception (HP) is an essential driving skill for preventing driving accidents in potentially dangerous traffic situations. HP is not a Markov decision process, so modeling HP with reinforcement learning techniques is challenging. We introduce a framework for modeling HP scenarios using the soft actor-critic approach. Then, we use this framework to model HP in the emergence of a critical lateral hazard onto the road. The dual environments – the mirror environment for training and the target environment for usage – accelerate the learning process. The agent is employed in the target environment using an interpreter algorithm. The results show that the agent learns HP and outperforms the best human results by 2.6%. The training is implemented 40 times faster in the mirror environment. Evaluation tests show a driving experience similar to real-world scenarios rather than gaming simulations.

Heart Zone as a measure to influence traffic safety culture: which factors influence culture change?

Measures to influence traffic safety culture in designated areas (e.g. schools) exist in several different countries across the world. The Norwegian traffic safety scheme Heart Zone is a measure that aims to influence the traffic culture within a specific geographical area. The study examines whether four Norwegian schools have managed to establish a Heart Zone traffic safety culture, factors facilitating and impeding the implementation of Heart Zone traffic safety culture and subsequent changes in parents' traffic safety behavior. The study is based on survey data from four Norwegian schools (n = 220) and qualitative interviews (n = 19). Although the level of implementation varies, results from the interviews and the survey suggest that the schools have established Heart Zone cultures, where large proportions of the parents drop the children off at the recommended drop-off zone, when driving, are attentive to students who come walking/cycling within the Heart Zone and walk or cycle when transporting children within the Heart Zone. The Heart Zone culture is related to changes in parents' traffic safety behaviors and reductions in dangerous traffic situations. The study identifies specific factors facilitating and impeding traffic culture change, related to enclosed geographical areas like the Heart Zone, developing an analytical model that researchers and future traffic culture measures like this can learn from.

Optimization-Based Intersection Control for Connected Automated Vehicles and Pedestrians

Traffic at larger or busier urban intersections is currently coordinated using traffic signals to prevent dangerous traffic situations and to regulate the flow of traffic. In future scenarios with 100% connected automated vehicles, conventional traffic signals could be replaced, and vehicles at intersections could be seamlessly coordinated via vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication. In the past two decades, many such control strategies have been presented, commonly referred to as autonomous intersection management (AIM). In recent years, an evolution from simpler first come, first served to more sophisticated optimization-based AIM strategies can be observed. Optimization-based AIM can significantly improve capacity and reduce delays as compared to slot-based strategies and conventional traffic signal control (TSC). In addition, it allows for prioritizing road users. This paper is among the first to consider pedestrians in optimization-based AIM. The proposed approach consists of a signal-free vehicle control in combination with pedestrian signal phases that are fully integrated into the optimization problem. Since the communication range of the controller is limited in real-world applications, a rolling horizon scheme is presented and explained in detail. The presented strategy is implemented and evaluated using a microscopic traffic simulation framework. Results show that vehicle delays can be significantly reduced and vehicle capacity can be increased compared to fully actuated TSC, while pedestrian waiting times are comparable. In addition, focus is put on how vehicle and pedestrian delays can be balanced in the presented setup. Three different control parameters can be adjusted, which need to be tuned based on the considered demand scenario.

Traffic Risk Image in The Light of the Road Situation Assessment Questionnaire

Introduction: Drivers often lack reflection on their behaviour. For predictive purposes and educational interventions, it is useful to know the individual traffic risk picture of the driver under investigation.
 Objective: This paper aimed to show the psychometric properties of the questionnaire and to establish a hierarchy of traffic situations in terms of perceptions of associated danger.
 Material and Methods: A total of 548 people aged between 18 and 68 years participated in the study. A self-administered questionnaire method was used to measure situational (road) awareness and the ability to anticipate the consequences of engaging in unsafe road traffic actions. The tool's accuracy was verified with the 'Controversy' questionnaire, which is used to measure the severity of drivers' normative beliefs about breaking traffic laws.
 Results: Satisfactory psychometric values of the questionnaire were obtained. After taking into account the correlation of measurement errors, an acceptable fit was obtained: χ2 /df = 2.48; GFI = 0.95; AGFI = 0.92; CFI = 0.96; RMSEA = 0.06 (0.048-0.072). Mean values and standard deviations for 14 descriptions of unsafe traffic situations were shown.
 Conclusions: The satisfactory reliability and accuracy of the measurement allow the method to be used in research and individual diagnosis in the areas of transport psychology and education. Overtaking at pedestrian crossings, on a bend, uphill, and continuing to drive despite fatigue are the most dangerous traffic situations associated with the risk of traffic accidents.

