Quantifying the effect of pedestrian control devices on pedestrian safety

There are many interventions that can reduce pedestrian crashes, including clarifying the indications transmitted to the travelers in the traffic network via the built environment. By design, the built environment aims to make who has the right-of-way very clear by presenting expected, easy-to-interpret indications. Some environments are much clearer than others, for example a marked crosswalk versus an unmarked crosswalk and can influence yielding behavior and fatal crash probability. This thesis presents the findings on driver yielding toward pedestrians at various crossing treatments and on fatal pedestrian crash incidents in the city of Austin, Texas. Considering both types of data, this thesis aims to achieve a well-rounded quantification of the effect pedestrian control devices have on overall pedestrian safety. From the result of the first component of the investigation, the effect of a flexpost island is not significantly different from the effect of a marked crosswalk on driver yielding propensity. Significant differences were observed between yielding at concrete refuge islands and every other pairwise comparison to flexpost islands, marked crosswalks, and unmarked crosswalks. From the second component, interaction seems to exist between treatment and both sidewalk presence and bus stop presence. The difference in fatality crashes at locations with and without pedestrian crossing treatments is less when there is no sidewalk present. Additionally, the difference between treatment presence on pedestrian fatality percentage is less when there is a bus stop more than 358 ft away.Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineerin

Assisted Car Platooning and Congestion Control at Road Intersections

Enhancing road safety and traffic efficiency are the important aspects and goals that automakers and researchers trying to achieve in recent years. The autonomous vehicle technology has been identified as a solution to achieve these goals. However, the adoption of fully autonomous vehicles in the current market is still in the very early stages of deployment. The objective of this paper is to develop a Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) model at a road intersection using platooning car-following mobility models, object detection at traffic light units, and Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication through vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). The mobility model considers traffic simulation using the SUMO-PLEXE-VEINS platforms integration. Next, a prototype of an assisted car platooning system consisting of roadside unit (RSU) and on-board units (OBU) is developed using artificial intelligence (AI)-based smart traffic light for obstruction detection at an intersection and modified remote-control cars with V2X communication equipped with in-vehicle alert notification, respectively. The results show accurate detection of obstruction by the proposed assisted car platooning system, and an optimised smart traffic light operation that can reduce congestion and fuel consumption, improve traffic flow, and enhance road safety. The findings from this paper can be used as a baseline for the framework of CACC implementation by legislators, policymakers, infrastructure providers, and vehicle manufacturers

Assisted Car Platooning and Congestion Control at Road Intersections

Enhancing road safety and traffic efficiency are the important aspects and goals that automakers and researchers trying to achieve in recent years. The autonomous vehicle technology has been identified as a solution to achieve these goals. However, the adoption of fully autonomous vehicles in the current market is still in the very early stages of deployment. The objective of this paper is to develop a Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) model at a road intersection using platooning car-following mobility models, object detection at traffic light units, and Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication through vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). The mobility model considers traffic simulation using the SUMO-PLEXE-VEINS platforms integration. Next, a prototype of an assisted car platooning system consisting of roadside unit (RSU) and on-board units (OBU) is developed using artificial intelligence (AI)-based smart traffic light for obstruction detection at an intersection and modified remote-control cars with V2X communication equipped with in-vehicle alert notification, respectively. The results show accurate detection of obstruction by the proposed assisted car platooning system, and an optimised smart traffic light operation that can reduce congestion and fuel consumption, improve traffic flow, and enhance road safety. The findings from this paper can be used as a baseline for the framework of CACC implementation by legislators, policymakers, infrastructure providers, and vehicle manufacturers

Automated vehicles and the rethinking of mobility and cities

The project CityMobil2 has carried out a forward-looking exercise to investigate a lternative cybermobility scenarios, including both niche and large-market innovations, and their impacts on European cities and their transport systems. The paper describes the current status of and main trends in automated vehicles, a preliminary vision of the future city with mobility supported mainly by automated vehicles, and freight distribution. The expected positive impacts derive from the development of car sharing, the reduction of space required for parking vehicles, the possibilities for older people or those with disabilities to use cars, the enhancement of safety, and the improvement of efficiency of the transport system

D.1.4 Mapping & Impact Assessment Report

Definitions of Lighthouse and Follower cities, and pertinent characteristics of replication use cases are presented in this deliverable, together with various earlier European efforts for smart and clean mobility and impact assessment, including Tide, Flow, Trilater and SHOW impact assessment approaches. The CIVITAS initiative has provided a fundamental framework for the RECIPROCITY project, and it has been adopted as the source of the guiding principles for impact assessment. The report presents a summary of the preliminary work on simulation-based assessment of the environmental impact and passenger transport effectiveness performed on two mobility use-cases: ‘’32. Intelligent BRT’’ (Istanbul, TR) and ‘’6. SOftly MObile Tourism Mobility’’ (Alpine Pearls/Werfenweng, AT). The PTV Vissim tool1 was used for simulation. Specifically, CO2 emission and passenger experience parameters of two lines (Avcılar – Zincirlikuyu, Zincirlikuyu – Söğütlüçeşme) of the Istanbul Metropolitan BRT system and three lines of the Werfenweng W3 Shuttle (Werfenweng-Pfarrwerfen-Bischofshofen, Werfenweng-Pfarrwerfen-Werfen and Tenneck-Werfen) were evaluated under various scenarios. For the Intelligent BRT use-case, it is shown that autonomous platooning significantly enhances transport effectiveness, decreasing passenger delays while reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by up to 21%. For the SOftly Mobile Tourism Mobility use case, it is shown that e-cars and e-bikes improve passenger experience, in terms of reduced waiting times, while also significantly reducing local emissions. An important issue, however, is that indirect emissions from e-vehicles, that is greenhouse gases generated in energy production plants, can reach significant levels, even though not local