The overall number of fatalities in road traffic accidents in Europe is decreasing. Unfortunately, the number of fatalities among cyclists does not follow this trend with the same rate. In the Netherlands, a major share of killed cyclists in traffic accidents was the result of a collision with a motorised vehicle. The automotive industry is making a significant effort in the development and implementation of safety systems in cars to avoid or mitigate an imminent crash with vulnerable road users, and more specifically with cyclists. The current state-of-the-art of active safety systems, Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB), is being widely introduced. A car equipped with AEB makes use of on-board sensors such as camera and radar, to track and trace traffic participants that possibly interfere with the trajectory of the car. This information is used to warn the driver in case of a possibly critical situation and/or to brake in case the driver does not respond and the risk of collision does not decrease. Currently, AEB systems that are designed to avoid car-to-car collisions are part of the Euro NCAP star rating. In 2016, Euro NCAP will include AEB systems for pedestrians in the star rating. It is the intention of Euro NCAP to include AEB systems for cyclists in the star rating beginning of 2018. To support and prepare the introduction of Cyclist-AEB systems and the resulting consumer tests of such systems, TNO has taken the initiative to set-up a consortium of car manufacturers and suppliers with the support of Euro NCAP laboratories (such as BASt) to develop a testing system and test protocol for Cyclist-AEB systems. This paper reports the first steps towards this protocol in which an in-depth road accident study is performed to determine what accident scenarios are most relevant for car-to-cyclist collisions. Data of killed and seriously injured cyclists due to collision with a passenger car were included in this study. An overview is given for the following European countries: Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Analysis shows that scenarios in which the bicyclist crosses the trajectory of a car in an approximately perpendicular direction is most relevant in all studied countries. Longitudinal scenarios in which car and cyclist are driving in the same direction and the cyclist is hit at the rear end by the car also cover a significant portion of serious accidents. (Author/publisher)
Abstract