Grand Theft Auto-Based Cycling Simulator for Cognitive Enhancement Technologies in Dangerous Traffic Situations.

While developing traffic-based cognitive enhancement technology (CET), such as bike accident prevention systems, it can be challenging to test and evaluate them properly. After all, the real-world scenario could endanger the subjects' health and safety. Therefore, a simulator is needed, preferably one that is realistic yet low cost. This paper introduces a way to use the video game Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V) and its sophisticated traffic system as a base to create such a simulator, allowing for the safe and realistic testing of dangerous traffic situations involving cyclists, cars, and trucks. The open world of GTA V, which can be explored on foot and via various vehicles, serves as an immersive stand-in for the real world. Custom modification scripts of the game give the researchers control over the experiment scenario and the output data to be evaluated. An off-the-shelf bicycle equipped with three sensors serves as a realistic input device for the subject's movement direction and speed. The simulator was used to test two early-stage CET concepts enabling cyclists to sense dangerous traffic situations, such as trucks approaching from behind the cyclist. Thus, this paper also presents the user evaluation of the cycling simulator and the CET used by the subjects to sense dangerous traffic situations. With the knowledge of the first iteration of the user-centered design (UCD) process, this paper concludes by naming improvements for the cycling simulator and discussing further research directions for CET that enable users to sense dangerous situations better.

Talking on the Phone While Driving: A Literature Review on Driving Simulator Studies.

Distracted driving is a growing concern around the world and has been the focus of many naturalistic and simulator-based studies. Driving simulators provide excellent practical and theoretical help in studying the driving process, and considerable efforts have been made to prove their validity. This research aimed to review relevant simulator-based studies focused on investigating the effects of the talking-on-the-phone-while-driving distraction on drivers’ behavior. This work is a scoping review which followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. The search was performed on five databases, covering twenty years of research results. It was focused on finding answers to three research questions that could offer an overview of the main sources of distraction, the research infrastructure, and the measures that were used to analyze and predict the effects of distractions. A number of 4332 studies were identified in the database search, from which 83 were included in the review. The main findings revealed that TPWD distraction negatively affects driving performance, exposing drivers to dangerous traffic situations. Moreover, there is a general understanding that the driver’s cognitive, manual, visual, and auditory resources are all involved, to a certain degree, when executing a secondary task while driving.

Разработка методики обоснования конструкции и рабочих параметров рычажно–электромагнитной системы стабилизации поперечной устойчивости грузовых фургонов

The work is devoted to the issue of increasing the lateral stability, handling and safety of a car with a lever-electromagnetic system of transverse stabilization. The road safety of vehicles should improve with the rapid development of vehicle dynamics. Knowledge of vehicle roll stability data is important for the development of vehicle stability systems that will improve road safety. As a result of a review of trucks and passenger vehicles, it was found that the normal anti-roll bars are used to increase lateral stability. At present, higher-class passenger cars have begun to use active stabilizers (anti-roll bars), which provide more efficient alignment of the car when cornering. The main disadvantage of a conventional anti-roll bar is the reduction in suspension travel and does not provide the necessary smoothness when cornering and when maneuvering. These movements can lead to dangerous traffic situations. Thus, unfavorable driving conditions are manifested in terms of vehicle stability and controllability, as well as a smooth ride, which determines the level of comfort during heavy cornering and maneuvering. A new vehicle active safety system has been proposed, which makes it possible to increase lateral stability. The given method of substantiating the design and operating parameters of the lever-electromagnetic lateral stabilization system, which increase the lateral stability of light-duty vans, and the results of a study on the example of a GAZelle NEXT cargo van when cornering and maneuvering are given.

New Algorithm for Detecting Road Lanes

Lane detection systems play a crucial role in the context of advanced driver assistance and autonomous driving systems. Such systems can reduce the number of traffic accidents and improve driving safety by warning the driver in dangerous traffic situations. In addition, the detection of traffic lanes with their left and right borders, along with the recognition of their types, is of great importance because they provide contextual information. Lane detection is a difficult task because road conditions and light conditions change while driving. This article proposes a new combined method for determining traffic lanes based on the pyramidal-recursive method and multi-modal segmentation. The results of modeling the proposed method in comparison with known approaches are presented.

