• Martin, O.
• Bell, D.
• Johansson, C.
• Hancox, G.
• Rosander, P.
• Scholliers, Johan
• Morris, A. P.
• Silla, Anne

Abstract

It is recognised that ITS applications have beenrelatively successful in improving road safety primarilythrough technology applications the vehicle andinfrastructure. However, Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs)have not received as much benefit as other road users.The EC-funded VRUITS project places the VRU road user atthe centre, assesses the impact of current and upcomingITS applications on the safety and mobility of VRUs,identifies how the usability and efficiency of ITSapplications can be improved and recommends which actionshave to be taken at a policy level to improve ITS safetyand mobility. A major focus of the VRUITS projectinvolves the safety of cyclists within the EU as a targetVRU group.To provide the evidence-base for ITS applications, datawere analysed to determine critical scenarios forcyclists and these data included national data in Spain,Austria, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Thisanalysis was matched to analysis of the European CAREdata to determine the consistency between the nationaland European databases.The main findings from the data analysis are as follows;· The majority of cycling accidents in the accidentanalysis were found to occur at junctions/intersections.* One of the most common scenarios involved vehiclespulling out into the path of the oncoming cyclist at anintersection* CARE data suggests that the most common scenarioinvolves both cyclist and vehicle heading in the samedirection but the vehicle then turns into the cyclist'spath· Overall, males are over-represented in the data.· The majority of the accidents occur in fine dry weatherduring daylight hours· The majority occur in urban areas at relatively onroads with relatively low speed limitsData from this phase of the VRUITS project will be usedto determine the ITS solutions that are relevant to thescenarios determined through accident analysis.Subsequent phases of the project will look at thefeasibility of implementation of theses countermeasureswhich is likely to include some pilot testing of specificapplications.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• phase
• mobility