Coordinated by professor Luca Pietrantoni from the Department of Psychology, the project gathers nine partners – universities, research centres and enterprise, such as Volvo – from five different countries. The common objective to is develop the means to equalize the treatment of cyclists in traffic and thus both encourage cycling and make cycling safer.
In Italy, 17000 accidents concerning cyclists occur every year, 50 per day. In case of accident, only 5% of cyclists are uninjuried, only in Italy we count 300 cyclists dying every year. Statistics confirm as in many European countries cyclists are one of the main road actors to be seriously injured and victims of fatalities.
At the same time, they are often not treated equally by traffic systems, for instance traffic signals frequently fail to register their approach or presence.
Xcycle project will manage several tasks. On one hand, it will develop technologies aimed at improving active and passive detection of cyclists systems informing both drivers and cyclists of an hazard at junctions, especially at crossing. As hearing and sight are already overstimulated, the hazard information will use tactical sensors issued by seats, handles, or directly traffic lights.
On the other hand, users will have a central role in the project. Behavioral evaluation will be part of the whole process: attention will be given to cognitive and perceptive processes, to the human-machine interface and to the acceptance by cyclists to use technologies.
“New technologies for road safety must be considered as effective and easy-to-use, otherwise they will be abandoned. If we want to promote the use of bicycle, we need to apt on perceptions and behaviors, in order to induce a collective change” professor Pietrantoni explains “In the Cost-Benefit Analysis behavioral changes will be translated into estimated crashes and casualties saved per system”.
In particular, the project will focus on two practical cases: bicycle interaction with large vehicles and cars at intersections, and the provision of an immediate or extended green traffic light for cyclists approaching traffic signals. Solutions elaborated by Xcycle will be tested and assessed in the new research infrastructure for read safety in the city of Braunschweig (DE).
XCYCLE, that will run for 42 months, is funded as part of Horizon 2020 - the European funding program dedicated to research and innovation. Together with the University of Bologna and Volvo, four research centers and universities and three companies and SMEs will participate in the project: University of Leeds , University of Groningen , Statens väg och transportforskningsinstitut ( VTI ), DLR, IMTECH Trafic and Infra BV , KITE SOLUTIONS Srl , Jenoptik Robot GmbH.