Realization of a Safe and Secure SocietyzResearch Trends and ResultsDrive Recorders
Towards their Application to Safety
Measures for Community Roads



KANEKO Masahiro, Head NAKASU Keita, Senior Researcher
Advanced Road Design and Safety Division, Road Department(Key words) Community roads, traffic safety measures, drive recorder
1. Background of the research
Traffic accident fatalities in Japan have tended todecrease in recent years, and fell below 5,000 in 2009
for the first time in 57 years. However, on communityroads, the state of traffic safety improvement is stillsevere compared to that on arterial roads, because
hazardous spots are scattered over the extremely hightotal length of these roads . It is impossible to clarify
causes of accidents for each location by analyzing
accident data as it is on arterial roads.
Recently, the use of drive recorders has spread
rapidly, mainly in taxies, delivery trucks etc. Thesedevices record images of the road ahead, position,speed, acceleration, application of brakes and so on, ofmotor vehicles in operation. The use of drive recorders
enables us to efficiently collect large quantities ofaccident or near-miss data on community roads.
The NILIM is conducting research on methods ofusing scientific data collected by drive recorders toplan and implement safety measures on communityroads.

Example of equipment configuration
Examples of stored data
Unit·Image of road ahead ·Speed
Camera and acceleration
·Acceleration·Braking
sensor·Location informationMemory·Turning signal lights
card
Figure Example of Drive Recorder Configuration
2. Research on use of scientific data
The NILIM is conducting research focused on thefollowing two areas in order to apply drive recorder’sdata to safety measures on community roads.
1) Extracting Method of near-misses data
Drive recorder’s data contain useless data for roadsafety measures such as data on level differences, asdata recorded according to changes in acceleration. Inorder to apply drive recorder’s data for road safetymeasures, it must be possible to efficiently extract
near-misses data. The NILIM is researching methodsof efficiently extracting near-misses data focusing on
the properties of speed and acceleration wave formsetc.

2) Methods of sharing and accumulating data
In order to apply drive recorder data to road safetymeasures, road administrators must obtain thecooperation of the taxi and delivery companies whopossess such data. The NILIM is researching data
sharing and accumulation methods taking advantage
of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), restoring
analysis results, etc., to build cooperative relationships
which can gain the benefits of public – private sector
interactions.
3. Future research directions
Simple extraction algorithms proposed by theNILIM increased the percentage of near-miss data tomore than 80%. The result of research revealed thatdrive recorder’s data improves the selection ofhazardous spots and evaluation of safety measures byroad administrators without the complex task of image
confirmation etc.
The NILIM will provide technical notes on drive
recorder data collection and use to regional roadadministrators who can get an adequate quantity ofdata from corporations with taxi or delivery
companies, citizens, local governments, police, etc. As
it is difficult to promptly obtain sufficient data on
community roads throughout the nation, we wish toclassify patterns of near-misses and safety measureson community roads based on existing data.
The Road Transport Bureau and the Road Bureau of
the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport andTourism, the National Police Agency, and various
other organizations are showing growing concern withthe application of drive recorders to traffic safety. The
NILIM will deepen its links and cooperative
relationships with concerned organizations, in order tomake further use of scientific data in the traffic safety
field.