Browsing by Subject "Collisions"

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The Design of a Minimal Sensor Configuration for a Cooperative Intersection Collision Avoidance System - Stop Sign Assist: CICAS-SSA Report #2
(2010-08) Gorjestani, Alec; Menon, Arvind; Cheng, Pi-Ming; Shankwitz, Craig; Donath, Max
The deployment of a Cooperative Intersection Collision Avoidance System – Stop Sign Assist (CICAS-SSA) can save lives by addressing the causal factor of crashes at rural thru-Stop intersection: drivers who stop on the minor leg of the intersection, improperly assess the gaps in the traffic on the major leg, proceed, and are then hit. The prototype CICAS-SSA system consisted of a network of sensors covering both the minor and the major legs of the intersection. Sensors on the minor road monitored the approach of vehicles and classified them based on their length and height. Sensors along the major road were arrayed to track vehicles (and the gaps between them) approaching the crossroads from 2000 feet away as a means to ensure that the tracking algorithm had sufficient time to “lock on” and track all approaching vehicles. Because cost is a primary concern for any highway safety application, the development of a “minimal sensor set” which would provide adequate safety performance for minimum cost was paramount to the success of the CICAS-SSA program. This report documents the development of this minimal sensor configuration.
Determination of the Alert and Warning Timing for the Cooperative Intersection Collision Avoidance System-Stop Sign Assist Using Macroscopic and Microscopic Data: CICAS-SSA Report #1
(2010-08) Gorjestani, Alec; Menon, Arvind; Cheng, Pi-Ming; Shankwitz, Craig; Donath, Max
Crashes at rural thru-stop intersections arise primarily from a driver attempting to cross or enter the mainline traffic stream after failing to recognize an unsafe gap condition. Because the primary cause of these crashes is not failure to stop, but failure to recognize an unsafe condition, the US DOT FHWA, MnDOT, and the University of Minnesota ITS Institute undertook the Cooperative Intersection Collision Avoidance System – Stop Sign Assist (CICAS-SSA) program. CICAS-SSA uses roadside radar sensors, a computer processor and algorithms to determine unsafe conditions, and an active LED icon based sign to provide timely alerts and warnings which are designed to reduce the frequency of crashes at rural expressway intersections. The focus of this report is the alert and warning timing used to provide a driver with assistance in recognizing and taking appropriate action when presented a gap which could be considered unsafe. The work presented herein uses both macroscopic data collected by roadside sensors and data acquisition equipment in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Carolina, and microscopic data collected using an instrumented vehicle and test subjects at the Minnesota Research Intersection, located at the intersection of US Hwy 52 and Goodhue County Road 9. Three tenets that are particularly germane to the determination of alert and warning timing for the CICAS-SSA system are: (1) the system does not help a driver choose a safe gap; it is designed to assist a driver with unsafe gap rejection, (2) it indicates when it is unsafe to proceed, not when it is safe to proceed, and (3) it must complement good decision making, and address those instances where poor decision making could lead to a crash.
Infrared Thermal Camera-Based Real-Time Identification and Tracking of Large Animals to Prevent Animal-Vehicle Collisions (AVCs) on Roadways
(Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2012-05) Zhou, Debao
Animal vehicle collision (AVC) is constantly a major safety issue for the driving on roadways. It is estimated that there are over 35,000 AVCs yearly resulting in 3 to 11 deaths, over 400 personal injuries, and close to 4,000 reported property damages of $1,000 or more. This justifies the many attempts that have been tried to detect large animals on road. However, very little success has been achieved. To reduce the number of AVCs, this research used an infrared (IR) thermal imaging method to detect the presence of large animals and to track their locations so drivers could avoid AVCs. The system consists of an infrared-thermal-image grabbing and processing system and a motion control system to track the objects. By analyzing the infrared thermal images, the presence of deer in surrounding areas have been identified, and thus tracked. Since the IR thermal imaging is independent of visible light, the system can work both day and night, even in bad weather. The system can cover a circle area up to 1,000 feet in radius for the identification of an object the size of an adult human being.
