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    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
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    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
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      <title>Work Zone Safety: Behavioral Analysis with Integration of VR and Hardware in the Loop</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1700547</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Despite increased regulations, restrictive measures, and devices used for warnings, work zone injuries and fatalities are still observed at highway construction projects with alarms/notifications being ignored. With a vision to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities, Phase 2 of the research team's worker safety project extends the original scope and adds a Hardware in the Loop (HIL) component to simulate real traffic scenarios through simultaneous interactions with variety of vehicles and deployed sensor data in immersive virtual environments. The project aims to understand the key parameters (e.g., work zone location characteristics, personal vigilance levels, duration of construction work) that play roles in behaviors of workers in response to notifications received from various warning mechanisms (e.g., sound, vibration). Key questions this research answers are, at what conditions workers ignore/response to warnings at work zones? How we can calibrate notification systems for getting responsive actions from workers? What are the modalities, frequencies, and timings of pushing notifications in these calibrated systems? Through wearable sensors and hardware integrated realistic representations of work zones in virtual reality, the team plans to collect worker behavioral and physiological (heart rate) responses to alarms/warnings/notifications issued under various realistic scenarios and modalities of warning mechanisms (e.g., sensory, visual, audial) and analyze these captured data towards understanding human behaviors in response to modalities of notifications.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 23 Apr 2020 08:18:55 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1700547</guid>
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      <title>Increasing Work Zone Safety: Worker Behavioral Analysis with Integration of Wearable Sensors and Virtual Reality</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1607555</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Despite increased regulations, restrictive measures, and devices used for warning, work zone injuries and fatalities are still observed at highway construction projects with alarms/notifications being ignored. With a vision to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities, this project aims to understand the key parameters (e.g., work zone location characteristics, personal vigilance levels, types of construction work) that play roles in achieving responsive behaviors in workers. Key questions this research answers are, at what conditions people ignore/response to warnings at work zones? How we can calibrate notification systems for getting responsive actions from workers? What are the modalities, frequencies, and timings of pushing notifications in these calibrated systems? Through wearable sensors and realistic representations of work zones in virtual reality, the research team plans to collect worker behavioral and physiological (heart rate) responses to alarms/warnings/notifications issued under various realistic scenarios and modalities of warning mechanisms (e.g., sensory, visual, audial). With a reinforcement learning based approach, the collected data will be used for determining expected worker/driver behaviors (validated through subjects’ heart rate data) when prompted with an alarm/warning/notification learned from similar behaviors. The outcome of this research will help to calibrate when, at what frequency, and how to (with what modalities) share warnings with habitants of work zones for effective responses towards reduction of incidents.   ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 22 May 2019 13:19:22 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1607555</guid>
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      <title>Development and Testing of an In-Vehicle Interface for Use in Automated Driving Contexts
</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1504789</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Despite the promise of automated vehicles and the modernization of in-vehicle interfaces, there is not a good understanding as to which design is more appropriate with respect to safety, especially as cars transition between levels of automation (e.g., between level 2 and level 1). As such, the objective of this proposed research is to develop and test an in-vehicle interface for use in automated driving contexts, with a focus on understanding the differences amongst driver groups and on delivering warning messages when the vehicle transitions between levels of automation.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 08 Mar 2018 19:23:46 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1504789</guid>
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      <title>Reducing Traffic Crashes at Road Construction Access Points</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1486053</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Technologies that can detect when a construction vehicle is about to enter main-lane traffic and warn approaching vehicles through electronic signing are available, but their effectiveness in reducing crash risk has not been thoroughly evaluated. Clear guidance is needed on the technologies available and of interest to Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), including design, placement, delineation of ingress and egress points for work zones on roadways. These crash reduction technologies need to be tested for their effectiveness in the field at a sample of construction zones. This guidance will enhance the safety of road workers and road users by preventing crashes and adequately protecting workers in work zones. The purpose of this research is to compile crash and operational data and perform a comprehensive assessment of the risk factors and root causes of crashes at road construction and maintenance access points and document crash history and causal factors such as road speed limit, traffic volumes, type of facility, the available access point warning technologies, and a review of flagging methodologies, ultimately providing a evaluation of the various methods in reducing crash risks at work zones entrances and exits.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 20 Oct 2017 12:15:20 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1486053</guid>
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      <title>An Investigation of Pedestrian Signals to Reduce Intersection Crashes and Red Light Violations for Elderly Drivers</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1414807</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Signalized intersections are designed to reduce the number of traffic conflicts by separating conflicting movements at an intersection. However, signalized intersections are known to have high likelihood of crash occurrences compared to other sections of the roadway. Decisions made by the drivers who are in dilemma zone are sometimes aided by upstream warning signals. Pedestrian signals have the potential of serving as warning signals as pedestrian green time coincides with the green time for corresponding traffic movement. For the elderly drivers, the decision making process is crucial since their perception reaction is longer than the average perception reaction time experienced by younger drivers. This study wishes to investigate the potential of utilizing pedestrian signals as warning signals and their impacts on driver's perception reaction time, specifically the elderly. This study will analyze intersections in Florida with different types of pedestrian signals and evaluate their effectiveness as it pertains to movement of traffic to assist with the reduction of crashes especially elderly crashes and red light violations. Additionally, the study will utilize questionnaire survey to gain insight of how drivers utilize pedestrian signals as warning signals.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 01 Jul 2016 12:41:40 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1414807</guid>
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