PROLOGUE - Promoting Real Life Observations for Gaining Understanding of Road Behaviour in Europe
Overview
Background & policy context:
The number of road fatalities in Member States is decreasing too slowly to meet the EU-targets. A new generation of measures is needed, underpinned by a new generation of research methods. Recent technology developments allow for this: naturalistic observations. This means that road user behaviour is observed unobtrusively in a natural setting for a longer period of time. This technique allows analysing the interrelationship between road user, vehicle, road and other traffic in normal situations, in conflict situations and in actual collisions. It will lead to a better understanding of these interrelationships.
Objectives:
The main objective of PROLOGUE was to prove the feasibility and usefulness of a large-scale European naturalistic observation study. The project aimed at road safety researchers and other stakeholders including car industry, insurance companies, driver training and certification organisations, road authorities, and governments. Whereas road safety is the main motive, the project also looked at the relevance for environmental issues, e.g. CO2 emissions, and traffic management.
Methodology:
Using the naturalistic observation research method will lead to a better understanding of road safety and help to realise an intrinsically safe road transport system, including in-car technology, self-explaining roads, driver training, etc.
Based on inventory studies, five small-scale field trials, and close involvement of user groups and stakeholders, PROLOGUE set out to result in recommendations and an outline for a large-scale naturalistic study, dealing with research questions, methodology and technology for data collection, data storage, data reduction, data mining and data analysis.
The five field trials were conducted in Israel, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain and Greece. The trials varied in a number of aspects, such as the technology used, type and number of cars involved, research questions addressed, target populations, samples and sampling strategies, data handling and storage, data reduction techniques and data analysis. From the technological point of view, all field trials included a technological system measuring basic g-force based driving parameters. Beyond this, the various technological systems varied substantially, ranging from simple accelerometers to fully equipped cars. This diversity in experiences contributes to the identification of aspects to be considered in a subsequent large-scale Naturalistic Driving (ND) study. Moreover, the trials provided an illustration of the type of information that ND research can provide.
Communication and dissemination to all potential stakeholders are vital to gain their support for and involvement in a large-scale European study.
The PROLOGUE consortium consisted of 9 partners institutes, well spread over Europe and included Israel. The consortium has a wide experience on all aspects relevant for naturalistic observations, and a large international network of road safety and transport experts.
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