2003 Status Report on Transit Intelligent Vehicle Initiative Studies

This 2003 Status Report provides an overview and updates on studies in the transit Intelligent Vehicle Initiative (IVI) area. IVI emphasizes the significant and continuing role of drivers in roadway safety. IVI is aimed at accelerating the development, availability, and use of driving assistance and control intervention systems to reduce vehicle crashes. IVI systems' ultimate goal is to help drivers process information, make decisions, and operate vehicles more safely. The emphasis of the transit IVI program can be divided into two major areas. Projects in the first area include the frontal collision warning system, side collision warning system, rear impact collision warning system, and integrated collision warning system. These projects are intended to reduce imminent crash situations in the transit operating environment. The second area of emphasis for the transit IVI program is to assist bus operators in degraded driving conditions. One example is the vehicle-lane assist technology project. Vehicle-lane assist technology is intended to improve the safety of transit vehicles as they operate in difficult environments, such as bus-only shoulders. Vehicle-lane assist technology is likely to be one of the first IVI technologies to be implemented for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) operations.