Impact of countdown signals on traffic safety and efficiency:a review and proposal

Countdown signals for motorized vehicles,which are intended to ensure safety on the road and regulate motor vehicle speed limits at road intersections,are still considered a relatively novel concept.These signals have been adopted by only a few countries,and the number of cities that use them is limited.This review aims to summarize the effects of countdown signals on traffic safety and efficiency and to determine the consistency and differences of existing research propositions on the matter.Based on the review,considerable research presents evidently different conclusions in the areas of driver red-light running and traffic safety.Particularly,some studies propose that countdown signals reinforce traffic safety,whereas others consider that such signals adversely affect traffic safety.Meanwhile,related literature provides varying conclusions on the aspect of traffic efficiency for vehicle headway.At present,the number of studies conducted regarding the driving behaviors of motorists toward countdown-signalized intersections is insufficient.Accordingly,such inadequate diversity in research causes difficulty in completely assessing the benefits and disadvantages of countdown signals.In this paper,an important future research direction on microcosmic driving psychological and physiological data combined with macro-driving behavior is proposed.

A Situation-Aware Collision Avoidance Strategy for Car-Following

In this paper, we discuss how to develop an appropriate collision avoidance strategy for car-following. This strategy aims to keep a good balance between traffic safety and efficiency while also taking into consideration the unavoidable uncertainty of position/speed perception/measurement of vehicles and other drivers. Both theoretical analysis and numerical testing results are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.

Integrated Spacing Policy Considering Micro- and Macroscopic Characteristics

An appropriate spacing policy improves traffic flow and traffic efficiency while reducing commuting time and energy con-sumption.In this paper,the integrated spacing policy that combines the benefits of the constant time headway(CTH)and safety distance(SD)spacing policies is proposed in an attempt to improve traffic flow and efficiency.Firstly,the performance of the CTH and SD spacing policies is analyzed from the perspective of the microscopic characteristics of human-vehicle and the macroscopic characteristics of traffic flow.The switching law between CTH and SD spacing policies and the integrated spacing policy are then proposed to increase traffic efficiency according to the traffic conditions,and the critical speed for the proposed integrated spacing policy is derived.Using the proposed switching law,the integrated spacing policy utilizes the safety redundancy difference between the CTH and SD spacing policies in a flexible manner.Simulation tests demon-strate that the proposed integrated spacing policy increases traffic flow and that the traffic flow maintains string stability in a wider range of traffic flow density.