Existing traffic management systems lack the ability to effectively detect, track, and predict the movements and potential conflicts faced by active transportation users, such as pedestrians, cyclists, and people in wheelchairs, especially in complex urban environments. Moreover, current systems lack a unified platform to facilitate communication among vehicles, infrastructure, and vulnerable road users. This project, focused on developing a cooperative multi-task sensing system, aims to detect and track all road users to optimize signal control for all and predict and mitigate user conflicts. Through infrastructure-to-everything (I2X) technologies, crucial information about road user behavior and interactions will be generated and disseminated to various agents, enhancing situational awareness across the transportation network. Moreover, the integration of personal identification devices will allow active transportation users to communicate directly with drivers and infrastructure. This communication will facilitate a more responsive and adaptive traffic management system, with the potential to reduce user conflicts, especially with vulnerable, non-motorized users.
Principle Investigator: Yinhai Wang, Civil and Environmental Engineering, UW
Sponsor: WSDOT
WSDOT Technical Monitor: Scott Davis
WSDOT Project Coordinator: David Strich
Scheduled completion: December 2027