Overview
About 30% of pedestrian victims of road accidents in Poland are hit on marked pedestrian crossings.
The aim of this project is to develop and test a method of assessing safety of pedestrian road crossings using automatic video image analysis.
The method will be based on detecting traffic conflicts between pedestrians and vehicles. Such conflicts are much more frequent than accidents and therefore assessments can be made based on relatively short observation periods.
During the project, six field tests will be conducted on different crossing types. Statistical analysis of conflicts will result in an objective evaluation of measures used to improve pedestrian safety. Promoting best practices will lead to a reduction of the numbers of pedestrians killed or injured on Polish roads. Lower number of victims means reduction in social costs and human suffering but also savings to the state budget.
Funding
Results
It is estimated that the methodology developed for the project to evaluate the safety of pedestrian crossings using automated image analysis will improve pedestrian safety on crossings. This improvement will mean a decrease in the number of dead and injured. The initial data to estimate the magnitude of this decline may be assumed in the GAMBIT 2005 National Road Safety Program, which includes a 30% reduction in the number of unprotected road users (including pedestrians) within 8 years.
According to accident statistics, in 2011 on pedestrian crossings 208 people were killed and 3124 people were injured. By adopting a reduction of 30% in 8 years, 8 fatalities were avoided and 117 injured were injured each year. According to the current guidelines on social costs and benefits analysis, the social cost of fatalities in 2011 was PLN 1,767,285, while one injured - PLN 255,932. The annual social benefits resulting from the use of the methodology developed for the assessment of pedestrian crossings can be estimated at over $ 44 million. Due to the rising unitary costs of casualties in subsequent years, which are a consequence of the assumed increase in wealth of society, these benefits will increase to more than 82 million PLN in 2020.