White Paper on Cycle Safety Shield Trials

Transcription

1 2016 White Paper on Cycle Safety Shield Trials Olga Slobodova Safety Shield Systems

2 Table of contents Background... 2 How big is the problem?... 2 Accidents with buses and lorries... 4 Solutions... 5 Indirect vision devices... 5 Protection of vulnerable road users... 7 Development of Cycle Safety Shield... 7 Trials... 8 Ealing Borough of London... 8 Sainsbury s Supermarket Reviews Data collection Further development References

3 Background Today, governments and municipalities are actively promoting cycling as a single solution to many problems faced by the modern highly urbanised society. Cycling not only contributes to reducing pollution from motor vehicles and congestion in city centres, it also improves health by exercise. However, cycling is often considered dangerous, especially in urban areas, and not without reason. Indeed, cyclists alongside with pedestrians, are the most vulnerable road users, whilst also being the most difficult to observe both in day and in night conditions. In London, the most often cause of fatal cyclists accidents representing 25% occur when a large vehicle is turning left 1 into a side road (Transport for London, 2014). The manoeuvre includes a necessary positioning of the vehicle to the opposite side of the road edge within the lane, so as to allow sufficient space for rear wheels, which have a shorter trajectory than the front wheels during a turn. This creates a gap tempting for cyclists to fill into and putting them into the blind spot. In this position they cannot be seen by the driver either directly or indirectly in the side mirror. This health and safety issue needs to be addressed quickly as more and more citizens are encouraged to use bicycle as a daily mode of transport, including children. While municipalities are actively investing into cycling infrastructure such as separate lanes and protected intersections for bicyclists, they need reliable information about the most common causes of dangerous situations involving cyclists and pedestrians and about the most dangerous junctions to be reconstructed in the first place. How big is the problem? Deaths among cyclists represent a swaggering share of all road fatalities. It considerably differs from country to country depending on various conditions, such as share of cycling in the modal split, cycling infrastructure and general driver behaviour. While in the UK, the share of cyclists deaths is over 5 times lower than in the Netherlands, it is important to consider that over 10 times less British choose bicycle as their typical mode of transport, as compared to Dutch (see Figures I and II). In fact, the more cyclists there are on the roads, the bigger share they represent in the overall road deaths. 1 For the exception of the examples from the countries with left hand traffic, the direction of turns in the present document corresponds to the right hand traffic system 2

4 Figure I: Fatalities among cyclists in the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom ,4 3,8 2, Netherlands Spain UK Fatalities among cyclists (in % to all road deaths) Number of fatalities among cyclists per cyclists Number of fatalities among all road users per population 0 Sources: European Cyclists Federation, 2013; World Health Organisation, 2013 Figure II: Bicycle as a mode of transport in the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom 40,0 35,0 30,0 25,0 20,0 15,0 36,0 28,9 10,0 5,0 0,0 4,4 3,1 3,0 3,8 Netherlands Spain UK On a typical day most often used mode of transport is the bicycle (% of population) Share of cycling in modal split (in %) Sources: European Cyclists Federation, 2013; EPOMM, Bicycles do not have to be registered, thus there is a lack of reliable statistics on the share of cycling in the modal spilt. For this reason the figures taken from EPOMM Modal Split Tool are not entirely 3

5 At the same time, the share of fatalities among cyclists in Spain is lower than in the UK, even though Spanish citizen cycle more. However, Spain has the highest overall road death rate among the three countries, which explains the distortion. The good news is that the interdependence between the number of vulnerable road users and the risk of accident involving them is nonlinear (European Cyclist's Federation, 2010), which can be seen in the numbers of fatalities per cyclists, taking into consideration the modal split of the corresponding countries. In other words, the more people cycle, the less is the risk for each cyclist. However, it does not mean that the absolute number of fatalities among cyclists always follows the same trend. Accidents with buses and lorries The most dangerous accidents for cyclists are those with buses, LGVs and HGVs. These accidents represent about 30% of cyclists fatalities both in the UK and the Netherlands (OECD, 1998). In comparison to crashes between cyclists and passenger cars, accidents with buses lead to fatalities or serious injuries 7 times more often and those with trams 12 times more often, taking into account vehicle kilometres driven by the respective crash opponent mode of transport (SWOV, 2011). Severe accidents (previously having led to at least one serious injury) with lorries are lethal in 36% of cases and the additional 41% of cases lead to a severe injury (SWOV, 2015). Accidents occurring due to the blind spot of a lorry turning right account to almost a third of all serious cyclist-lorry accidents in the Netherlands, whereas in general in the EU there have been registered 236 lateral accidents compared to 25 frontal collisions (European Cyclists Federation, 2012). representative of the current situation all around the given country. At the same time, the results of the survey on the most often used mode of transport on a typical day reflects the number of people dedicates to cycling and is only indirectly correlating with the share of cycling in the modal split. 4

