Safety Of Vulnerable Road Users Research Articles

Modeling of Risk Factors for Vulnerable Road Users’ Crashes on National Highways Passing through Medium-sized Indian Cities

The safety of vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians, bicyclists and motorised twowheelers, on national highways passing through urban areas has been a significant concern in developing countries like India. This study analyzes Visakhapatnam police crash data (2014-2017) to identify high-risk road segments to vulnerable road users. Establishing negative binomial models helps analyze risk variables for fatal and injury crashes concerning several susceptible road users on mid-block sections. Further, this study focuses on site-specific information collected from road-safety audits, speed, average daily traffic, length of road section and percentage of two-wheelers, also considered to fully help understand the likelihood of a crash. The statistical analysis of this paper identified the risk variables, like length of road segment, presence of service roads, land-use type (i.e., commercial/mixed land use), number of curves and average daily traffic associated with the incidence of fatal and injury crashes of vulnerable road users in Visakhapatnam city, India. The conclusions highlight the crucial safety measures that transportation planners and policymakers must take to create a more secure environment for road users. Keywords: Vulnerable road users, Mid-block sections, Negative binomial models, Crash, Count-data models, Safety measures.

Modelling and evaluation of cooperative Vulnerable Road User protection schemes in realistic C-ITS environments

Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) comprising pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists are more susceptible to road traffic accidents and fatalities than other road users. Improving safety for vulnerable road users is a priority for many cities and governments, and various measures are being taken to reduce the risk of accidents and increase road safety. Advanced Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) that facilitate Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication encompass Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (V2P) schemes. To address the issues and decrease the number of VRU fatalities, efficient VRU protection solutions can be seamlessly incorporated into evolving C-ITS services. This paper introduces a novel implementation and integration of VRU protection models into the Artery/OMNeT++ V2X-simulation framework as a promising solution for further wide-scale evolution in enhancing the safety of vulnerable road users. VRUs can transmit messages about their existence using the VRU Awareness Message (VAM) messaging protocol. This paper presents a performance evaluation of cooperative VRU protection scenarios with VAM protocol and deployment. Simulation results will be given for pedestrian protection models with VRU detection using sensors, collective perception, and active, VAM-based VRU Awareness message transmission.

Vulnerable Road User Safety Using Mobile Phones with Vehicle-to-VRU Communication

Pedestrians, bicyclists, and scooterists are Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) in traffic accidents. The number of fatalities and injuries in traffic accidents involving vulnerable road users has been steadily increasing in the last two decades in the U.S., even though road vehicles now have perception sensors like cameras to detect risk and issue collision warnings or apply emergency braking. Perception sensors like cameras are highly affected by lighting and weather conditions. Cameras, radar, and lidar cannot detect vulnerable road users in partially occluded and occluded situations. This paper proposes the use of Vehicle-to-VRU communication to inform nearby vehicles of VRUs on trajectories with a potential collision risk. An Android smartphone app with low-energy Bluetooth (BLE) advertising is developed and used for this communication. The same app is also used to collect motion data of VRUs for training. VRU motion data are smoothed using a Kalman filter, and an LSTM neural network is used for future motion prediction. This information is used in an algorithm comparing Time-To-collision-Zone (TTZ) for the vehicle and VRU, and issues driver warnings with different severity levels. The warning severity level is based on the analysis of real data from a smart intersection for close vehicle and VRU interactions. The resulting driver warning system is demonstrated using proof-of-concept experiments. The method can easily be extended to a VRU collision-mitigation system.

A matter of space and perspective – Cyclists’, car drivers’, and pedestrians’ assumptions about subjective safety in shared traffic situations

