This chapter reviews current developments in Europe on the general effect of Road Transport Informatics (RTI) systems on pedestrians, and on RTI systems for pedestrian safety. RTI systems for improving vehicular traffic flow are often aimed at increasing capacities and reducing travel times on urban roads. They will usually increase vehicle speeds and flows there, thus making conditions more dangerous for pedestrians. However, RTI systems can be created to improve pedestrian safety. This chapter describes the following approaches that can be used for such systems: (1) an in-car device to detect pedestrians, and perhaps also automatically avoid an impending collision; (2) a pedestrian-carried device to detect approaching vehicles and advise on whether it is safe to cross a road; and (3) indirect systems affecting pedestrian-to-vehicle interaction. The author concludes that the first two approaches offer little hope of increasing pedestrian safety, and could even decrease it, due to undesired effects on driver behaviour. The third approach is much more likely to succeed, and promising results have been obtained with systems for registering pedestrian demand at traffic signals using automatic detection. Initial trials have also shown the considerable potential of a system for infrastructure-based adaptive speed limit.
Abstract