ITS and Transportation Safety: EMS System Data Integration to Improve Traffic Crash Emergency Response and Treatment - Phase III Report
(Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute, Center for Transportation Studies, 2011-10) Schooley, Benjamin; Horan, Thomas A.; Hilton, Brian
The transportation safety and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) literature has called for the development of better information system tools to support EMS to aid in reducing the human impact of medical emergencies. Building upon previous research by the researchers, this project seeks to advance a prototype of a mobile and web-based information service, known as CrashHelp, designed for use by various emergency medical practitioners involved in the end-to-end continuum of emergency patient care. The broad objective in this report was to examine the potential to provide – through a geographic information system (GIS)-based visual and interactive platform -- an easy to use analytical tool that can provide a holistic view of crash information (such as distance, age, severity of crash) that can better serve practitioners and agencies in planning for and responding to traffic crashes. The specific research objectives were to: (1) collect and examine information regarding the potential for using the CrashHelp system in the state of Idaho as a case-study; (2) identify and develop aggregate performance metrics for end-to-end EMS responses to automobile crashes for inclusion in CrashHelp; and (3) expand the CrashHelp prototype to include aggregate level clinical and operational performance metrics that would provide valuable decision-level information for planners and practitioners.
ITS and Transportation Safety: EMS System Data Integration to Improve Traffic Crash Emergency Response and Treatment – Phase II Report
(Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute, Center for Transportation Studies, 2011-08) Horan, Thomas A.; Schooley, Benjamin; McClintock, Roni; Lee, Yoonmi
This research project examines the linkages between ITS systems and the SHSP, focusing on three elements. The first element relates to the role of ITS in producing timely data on safety dimensions, including its visual representation in geographic information systems and related platforms. The second element examines the use of ITS with emergency medical services (EMS) and the data that can be used from EMS systems for safety planning purposes. The third element includes an analysis of innovative and new practices for capturing, sharing, and visualizing safety information required by emergency healthcare providers for enhanced levels of decision making and planning.
ITS and Transportation Safety: EMS System Data Integration to Improve Traffic Crash Emergency Response and Treatment – Phases IV and V
(Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2012-09) Schooley, Benjamin; Horan, Thomas A.; Abed, Yousef; Murad, Abdullah
Researchers developed a software system called “CrashHelp” to improve the information exchange from emergency medical services (EMS) practitioners to emergency room/trauma center providers. The system combines mobile smartphone, multimedia, Web server, and location-based technologies for paramedics to send key information to hospital providers in a more data-rich manner than is currently available. This study outlines the development of a second version of CrashHelp and summarizes the results of an initial pilot testing in the Boise, Idaho, region. In addition, the study contains an analysis of the data system standards for EMS and intelligent transportation systems to understand how they should be applied to the CrashHelp system. Finally, the study investigates the potential sustainability of the CrashHelp system in several respects, including deployment in regions with little prior infrastructure, as well as in more urban and developed areas. This included investigating business models and deployment models for delivering CrashHelp as a product or service in the future.
Macroscopic Review of Driver Gap Acceptance and Rejection Behavior at Rural Thru-Stop Intersections in the US - Data Collection Results in Eight States: CICAS-SSA Report #3
(2010-08) Gorjestani, Alec; Menon, Arvind; Cheng, Pi-Ming; Newstrom, Bryan; Shankwitz, Craig; Donath, Max
Crashes at rural thru-stop intersections arise primarily from a driver attempting to cross or enter the mainline traffic stream after failing to recognize an unsafe gap condition. Because the primary cause of these crashes is not failure to stop, but failure to recognize an unsafe condition, the US DOT FHWA, MnDOT, and the University of Minnesota ITS Institute undertook the CICAS-SSA program. CICAS-SSA uses roadside radar sensors, a computer processor and algorithms to determine unsafe conditions, and an active LED icon based sign to provide timely alerts and warnings which are designed to reduce the frequency of crashes at rural expressway intersections. These rural, thru-stop crashes are problems in many states. In conjunction with the CICAS-SSA program, MnDOT and the University of Minnesota led a nine-state (CA, GA, IA, MI, MN, NC, NH, NV, and WI) pooledfund study whereby driver behavior data at rural thru-stop intersections was collected by the Minnesota Mobile Intersection Surveillance System (MMISS). The ultimate goal of the pooled fund study and the analysis of that data described here, was to identify whether drivers in different regions of the county exhibit different gap acceptance/rejection behavior, and if different driver behaviors are identified, determine whether they are different enough to inhibit the deployment of a common CICAS-SSA design throughout the US. The analysis of the data indicated that the system can indeed be deployed nationally.