Subjective safety has been considered a key factor for a successful promotion of cycling. As of yet, subjective safety and the factors affecting it have been studied almost exclusively from the cyclists’ perspective. However, subjective safety is largely determined by the interaction of cyclists with other road users. We thus argue that it is crucial to assess the subjective safety different road user groups associate with shared road situations, because street designs that increase the subjective safety of one group may have negative impacts on the subjective safety of another group. For this purpose, we conducted a large-scale, web-based survey presenting computer-generated 2D images showing various traffic situations. The entire pool of images included 1,900 variations and combinations of road designs. About 21,500 individual participants provided about 460,000 estimates with regard to the safety they associated with travelling at the shown location from the perspective of cyclists, car drivers, or pedestrians. Our analysis with generalized mixed models focused on three base scenarios and the comparison of the different perspectives: Side streets were perceived as unsafe by both cyclists and car drivers. A prominent designation as a cycling boulevard had highly positive effects, especially for cyclists. On main streets, cyclists and car drivers rated mixed traffic without cycling infrastructure as very unsafe, and situations with cyclists travelling on protected bike lanes as very safe. Whereas car drivers rated all types of cycling lanes as safe, this did not generally apply to cyclists. In particular, narrow cycling lanes adjacent to parked cars felt unsafe for cyclists. We hypothesize that this discrepancy has a self-reinforcing mechanism: Research on risk-taking suggests that the low risk perception of car drivers leads to more risky behavior (e.g. overtaking cyclists with higher speed and less lateral clearance), which in turn decreases the subjective safety of cyclists. We found an inverted pattern for sidewalks, where cyclists felt mostly safe, and the more vulnerable pedestrians did not (especially if there was no clear indication of lanes for both groups). Taken together, our research sheds light on an as-of-yet rather under-researched issue: the perception of a traffic situation may vary significantly depending on the perspective and transportation mode of a road user. More specifically, our findings suggest that the subjective safety of vulnerable road users in a traffic situation can be negatively affected by the perception of this situation by the less vulnerable road users. We present recommendations about road designs that feel safe for all road user groups.

Estimating the crash reducing effect of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) for vulnerable road users

Vulnerable road users (VRUs) are frequently involved in road traffic crashes worldwide, and the most serious consequences often occur in collisions with motor vehicles. Countermeasures such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADASs) for have been developed and implemented in vehicles to reduce these crashes. Estimations of the effectiveness of these systems are so far dominated by prospective studies; only a few analyze real-world crash data. The objective of this study was to estimate the crash-reducing effects of the VRU ADAS systems in car-to-pedestrian and car-to-bicycle crashes involving Volvo cars in Sweden using real-world crash data. Car-to-pedestrian and car-to-bicycle collisions across Sweden from 2015–2020 (in which the car was moving forward) were identified using insurance claims at If P&C insurance. Volvo car models with ADAS VRU and comparable Volvo models without the system were selected. Poisson regression was used to estimate the effect of the VRU ADAS on the crash rate, calculated per insured vehicle-years. For the second generation of VRU ADAS, the straight crossing path (SCP) and parallel (Longitudinal) crash rate was found to be 12% less in car-to-pedestrian/bicycle crashes—23% less in car-to-pedestrian crashes and 6% less in car-to-bicycle crashes. However, no results were statistically significant. There was no difference in crash rates when evaluating all crash situations where the car was moving forward. The limitation of this study is the low number of crashes. Reducing crashes and injuries in vehicle-to-VRU conflicts is of utmost importance for fulfilling the aims highlighted in Agenda 2030. Improving ADAS to better avoid collisions with pedestrians and cyclists has the potential to greatly improve traffic safety; future generations of the system are expected to increase VRU safety benefits. Measuring ADAS effects in real-world traffic and interpreting and relating the results are essential to ensure that future systems improve VRU safety.

Examining safe spaces for pedestrians and e-bicyclists at urban crosswalks: An analysis based on drone-captured video

Despite numerous theoretical and empirical studies exploring the spatial needs of road users, a significant gap remains in validating these findings with extensive real-world data sets. This study presents the idea of “safe spaces,” outlining the buffer zones that both walkers and e-bicyclists maintain when crossing streets, while also taking safety and psychological well-being into consideration. We used drones to gather the study's trajectory data at three significant crossings in Xi'an, China. Multi-coordinate system transformation enabled us to determine the relative positions of individuals and moving objects within their visual domain. Relative position frequency heat maps were generated to explore safe distance demands in different directions. The safety space was then fitted using the least squares method. Our research demonstrates that whereas e-bicyclists maintain semi-elliptical safe spaces at street crossings, walkers maintain semi-circular safe spaces, and the sizes of these zones increase in direct proportion to their relative speeds. However, the safe space size oscillates within a defined range above a particular speed threshold. Notably, e-bicyclists require larger safety distances forward and are more sensitive to speed variations. Our knowledge of the dynamics of safe spaces for walkers and e-bicyclists at street crossings is improved by this work, with emphasis on the role of speed and pedestrian numbers in shaping these spaces. The incorporation of real-world data from drone footage significantly strengthens the validity and reliability of our findings, bridging a crucial empirical gap in the existing literature. Additionally, this paper introduces a crowding coefficient based on safe space and proposes a new method using safe space to aid traffic conflict metrics PET, providing valuable insights for identifying crowd congestion levels and capturing traffic conflict events. The practical implications of our findings extend to urban planning, traffic management, and safety of vulnerable road users. Ultimately, this research contributes to the development of safer and more efficient urban environments for all road users.

