Tech Updates

Top 3 Technologies That Can Prevent Pedestrian Deaths in Intersections

 Sometimes, no matter how careful you are, accidents can still happen on the road, and it’s usually when you least expect it. Intersections are generally the area where pedestrian deaths occur a lot. “Looked-but-failed-to-see” accidents typically happen when a driver fails to notice that there’s another vehicle even when they have already looked in the right direction.

These errors are quite standard, and can be quite fatal, especially if you’re sharing the road with motorcycles and bicycles. That’s why the government has been looking for ways on how to lessen the occurrence of this. Technology can be utilized to help drivers avoid accidents.

1. Test Intersection

According to statistics, almost 23% of fatalities in the US were crashed at intersections, and 48% of which contribute to traffic injuries. That’s why the Department of Transportation has finally decided to open a new highway intersection test facility to study the problem even more.

The test intersection will be utilized to develop and monitor not only in-vehicle but in-roadway systems as well. Through this, they are hoping that it would be capable of warning drivers of impending crash situations before they even occur.

2. Smart Signs

Traffic signs, barricades, and traffic safety cones are quite useful in ensuring the safety of both the motorists and pedestrians. With the help of technology, we can expect further improvement because experts are now testing a series of large red lights mounted above the roadway and intersection.

These lights begin to flash whenever it detects something, and warns the motorists right away, avoiding a crash. With the use of this kind of technology, we can expect that no matter what the road condition may be, drivers would always stay safe.

As compared to urban road intersections, rural roads are considered to be more dangerous. To support that, almost two-thirds of all highway fatalities happened on country roads.

That’s why high-tech flash signs are strategically placed at rural road entrances and intersections to ensure that high-speed vehicles would be detected, and would be able to make a safe turn onto the highway. Although these smart intersections are not yet operating outside testing grounds, we can expect that it will be part of the real world a few years from now.

There are also adaptive signals that would give you the guarantee that inefficiencies will never take place, especially in intersections. They are made to ensure that the traffic demand would be adequately addressed.

As the city leaders start to turn to data for insight, it allows them also to provide that the metros are running efficiently. Through this, the safety of drivers, as well as those who commute has dramatically improved.

This kind of system utilizes a series of wires that are connected to city streets. These give an idea of how much traffic is moving through the intersection.

During heavy traffic, green lights stay on longer, and shorter green lights mean lesser traffic. During peak hours, nearby intersections sync their views, allowing long stretches of through traffic. On the other hand, when there are fewer cars on the road, these intersections can proceed with their cycles.

Although the development is quite slow, we can still say that it’s helping in promoting road safety.

3. In-Vehicle Warnings

Construction engineers are looking for ways on how to ensure that the drivers will remain focused while on the road. To make this happen, they have been experimenting with audio warnings, bells, and rumbling of the driver’s seat that could wake up or alert distracted drivers.

Engineers are also working on the pulse rate of flashing signs to discover the pace that drivers should stick with. Smart symptoms are considered to be everyone’s safety devices, and the in-vehicle systems have the same purpose.

The government is also analyzing how people drive their vehicles, interact with traffic, and use warning systems. The Department of Transportation industry is also conducting several studies about this, with hopes that it can help them discover ways on how to efficiently gather data and use it to spot unusual activities on the road.

It’s also worth noting that almost 90 percent of car accidents were caused by driver error. That’s why by building a robust database of real-time driver behavior, it would be possible to lower the occurrence of such accidents.

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