6 Figure III: Blind zone accidents in collisions between cycles/mopeds and goods vehicles, by type of manoeuvre 10% 13% 13% 11% 9% 8% 36% Source: Jacobs Consultancy, 2004 Solutions In addition to general road safety measures provided by the law, such as periodic vehicle roadworthiness tests, front protection and obligatory training of professional drivers, there is are two main mutually complementary solutions specifically aimed at reducing the risk of blind zone accidents: road infrastructure and indirect vision devices. Indirect vision devices The European Commission is recognising the danger of blind spots for vulnerable road users and has imposed Directives 2003/97/EC and 2007/38/EC stipulating the compulsory need for rear-view mirrors for all lorry fleets driving in the EU, as well as approving devices for indirect vision 3 and vehicles equipped with these devices. It has been proven that mirrors alone are not able to provide a full view for the front and lateral sides of the vehicle (Florida Department of Transportation Research Center, 2010). The modern 3 According to Article 1.1 of Annex I of Directive 2003/97/EC, "Devices for indirect vision" means devices to observe the traffic area adjacent to the vehicle which cannot be observed by direct vision. These can be conventional mirrors, camera-monitors or other devices able to present information about the indirect field of vision to the driver. 5

7 technologies can provide driver s assistance in addition to rear-view mirrors in order to completely eliminate all the blind spots around the vehicle as shown in Figure IV. Figure IV: Progressive blind zone reduction using sideview video system Source: Florida Department of Transportation, 2010 While cameras alone provide a complete view around the vehicle, accidents can only be avoided provided that the driver is looking at the monitor. In order to exclude accidents due to human error and fatigue, the collision avoidance systems may be equipped with visual, audio and haptic warnings. Haptic warnings may be delivered by vibrating steering wheel or seat. According to the European Commission s research, audio and haptic warnings are preferable for imminent collision avoidance, since they attract driver s attention irrespective of where he is looking. At the same time, if the system is detecting all objects within the range of the vehicle, giving too many unnecessary alerts, drivers are constantly distracted and stop paying attention to the warnings. 6

8 Protection of vulnerable road users The response to the problem is to give warnings only for imminent collisions, giving sufficient time to take evasive actions, according to the type of the object and the respective speeds of the possible collision opponent and the vehicle. For instance, Volvo is currently offering a collision avoidance system that recognises only pedestrians. Their current systems can additionally detect cyclists, but are not specifically designed to do so (Transport Research Laboratory, Luxembourg). In late 2013, when in a short period of two weeks six cyclists were killed on London s roads, five of them involved in accident with a truck, bus or coach, Ealing Council and Transport for London decided to take a proactive lead in developing a new system to deal with this safety issue (Ealing Council, 2014). Development of Cycle Safety Shield Further to exploring available systems on the market, the Ealing Council specialists were unable to find a satisfactory product. The Council then worked out its own criteria and specification for the development of a collision avoidance system that would be able to defeat this safety issue. After approaching a number of companies that were unable to meet the criteria, the transport specialists addressed Safety Shield Systems, who identified a collision avoidance system that had previously been used by the Ministry of Defence for missile detection and was now available on the market. Ealing Council worked with Safety Shield Systems to adapt the software and technology to fit any vehicle and feature a number of functions, including the driver warning of potential collisions only with cyclists, pedestrians or motorcyclists (PCM), filtering out other inanimate objects, such as bus stops and lamp posts, to eliminate repetitive and unnecessary alarms. This intelligent detection was the key feedback point from the TfL fleet drivers interviewed by the Council. The Council also wished to enhance the system by including features to help improve driver training and awareness, as well as reduce running costs through integration with existing fleet management systems that track driver behaviour and energy consumption. This included 360 Bird s Eye View around the vehicle, Headway Monitoring and Forward Collision Monitoring to avoid accidents with other motor vehicles, High Beam Control to automatically lower the lights blinding for incoming traffic, Lane Departure Warning and Speed Monitoring (Ealing Council, 2014). 7

