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Intelligent Transportation Systems
Joint Program Office

Overview

The U.S. DOT aims to transform intersection safety by incentivizing the innovative application of emerging technologies to identify and mitigate unsafe conditions involving vehicles and vulnerable road users at intersections. This initiative, which is specifically focused on the use of technology, complements other federal efforts to improve intersection safety. The intersection environment is well-suited to innovative mitigative approaches that leverage and potentially repurpose existing traffic control and support infrastructure.

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Vision

Transform intersection safety through the innovative application of emerging technologies including machine vision, sensor fusion, and real-time decision-making to identify and mitigate unsafe conditions involving vehicles and vulnerable road users at intersections.

Addressing the Problem

Intersection safety is a growing issue, especially for vulnerable road users.

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Intersection Crashes

Each year roughly one-quarter of traffic fatalities and about one-half of all traffic injuries in the United States are attributed to intersections. FHWA Safety

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Rising Vulnerable Road User Deaths

Vulnerable road user fatalities are on the rise with pedestrian fatalities in 2022 (7,522) at the highest level since 1981, and increasing significantly since 2013 (4,779). NHTSA

Proposing a Solution

Accelerate the deployment of intersection safety systems leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) nationwide.

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Data Fusion Utilizing Existing and Emerging Sensors

Emerging, low-cost sensors can be deployed at intersections for improved sensing of vulnerable road users. Data from these sensors can be fused and used in new ways by AI.

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Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

AI/ML can fuse data from multiple machine vision sensing modalities rapidly to improve situational awareness and anticipate potential conflicts.

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Low-Cost, High-Value Opportunity for Integration at Scale

These existing technologies have not been deployed together at intersections broadly, offering an opportunity ripe for innovative collaboration.

Initiatives

AI innovation could make our nation's intersections safer for all road users.

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Multiple teams competed against each other utilizing sensor fusion and machine learning algorithms to detect, localize, and classify vulnerable road users and vehicles as well as predict their paths and potential conflicts.

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The Intersection Safety Systems (ISS) initiative is focused on full end-to-end prototype development and testing of systems that can improve intersection safety using technologies described above, including sensor fusion, AI-based decision-making, and conflict mitigation.

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Additional Resources

Enhancing the Safety of Vulnerable Road Users at Intersections

Report | February 2023

Summary Report Request for Information (RFI)

Enhancing the Safety of Vulnerable Road Users at Intersections

Webinar | March 17, 2023

Presentation Material