Safety, mobility and comfort assessment methodologies of intelligent transport systems for vulnerable road users

Abstract

Introduction: This paper describes the modification and development of methodologies to assess the impacts of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) applications for Vulnerable Road users (VRUs) in the domains of safety, mobility and comfort. This effort was carried out in the context of the VRUITS project whose aim was to produce results at the EU-28 level. Methods: An existing safety methodology was modified to take into account specific VRU aspects. The mobility and comfort assessments methodologies were developed in the project. Results: The safety, mobility and comfort methodologies were applied to ten ITS applications for VRUs. The first innovation determined how the nine safety mechanisms for ex-ante analysis of ITS applications, including direct and indirect effects, can incorporate the important characteristics of the VRU groups (pedestrians, cyclists and Power-Two-Wheeler riders) in the analysis. The second innovation developed a conceptual model for mobility and comfort. Thirdly, the estimation of quantitative effects, using literature, empirical findings and expert judgement, was developed. Conclusions: The new safety, mobility and comfort assessment methodologies were applied to calculate the respective effects for VRUs using ITS. These results are ex-ante findings, as very few to no empirical results for ITS applications for VRUs are available. In order to improve the accuracy of the estimates, there is a need for better standardized data and at the European level. Finally, validation of the methods could be done in the future field operational tests focusing on measuring user behavior.