Development and Field Evaluation of a Prototype Tool to Detect and Identify Left Turning Vehicles

Project Details
STATUS

Completed

START DATE

03/15/09

END DATE

09/30/10

RESEARCH CENTERS InTrans, CTRE
SPONSORS

Iowa Department of Transportation

Researchers
Principal Investigator
Omar Smadi

Director, CTRE

Principal Investigator
Shashi Nambisan
Principal Investigator
Neal Hawkins

Associate Director, InTrans

About the research

This project is a follow-up to CTRE’s study “Best Practices and Recommended Strategies for Shared Left Turn Lanes at Traffic Signal Controlled Approaches.” This project will work with the traffic signal industry to evaluate the possibility and utility of using video detection to help detect left turn vehicles where no left turn lane exists. This could benefit safety in that cities could modify signal operations to give exlusive left turn indications when needed. This project proposes to build an analog video feed input, analyze a specified region to identify a vehicle with an activated left turn signal, and provide that information through a contact closure interface.

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