Performance Analysis of Squad Car Lighting, Retro-reflective Markings, and Paint Treatments to Improve Safety at Roadside Traffic Stops
(Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2012-05) Fischer, Jacob; Krzmarzick, Adam; Menon, Arvind; Shankwitz, Craig
In the United States, more police officers are killed in collisions at roadside stops than through felonious acts. Causal factors that affect police safety at roadside stops include officer conspicuity, squad conspicuity, weather conditions, and the attention and fatigue level of the traveling public. Described herein is a research project that provides insight and guidelines that may ultimately improve officer safety at roadside stops. The project is designed to modify an existing sensor-based traffic monitoring system so that it serves as a test bed to evaluate the retro-reflector, lighting, and paint treatments of an emergency vehicle to determine whether particular combinations produce improved “move over” behavior of oncoming traffic. This is done using automated data analysis software built specifically for this project. Tests are performed at a fully instrumented rural intersection. After mimicking a traffic stop where a patrol vehicle is placed at this intersection, the experimenter logs onto a website and enters the time when the test took place. Analysis software draws results from the data. The results are e-mailed to the experimenters, who devise their own test regimes, following the guidelines presented herein, and draw their own conclusions. A second system was built to provide a more portable option for testing in urban areas. This system consists of two freestanding radar boxes with wireless communication, as well as one netbook computer. Test procedures and results are analogous to the original system. Additional calibration is automatically performed to account for the variable position of the radars.
A Pilot Study on Mitigating Run-Off-Road Crashes
(Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute Center for Transportation Studies, 2013-07) Edwards, Christopher; Morris, Nichole L.; Manser, Michael
Run off the road crashes account for approximately 50% of motor vehicle related fatalities on a national and on a state level. To address this unacceptably high rate of fatalities this pilot project first sought to identify the primary factors associated with run off the road crashes and identify limitations and shortcomings of existing countermeasures. This was accomplished through the development of a taxonomy that summarized existing engineering related and human factors related literature according to infrastructure, environment, and driver related factors that have been found to be most associated with run off the road crash-related fatalities. Based on the taxonomy results a new potentially useful countermeasure was identified that consisted of a haptic and auditory feedback. The pilot project then sought to develop and then evaluate a series of prototype countermeasure systems based on haptic and auditory feedback presented either individually or in parallel. The primary results of the driving environment simulator study in which participants drove through a series of realistic worlds experiencing the countermeasures in response to lane departure events found that the presentation of multiple countermeasure systems can provide increased user satisfaction but can also increase driver response times to critical situations. Secondary results of the study suggest that the haptic countermeasures can provide additional information to drivers but that it may not be interpreted by drivers as expected by designers.
Sign Comprehension, Considering Rotation and Location, Using Random Gap Simulation for a Cooperative Intersection Collision Avoidance System – Stop Sign Assist: CICAS-SSA Report #4
(2010-08) Creaser, Janet; Manser, Michael; Rakauskas, Michael; Donath, Max
Crashes at rural thru-stop intersections arise primarily from a driver attempting to cross or enter the mainline traffic stream after failing to recognize an unsafe gap condition. Because the primary cause of these crashes is not failure to stop, but failure to recognize an unsafe condition, the US DOT FHWA, MnDOT, and the University of Minnesota ITS Institute undertook the CICAS-SSA program. CICAS-SSA uses roadside radar sensors, a computer processor and algorithms to determine unsafe conditions, and an active LED icon based sign to provide timely alerts and warnings which are designed to reduce the frequency of crashes at rural expressway intersections. The primary goal of this portion of the overall effort was to evaluate several candidate CICAS-SSA concepts in order to identify a single sign that may provide the greatest utility in terms of driver performance and usability at a real-world rural intersection. A secondary goal of the work was to determine the ideal physical characteristics (i.e., location and rotation of a sign relative to drivers) of the candidate CICAS-SSA at a test intersection to maximize comprehension (and subsequent use) of the sign. This report summarizes the results of the work.
Thermal Image-Based Deer Detection to Reduce Accidents Due to Deer-Vehicle Collisions
(Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2013-01) Zhou, Debao
Deer-vehicle collision (DVC) is one of the most serious traffic issues in the Unite States. To reduce DVCs, this research developed a system using a contour-based histogram of oriented gradients algorithm (CNT-HOG) to identify deer through the processing of images taken by thermographic cameras. The system is capable of detecting deer in low visibility. Two motors are applied to enlarge the detection range and make the system capable of tracking deer by providing two degrees of freedom. The main assumption in the CNT-HOG algorithm is that the deer are brighter than their background in a thermo image. The brighter areas are defined as the regions of interest, or ROIs. ROIs were identified based on the contours of brighter areas. HOG features were then collected and certain detection frameworks were applied to the image portions in the ROIs instead of the whole image. In the detection framework, a Linear Support Vector Machine classifier was applied to achieve identification. The system has been tested in various scenarios, such as a zoo and roadways in different weather conditions. The influence of the visible percentage of a deer body and the posture of a deer on detection accuracy has been measured. The results of the applications on roadside have shown that this system can achieve high detection accuracy (up to 100%) with fast computation speed (10 Hz). Achieving such a goal will help to decrease the occurrence of DVCs on roadsides.
