Trials with Microwave Detection of Vulnerable Road Users and Preliminary Empirical Modal Test. DRIVE Project V1031 Deliverable 11.

Abstract

The general objective of the project is to provide a set of tools for the creation of traffic systems that enhance the safety and mobility of vulnerable road users (VRUs). This is being achieved in two ways: 1. By evaluating a number of RTI applications in signalling and junction control, in order to ascertain what benefits can be obtained for vulnerable road users by such local measures. 2. By developing a model of the traffic system that incorporates vulnerable road users as an integral part. The present workpackage, one of the last ones within the project, is intended to link the two strands together. The workpackage consists of two main parts: 1. Experiments with pedestrians and bicyclists. Two experiments were carried out, one in England (Bradford) and one in Sweden (Vijrjo), both applying microwave detectors for detection of pedestrians in a signalized intersection, but applying the detection in different ways. An observational study was carried out in Groningen (the Netherlands) to analyze bicycle/car interactions at an intersection with a cycle path. The aim of the experiment was to test the usefulness of a system giving car drivers warning in situations when a bicyclist approaches an intersection on a parallel bicycle path. 2. Reliability and validity testing of the submodels of the VRU-oriented traffic model WLCAN