Pedestrian Safety

TRL's work in pedestrian safety includes the following:

• Accident studies are used to understand the problem of pedestrians being injured in road accidents. These may use the many accident databases that TRL holds or has access to including:
  • a pedestrian database, to investigate the causes of pedestrian injuries. This data comes from an Enhanced Medical Engineering Link project run in conjunction with a major London A&E hospital
  • a project providing updated data on pedestrian survivability by impact speed, to help inform Department for Transport policy
• PERS (Pedestrian Environment Review System), a street audit system based on a software analysis tool, can assist local authorities in assessing network performance for pedestrians; this looks at several aspects including safety. TRL can carry out on-site audits as well as selling the software
• Another infrastructure topic with implications for pedestrian safety is pedestrian crossings, including intelligent control systems. TRL has studied many aspects of pedestrian safety at signal-controlled junctions and stand-alone signal-controlled crossings, including a number of studies on Puffin crossings, behaviour on high-speed roads and the effect of signal control strategies on pedestrians
• TRL has also researched the training of pedestrians, particularly children, to improve their ability to use roads safely
• TRL is investigating vehicle-based systems to detect pedestrians. TRL led a consortium in a Foresight Vehicle project, the Advanced Protection of Vulnerable Road Users (APVRU), where an infrared and radar sensor system was developed capable of detecting and tracking pedestrians in front of a moving vehicle. This proof-of-concept system was demonstrated in 2004 and a more developed system could form the basis of a pre-crash pedestrian system that may give drivers advanced warning, apply braking to reduce impact severity or deploy active safety systems before impact
• TRL has been involved over a long period in developing test procedures to assess the protection provided by cars when they impact pedestrians. TRL developed the lower and upper legform impactors that are used in these tests, for European legislation and Euro NCAP ratings. Recently, TRL has been working on improved test procedures as part of APROSYS SP3
• TRL has also been involved in APROSYS SP2, which aimed to develop test procedures to show how aggressive heavy vehicles were when impacting pedestrians and to develop prototype solutions to demonstrate how the protection offered can be improved (including improved field of view to prevent accidents, and passive and active solutions for impact protection). 

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