Usability Evaluation of a Smart Phone-based Teen Driver Support System (TDSS)
(Minnesota Department of Transportation Research Services Section, 2011-05) Creaser, Janet; Gorjestani, Alec; Manser, Michael; Donath, Max
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of teen fatalities. A Teen Driver Support System (TDSS) was developed by the ITS Institute that can allow parents to accurately monitor their teen's driving behavior in relation to known risk factors and Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) provisions. The TDSS, based on a teen's smart phone, provides real-time, contextual in-vehicle feedback to the teen about his or her driving behavior and helps parents monitor certain known risk factors. The system does not allow incoming or outgoing phone calls (except 911) or texting while driving. Feedback to the teen driver includes visual and auditory warnings about speeding, excessive maneuvers (e.g., hard braking, cornering), and stop sign violations. The TDSS prototype also monitors seat belt use and detects the presence of passengers (e.g., based on GDL provisions), two known factors that increase the risk of fatalities among teen drivers. The TDSS can also be programmed to monitor driving during the GDL curfew or a curfew set by parents. A usability review of the prototype TDSS using 30 parent-teen dyads from Washington Country, MN, found that teens and parents held favorable opinions about most of the TDSS functions. Teens and parents both felt that use of the system early in licensure may result in the adoption of safer driving habits even after the system is removed from the vehicle. Several recommendations to improve the system’s usability are made based on the results.
Using Detailed Signal and Detector Data to Investigate Intersection Crash Causation
(Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2013-01) Davis, Gary A.; Chatterjee, Indrajit
Traffic crashes may not always result in severe or fatal injuries, but they can still have nontrivial impacts on system performance, particularly during heavy traffic conditions. One way toward reducing the frequency of such incidents is to first identify the necessary circumstances that resulted in the collision. However, road crashes, particularly intersection related crashes, are complex phenomenon and often result from different combinations of causal factors. Recently, methods for recording high-resolution arterial traffic data have been developed, and it is important for traffic safety engineers to explore such high-resolution data to understand the causes of crashes. In this research one such integrated event based system, known as SMART SIGNAL, which collects and stores detailed loop detector and signal activity, was used to identify the events leading to a crash or a potential crash and illuminate the mechanisms by which traffic conditions and driver decisions interact to produce those events. Two specific event types, a signal violation crash and vehicle pedestrian crash, were evaluated. For the signal violation crash study, SMART SIGNAL data were used to identify the incident and the vehicles involved in the crash. It was then shown how high-resolution data could support a traditional reconstruction of this crash. For vehicle pedestrian interactions, detector and signal activity data were used to predict pedestrian crash risk in the absence of clearance interval at three signalized intersections. A simulation-based method was used to first estimate crash probabilities, and then a counterfactual approach to calculate the probability of the absence of the all-red phase as a necessary condition for the occurrence of the crash provided an alternate estimate of crash-reduction factors for the all-red phase.
Validation Study – On-Road Evaluation of the Cooperative Intersection Collision Avoidance System – Stop Sign Assist Sign: CICAS-SSA Report #5
(2010-08) Rakauskas, Michael; Creaser, Janet; Manser, Michael; Graving, Justin; Donath, Max
The CICAS-SSA sign is a roadside driver support system that is intended to improve gap rejection at rural stopcontrolled intersections. The CICAS-SSA system tracks vehicle locations on a major roadway and then displays a message to a driver on the minor road via an active LED icon-based sign. The basis of this sign is a “Divided Highway” sign that is commonly presented in traffic environments. Overlaid on the roadways of the sign are yellow or red icons that represent approaching vehicles that are at a distance at which the driver on the minor road should proceed with caution or at a distance that is considered unsafe to enter the intersection. Previous research conducted in a driving simulation environment indicated potentially beneficial changes in driver decision-making relative to approaching vehicle gap sizes and indicated that drivers perceive the system as being both useful and satisfying. While simulation-based evaluations provide a wealth of useful information, their ability to replicate the full array of behavioral, cognitive, and perceptual elements of a driving environment do have some limitations. It is because of these limitations that it is useful to confirm simulation-based findings in a real-world environment. The primary goal of the current work was to evaluate the candidate CICAS-SSA sign in a real-world setting to confirm previously identified benefits and identify any unintended consequences of sign usage. This goal was accomplished through a validation field test performed at the intersection of US Highway 52 and County Road 9 in Southern Minnesota. The findings of the work are summarized in this report.

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