Wrong-way driving (WWD) is a growing concern on roadways, as the resulting crashes tend to be severe and often result in fatalities and serious injuries. Transportation agencies are deploying on-road countermeasures such as low-mounted Wrong Way signs, pavement marking improvements, detection-activated signs, but these countermeasures can only go so far to reduce wrong-way crashes.
Advancements in cooperative automated technologies will enable significant possibilities to provide WWD warnings through in-vehicle navigation systems and smartphone-based mobile applications. These types of interventions could supplement on-road countermeasures by influencing wrong-way drivers to correct their wrong-way movements while also alerting other nearby drivers. Many transportation agencies have installed on-road sensors that detect wrong-way vehicle movements and communicate WWD events to traffic management centers. In addition, public safety agencies also become aware of wrong-way drivers through calls from nearby motorists.
A national approach to consistently communicating WWD events would enable data from multiple sources (e.g., 911 calls, on-road sensors, self-reporting mobile applications) to become available through one or more data feeds for in-vehicle mechanisms to access and provide alerts to errant drivers and nearby motorists.
This ENTERPRISE project is expanding outreach efforts begun in the ENTERPRISE Potential Approaches for Wrong-Way Driving Applications project and promoting the concept of a national approach for communicating wrong-way driving event information.