Driving Automation and Vulnerable Road Users: Peanut Butter & Jelly or Oil & Water?

Driving automation and vulnerable road users are two pieces of the enormous puzzle that is roadway safety. Ideally, driving automation will improve the safety of vulnerable road users. However, more research needed to understand the effects driving automation will have on the safety of vulnerable road users. In this panel we will examine the relationship between driving automation and vulnerable road users from several different perspectives. Regulatory and research initiatives will be presented, lessons that can be learned from existing technology will be examined, and questions of equitable solutions will be raised. These interdisciplinary experts are brought together with the audience to discuss the research needs, possible effects of driving automation implementation on vulnerable road users, and to try and determine just how well these two pieces of roadway safety fit together.

Atypical intersection of a bicycle path and a carriageway with marked car priority: Which car drivers give way anyway?

The issue of the safety of vulnerable road users is particularly important at points of collision with other roads and road users. The most common solution at the intersection of a carriageway and a cycle path is a cycle crossing, with specific rules of priority for cyclists and drivers. However, the constantly increasing number of accidents involving cyclists prompts the creation of new and innovative solutions in infrastructure and traffic organisation. One novel solution in this respect takes the form of intersections of cycle paths with carriageways with traffic organisation that always gives priority to drivers, introduced in the city of Rybnik in Poland. The aim of the study is to analyse the behaviour of drivers at the intersection of the cycle path and the carriageway with signage indicating car priority in a situation when simultaneously a driver was coming along the carriageway and a cyclist was preparing to cross and crossed the intersection. The study took the form of a trial in which two cyclists—a man and a woman—negotiated the designated intersection in two directions. Drivers’ decisions to give or not to give priority were analysed in the context of the cyclist’s gender and direction of travel, as well as observable driver characteristics such as gender and residence based on the vehicle registration number. The study confirms that a significant number of drivers give priority to cyclists despite the rules at the intersection under study. However, no significant differences were found between the behaviour of female and male drivers. The study found that only one variable—place of vehicle registration—had a statistically significant relationship with giving priority to cyclists, contrary to the variables defining the gender of drivers and cyclists.

Identification of Solutions for Vulnerable Road Users Safety in Urban Transport Systems: Grounded Theory Research

The share of road vehicles in urban transport systems is a challenge for modern and dynamically developing urban areas in accordance with the concept of sustainable and Smart Cities. Increasingly, there is a need to promote and adapt urban space to the movement of vulnerable road users (VRU). As part of a clear emphasis on the issue of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users, the aim of the article is to define the typology and hierarchy of solutions contributing to the increase in VRU safety in cities. The research process was based on the use of grounded theory. In the adopted research methodology, the use of the Delphi method made it possible to identify the approach of various European cities to the use and implementation of technical, technological and organizational solutions affecting safety. The research made it possible to evaluate individual solutions in VRU safety management and to indicate a list of recommendations for improving security, taking into account the views of international experts. In addition, the results of this study may enrich the current literature, helping to understand the perception of solutions implemented in urban transport systems as a holistic set of interrelated elements supporting pedestrian safety and increasing their role in cities.

It matters who is crossing: Users' trust when the automated vehicle stops for children and blind pedestrians

In urban environments, automated driving offers the opportunity to improve traffic flow, heighten user comfort and also increase traffic safety for vulnerable road users. To realize these benefits, users need to trust and use automated driving functions when they interact with vulnerable road users such as crossing pedestrians. So far, previous studies have mainly focused on adult pedestrians and their interaction with automated vehicles. However, other pedestrians are even more vulnerable in crossing scenarios such as children or visually impaired people. In addition, some crossing events may be more critical than others depending on the crossing infrastructure or the visibility of the pedestrians. To examine the influence of these situational characteristics on users' perceived criticality of the situation and trust in the automated driving system, we conducted an online experiment. In short videos, the participants (N = 69) experienced automated rides from the users' perspective, where the vehicle stopped to let pedestrians cross. In a within-subjects design, we manipulated whether the crossing pedestrian was an adult, a child or a blind person and how critical the crossing event was (critical vs. non-critical). In the non-critical event, the participants perceived the crossing of a blind pedestrian as more critical than that of a child or an adult. In the critical event, the child was perceived as more critical than the adult. Participants also trusted the automated driving system less under a crossing event with a blind pedestrian compared to with an adult. More research is needed to determine if there are also implications for the use of automated driving systems in such situations and what additional information users might need from the automated driving system. In summary, this study shows the importance of including vulnerable pedestrians such as children and the visually impaired in the research and development of automated driving in cities.

