Latest news with #pedestrianprotection
Forbes
6 days ago
- Automotive
- Forbes
Toyota And MIT Research Reveals Surprises In Seeking Pedestrian Safety
Demonstration of Toyota automatic emergency braking system aimed avoiding collisions with ... More pedestrians. Some past assumptions of how drivers interact with automation and pedestrians were found to be far off the mark. That revelation came as results of the 100th research project conducted between Toyota Motor Co.'s Collaborative Safety Research Center and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab were announced Tuesday. The study sought to discover how to reduce collisions between vehicles and pedestrians, in part, by looking at how they interact and communicate with each other, along with how automated systems and technology affect driver behavior. After analyzing hundreds of hours and thousands of miles of driving data over a decade's time, it became evident at least one past assumption related to driver distraction is wrong—voice recognition. 'We kind of flipped how people were originally thinking about this,' said Josh Domeyer, principal scientist at Toyota CSRC, during a presentation at the American Center for Mobility near Ypsilanti, Michigan. 'We found that not only did voice recognition performance affect the driver, but we found that the visual features of these voice interfaces were influencing how demanding they were, so people would look down to confirm whether the voice system was doing something. This internally, at least, led to some changes in our own system, where we reduced the visual feedback in order to make it more related to driver-pedestrian interaction.' Indeed, the term 'driver distraction' is distasteful to MIT AgeLab research scientist and co-director of the Advanced Vehicle Technology Consortium Bryan Reimer who pointed out there's almost never a time a driver's attention is not divided between paying attention to the road and other actions. He prefers the use of the phrase 'non-driving related tasks,' or NDRT, which doesn't include listening to the radio. 'We are 100% of the time distracted, whether you're listening to somebody, whether you're fidgeting and writing,' said Reimer, during the presentation. 'We as humans, if our attention isn't devoted some places are continually, either externally, visibly or internally, thinking about something else, distracted by something.' The researchers examined 450 hours of driving data to identify 154 hours of engagement in NDRT to evaluate how driver assist technology such as lane centering, influences the decision to partake in those tasks such as mobile phone use, texting, fiddling with the infotainment system, eating or drinking. The results were not cut and dry, and a little bit sobering. 'We're human. We find ways to do what we're going to do anyway. It doesn't matter what car I'm in,' said Reimer. 'So lots of folks out there like saying, this is better than this entity. We find a way. If there's a will, there's a way, which means that we have to think about new approaches.' Then there's the dynamic involving interaction between driver and pedestrian. Using a dataset of 348 'naturalistic interactions,' researchers looked at the importance non-verbal communications such as motion cues and direct eye contact to help avoid collisions. Again, there were some surprising results. 'The first thing that we saw is that glance behaviors and hand gestures were not as important as we initially predicted, which this was very surprising to us, because we expected that eye contact would be very important,' noted Domeyer. He explained there's a spot the vehicle is approaching at a certain rate, where people don't want to cross the street and if the rate is perceived as far enough away they will cross. But there's also what Domeyer termed a 'gray area' where it's about a fifty-fifty chance whether someone decides to cross. 'We actually created the conditions where somebody might look in a vehicle, so depending on the time of day, the angle and other things, and we found that only about 40 percent of the pedestrians didn't actually know where the driver was looking, just because of the occlusion that happened with the windscreen,' said Domeyer. 'So it was very interesting, because our original assumptions about how this communication happened were kind of challenged by this early work.' Test figures at Toyota's dedicated garage at the American Center for Mobility near Ypsilanti, ... More Michigan. At its facility at the American Center for Mobility, Toyota is working on technology to help prevent vehicle-pedestrian collisions. In two demonstrations of such technology, a vehicle equipped with automatic emergency braking stopped short of colliding with a mockup of a pedestrian. In another, newer AEB capabilities were shown on a pickup truck towing a trailer. Having completed the 100th project with MIT AgeLab, Toyota's CSRC announced its five-year research phase is continuing as it continues to seek better understanding of driver behavior, crash avoidance and minimizing crash-related injuries.
