Flexible, Mobile Video Camera System and Open Source Video Analysis Software for Road Safety and Behavioral Analysis

This paper presents a scalable, discreet, mobile video camera system that takes elevated video data of roadway locations for traffic safety analysis. The video is used to extract microscopic traffic parameters that include road user trajectories, lane changes, and speeds. Collected video data are processed with an open source automatic tracking tool. Trajectories can then be used to analyze road user behavior for specific locations (intersections or highway sections) or to evaluate the safety effectiveness of a treatment. The different elements of the system, including data collection and processing, are discussed. To illustrate the system's versatility, applications (case studies) illustrate the use of the video camera system and open source video-tracking and analysis tool. These studies include video-based analysis of conflict at highway ramps and behavioral analysis of pedestrians and cyclists at signalized intersections that includes red light violations.

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