Road safety, health equity, and the built environment: perspectives of transport and injury prevention professionals in five Canadian municipalities

BackgroundConcerns regarding health equity (HE) and the built environment (BE) are well established in the Canadian urban context. Transport and injury prevention professionals across sectors, such as transportation and public health, are involved in designing and implementing BE interventions that enhance the safety of vulnerable road users (VRUs). Results from a larger study examining barriers and facilitators to BE change are used to illustrate how transport and injury prevention professionals perceive HE concerns in their work in five Canadian municipalities. Broadening our understanding of how HE influences the professional BE change context is crucial when advocating for modifications that enhance the safety of equity-deserving VRUs and groups who experience marginalization.MethodsInterview and focus group data were gathered from transport and injury prevention professionals working in policy/decision-making, transport, police services, public health, non-profit organizations, schools/school boards, community associations, and private sectors across five Canadian urban municipalities: Vancouver, Calgary, Peel Region, Toronto, and Montréal. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis (TA) to illustrate how equity considerations were perceived and applied in participants’ BE change work.ResultsThe results of this study illustrate transport and injury prevention professionals’ awareness of the varying needs of VRUs, as well as the inadequacies of current BEs in the Canadian urban context and consultation processes utilized to guide change. Participants emphasized the importance of equitable community consultation strategies, as well as specific BE changes that would support the health and safety of VRUs. Overall, the results highlight how HE concerns inform transport and injury prevention professionals’ BE change work in the Canadian urban context.ConclusionFor professionals working in urban Canadian transport and injury prevention sectors HE concerns influenced their perspectives of the BE and BE change. These results illustrate a growing need for HE to guide BE change work and consultation processes. Further, these results contribute to ongoing efforts in the Canadian urban context to ensure that HE is at the forefront of BE policy change and decision-making, while promoting existing strategies to ensure that the BE, and related decision-making processes, are accessible and informed by a HE lens.

Improving Truck Driver and Vulnerable Road User Interactions Through Driver Training: An Interview Study With Canadian Subject Matter Experts

Collisions between trucks and vulnerable road users (VRUs) represent one of the most severe types of road collisions. Research initiatives to mitigate truck–VRU collisions include vehicle redesign, infrastructure improvements, and driver warning systems. Truck driver training is a complementary solution that can lead to improved driving behavior and collision reduction. We aimed to understand the perceptions of subject matter experts of current truck driver training in Ontario, Canada, to identify gaps and potential improvements, particularly targeting VRU safety in urban areas. Further, we investigated the degree to which VRU safety is covered and the potential to incorporate it in training through simulators. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 21 truck driver trainees, novice and experienced truck drivers, a driving instructor, and road safety professionals. The participants highlighted a notable gap between current training and real-world truck driving. VRU safety and hazard anticipation training emerged as a missing component in training. Nine out of 11 participants who received simulator training perceived it positively and recommended it for its safe and relatively realistic environment. The main topics that should be incorporated in VRU safety training, as recommended by interviewees, include training on difficult truck maneuvers with presence of VRUs, anticipating hazardous VRU actions, and navigating difficult infrastructure components. This work presents subject matter expert perceptions of current truck driver training in Ontario, Canada, and identifies gaps and improvements targeting VRU safety. Although the study is based on Ontario, the results can apply across Canada and beyond, where trucks pose dangers to VRUs.

Do Traffic Countermeasures Improve the Safety of Vulnerable Road Users at Signalized Intersections? A Combination of Case-Control and Cross-Sectional Studies Using Video-Based Traffic Conflicts

Driven by the vision of eliminating road fatalities, Vision Zero initiatives have been widely adopted by many cities around the world, with significant investment of resources in various safety countermeasures. However, there is still a lack of reliable quantitative evidence on the effectiveness of those countermeasures on the traffic conflict frequency at intersections. This research attempts to address this challenge with a combination of case-control and cross-sectional studies, aiming at quantifying the safety effects of three commonly applied Vision Zero countermeasures, namely, leading pedestrian interval, no right turn on red, and installation of a dedicated bicycle lane. A case study was conducted using video trajectory data from 10 signalized intersections in the City of Toronto, Canada. The traffic interactions between vehicles and vulnerable road users were extracted using a video data processing platform, and two surrogate measures of safety, including post-encroachment time and conflict speed, were obtained, and then used to classify the conflict severity into different levels. A comparative analysis using mixed-effects negative binomial regression was conducted to quantify the impacts of different treatments on the frequency of traffic conflicts under specific road weather and traffic conditions. The results show that these three types of traffic countermeasures can effectively reduce the frequency of high-risk and moderate-risk traffic conflicts, moderated by various traffic exposure and weather and environmental conditions and accessible pedestrian signals. These findings could help road safety engineers and decision makers make better informed decisions on their road safety initiatives and projects.