BBC News
03-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Red stripe on rural lane sparks social media storm
Residents in Grouville have complained a new red stripe painted on a country lane is an "eyesore" and completely out of place, sparking a wave of angry comments on social stripe, is part of a road safety initiative to separate pedestrians from vehicles on two roads - La Croix and La Rue de la Haye des Puits near Grouville School - but many locals have said it clashes with the area's natural beauty."It's a monstrosity," said Gerald Fletcher, one of several local residents who have written to the parish constable to complain."This is a beautiful lane used by walkers and dog walkers. Why spoil it with such a harsh, urban-looking stripe?" Social media posts reflect similar sentiments, with hundreds of comments lamenting the visual impact of the paint job. Critics said the stripe detracts from the rural charm of the area and sets a precedent for urban-style changes in the Constable of Grouville Mark Labey defended the decision, citing safety as the top priority."We had a choice between a sandy yellow and a bright red," he explained. "We went with the red because it's a warning colour—and that's exactly what we need."But Mr Fletcher and some other residents have questioned this, claiming there is no evidence of any accidents in the area that has been painted. The move comes after a 2022 government report recommended painted pavement demarcations on roads near schools to protect pedestrians, particularly children. Some parents from nearby Grouville School have praised the new stripe for its clarity and visibility."It's a strong colour, and it's important," said one parent. "The road's pretty narrow, so it helps clearly define where people should be walking. I think it's great. It does what it needs to do."Another supporter added: "It makes people realise there's a path. It separates the road from the pedestrian area - it's simple and effective." Despite the divide in opinion, the aim remains to make the roads safer for everyone. In a written letter to the Constable, residents have said they "totally agree with him that safety is paramount but we would ask him to reconsider the colour".They said they are awaiting a response.
Daily Mail
16-05-2025
- Automotive
- Daily Mail
Cut speeds to just 10MPH on thousands of miles of roads in towns and cities, safety charity demands
Road speeds in cities should be cut to 10mph to prevent deaths and reduce serious injuries, a leading road safety charity has said. This limit should be applied specifically around all schools, hospitals, as well as sporting, social and cultural venues. But critics have said the proposals are 'so ridiculous it is simply laughable'. The suggested areas have been targeted because they tend to have a 'particular prevalence of pedestrians and/or bicyclists and/or motorcyclists' as well as 'a heightened vulnerability of pedestrians to impact and injury', the Road Safety Foundation (RSF) said. Single carriageways and country roads must also stick to a 20mph limit, a third of current road speeds, the charity added. Areas where pedestrians and cyclists or motorcyclists mix vehicles should also take up this rule. These proposals would help achieve 'vision zero' which is the long-term goal of no deaths or serious injuries and are 'evidence-based given the laws of physics and the fragility of the human body'. The charity argued that these recommendations are due to 'the moral position that no death or serious injury should be considered an acceptable by-product of mobility'. 'We have a clear idea of the speeds [that] would be required to prevent most road deaths and serious injuries on Britain's roads,' Dr Suzy Charman, executive director of the RSF, told The Times. 'We are not saying that all speeds or speed limits should be set to these speeds, rather that infrastructure needs to be improved or speeds reduced to ensure travelled speeds are better aligned with human tolerances to crash forces.' Travelling at 10mph is roughly equivalent to a fast jogger, leaving journey times tripled if some of these restrictions came in to place. Hugh Bladon from the Alliance of British Driver called the proposals 'laughable' and claimed the RSF 'is clearly not fit for purpose'. 'If you ban all motorised transport you might reduce deaths and injury a bit, but we should remember that more people were being killed and injured, in the days before motorised transport, by horses and their carriages. It might be better to ban people from walking or cycling where there is any form of motorised transport,' he said. A 30mph speed limit would be allowed on roads where there are no cyclists or pedestrians. Even faster speeds are also acceptable and result in no deaths where the road has 'fully segregated facilities for any pedestrians or bicyclists' and those with no T-junctions or crossroads. For these dual carriageways and motorways the priority would then be to 'provide adequate roadside infrastructure measures to ensure that road users are suitably protected if they run off the road at current operating speeds'. The charity admitted that 'translating these findings into policy and practice is complex'. Wales has already taken up the 20mph rule as the default speed limit but a poll revealed that nearly two thirds of the country objected to the change. Only a few studies have researched the effects of the reduced speed limits with mixed results, parliamentary briefing papers allegedly said earlier this year. Some pollutants were released in higher concentrations under 20mph the paper added but a study by Imperial College said there was 'no net negative impact on exhaust emissions' from those speeds.
