Understanding interactions between autonomous vehicles and other road users: A literature review

This review draws on literature relating to the interactions of vehicles with other vehicles, interactions between vehicles and infrastructure, and interactions between autonomous vehicles and cyclists and autonomous vehicles and pedestrians. The available literature relating to autonomous vehicles interactions is currently limited and hence the review has considered issues which will be relevant to autonomous vehicles from reading and evaluating a broader but still relevant literature.The project is concerned primarily with autonomous vehicles within the urban environment and hence the greatest consideration has been given to interactions on typical urban roads, with specific consideration also being given to shared space. The central questions in relation to autonomous vehicles and other road users revolve around gap acceptance, overtaking behaviour, behaviour at road narrowings, the ability to detect and avoid cyclists taking paths through a junction which conflict with the autonomous vehicle’s path, and the ability of autonomous vehicles to sense and respond to human gestures. A long list of potential research questions has been developed, many of which are not realistically answerable by the Venturer project. However, the important research questions which might potentially be answered by the current project are offered as the basis for the more detailed consideration of the conduct of the interaction trial

Task acceptability and workload of driving city streets, rural roads, and expressways: ratings from video clips

SAfety VEhicles using adaptive Interface Technology (SAVE-IT Project) Task 2C: Develop and Validate EquationsSAVE-IT project, funded by U.S. Department of TransportationSubjects rated the workload of clips of forward road scenes (from the advanced collision avoidance system (ACAS) field operational test) in relation to 2 anchor clips of Level of Service (LOS) A and E (light and heavy traffic), and indicated if they would perform any of 3 tasks (dial a phone, manually tune a radio, enter a destination) in driving the scenes shown. After rating all of the clips, subjects rated a wider range of described situations (not shown in clips) and the relative contribution of road geometry, traffic, and other factors to workload. Using logistic regression, predictive equations for the refusal to engage in the 3 tasks were developed as a function of workload, driver age, and sex. Several equations were developed relating real-time driving statistics with workload, where workload was rated on a scale of 1 (minimum) to 10 (maximum). Some 87% of the rating variance was accounted for by the following expression: Mean Workload Rating=8.87-3.01(LogMeanRange)+ 0.48(MeanTrafficCount)+ 2.05(MeanLongitudinalAccleration), where range (to the lead vehicle) and traffic count were both determined by the adaptive cruise control radar. Other estimates were also generated from post-test ratings and adjustments, considering factors such as construction zones, lane drops, curves, and hills. From the results of this report alone, the workload estimates needed by a real-time workload manager could be developed using (1) the real time data, (2) look-up tables based on the clip ratings, (3) look-up tables based on the post-test data, or (4) some combination of those 3 sources.Delphi Delco Electronic Systemshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64467/1/102431.pd

Rediscovering urban design through walkability : an assessment of the contribution of Jan Gehl

Urban design is being rediscovered. For most of the past 50 years it has lacked the concrete theory necessary to guide praxis. As a field it has related only sporadically and selectively to experiential knowledge and was essentially still entrenched within formulistic Modernist approaches. This has limited urban design as practiced to a design profession focused on aesthetics and individual projects without being part of the mainstream city-shaping process. The vacuum in city politics has been filled by modernist traffic engineering and car-based planning. This has limited urban design’s ability as a field to respond to the need for sustainable, vibrant and inclusive urban environments. In particular, it has failed to address the force and power of car-based planning. However, there is scope for a profession of urban design that considers a city holistically and is an advocate for the needs of pedestrians. In particular, there is scope for an urban design practice that is able to challenge the pre-eminence of the auto-focused shaping of cities. These determinations necessitate a different approach to designing our cities. Through work in over 40 cities, Danish urban designer Jan Gehl has begun to demonstrate a new theory and practice of urban design that rediscovers it potency through an emphasis on walkability.This study considers the theory and practice of urban design from a walkability perspective in order to facilitate a more effective, sustainable, humanistic and responsive approach, developing an evaluation framework based on Jon Lang’s (1994) call for a more encompassing urban design approach. This framework is then applied to the work of Gehl, as a case study of an urban designer who has constantly focused on the needs of people within city design, asking what is the significance of Gehl’s work and theory to urban design?Fundamentally urban design is concluded to be about creating cities, or improving existing ones, to be vibrant and sustainable places that relate to people’s use and needs—especially pedestrians—using the skills and theories of various disciplines and depending to a large degree on the public and political process to define the values and priorities. It is about creating hopeful resilient places that are able to adapt and respond to varying social, environmental and economic needs and about creating positive changes in urban environments. The study concludes that there is scope for urban design to move beyond its current limitations to work from a base of experiential knowledge about the city and its use that is focused on a reflective and experiential approach, building on solid practice based theory and on planning for pedestrians.Gehl’s work, both in theory and practice, is explicitly humanist, offering normative urban design theories based on substantive research, is part of organic urban theory and is embedded in ideas of pedestrian based transport planning. As a practitioner, Gehl’s methods enable experiential knowledge to come to the forefront of urban design concerns. Building from Gehl’s focus on the need to overcome formulistic and automobile-dominated urban planning would enable urban design’s aesthetic and prescriptive based theories to have a new and deeper meaning: sustainable urban design is at its heart planning and designing for walkability. This thesis determines that a core component of urban design theory and practice is advocating for the needs of pedestrians

Everyday Streets

Everyday streets are both the most used and most undervalued of cities’ public spaces. They are places of social aggregation, bringing together those belonging to different classes, genders, ages, ethnicities and nationalities. They comprise not just the familiar outdoor spaces that we use to move and interact but also urban blocks, interiors, depths and hinterlands, which are integral to their nature and contribute to their vitality. Everyday streets are physically and socially shaped by the lives of the people and things that inhabit them through a reciprocal dance with multiple overlapping temporalities. The primary focus of this book is an inclusive approach to understanding and designing everyday streets. It offers an analysis of many aspects of everyday streets from cities around the globe. From the regular rectilinear urban blocks of Montreal to the military-regulated narrow alleyways of Naples, and from the resilient market streets of London to the crammed commercial streets of Chennai, the streets in this book were all conceived with a certain level of control. Everyday Streets is a palimpsest of methods, perspectives and recommendations that together provide a solid understanding of everyday streets, their degree of inclusiveness, and to what extent they could be more inclusive