Assessment of Dangerous Traffic Situations for Autonomous Vehicles

This article will show some dangerous situations with autonomous vehicles. The main question in this article is how does the ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control) as an autonomous vehicle function work? In which cases must the driver act and how. The research showed some real life examples based on a Euro NCAP test. The car manufacturers say that the modern ACC systems can be well used in urban traffic, especially in traffic jam, but there can be some critical situations which can cause an accident if the driver does not act. These situations are collected in this article. The main aim of the article is to identify a methodological framework for estimating the proper operation conditions related to the analyzed automated driving assistant systems.

Simulation-based reconstruction of traffic incidents from moving vehicle mono-camera

Video recordings from digital cameras implemented in road vehicles present a valuable source of data concerning various dangerous traffic situations, i.e., road accidents or near-miss incidents. This data is readily available and numerous methods for forensic reconstruction of traffic situations from vehicle video were presented in the past. New alternative method for reconstruction of traffic situations from vehicle video is presented in this article. The method is based on the fusion of kinetic vehicle trajectory simulation within 3D laser scanner point cloud, projective geometry, and processing of video footage from moving vehicle camera. The method offers accurate reconstruction of general vehicle motion within relevant time domain whereby in-depth technical information about traffic incident can be quantitatively extracted from video footage. The result is physics-based 3D projection of simulated vehicle motion on the motion of real vehicle recorded by moving monocular camera. The method was validated within performed experimental test runs with respect to vehicle speed, distance travelled, acceleration/deceleration and directional quantities (yaw rate, yaw angle). The method was further applied in the reconstruction of real-world traffic events.

A field study investigating road safety effects of a front brake light

Recent research shows that braking of vehicles equipped with a front brake light is identified significantly earlier than braking of vehicles without front brake lights. Moreover, the absence of front brake lights leads to more conservative road crossing decisions. These results suggest that front brake lights are able to facilitate the pedestrians’ anticipation of dangerous traffic situations, thereby increasing road safety. The present research investigated the effects of front brake lights in the real traffic of the Berlin Tegel Airport airside. A total of 102 vehicles were equipped with front brake lights and circulated in airport traffic for a period of three and a half months. Before and after this test period, 197 staff members were asked about their experiences with and their attitude towards front brake lights. The results show that front brake lights rarely led to misunderstandings, whereas they were significantly more often perceived to facilitate communication avoiding dangerous situations. The attitude towards front brake lights was already positive at the first interview and improved significantly during the measurement period. Overall, a great majority of participants stated that front brake lights improve communication between road users and thus increase road safety.

The Role of Vessel Traffic Services in Traffic Separation Scheme

The transportation of goods, passenger and livestock by sea is growing rapidly and rise a need for safety, security and environment protection. Now Indonesia is in the process of implementing E-Navigation. But since E-Navigation is complex and need a lot of system interoperability, then Indonesia may start the implementation by introducing VTS (Vessel Traffic Services) as a system designed to achieve the highest level of safety at sea, increase fleet efficiency and simplify everyday tasks both ashore and on board and therefore the operations are processed seamlessly, the compliance is guaranteed and the workload and costs are optimized. The VTS is not only for vessel traffic management but it also for harbour cluster and integrating communication system among stake holders on ships and on shore. But VTS plays a very important role in maintaining safety of navigation and efficiency as well as environment protection in traffic separation schemes. Nowadays, the next generation of VTS so-called smart VTS is capable to monitor (collect and process the data, create common operational picture, distribute data to clients), alerting (analyse traffic, detect dangerous traffic situations, and increase situation awareness), and respond (active decision support services and ensure ship to shore communications). The respond, however, is similar with the smart marine technology that may reduce human error significantly. Indonesia hopefully will implement the 16 kinds of MS (maritime services) portfolio with smart VTS especially in maintaining safety, security, efficiency and environment protection in traffic separation schemes.

The relationship between cognitive function and hazard perception in younger drivers

Driving is a complex task; with research suggesting cognitive function plays a significant role in driver behaviour. Recent studies have investigated the role of cognitive function in younger drivers who are experiencing brain maturation and are over-represented in crash statistics. Emerging evidence suggests poor cognitive functioning is one explanation for this high crash risk. For younger drivers, the relationship between cognitive function and driving ability has been consistently shown for speeding and lane deviations. However, the driving skill most consistently linked to crash involvement is hazard perception, which is the ability to anticipate and respond to potentially dangerous traffic situations. The aim of this study was to investigate the cognitive correlates of hazard perception in younger drivers. Seventy-nine undergraduate students completed a hazard perception test and a battery of cognitive tests that have previously demonstrated a relationship with safe driving. The newly created hazard perception test measured accuracy of hazard identification, response times when anticipating the hazard, and response times when taking action to avoid the hazard. Hazard perception accuracy was significantly related to visuo-spatial skills, executive functioning and global cognitive status. Anticipation response times were significantly related to inhibitory control, with no significant relationship found between cognitive function and action response times. These findings are discussed in line with limitations in the study. Future research into the role of specific cognitive domains could lead to the enhancement of hazard perception testing for licensing with cognitive training and assessment, with the potential to reduce the crash risk of vulnerable younger drivers.

