Assessment of the Effectiveness of the Portuguese Implementation. VRU-TOO Deliverable 12.

The work of VRU-TOO is targeted specifically at the application of AlT for the reduction of risk and the improvement of comfort for vulnerable road users, namely pedestrians. To achieve this, the project has combined pilot implementations in three countries (UK, Greece and portugal) with behavioural studies and the development of computer simulation techniques. At the same time the pilot implementations have been co-ordinated with local and national policy priorities.

This deliverable presents the results from a trial that was carried out on a major arterial road just outside the central area of Porto, Portugal The objective of the trial was to show that it was possible to improve the safety and mobility of pedestrians at a junction and crossing facility which was situated adjacent to a large school by intelligent manipulation of the signal settings.

Pedestrian detectors were attached to the traffic signals in order to detect pedestrians as they approached the crossing point. As a result of this detection, in certain circumstances, the signal cycle would be advanced so as to reduce the time until the signals would change to present the pedestrian with an opportunity to cross the road. The detectors would also allow the green time for pedestrians to be extended if there was sufficient demand, allowing safer and more comfortable crossing periods. Finally the pedestrian green time could also be reduced in order to avoid wasted time, if there was no pedestrian demand, thus allowing a more optimised functioning of the junction.

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of this treatment an extensive "before and after" analysis was carried out to determine the changes in safety and mobility, especially for child pedestrians.

The evaluation of the trial was carried out by using the data collected to assess whether the pre- specified objectives have been achieved. The implications of the results are then discussed as well as their implication to the more general installation of such measures in the Portuguese context