January February 2018

Member Company & Public Agency News Pavement markings: A benefit for all Better maintenance, standardization of roadway markings supports autonomous vehicles’ systems In a recent report developed by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), it was recommended that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) establish plans to “better manage” initiatives and ef for ts related to Automated Vehicles (AVs). GAO officials state within the report, which was released in November 2017, that their reasoning behind the research efforts are based on the potential promise of AVs to provide transformative safety andmobility benefits, but these benefits also will come with a set of safety and infrastruc ture challenges for policymakers. One such challenge revolves around infrastructure adaptation. According to GAO, while AVs might lead to changes in roadway design, land use or other public infrastructure, there will still be a need to accommodate “conventional vehicles for decades to come.” Stake- holders interviewed for the report claimed they did not expect any wide- spread changes in infrastructure design to support AVs in the near future. “The vehicle developers we interviewed all stated that they are currently pursuing automation approaches that are designed to work on infrastructure as it currently exists, noting that a tech- nology is not commercially viable if it requires perfectly designed and main- tained roads,” according to GAO. “Nevertheless, several stakeholders highlighted the importance of well- maintained roads and consistent lane markings and signage for automated and conventional vehicles alike.” While it also was noted that other com- ponents such as urban versus rural settings and local ownership of roadways will play a hand in infrastructure adap- tations, many experts in automation and infrastructure back up the report’s claims, and assert that consistent and proper maintenance of the current roadway system is of the upmost impor- tance for conventional and AV motor- ists—especially when it comes to pave- ment markings. Greg Driskell, ATSSA Board of Directors member and president of Professional Pavement Products, Inc., said when it comes to AVs and roadway infrastructure, it’s important to talk about the “hurdles” and what is most needed in products in addition to the current state of prod- ucts today. “The most important infrastructure element on our roadway system for AVs and for Advanced Driver Assist Systems (ADAS), is pavement markings,” Driskell said. “There’s a significant and almost complete reliance on pavementmarkings for these AVs and ADA systems. A lot of people think AVs mean the car drives down the road and you’re facing the other direction, working on your com- puter, but we have AVs on the road right now including much less expensive AVs or Connected Automated Vehicles (CAVs). Buicks, Cadillacs, Chevrolets, they all have these ADA systems and they all depend heavily on being able to see that pavement marking.” Driskell, who has been in the pavement marking industry for 27 years, said that in many cases machine vision systems, which rely on advanced sensor tech- nologies including RADAR, LiDAR (light radar), and cameras to support various features of ADASs, are interestingly better at detecting pavement markings than human vision, especially in Highly Automated Vehicles (HAVs). Themost important infrastructure element on our roadway system for AVs and for AdvancedDriver Assist Systems (ADAS), is pavementmarkings American Traffic Safety Services Association 22