Compliance with traffic safety regulations in road freight transport

The paper discuss the issues of safe transport of goods by road transport in the aspect of constantly increasing traffic intensity. The aspiration of the transport companies owners is to maximize profits even at the price of non-compliance with applicable traffic regulations, especially in the field of drivers' working hours. It often causes dangerous traffic situations, resulting in accidents, and their main cause is driver fatigue. The paper presents research regarding the knowledge of traffic regulations, in particular on the applicable standards of working time for truck drivers. The most frequent causes of violation of driver's working time frame caused by the drivers themselves, as well as forced by transport companies owners, forwarders or dispatchers were subject to the research. The ergonomic conditions of the driver’s cabin and trucks equipment as well as the health consequences of professional drivers were also analyzed.

The efficacy of a brief hazard perception interventional program for child bicyclists to improve perceptive standards

IntroductionEven though child bicyclists are highly vulnerable in traffic only few studies focused on providing child bicyclists with means to enhance their abilities to deal with the complexity of dynamic traffic situations. The current study therefore evaluated whether a brief hazard perception intervention might be effective to improve hazard perception skills in child bicyclists towards a level more comparable to adult bicyclists. MethodsEighty children of the fourth grade (9.03 ± 0.43 years; 34 girls) and forty-six adults (34.67 ± 14.25 years age; 24 woman) first performed a Hazard Perception test for bicyclists. Response rate, reaction times, first fixation, duration of the first fixation, dwell time and total number of fixations on the events were measured. Next, the children took part in the HP intervention in which video clips of dangerous traffic situations were presented. The intervention comprised two classroom sessions of one hour (1/week). A post-test was performed one day after and the retention-test three weeks after the intervention. ResultsChildren responded to more covert hazards immediately after the intervention (p < 0.05), but did not improve their response rate for overt hazards. Reaction times for the covert hazards improved on the post-test (p < 0.001) compared to the pre-test but this effect was reduced on the retention test. There was no effect of the intervention for entry time of the first fixation but the duration of the first fixation increased for the covert hazards (p < 0.05). Children made fewer fixations on the event compared to adults (p < 0.001), except for the covert hazards on the retention-test. The training also increased the number of fixations for the overt hazards on the post-test (p < 0.001) and the retention-test (p < 0.001) but only increased on the retention test for the covert hazards (p < 0.001). ConclusionThe results demonstrated that a brief intervention for training hazard perception skills in child bicyclists is able to improve children’s situation awareness and hazard perception for potential dangerous situations. The training, however, was too short to improve children to higher adult levels.

Pedestrian Travel Pattern At Johor Bahru Commercial Centre

Pedestrians are often exposed to complex and dangerous traffic situations. Therefore, planning for pedestrian facilities could reduce some of the problems that are faced by the pedestrians. Thus, this study describes the level of awareness, risky behavior and analyse pedestrian travel pattern in Johor Bahru (JB) commercial centre. Data for the study was collected from questionnaire distribution and video recording. Thirty sets of questionnaire were distributed with the purpose of determining the level of awareness among pedestrian while using the pedestrian facilities provided by the. Meanwhile, the video recording was used to determine the risky behaviour done by the pedestrians at commercial centres. The video was also used to analyse pedestrian travel pattern at commercial centres. The outcome of this study would be beneficial to JB cities and lead to a successful pedestrian travel pattern within a safety, practice, and knowledge of pedestrian facilities provided.

Fatalistic beliefs, risk perception and traffic safe behaviors

IntroductionRoad safety is a major worldwide concern especially for developing countries where a certain feeling of helplessness predominate. Local authorities are seeking ways to change people's behaviors considered as the first causal factor of traffic accidents. Risk perception and fatalistic beliefs have been identified as important socio-cognitive functioning patterns, which can shed light on people's behaviors towards risks, for prevention purpose. But the way fatalistic beliefs are associated with risk perception and safety behaviors remains blurred in literature. ObjectiveThis article examined the relationship between fatalistic beliefs, risk perception and traffic safety-related behaviors. MethodThe study was carried out in Cameroon on a sample of 525 road users with a questionnaire made up of scales measuring fatalistic beliefs, perceived risk for dangerous traffic events and reported safe behaviors. ResultsAs expected, participants with higher levels of fatalistic beliefs perceived dangerous traffic situations as less risky and reported less safe behaviors. Perceived risk partially mediated the association between fatalistic beliefs and reported safe behaviors. ConclusionPerceiving dangerous traffic situations as risky can mitigate the magnitude of one's fatalistic beliefs on the engagement in protective behaviors. The implications for more effective prevention including both beliefs and perceptions are suggested. One can explain to people how to avoid accidents, emphasizing on their capacity to change their behavior and the gains they retrieved from that behavioral change.

