(1) Background: Passenger vehicles equipped with advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) functionalities are becoming more prevalent within vehicle fleets. However, the full effects of offering such systems, which may allow for drivers to become less than 100% engaged with the task of driving, may have detrimental impacts on other road-users, particularly vulnerable road-users, for a variety of reasons. (2) Crash data were analysed in two countries (Great Britain and Australia) to examine some challenging traffic scenarios that are prevalent in both countries and represent scenarios in which future connected and autonomous vehicles may be challenged in terms of safe manoeuvring. (3) Road intersections are currently very common locations for vulnerable road-user accidents; traffic flows and road-user behaviours at intersections can be unpredictable, with many vehicles behaving inconsistently (e.g., red-light running and failure to stop or give way), and many vulnerable road-users taking unforeseen risks. (4) Conclusions: The challenges of unpredictable vulnerable road-user behaviour at intersections (including road-users violating traffic or safe-crossing signals, or taking other risks) combined with the lack of knowledge of CAV responses to intersection rules, could be problematic. This could be further compounded by changes to nonverbal communication that currently exist between road-users, which could become more challenging once CAVs become more widespread.

ObjectiveBus travel is relatively safe: however there remains a lack of understanding of passenger injury incidents onboard buses. The objective of this study was to understand more about onboard passenger incidents to help inform injury mitigation.MethodsThe UK national STATS19 data and Transport for London bus incident data (IRIS) were used to determine the size of the problem in Greater London. Other data including onboard incident reports from two bus operators and CCTV footage of 70 incidents were used to understand passenger injury in more depth and identify common themes and challenges.ResultsThe STATS19 and IRIS analysis showed that there was a difference between nationally reported bus incidents compared to locally reported bus incidents. Non-collision incidents are prevalent in the data suggesting there is a large problem to tackle. The CCTV and bus incident data identified braking to be the single largest problem in onboard bus passenger injury incidents. Inconsistent reporting of passenger incidents and injury descriptions make it difficult to identify injury patterns and trends. Areas on the bus appear to contribute to higher injury incidents namely those seats facing and closest to the wheelchair area. Other challenges relating to expected passenger and driver behaviors were noted where blame for the incident and outcome can be attributed to both parties.ConclusionsThis combined analysis of incident reports and CCTV footage has enabled a better understanding of the events leading to on-board passenger injury incidents. Preventing harsh braking would appear to be the most effective way of reducing passenger injuries. Additionally improved data collection would assist both transport authorities and bus operators to identify and monitor the effect of bus safety improvements.

The i-DREAMS project introduced the concept of a ‘Safety Tolerance Zone’, i.e., a context-aware safety envelope designed to assist drivers in maintaining self-regulated control within the boundaries of safe operations. Using an ecosystem of sensors, i-DREAMS technology continuously monitors factors determining driving task complexity and available coping capacity and calculates risk levels in real-time. Based on this information, both real-time and post-trip interventions are tailored to keep drivers from getting too close to the boundaries of unsafe driving. Real-time interventions are provided via in-vehicle display, while post-trip interventions are delivered via a smartphone app (and web-dashboard) with provisions for gamification. This study focuses on post-trip interventions, specifically user engagement with the i-DREAMS app. Data from 49 Belgian and 51 UK car drivers over a 10-week period showed a steady decline in drivers’ engagement following the first day of app activation. However, when gamification features were activated, user interaction increased, suggesting they re-engaged users. UK drivers exhibited higher engagement than Belgians. Trips, scores and goals were the most visited features in both countries, while the leaderboard was popular among UK drivers only. Analysis showed a dose-response relationship, with intensive app users demonstrating better improvement in driving performance than less frequent users.

The i-DREAMS project introduced the concept of a ‘Safety Tolerance Zone,’ i.e., a context-aware safety envelope designed to assist drivers. Using an ecosystem of sensors, i-DREAMS technology monitors factors that determine driving task complexity and coping capacity and calculates risk levels. Real-time and post-trip interventions are tailored to keep drivers from unsafe driving. Real-time interventions are provided via in-vehicle display, while post-trip interventions are delivered via a smartphone app with gamification provisions. This study focuses on the effectiveness (i.e., outcome evaluation) of real-time and post-trip interventions that involve 4 phases, including the baseline measurement phase. The paper presents a comparative analysis using the data collected from car drivers from three countries: Belgium (n = 48), the UK (n = 49), and Germany (n = 25). Overall, drivers showed a reduction in events per 100 km after exposure to the i-DREAMS technology. So, there was an improved safety outcome. However, differences were found between the countries analyzed. The highest number of events per 100 km was noted for UK drivers, with the reduction pattern consistent across 4 phases. The interventions were more promising for ‘road sharing’ and ‘speeding’ events for Belgian and German drivers. Driver-level analysis revealed that two-thirds of drivers in each country showed a consistent decrease in events/100 km.