Data Illuminators: Scalable Data Collection for Nighttime Crosswalk Lighting
Faculty Advisor: Lawrence Neeley
Sponsor: Santos Family Foundation/Volpe National Transportation Center
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, 76% of pedestrian fatalities occur in dark conditions, even though only 25% of traffic occurs after dark. To reduce these fatalities, it is important to identify crosswalks at higher risk and those that do not meet recommended lighting guidelines.
The process of evaluating the lighting of every crosswalk in any significant geographic area is time-consuming and currently impractical for governments. With the goal of saving time and money on these data collection and evaluative processes (and save lives!), our SCOPE team, in collaboration with the Santos Family Foundation and the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, is working to provide a reliable, scalable data collection method to determine driver visibility of pedestrians in crosswalks at night.
Ultimately, our SCOPE team is aiming to provide a streamlined, efficient data collection method and analysis process to inform decisions of street lighting and pedestrian-vehicle safety teams for 2-3 municipalities in Massachusetts and beyond.
Faculty Advisor:
- Lawrence Neeley
Team Members:
- Maya Cranor
- Rucha Dave
- Allyson Hur
- Daeyoung Kim
- Natsuki Sacks