Pursuant to the recent Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA), there has been a considerable apportionment of resources for developments in the area of Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems (IVHS). IVHS promises to address the questions of improved safe and efficient transportation. Such developments are mandated by the unacceptable levels of urban traffic congestion in most global conurbations and the epidemic level of traffic accidents which serve to rob society of human life and incur unsupportable burden on financial resources in the form of medical and insurance costs. IVHS can be divided into two major elements with respect to driver behavior. The first element is assistance to nagivation and congestion aviodance. The second, which is of central concern in this chapter, is collision avoidance. Collision avoidance systems seek to inform the driver of imminent or impending collision and to present assistance in conflict resolution. Just how such conflict resolution is to be enacted has yet to be determined. Various tactics have been suggested. They range from unsurpation of control by some automatic system to messaging systems for preferred avoidance maneuvres. While the design and operational ramifications of these options are considered briefly here, the central theme is the critical use of simulation as a method for investigating and evaluating such alternatives. It is proposed that testing in high-fidelity simulation is currently the most viable option by which such technology can be safely instantiated. In examining this issue, the author contrasts the situation specific approaches that appear to be favored in current research with an envelope approach based on the ecological analysis first posited in Gibson some fifty years ago. How simulation informs such design becomes a critical link is the safety aspects of IVHS are to reach fruition.
Samenvatting