Computer Vision
Infrastructure
Road safety depends on understanding where and how dangerous situations occur. For MOW Flanders, the challenge was to move beyond reacting to accidents and use data to identify risky traffic situations before they lead to one.
Every day, there are dozens of traffic accidents in Belgium, and most of these happen in a few unsafe “hotspots”. The Flemish government wants to make its roads safer, and they know that prevention is key.
To come up with a solution, the Department of Mobility and Public Works (MOW) partnered with the experts at Vectr.Consulting. Together, they explored how AI-powered image recognition can help proactively identify unsafe traffic situations before they lead to accidents.
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Enhanced safety for cyclists and other vulnerable road users.
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Increased understanding of traffic patterns and potential hazards.
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Identification of high-risk intersections, enabling targeted safety measures.
Starting in March 2021, MOW launched several pilot projects across Flanders where they used fixed and drone cameras to capture footage of traffic flow. They particularly focused on busy intersections to detect potential problems, such as:
Over four months, thousands of images were collected and analysed, focusing on detecting pedestrians, cyclists, buses, cars, and their movements.
To make this analysis even more powerful, Vectr.Consulting developed a system that transforms pixel coordinates from the images into real-world geographical coordinates, allowing them to map the trajectories of different road users.
This detailed analysis of traffic patterns helps MOW identify high-risk intersections and take steps to prevent accidents. By detecting near misses, for example, they can pinpoint locations where infrastructure improvements or targeted awareness campaigns might be needed.
The project has been transferred to the Agency for Roads and Traffic (AWV), which will continue to use this technology to analyse high-risk locations across Flanders. The insights gained from this project will be crucial in helping AWV implement effective safety measures and make roads safer for everyone.
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