Safety

Collisions between vehicles at urban and rural intersections account for nearly a third of all reported crashes in the United States. This has led to considerable interest at the federal level in developing an intelligent, low-cost system that can detect and prevent potential collisions in realtime. We propose the development of a system that uses video cameras to continuously gather traffic data at intersections (e.g., vehicle speeds, positions, trajectories, accelerations/decelerations, vehicle sizes, signal status etc.) which might eventually be used for collision prediction. This paper describes some of the challenges that face such a system as well as some of the possible solutions that are currently under investigation.

University of Minnesota

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, May 19-22, 2003 Minneapolis, Minnesota

The problem faced in EVP deployment decisions is that most of the published research on EVP benefits has focused on measurement of EV travel time reduction.An alternative analytical method may lie in evaluation of conflict points particular to EV passage through signalized intersections. This paper proposes a method for EV-related conflict evaluation that allows transportation professionals to determine the potential safety benefit of EVP. The method uses an EV-specific conflict point analysis based on data collected in an EVP field study conducted in Northern Virginia. EV-related conflict points are characterized in terms of the EV/auto interaction geometry, the signal display, and the severity of potential crashes. Analysis indicates that the number and severity of EV-specific conflict points are significantly reduced with EVP.

Virginia Tech

Presented at the ITS America Annual Conference and Exposition, May 19-22, 2003 Minneapolis, Minnesota

In this paper, we propose a detection method to avoid collision between a vehicle and a
motorcycle in a road intersection using radio wave DOA estimation by ESPRIT. Our system is
based on distributed system and requires no infrastructures on the road side. We presume to
install the transmitter in the motorcycle and the receiver in the vehicle. The vehicle receives
the radio waves arriving from different directions due to reflections from buildings and
diffraction around the corner of building. By Direction of Arrival Estimation, the receiver is
gripped the basic characteristic of the propagation of the radio wave. The results made
possible the calculation of whether the motorcycle is in Line of Sight (LOS) or Non Line of
Sight (NLOS), and right or left of the vehicle.

Sophia University

Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Mobile Communications R&D Lab., Co. Ltd.

Presented at the 15th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems, November 16-20, 2008, New York, New York

This paper presents the performances of Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols in vehicle
safety communication systems using Inter-Vehicle Communication (IVC). In the IVC
environment, the CSMA/CA protocol is often used as a MAC protocol. However, the
hidden-terminal problem would degrade the performance of CSMA/CA. We evaluate MAC
protocols with respect to safety application and communication quality. The results of these
evaluations reveal three important points:
• The hidden terminal problem should be solved in an IVC environment.
• Good performance of communication systems does not always imply the performance
of safety applications.
• The proposed decentralized TDMA-based MAC protocol(7) is effective for the hidden
terminal problem.

TOYOTA Central R&D Labs., Inc.

Presented at the 15th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems, November 16-20, 2008, New York, New York

This paper describes the requirements, methods and design considerations that was used to
develop a new method of Following Distance Warning, a system informing the driver of low
time-distance to the vehicle ahead, using visual feedback via a simple Head Up Display to the
driver. It includes a study where different display designs and color schemes have been
assessed. The described experimental results show that the proposed visual feedback
principles can be used and fulfils the usability and efficiency goals of assisting the driver in
keeping a safe distance to the forward vehicle. The paper also includes a discussion on
relationship with a Forward Collision Warning system as well as relationship and
coordination with Adaptive Cruise Control. Finally the Distance Alert system as implemented
in several Volvo models is described.

Volvo Car Corporation

Presented at the 15th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems, November 16-20, 2008, New York, New York