Simulation Assisted Safety Impact Analyses for Signalized Urban Intersections

Abstract

This study primarily investigates the combination of a microscopic traffic flow simulation and a crash prediction model to develop effective surrogate safety assessment measures at signalized urban intersections. This approach enables the early identification of safety risks in traffic flow and can be utilized for risk assessment of different traffic sites as part of road safety audits by identifying the probability of several accident types. Nevertheless, resulting individual vehicle accidents can only be investigated in detail in nanoscopic accident and vehicle crash simulations that allow the consideration of detailed vehicle dynamics and therefore estimations of collision severity. Hence, the second objective of this study is to combine the existing simulation methods to provide a tool able to analyze critical traffic situations. Furthermore, the tool is also capable to evaluate the pre-crash phase and to assess the effectivity of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems such as Autonomous Emergency Braking.