Combined generation of road marking and road sign databases applied to consistency checking of pedestrian crossings

Combined road marking and traffic sign databases are beneficial for both road maintenance and for usage within navigation devices and autonomous driving vehicles. The combination of both markings and signs completely provides all instructions and legislation for drivers. This paper presents a conceptual system for the automated creation of such combined databases and investigates the benefit of this combination for the specific case of pedestrian crossings. Evaluations on 62 km of road have shown that individual detection of road signs and markings indicating pedestrian crossings is very accurate (≥ 95%), enabling selective safety analysis towards these specific locations. Combining both approaches enables very accurate identification of crosswalks and additionally leads to the retrieval of crossings with undetectable markings or signs, such that maintenance can be directed specifically towards these potentially dangerous crosswalks.