Survey Results from the Connected Vehicle Deployment in Ohio Revealed Safety Enhancements, Including Eight Percent Fewer Crashes, 28 Percent Increased Driver Awareness, and Five Percent Fewer Near Misses.
Ohio’s Pilot Deployment of Connected Vehicle Technology Field Tested Five Safety Applications in a Mixed Fleet of Vehicles.
Dublin
Marysville
U.S. 33 Smart Mobility Corridor Program Final Report
Summary Information
Connected Vehicle (CV) technology offers a wide variety of vehicle applications, roadside infrastructure, on-board units (OBU), and associated systems utilizing Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications. This study reported the safety and mobility impacts of the CV technology deployment project throughout a 33-mile-long test corridor along US 33 in Ohio. The CV deployment involved installing 100 roadside units and 200 OBU in a mixed fleet of vehicles, and incorporating five CV safety applications, namely the Lane Closure Warning (LNCLW), Reduced Speed Zone Warning (RSZW), Curve Speed Warning (CSW), Pedestrian Conflict Warning (PCW), and Red-Light Violation Warning (RLVW) applications. The project was funded by the U.S.DOT, as well as the state and local governments in 2016. The project deployment spanned a period from January 2018 to May 2023. This study also conducted an online user survey to drivers of equipped public fleet vehicles in July 2023 among the users in the City of Marysville, the City of Dublin, and Union County, in Ohio. The survey had 75 responses.
METHODOLOGY
The user experience survey conducted in this study was sent to drivers of equipped public fleet vehicles to obtain qualitative feedback of their perception and experience with the technology and the use of the five aforementioned applications. The survey remained available online for approximately two weeks, and out of a total of 200 surveys sent to all OBU participants,75 responses were collected for an approximate 37.5 percent response rate.
FINDINGS
- User survey results showed that a total of 41 percent of respondents experienced safety enhancements through fewer crashes (eight percent), increased driver awareness (28 percent), and fewer "near misses" (five percent). However, about 48 percent of participants did not respond to the survey question on crashes, driver awareness, and near misses, indicating many may not have perceived significant benefits, as reflected in the low average rating of the application's effectiveness.
- Additionally, 11 percent of respondents reported improved mobility due to the CV system providing accurate information on driving conditions.
- When asked about the ease of learning and using the CV features in the vehicle, a combined 19 percent of the respondents found the CV features either somewhat easy to learn and use (11 percent) or extremely easy (eight percent).
- Concerning the reliability of the CV, respondents indicated the technology as generally unreliable (59 percent). Only 19 percent of respondents indicated the technology being very reliable (four percent) or somewhat reliable (15 percent).
- Regarding perceptions of the CV technology's reliability in providing accurate, timely, and relevant information, 25 percent found it very reliable (five percent) or somewhat reliable (20 percent).
- This study noted that the low response rate received for the survey (37.5 percent) and the low proportion of positive opinions on the deployment was not surprising given the many challenges the project had during the deployment phase, including COVID19 and limited user training on the onboard technology.
- It was also noted that ratings for “ease of use of the technology” were correlated with “overall satisfaction with the CV technology” indicating that respondents who found the technology easier to use also tended to be more satisfied.