9 Trials Ealing Borough of London The initial six month trial using a standard contractor lorry ran from January to June The system included a telematics system recording the collision avoidance warnings, their location and time, the type of the detected road user and the respective speeds to be able to study the results. Source: Ealing Council, 2014 Throughout the six month trial period, the results were independently tested and reviewed by a number of organisations including London Cycling Campaign and an independent automotive telematics company Ituran. The report conclusions of the six month trial were: During the six month trial period Cycle safety shield has potentially stopped 15 serious collisions occurring between the HGV and a PCM. All of the serious collision warnings given happened at an average speed of 13.6 mph (22 km/h), at this speed a collision could have been fatal. Overall vehicle fuel efficiency improved by 8% throughout the trial period, equivalent to cash fuel savings of 1,000 per vehicle per year, due to reduced aggressive acceleration and breaking. Overall safety rating (driver behaviour) improved by 20% throughout the trial period with the driver s behaviour significantly improved in speed reduction and the number of PCM collision, forward collision and lane departure warnings per mile driven. 8

10 The data shows that the majority of serious collision alerts, which were given to the driver, telling him to break, happened on the left hand side of the vehicle when either travelling straight or turning left. As regards the system operation, the results were: The system is detecting only pedestrians, cyclists and motorbikes (PCM) up to 30m away from the vehicle by the combined front and left cameras mounted on the vehicle. There has been over detections by the system of a PCM over the trial period. However, the driver was alerted with an audio and video warning only 15 times during the same period. The system stands out from standard detection systems in the following ways: o Only detects pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, not other objects such as railings, other cars, road signs, etc. o The system is a collision avoidance system, not an all-round detection system, reducing the alerts given to the driver, which is not overloading, annoying and distracting. Luke Brown, the Murrills Construction Ltd driver, who drove the vehicle during the trial, clearly identified the following benefits in using the system: A. The system helped improve his driving by eliminating bad habits. B. Compared to other systems, Cycle Safety Shield is not annoying as it does not pick up inanimate objects compared to other standard detection systems on the market. C. The system has helped avoid several collisions as it gave him time to brake after being warned. D. The driver has started to keep a safer distance from the vehicle in front due to the headway monitoring function, which is both safer and has also helped improve fuel efficiency. E. The driver would recommend the system to other HGV drivers. 9

11 Cycling next to Transport for London bus fixed with new technology Source: Ealing Council, 2015 Despite all the features, the Council also negotiated the system to be available at a competitive price. The trial has revolutionised the thinking towards lorry safety and performance in London and is now being rolled out across all of Ealing s fleet with over 100 vehicles with other Local Authorities around the world starting to follow suit. (Ealing Council, 2014) Sainsbury s Supermarket Sainsbury s had the initial two month trial of Cycle Safety Shield as part of their ongoing commitment to reduce collisions with HGV s and vulnerable road users and to improve driver behaviour. The system included PCM detection, Headway monitoring, Forward collision warning, Speed monitoring, Lane departure and 360 Bird s Eye View camera. The results of the two month trial were: 1. Cycle Safety Shield has potentially stopped 14 serious collisions occurring between the HGV and a PCM. 2. The overall fuel efficiency has improved by 5% throughout the trial period 10

12 3. The overall safety rating (driver behaviour) has improved by 23% throughout the trial period, the drivers behaviour has significantly improved by reducing the following warnings: PCM collision warnings Forward collision warnings Aggressive turns Speeding Aggressive acceleration Headway monitoring alerts Lane departure warnings After the trial, Sainsbury s have permanently applied the system to its fleet of vehicles. Now their lorries feature the following additional elements: Figure V: 360-degree vision front/rear cameras on Sainsbury s trucks Source: Sainsbury's, 2014 The video technology in the cab giving 360 degree vision of the surrounding road New proximity sensors down the sides of the lorry that beep to alert the driver s manoeuvres to other road users Side guard extensions and reflective infills to help stop cyclists from falling under the vehicle More indicators along the sides to increase awareness that the truck is turning More downlights along the sides that glow at night, giving the driver more visibility of road users in the dark A warning sticker to alert road users that they are in the driver s blind spot 11

