Sascha Knake-Langhorst

Understanding interactions between bicyclists and motorists in intersections

Especially in urban areas, more people choose the bicycle over the car in order to get from point A to point B. On the downside, more bicyclist in the streets resulted in a 50 percent increase of fatalities. Last year, in Germany, bicyclist accounted for twelve percent of all fatalities. Research shows that a major contributing factor to those fatalities is ‘insufficient cooperation’ between bicyclists and motorists. Nonetheless, most encounters of bicyclists and motorists neither result in conflicts nor in fatal crashes. In order to investigate interaction patterns between bicyclists and motorists, those road users were observed at a busy intersection in Braunschweig for a period of five working days. Situations, recorded at the AIM research intersection, in which motorists turned right and bicyclists went straight through the intersection, were analyzed. The goal was to understand the behavior and the underlying mechanism, quantify the observed behavior, and identify objective parameters to map the behavior. As a result, the knowledge may be used to implement strategies and technologies that may predict and prevent fatal crashes in intersections.

Fahrerunterstützung beim Ein- und Ausfädeln

Das Institut fur Verkehrssystemtechnik des Deutschen Zentrums fur Luft- und Raumfahrt hat im Rahmen eines Forderprojekts eine Fahrerassistenzfunktion entwickelt, die bei der Durchfuhrung von Ein- und Ausfadelvorgangen unterstutzt. Damit hilft das System, kritische Situationen und Unfalle zu vermeiden. Der Umfang der Unterstutzung reicht dabei von einer Information und Warnung bis hin zu einer Automatisierung der Langsfuhrung.