Safety

Frontal collision warning is considered one of the most critical applications within the intelligent vehicle initiative (IVI) program (www.its.dot.gov/ivi/ivi.htm). California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH, www.path.berkeley.edu) program started a project under the sponsorship of Federal Transit Administration (FTA, www.fta.dot.gov) to investigate the appropriate specifications for frontal collision warning systems for transit buses. The project is being conducted with the cooperation of several partners, including San Mateo Transit Agency (Samtrans), Gillig Corporation, and California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). [1]

The distinct nature of frontal collision warning systems in transit buses lies in their operating environment, which differs significantly from those in highway applications. First of all, transit buses operate in local streets with frequent stops, compared to high-speed cruising scenarios on highways. Secondly, a more diverse variety of obstacles are present on bus routes. Furthermore, from an analysis of accident data, it was noticed that transit buses often encounter situations where the front end or corners of a bus may make contacts with vehicles or obstacles at close range during their maneuvers at intersections, turns, or stops. All these factors make the implementation of collision warning systems for transit buses much more complicated than those designed for highway applications.

In this paper, we provided an analysis of real-world collision scenarios by reviewing an extensive list of accident situations from transit agencies. This analysis helped us identify certain aspects of bus operating environment that are unique and significant. We also laid out the foundation of scenario parsing by identifying the expected data patterns to be acquired by sensors placed on test vehicles. The collection of field data and the subsequent data dissection will serve as the basis for threat assessment in various traffic conditions and algorithm design for collision warning.

California PATH, Headquarters

Presented at the 11th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, June 4-7, 2001 Miami Beach, Florida

This research is conducted for the purpose of detecting drowsiness/sleepiness of drivers for preventing traffic accidents on our highways. In this study we proposed a system which measures signals from the vehicle and then analyze those signals to detect drowsiness of driver. This method is based on an Artificial Neural Network (ANN). An ANN, with a hybrid architecture using an unsupervised clustering algorithm and a classifier, was trained and tested. Data used for training and testing was obtained from twelve drivers, each driving a simulator under different levels of sleep deprivation. We present a drowsiness detection method, which rely on signals from the vehicle only and thus present no obstruction to the driver.

The George Washington University Transportation Research Institute

Presented at the 11th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, June 4-7, 2001 Miami Beach, Florida

The concern for enhancements for safety at highway-rail grade intersections (HRI) has been developed through the National ITS Program’s User Service #30. Through the U.S. Department of Transportation, numerous efforts have been undertaken to reduce the incidence of injuries and fatalities due to motor vehicle collisions at highway-railroad crossings. Current efforts include the demonstration and/or deployment of various innovative technologies. In May, 1999, the Federal Highway Administration ITS Joint Program Office (ITS JPO) sponsored a workshop that provided information on seven projects utilizing ITS HRI technologies. Consequently, ITS JPO tasked the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center to compare the seven high priority ITS-HRI projects and address performance measures that track progress and the effectiveness of each. This document is an interim report of the comparative analysis. These projects cover HRIs with respect to light rail, passenger rail, and heavy freight. Many projects have a similarity with respect to the type of technology and project goals, but vary due to environmental, administrative, and legislative issues. All projects have received cost sharing funding and support. Although two of the seven projects have not been deployed, the other five have provided benefits for the HRI, target users, and adjacent community.

Volpe National Transportation Systems Center

Presented at the 10th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, May 1-4, 2000 Boston, MA

The Gary Chicago Milwaukee (GCM) ITS Corridor Awareness & Communications (A&C) Work Group is a multi-agency, multi-state group striving to achieve the overall goals and objectives of the GCM Corridor Program. The GCM Corridor A&C Work Group has been operating on a minimal budget since the elimination of the National ITS Priority Corridor Program under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA 21) legislation. Nonetheless, the GCM Corridor A&C Work Group continues to make effective use of resources across state lines on a minimal budget to produce effective communications tools for outreach and education throughout the GCM Corridor. One of the reasons the A&C Work Group is effective is the diversity of perspectives brought to the committee by its members. Today, the A&C Work Group members represent the public relations, the policy, and the planning perspectives and together they are working to provide exceptional outreach and education efforts for the GCM Corridor Program.

Illinois Department of Transportation

Minnesota Department of Transportation

Presented at the 10th ITS Annual Conference and Exposition, May 1-4, 2000 Boston, MA

Presentation

•Objective

-Develop an interface that most effectively supports the human interaction with the Forward Collision Warning (FCW) and Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) systems.

•Display Medium

-Full color, reconfigurable, 3 x 6 degree field of view Head-up display (HUD)

•Research

-Camp project effectively examined display issues for single stage FCW displays but did not address the possibility of multiple stage FCW displays afforded by the new HUD technology.

-The increased performance and driver-acceptance potential of multistage displays was demonstrated in a driving simulator at Delphi Delco.

Matthew R. H. Smith

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, April 29 –May 2, 2002 Long Beach, California