Safety

This paper presents a framework to evaluate an automotive rear-end crash avoidance system in a field operational test. This framework is described in terms of the evaluation goals, concomitant objectives, and respective subobjectives. The evaluation will pursue four goals to achieve a detailed understanding of safety benefits, determine driver acceptance, characterize the performance and capability, and assess the deployment potential and price of the automotive rear-end crash avoidance system. Ten instrumented vehicles will be equipped with this system that integrates rear-end crash warning and adaptive cruise control functions. Representative groups of subjects will be selected to test the system over a ten-month period, driving in a naturalistic environment under a variety of typical driving conditions. Each subject will drive an instrumented vehicle for a few weeks. The system will not be available during the first week in order to collect baseline driving data. The subjects will be able to utilize the system in the remaining weeks to gather data on driver-vehicle-system performance.

U.S. Department of Transportation

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

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

A new safety application, as part of ITS Advanced Rural Transportation System (ARTS), has been developed and deployed on a two-lane rural road (Route 114) in Southwest Virginia. The route has a rolling geometry of several vertical curves and is subject to significant head-on accidents. During the period 1994-2000, the road experienced 11 crashes that resulted in 12 fatalities and 29 injuries. All these accidents were a result of two main conditions:

1- Illegal passing maneuvers crossing solid yellow centerline, and

2- A short passing sight distance due to the road vertical profile.

Accidents reports indicated alcohol involvement in some of these incidents.

The main objective of the research, supported by Virginia Department of Transportation VDOT, is to design, install, test and evaluate a video detection-based warning system by installing an efficient system on one vertical crest curve on Route 114, capable of performing the following two main functions:

1. Detect vehicles that attempt to violate the no-passing zone.

2. Warn the violating drivers in order to discourage them from continuing their risky

maneuvers.

Virginia Tech - Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

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

The evaluation of a truck-based drowsy driver warning system through field operational test (FOT) data will provide an objective assessment of user- and device-provided performance data. The evaluation will address five areas: safety benefits, driver acceptance, fleet management acceptance, performance and capability, and deployment. This paper reviews the goals and objectives that the evaluation will pursue. Although the details of the plan will evolve as the FOT approaches, the information provided addresses the main topics and indicates the thoroughness with which the evaluation will be performed. Ultimately, the FOT and its subsequent evaluation will provide a useful contribution to public safety.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Volpe National Transportation Systems Center

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

A discrete-time model, which characterizes a driver’s braking behavior, is developed. According to the proposed model, the amount of braking depends on the current vehicle speed and the required stopping distance. The model is used to simulate the performance of the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) Alert Algorithm. The simulation results indicate that, in the situation where an inattentive driver is approaching a stopped lead vehicle at 60 mph, the probability of collision is less than 17.6% when the NHTSA Alert Algorithm is in minimum sensitivity mode. In maximum sensitivity mode, the probability of collision is less than 3.2%.

The Johns Hopkins University - Applied Physics Laboratory

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