Identifying Near-Misses and Reducing Conflict through D-FYA at Signalized Intersections

Near-misses (a.k.a. traffic conflicts in other literature) refer to vehicles and/or pedestrians that almost collide. Collisions are often avoided by exceptional maneuvers (e.g., hard braking). According to a previous study, about 2,000 near-misses lead to a real crash. Traditionally, we rely on traditional crash records to identify the causes for collisions and to provide mitigating measures. This approach, ironically, will work only after many collisions occur. It would be much better if we can capture and analyze the near-misses and prevent collisions. Identifying the near-misses requires efficient vehicle and pedestrian tracking technologies. Compared with video-based or radar-based detectors, LIDAR sensors have three major advantages in perceiving vehicles and pedestrians. First, the performance will not deteriorate in dark and foggy conditions because the LIDAR sensing is based on active laser beam firing and reflection whereas video-based detectors are rely on comparing the objects and their backgrounds, becoming difficult in the above conditions. Second, LIDAR performance will not deteriorate in perceiving slow and still objects such as pedestrians or still vehicles while the radar-based traffic detectors have been shown to perform poorly when detecting slow or still objects. Third, the “ceiling” of LIDAR sensing accuracy is higher than the existing traffic detectors. The LIDAR sensing technology is being applied in autonomous vehicles to quickly perceive surrounding objects, requiring high adaptiveness and accuracy. As such, when the LIDAR sensors are applied to highway applications, they are anticipated to be more effective for increasingly complicated traffic conditions. As such, the LIDAR sensing technologies are likely to become a permanent solution to improve traffic safety in Utah and elsewhere.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $220000
• Contract Numbers:

  UDOT 238285

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Utah Department of Transportation

  4501 South 2700 West
  Project Development
  Salt Lake City, UT  United States  84114-8380
• Managing Organizations:

  Utah Department of Transportation

  4501 South 2700 West
  Project Development
  Salt Lake City, UT  United States  84114-8380
• Project Managers:

  Chamberlin, Robert

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Utah, Salt Lake City

  College of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering
  Salt Lake City, UT  United States  84112-0561

  University of Texas at Arlington

  Box 19308
  Arlington, TX  United States  76019-0308
• Principal Investigators:

  Zhu, Xuan

  Li, Taylor

• Start Date: 20220914
• Expected Completion Date: 20241231
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Detection and identification systems; Laser radar; Near crashes; Sensors; Signalized intersections
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01898458
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Utah Department of Transportation
• Contract Numbers: UDOT 238285
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Nov 8 2023 3:56PM