Before-after safety analysis of a shared space implementation

Shared spaces aim to reduce the dominance of motor vehicles by promoting pedestrian/cyclist activity and minimizing segregation between road users.Despite the intended scope to improve the safety of vulnerable road users, only few works in the literature focused on before-after safety evaluations, mainly analyzing changes in users’ trajectories and speeds, traffic volumes, and conflict counts, which, while useful, cannot univocally quantify road safety.Here, we propose a more advanced methodology, based on surrogate measures of safety and Extreme Value Theory, to assess road safety before and after the implementation of a shared space. The aim is to produce a crash risk estimation in different scenarios, obtaining a quantitative and comprehensive indicator, useful to practitioners for evaluating the safety of urban design solutions.A real-world case study illustrates the proposed procedure. Video data were collected on two separate days, before and after a shared space implementation, and were semi-automatically processed to extract road users’ trajectories. Analysis of traffic volumes, trajectories, speeds and yield ratios allowed to understand the spatial behavior of road users in the two scenarios. Traffic conflicts, identified with an innovative surrogate measure of safety called “time to avoided collision point” (TTAC), were then used to estimate a Lomax distribution, and therefore to model the probabilistic relationship between conflicts and crashes, eventually retrieving a crash risk estimate. Results show that the analyzed shared space was able to significantly reduce the risk of crashes, and these findings are consistent with the observed changes in users speed and spatial behavior. The analyzed case study and its limitations were useful in highlighting the methodology main features and suggesting practical prescriptions for practitioners.

How do drivers allocate visual attention to vulnerable road users when turning at urban intersections?

IntroductionDrivers turning at urban intersections pose a high risk to Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs), such as cyclists and pedestrians. In vehicle collisions with VRUs, driver attention misallocation is considered a leading contributor. While previous naturalistic studies have examined driver gaze behaviors at intersections, findings are limited to general gaze directions obtained through video analysis, meaning specific areas to which drivers attend cannot be determined. MethodWe present a secondary analysis of an on-road instrumented vehicle dataset collected in 2019 which offers eye-tracking and video data from 26 experienced drivers (13 cyclists and 13 non-cyclists). Three coders jointly examined eye-tracking footage from four right-signalized turns (n = 96) to quantify drivers’ glance distributions to various areas of interest, including those most relevant to VRU safety when drivers turn. Individual temporal glance patterns and general attention allocation trends are presented and described. Results(1) Relevant pedestrians were the top objects of glance irrespective of signal status, and (2) at red light turns, driver attention was heavily skewed toward leftward traffic. ConclusionsThis analysis provides a detailed report of driver glance distributions toward scene-specific areas (as opposed to general directions) at urban intersections and discusses how these patterns may influence VRU safety. Practical applicationsThis study provides important information regarding the human factors challenges of vehicle-VRU collisions and their prevention.

Opinions of active transportation users on policies to ensure their perceived safety in the era of autonomous vehicles

Active transportation users, including pedestrians and bicyclists, have expressed significant safety concerns over the co-existence of autonomous vehicles (AVs) on the road in the future. However, insufficient emphasis has been paid to exploring the demands of safety-related public policies with empirical evidence, and even much of the previous literature has not fully incorporated the viewpoints of the active transportation users. Thus, this study explored the opinions of active transportation users on five safety-related policies in the era of AVs: (1) a speed limit restriction (policy 1), (2) human-occupied AVs at all times (policy 2), (3) active engagement of human drivers in school zones (policy 3), (4) trip-related data sharing (policy 4), and (5) AV technology-related data sharing (policy 5). This study developed five multinomial logit models using the 2019 BikePGH survey data collected in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and revealed the following main findings. First, active transportation users who reported feeling extremely safe when sharing the road with AVs were significantly more likely to believe that none of the five policies were necessary. However, those who believed AVs would harm traffic injuries and fatalities favored policies 2 and 3. Also, those negatively affected by the fatal crash in Arizona expressed the need for policies 1 and 2. Additionally, those who have shared the road with AVs believed that policies 1, 2, and 3 were crucial. This research will benefit AV stakeholders, particularly transportation officials and planners, as it will offer guidelines to ensure the perceived safety of vulnerable road users and make roads safer for them in the AV era.