13 A tail lift operation warning so that there will be an audible sound when the tail lift is being lowered that s for anyone behind the vehicle Further driver training on higher safety standards in the truck (Sainsbury's, 2014) Reviews Mayor of London, Boris Johnson MP, has welcomed the roll-out of cutting edge technology to help improve road safety: It s fantastic to see that cutting edge technology, such as Cycle Safety Shield, is being utilised to help make London s roads safer. Amey s commitment to fitting Cycle Safety Shield to its fleet of trucks is to be applauded and I hope that other big companies follow their lead. As we work towards strengthening our Safer Lorry Scheme we re giving real consideration to making sensor technology like this a requirement for HGVs operating in London. I've said that improving the direct vision of drivers is one of our key priorities going forward, but high tech solutions like this being developed by Safety Shield Systems and others are sure to play a big part in helping us to deliver future improvements to road safety. Ealing Councillor Bassam Mahfouz, cabinet member for Transport and Environment for Ealing, said: The Cycle Safety Shield is life-saving technology which is proving to be a game-changer in the field of road safety. With lorries being responsible for two-thirds of cycling deaths in London, this innovative piece of kit, installed on Ealing vehicles, makes such a positive difference and I am delighted and honoured that this has been recognised with awards from Brake and across Europe." Ben Plowden, Director of Surface Strategy and Planning at TfL, said: Our efforts to continue making London s streets as safe as possible include the ground-breaking trials of innovative detection technology on London Buses. We welcome Ealing Council s work with Cycle Safety Shield, which will help continue the positive trends we ve seen in reducing serious injuries to road users. The trial of detection software on London Buses, in addition to our ongoing work with the Construction Logistics and Cyclist Safety (CLOCS) programme, further demonstrates our commitment to safer streets for all. Charlie Lloyd, road danger reduction campaigner from the London Cycling Campaign, said: There have been another three tragic cyclist fatalities involving large lorries in London in the past few weeks. Preventing more deaths from these lorries is almost always the greatest concern for people cycling in London. The trial results we have seen suggest that the Cycle Safety Shield system will produce a step change in reducing this danger 12

14 to cyclists. Providing drivers with a warning system they can trust is one of our Safer Lorry Campaign objectives." Ealing and Cycle Safety Shield have won numerous industry awards for their Cycle Safety Shield initiative. It won the Fleet Safety Analysis and Action category at road safety charity, Brake s awards in October. In September, London was named best Innovative Transport City at the Transport Innovation Deployment for Europe (TIDE, EU Project) event for Ealing Council s cycle safety work. And in March the partnership was recognised at the London Transport Awards as the winners of the Most Effective Road Safety, Traffic Management & Enforcement Project (London Assembly, 2014). Data collection Vehicle based ITS solution have a substantial capacity to improve road safety for vulnerable road users. However, in busy city centres, intersections where various road users need to share the road and constantly negotiate their space, road infrastructure is the primary solution, with collision avoidance systems playing an important complementary part for complex road situation both in infrastructure equipped intersections and beyond them. While protected intersections and bicycle lanes provide a more secure environment for cyclists both physically and psychologically, this is a long term and resource intensive process. In the meantime, the ITS systems are a lighter solution that can be also highly beneficial for a more efficient road infrastructure planning, since they have the capacity to provide data, based on their collision avoidance operations. Indeed, road safety statistics are often limited to fatal cases and do not necessarily include less serious accidents, though they are crucial to understand what might cause future accidents with possibly a more severe outcome. Even if these cases are included in the statistics, they are based on serious accidents reported to the police. However, there are numerous incidents which are not being reported and are not being covered in the road safety data. In order to respond to the demand of city administrations and traffic planning departments for complete and reliable information, upon which they could make corresponding decisions on traffic planning and infrastructure, by the end of the last year Safety Shield Systems has developed Data Collection Telematics System, which records in real time: all collision avoidance warnings they location and time the type of the potential crash victim 13

