The unacceptably high number of accidents on European roads together with an increasing public demand for improved road capacity and comfort sets entirely new demands on road infrastructure. The costs of maintaining and developing the capacity of European road networks is ever increasing due to anticipated increases in freight transport demand and increased axle loads and traffic volumes. The INTRO project aims to address the problems of road safety and capacity combining sensing technologies and local databases with real-time networking technologies. This will improve both road safety and capacity by providing rapid feedback of emerging problems to maintenance authorities and road users: Validation of real-time warning systems at network level to achieve a significant decrease in the number of accidents due tosurprise effects from sudden local changes in weather (e.g., onset of ice and rain) resulting in low friction and hence skidding. Use of Europe's most advanced driver simulator to optimise driver responses to new types of information. Fusion of different sensor types data (infrastructure or car based) to improve real time safety and performance indicators estimation and prediction. Innovative use and combination of new and existing sensor technologies in pavements and bridges in order to prevent accidents, enhance traffic flows and significantly extend the lifetimes of existing infrastructure by improving maintenance planning. A synergistic clustering action led by FEHRL (Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories) will actively seek to integrate results and shape current and emerging practice with other national and international projects using the extensive network of the FEHRL institutes. Dissemination of results to users at a pan-European level will be given a high priority in the project. This will result in guidelines and implementation strategies for Intelligent Road Systems with a particular focus on the needs of new member states(A). Only abstract (as above) is available from the conference proceedings. For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD E212343.
Samenvatting