Implementation of a V2I Highway Safety System and Connected Vehicle Testbed

Project summary:

Safety and traffic operations concepts based on vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication have been in development for some time now. USDOT is now actively promoting speed harmonization (SPD-HARM) and queue warning (Q-WARN) as the first two most-implementable V2I technologies and has released a request for information regarding the establishment of connected-vehicle (CV) testbeds around the country. Separately, since 2003, with the assistance of the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), the Minnesota Traffic Observatory (MTO) at the University of Minnesota has studied and experimented with infrastructure-based Q-WARN systems. A permanent field lab has been established at the high-crash area of westbound I-94 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, capturing detailed data on hundreds of crashes. This area experiences more than 100 crashes each year, the majority of them rear-end collisions due to a failure to stop or allowing too small of a headway. Capitalizing on the extensive instrumentation available at the I-94 Field Lab, a CV testbed was developed specifically for the implementation and testing of SPD-HARM and Q-WARN systems. The project followed a phased approach where, first, an infrastructure-based Q-WARN system was implemented and, then, expanded to a V2I SPD-HARM and Q-WARN demonstration. The site was enhanced to support fully developed CV safety systems as well as the research and evaluation of the underlying human factors of such systems. The final product of this project is a fully functional CV testbed, uniquely situated to attract freeway safety-oriented V2I and V2V safety application development, implementation, and evaluation projects.

• OST-R summary report for this project (PDF)
• May 2015 Roadway Safety Showcase presentation (1.34 MB PDF)

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