15 the speed of both the vehicle and the detected road user it may also include the recorded video just before and during the warning, which could help analyse the road situation and investigate accidents, if they were not being able to avoid all other warnings, such as lane departure, speed control, headway monitoring and forward collision warnings, as well as aggressive acceleration and breaking, energy efficiency, etc. The information on collision warnings is presented by the software on a map view in real time, showing areas of concern with regards to potential collisions with cyclists, pedestrians or motorcycles. Figure VI: Recorded collision avoidance warnings displayed on a map view in real time Source: Safety Shield Systems, 2016 Each warning can then be seen on a street view, in order to be able to immediately get an overview of the potential accident hotspot and analyse possible reasons for numerous alerts. 14

16 Figure VII: Each collision warning displayed on a street view Source: Safety Shield Systems, 2016 In the case shown above, on Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn, New York, cyclists tended to deviate from the cycle lane onto the main street, when drivers and passengers of the parked cars were opening the doors. This caused dangerous situations for cyclists and resulted in appropriate warnings by the system. As a result, the City is now carrying out numerous projects for the construction of protected cycling lanes, including on the adjacent Clinton Avenue. Figure VIII: Project for the construction of protected cycling lanes on Clinton Avenue Source: New York City Department of Transport,

17 Further development The goal of Safety Shield Systems is to create a statistical data set retrieved from different urban environments, which would be as complete as possible, in order to make reliable analysis on most common reasons of dangerous road situations involving vulnerable road users and, subsequently, on the most appropriate solutions. In this regards, Safety Shield System is calling for partners until the 31 of May 2016 to participate in a three month pilot project. This would allow traffic planning department to get initial statistics on potentially dangerous spots in the city. Transport companies could additionally benefit from the test of the collision avoidance system. Among the authorities and private companies that have confirmed their participation in the trial are such organisations as Transport for London, East Riding Council, Sainsbury s Supermarket, Amey Group, Arriva, etc. Municipal and transport authorities, private companies with a fleet of vehicles and research organisations are invited to take part. 16

18 References Ealing Council. (18 September 2014). Ealing Council leading the way in cycle safety. Retrieved 2016, from Ealing Council: safety Ealing Council. (2014). London Borough of Ealing Road Safety Plan. Ealing. EPOMM. (2015). TEMS - The EPOMM Modal Split Tool. Retrieved 2016, from epomm.eu: European Cyclist's Federation. (2010). Halving injury and fatality rates for cyclists by 2020, ECF Road Safety Charte. European Cyclists Federation. (2012). Gigaliners/Megatrucks and Road Safety. Florida Department of Transportation Research Center. (2010). Evaluation of Camera-Based Systems to Reduce Transit Bus Side Collisions. Tampa. Jacobs Consultantcy. (2004). Cost-Benefit Analysis of Blind Spot Mirrors. London Assembly. (10 November 2014 г.). Mayor welcomes roll-out of road safety technology. Retrieved 2016, from London Assembly: New York City Department of Transportation. (2016). Clinton Avenue Enhancement. Retrieved 2016, from Feedback Portals: OECD. (1998). Safety of Vulnerable Road Users. Safety Shield Systems. (2015). Introducing Cycle Shield Systems. Retrieved 2016, from Safety Shield Systems: Sainsbury's. (2014). Cycle Safety Shield Trial. SWOV. (2011). SWOV Fact sheet: Road safety hazards of public transport. Leidschendam. SWOV. (2015). SWOV Fact sheet: Blind spot crashes. The Hague. Thorpe, D. (2015, May 26). Revealed: The Top European Countries for Cycling Safety, Advocacy and Popularity. Retrieved 2016, from Sustainable Cities Collective: 17

19 Transport for London. (2014). Cycle Safety Action Plan. London. Transport Research Laboratory. (Luxembourg). Benefit and Feasibility of a Range of New Technologies and Unregulated Measures in the fields of Vehicle Occupant Safety and Protection of Vulnerable Road Users. 2015: Publications Office of the European Union. 18

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