Hazard perception training in young bicyclists improves early detection of risk: A cluster-randomized controlled trial

IntroductionSince child bicyclists are more likely to get involved in a traffic crash, there is a stringent need to provide child bicyclists with tailored interventions in order to enhance their capabilities to deal with the complexity of traffic situations. The current study therefore aimed to test the effectiveness of a hazard anticipation training in young bicyclists by means of eye tracking technology. MethodsA cluster-randomized controlled design was used in which participating schools were randomly assigned to the intervention or the control group. At first, a baseline hazard anticipation test was carried out in the intervention group (78 children; 9.56±0.38years of age) and the control group (46 children; 9.58±0.41years of age). Child bicyclists who participated in the intervention followed the training that consisted of two classroom sessions. In each session children were presented with video clips from the perspective of a bicyclist encountering various (potentially) dangerous traffic situations. Following the intervention, a post-test directly after the training and a retention test three weeks later were completed. The control group received the intervention after the retention test. ResultsTrained child bicyclists were found to detect more hazards and reacted quicker compared to the control group that did not receive the training. However, the training did not result in improvements in anticipatory visual search behaviour. ConclusionTrained child bicyclists seemed to have developed a better processing regarding potential dangerous situations but were not able to ‘see’ the hazard sooner. The potential of a brief hazard anticipation training is discussed.

Behavioral adaptation caused by predictive warning systems – The case of congestion tail warnings

Wireless communication technologies (e.g., C2X-communication or mobile telephony and broadcasting) make it possible to forewarn drivers of dangerous traffic situations. Using a motion-based driving simulator with N=16 participants, it has already been possible to illustrate an increase in traffic safety based on early, precise congestion tail warnings on motorways (Totzke, Naujoks, Mühlbacher, & Krüger, 2011). The paper at hand presents an additional evaluation of the study with regard to (negative) ‘behavioral adaptation’; that is to say, non-intended changes in driving behavior based on the introduction of congestion tail warnings. As part of the above-mentioned study, older and younger participants drove through road sections with different traffic conditions (free flow vs. synchronized traffic) performing different test situations (approaching different congestion tails with vs. without assistance of the warning system). In order to investigate behavioral adaptation effects, drivers completed additional road sections in which congestion tail situations were possible, but did not occur. In these situations, an in-vehicle warning device displayed that a congestion tail warning was possible (‘assistance possible’) or not (‘assistance not possible’). During test drives with potential assistance, negative behavioral adaptations can be found: (1) increase of maximum speed, (2) decrease of minimum time-to-collision (TTCmin) when following another vehicle in free flow traffic and (3) increased intensity of performing a secondary task compared to driving without assistance. The reduction in TTCmin-values applied in particular to older drivers, whereas an increased secondary task involvement was mainly found among younger drivers during synchronized traffic. The results indicate that the introduction of predictive warning systems may cause behavioral adaptations that may limit the intended safety effect of the warning system. With this in mind, it is advisable to include the assessment of (negative) behavioral adaptations into research concepts when evaluating predictive warning systems.

Robust real-time pedestrians detection in urban environments with low-resolution cameras

Detecting that pedestrians are present in front of a vehicle is highly desirable to avoid dangerous traffic situations. A novel vision-based system is presented to automatically detect far-away pedestrians with low-resolution cameras mounted in vehicles given the contributions of fixed cameras present in the scene.Fixed cameras detect pedestrians by solving an inverse problem built upon a multi-class dictionary of atoms approximating the foreground silhouettes. A sparse-sensing strategy is proposed to extract the foreground silhouettes and classify them in real-time. Mobile cameras detect pedestrians given only their appearance in the fixed cameras. A cascade of compact binary strings is presented to model the appearance of pedestrians and match them across cameras.The proposed system addresses the practical requirements of transportation systems: it runs in real-time with low memory loads and bandwidth consumption. We evaluate the performance of our system when extracted features are severely degraded and the sensing devices are of low quality. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of our collaborative vision-based system.