Identifying Factors Related to Crash Injury Levels Involving Bicyclists at Different Locations Through Crash Data Analysis

The safety of vulnerable road users, including bicyclists, has become an increasing societal concern. Factors characterizing bicyclists’ crashes with motor vehicles may affect bicyclists’ injuries differently depending on the location of these crashes. The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive analysis for identifying significant factors that affect bicyclists’ injury levels from crashes occurring at travel lanes and at non-travel lanes (e.g., crosswalks and bicycle lanes). For this purpose, this study applied Multinomial Logistic Regression on the Crash Report Sampling System data for three consecutive years. Bicyclists’ injuries were categorized into three levels: (1) Possible, (2) Moderate, and (3) Severe. The study found that running a separate model for each location provided better performances than running an aggregated model for both locations. Results showed common factors significantly associated with an increased likelihood of moderate and/or severe injuries at both locations. Five unique factors were associated with higher likelihoods of these moderate and/or severe injuries to bicyclists in the Travel Lane model, whereas two unique factors were found related to increased odds of these injuries to bicyclists in the Non-Travel Lane model. The results of this study contribute to a better understanding of bicyclists’ crash scenarios and the development of potential countermeasures by alternating some circumstances characterizing these crashes, when possible, to reduce potential injuries.

Using reaction times and accident statistics for safety impact prediction of automated vehicles on road safety of vulnerable road users

The global effort to make automated vehicles a common reality on the roads of the world is intensifying in recent years and the challenges of automated driving are being investigated in ever more detail and variety. Among the foremost promises of using automated vehicles (AVs) in daily commute is their assumed benefit on road safety, which should offer additional safety to the most vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists), as well as other vehicles.In this article we aim to derive a functional relationship (dose–response curve) between the proportion of automated vehicles on the road (penetration rate) and the expected accident numbers/fatalities of interactions with vulnerable road users. Our approach is built upon two fundamental components: Firstly, based on an analysis of current accident causes, we can make a projection of which causes of accidents between cars and vulnerable road users could ideally be mitigated by AVs and which not. Secondly, for the accidents that are not mitigated, we still assume a potential for reduction of accident occurrence and accident severity, based on the assumed reaction time of an automated vehicle, compared to the reaction time of a human driver.Based on statistics, braking distances and reaction times, as well as the power model, we derive an estimate of the potential reductions in accidents and fatalities in the presence of automated vehicles, ultimately expressed as a relationship between the proportion of automated vehicles (penetration rate) and the accident numbers/fatality rates of accidents between motorized vehicles and vulnerable road users.

Smart urban traffic zones – demonstration of three smart zones in Sweden based on geofencing and sensor data

Starting September 2020 and ending September 2022, the project “Smart Urban Traffic Zones” has demonstrated three different set-ups of smart urban traffic zones in the Cities of Stockholm and Gothenburg, Sweden. These zones are based on geofencing technology, smart sensors and V2X communication. The pilots have mainly been aimed at improving road safety for vulnerable road users, increasing transport efficiency in the urban environment, and creating a more flexible use of public space in the city. The results show that it is possible to set-up smart zones with this purpose and that the main challenges for scale-up are related to legal requirements, processes for data sharing and information management.

SECREDAS: Safe and (Cyber-) Secure Cooperative and Automated Mobility

Infrastructure-to-Vehicle (I2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communication is likely to be a key-enabling technology for automated driving in the future. Using externally placed sensors, the digital infrastructure can support the vehicle in perceiving surroundings that would otherwise be difficult to perceive due to, for example, high traffic density or bad weather. Conversely, by communicating on-board vehicle measurements, the environment can more accurately be perceived in locations which are not (sufficiently) covered by digital infrastructure. The security of such communication channels is an important topic, since malicious information on these channels could potentially lead to a reduction in overall safety. Collective perception contributes to raising awareness levels and an improved traffic safety. In this work, a demonstrator is introduced, where a variety of novel techniques have been deployed to showcase an overall architecture for improving vehicle and vulnerable road user safety in a connected environment. The developed concepts have been deployed at the Automotive Campus intersection in Helmond (NL), in a field testing setting.