CAR-TO-CYCLIST CRASHES IN EUROPE AND DERIVATION OF USE CASES AS BASIS FOR TEST SCENARIOS OF NEXT GENERATION ADVANCED DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS – RESULTS FROM PROSPECT

Abstract

Systems available on the market address also conflicts with vulnerable road users (VRUs) such as pedestrians
and cyclists. Within the European project PROSPECT (Horizon2020, funded by the EC) improved VRU ADAS
systems are developed and tested. However, before determining systems’ properties and starting testing, an
up-to-date analysis of VRU crashes was needed in order to derive the most important Use Cases (detailed
crash descriptions) the systems should address. Besides the identified Accident Scenarios (basic crash
descriptions), this paper describes in short the method of deriving the Use Cases for car-to-cyclist crashes.
Method
Crashes involving one passenger car and one cyclist were investigated in several European crash databases
looking for all injury severity levels (slight, severe and fatal). These data sources included European statistics
from CARE, data on national level from Germany, Sweden and Hungary as well as detailed accident
information from these three countries using GIDAS, the Volvo Cars Cyclist Accident database and Hungarian
in-depth accident data, respectively. The most frequent accident scenarios were studied and Use Cases were
derived considering the key aspects of these crash situations (e.g., view orientation of the cyclist and the car
driver’s manoeuvre intention) and thus, form an appropriate basis for the development of Test Scenarios.
Results
Latest information on car-to-cyclist crashes in Europe was compiled including details on the related crash
configurations, driving directions, outcome in terms of injury severity, accident location, other environmental
aspects and driver responsibilities. The majority of car-to-cyclist crashes occurred during daylight and in clear weather conditions. Car-to-cyclist crashes in which the vehicle was traveling straight and the cyclist is moving
in line with the traffic were found to result in the greatest number of fatalities. Considering also slightly and
seriously injured cyclists led to a different order of crash patterns according to the three considered
European countries. Finally the paper introduced the Use Cases derived from the crash data analysis. A total
of 29 Use Cases were derived considering the group of seriously or fatally injured cyclists and 35 Use Cases
were derived considering the group of slightly, seriously or fatally injured cyclists. The highest ranked Use
Case describes the collision between a car turning to the nearside and a cyclist riding on a bicycle lane
against the usual driving direction.
Discussion
A unified European dataset on car-to-cyclist crash scenarios is not available as the data available in CARE is
limited, hence national datasets had to be used for the study and further work will be required to extrapolate
the results to a European level. Due to the large number of Use Cases, the paper shows only highest ranked
ones.