ADAS safety impacts on rural and urban highways

Compared to the motorway network, rural and urban roads are very unsafe. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems can be used to increase traffic safety, thereby improving the conditions for effective deployment of the underlying network for integrated traffic management. In this study, we have identified ADA systems that are expected to have a high impact on traffic safety by coupling characteristics of accidents to the functionality of different ADA systems. Based on the results of this study, Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) and Intersection Crash Avoidance systems appeared most likely to substantially improve the safety on non-motorway roads. ISA was selected for further analysis due to the likelihood of timely deployment of the system. Microscopic simulation model was used to quantify the impacts on traffic safety for an urban highway with controlled intersections near the Dutch city of Delft. Depending on the penetration level, the results of the simulation study showed that the decrease in the total number of accidents ranges from 4% to 19%.