Using High Fidelity Vehicle Trajectory Data for Safety Analyses: A Case Study

Vehicle trajectory data provide detailed information on driving behavior. They are useful in a variety of areas such as modeling of car-following, lane-changing, and gap acceptance. To date, obtaining video-based vehicle trajectories has been attempted by many researchers. However, this research identified a number of challenges, including image quality and high manual labor costs. Consequently, video-based vehicle trajectory data and its use have been limited. This paper introduces a high-definition, low-cost radar-based data collection system to track individual vehicles as they approach an intersection. The data collection system, developed the by Nebraska Transportation Center, consists of Wavetronix Smartsensor Advance, Wavetronix Smartsensor HD, and digital cameras. Micro-level (i.e., second by second) vehicle speed profiles were collected at two test beds: (1) a highway-rail grade crossing equipped with signal-warning flashers and automatic gates, and (2) a highway-highway intersection equipped with advance signal-warning flashers. The speed profiles are used to investigate how a driver reacts, in a detailed process, to the activated warning system at each of the test beds. Safety surrogate measures such as gate violation and red-light running (i.e., violation of traffic law) are studied to indicate the relationship between the start of the traffic control equipment and driver behaviors. It is concluded that the radar-based speed profiles provide better and more comprehensive data for study safety impacts of driver behavior on an approach lane to critical interests such as highway-highway intersections and highway-rail grade crossings.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANB20 Standing Committee on Safety Data, Analysis and Evaluation.
• Authors:
  • Zhao, Li
  • Rilett, Laurence
  • Zhou, Jianan
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: 6p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Behavior; Data collection; Drivers; Intersections; Railroad grade crossings; Speed; Vehicle trajectories; Video
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01664165
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-05895
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 26 2018 9:17AM