Evaluation of Emerging Transportation Technologies: Case Studies in Phoenix and Chandler

Co-PI: Mohammad Shaon, Ph.D. (Phase 1) & Abolfazl Karimpour, Ph.D. (Phase 2)

For better planning for active transportation which includes walking and biking activities, accurate pedestrian and bicyclist data is needed. Unfortunately, the technologies that are currently available or used for vehicle detections and counts are not well suited to produce reliable pedestrian and bicyclist data. Recognizing this necessity of dynamically increasing the pedestrian crossing time as needed as well as better detecting and counting pedestrian and bicyclists for both operational and planning purposes, the scope of this project was developed. This project intends to identify emerging technologies which claim to detect and count pedestrians and bicyclists, deploy a pilot project, and evaluate the capabilities. The findings of this pilot project are useful to transportation engineers, planners, and safety professionals who are involved in improving pedestrians and bicyclists’ safety and mobility in the region.