SafeARCross: Augmented Reality Collision Warnings and Virtual Traffic Lights for Pedestrian Safety

Augmented Reality (AR) holds great potential for enhancing pedestrian’s urban experiences; however, its use in road traffic poses safety concerns due to potential distractions from interacting with AR interfaces. This paper investigates the effectiveness of AR applications for assisting pedestrians in crossing scenarios, against traditional crossing methods, by incorporating a collision warning system that uses an arrow to indicate the direction of a potential danger, and a virtual traffic light showing whether it is safe to cross. By leveraging Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communications within the living lab of Aveiro, Portugal, we conducted a user study to evaluate involved workloads, perceived safety and system usability in a realistic scenario. The findings from our study involving 20 participants reveal significant improvements in pedestrians’ perceived safety and a decrease in the perceived workload when using AR for pedestrian crossings, with both collision warning systems and virtual traffic lights demonstrating excellent usability.