Safety Assessment of the Interaction Between an Automated Vehicle and a Cyclist

Safety Assessment of the Interaction Between an Automated Vehicle and a Cyclist: A Controlled Field Test

Oskina, M.I. (Royal HaskoningDHV)
Farah, H. (TU Delft Transport and Planning)
Morsink, Peter (Royal HaskoningDHV)
Happee, R. (TU Delft Intelligent Vehicles)
van Arem, B. (TU Delft Transport and Planning)

2023

The operation of automated vehicles (AVs) on shared roads requires attention concerning their interactions with vulnerable road users (VRUs), such as cyclists. This study investigates the safety of cyclists when they interact with an AV and compares it with their interaction with a conventional vehicle. Overall, 29 cyclists participated in a controlled field experiment consisting of interaction scenarios in which a vehicle approached the cyclist from behind. Four interaction scenarios were included: manual and automated following and manual and automated overtaking of the cyclist. The vehicle operated in all scenarios in a manual mode for safety reasons. However, before each ride, participants received information about the vehicle’s operation mode (automated or manual). The following attributes were considered: overtaking speed, overtaking lateral distance, following distance, and roadside objects. The objective and the subjective risks were evaluated in each scenario. The objective risk was assessed using the probabilistic driving risk field, and the subjective risk was assessed based on the cyclists’ selfreported risk values, cycling behavior, and their trust in AVs. The results show that automated and manual following have similar objective and subjective risks, while automated overtaking has a higher level of objective and subjective risks than manual overtaking. The results also show that a longer interaction time leads to an increase in cycling speed and a decrease in the lateral distance of the cyclist to the curb. Thus, we conclude that automated following is a safer option for short traveling distances, while for longer traveling distances, manual overtaking is preferred. Additionally, a short lateral distance from the cyclist when overtaking increases the subjective and objective risks.

advanced driver assistance systems
bicycles
human factors
modeling and forecasting
pedestrians
safety

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7da602ca-94d1-440e-9e16-7c1d54bea676

https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981221112423

2023-08-28

0361-1981

Transportation Research Record, 2677 (2), 1138-1149

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2023 M.I. Oskina, H. Farah, Peter Morsink, R. Happee, B. van Arem