Austrian traffic technology corporation SWARCO AG and San Francisco-based Lime, the world’s leading provider of shared electric vehicles, announced they would join forces to improve the safety of vulnerable road users travelling with e-scooters and bikes. The companies will bundle their respective expertise in traffic management and environmentally friendly mobility services in a pilot project to reduce the traffic crash risk of micro-mobility users at traffic light controlled intersections.
“As a specialist in mobility and intersection safety, SWARCO is well-positioned to help cities offer a safer environment for their new mobility carriers like e-scooters, in particular at those black spots and conflicting zones where pedestrians, vehicles, e-scooters, bicycles and other modes meet”, says Christoph Stögerer, Head of Innovation & Technology with SWARCO’s ITS Division.
The joint pilot project, labelled Intersection Risk Mitigation, aims to optimize SWARCO’s adaptive traffic light management algorithms to improve the safety of vulnerable road users and enhance traffic efficiency for drivers. SWARCO will leverage Lime’s extensive and unparalleled anonymized ridership data to develop insights and potential countermeasures like adjusted crosswalk timing algorithms to support safer road conditions, especially for vulnerable users of micro-mobility. SWARCO and Lime look forward to working with City partners to implement data-backed safety measures.
“We know that intersections are key areas where conflict between cars and micro-mobility users are more likely to occur, which is why we’re excited to partner with SWARCO to reduce the potential for crashes,” said Annie Chang, Director of Safety Programs at Lime. “We’re encouraged by SWARCO’s leadership in providing traffic management solutions throughout Europe and believe that with Lime’s unparalleled expertise in micro-mobility data, we can make a real impact in improving safety for all road users, including pedestrians, cyclists and scooter riders.”
“Lime and SWARCO will engage with municipalities to create these Intersection Risk Mitigation Solutions“, adds Christoph Stögerer. “This helps to understand current challenges firsthand from the stakeholders affected and evaluate the capabilities of such solutions in real life.
Source: SWARCO
