SCC-PG: CrossGuard: Enhancing Pedestrian Experience at Intersections

我们从前几代人那里继承下来的城市交通基础设施主要围绕着车辆交通的需求，很少或根本没有考虑到适应不断增长的行人人口的需求。实现智慧城市社区的关键挑战之一在于将行人的需求融入城市基础设施的设计中。例如，在十字路口，特别是在恶劣的天气条件下，缺乏及时的过马路支持，使许多行人感到沮丧，并有利于乱穿马路，这是大城市行人死亡的一个有充分记录的原因。因此，提供以行人为中心的服务至关重要，特别是为儿童、老人和残疾人等弱势行人提供服务。该提案旨在开发和建设CrossGuard系统，该系统将使十字路口的交通更加安全，并在此过程中提高行人的体验质量。CrossGuard将探索智能基础设施、数据分析、智能传感和参与行人之间的新机会，以实现“零交通死亡”愿景，这是一项旨在实现零交通死亡的全球倡议。CrossGuard的设计灵感来自于人类交警，他们通常驻扎在繁忙的十字路口，尤其是学校附近。就像一个警惕的交警一样，CrossGuard会预测行人的需求，并迅速有效地满足他们的需求。我们希望这个项目能够产生深远而持久的社会影响。CrossGuard的目标将通过探索四个研究问题来实现：(1)调查和理解行人社区面临的挑战；(2)设计识别弱势行人的算法，建立确保弱势行人安全过马路的随机模型；(3)开发传感模式和资源分配策略，以成功提供CrossGuard的服务；(4)将十字路口扩大到无信号交叉口。该小组将通过焦点小组和研讨会积极与诺福克市和弗吉尼亚比奇市的公民和官员进行有意义的对话。它们还将努力确保有代表性的各阶层公民，特别是学龄儿童的父母、老年人和残疾人的参与。该团队设想，收集到的丰富的实时交通数据与感知到的交通趋势相结合，将使行人和车辆交通的无缝整合成为可能。反过来，这将为连接城市空间提供新的机会，并将大大减少涉及行人，特别是儿童的交通事故。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The urban transportation infrastructure that we have inherited from previous generations is centered largely around the needs of vehicular traffic, with little or no regard to accommodating the needs of a growing pedestrian population. One of the key challenges in enabling smart urban communities lies in integrating pedestrians’ needs into the design of the urban infrastructure. For example, lack of timely support to cross the streets at intersections, particularly in inclement weather conditions, frustrates many pedestrians and is conducive to jaywalking, a well-documented source of pedestrian fatalities in big cities. It is, therefore, of a fundamental importance to provide pedestrian-centric services, particularly for vulnerable pedestrians such as children, the elderly, and the disabled. This proposal aims to develop and build CrossGuard, a system which will make crossing at intersections safer and, in the process, elevate pedestrians' quality of experience. CrossGuard will explore new opportunities available at the nexus of intelligent infrastructure, data analytics, intelligent sensing, and engaged pedestrians towards Vision Zero, a world-wide initiative that aims for zero traffic fatalities. The design of CrossGuard is inspired by human crossing guards, often stationed at busy intersections, most notably near schools. Just like a vigilant crossing guard, CrossGuard will anticipate pedestrian needs and accommodate them promptly and effectively. We expect this project to have a profound and lasting societal impact. The objectives of CrossGuard will be realized via the exploration of four research questions: (1) Investigating and developing an understanding of the challenges facing the pedestrian community; (2) Designing algorithms to identify vulnerable pedestrians and developing stochastic models for ensuring that they can cross safely; (3) Developing sensing modalities and resource allocation strategies for the successful provisioning of CrossGuard’s services; and (4) Expanding CrossGuard to non-signalized intersections. The team will actively engage citizens and officials from the cities of Norfolk and Virginia Beach in a meaningful dialogue via focus groups and workshops. They will also make efforts to ensure participation from a representative cross-section of the citizens, particularly parents of school-age children, the elderly, and people with disabilities. The team envisions that the wealth of real-time traffic data collected in conjunction with perceived traffic trends will make the seamless integration of pedestrian and vehicular traffic possible. In turn, this will offer new opportunity for connected urban spaces, and will drastically reduce traffic accidents involving pedestrians, especially children.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.