Researchers from the Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering at Texas Tech University announced on Apr. 28 a new pilot project aimed at improving traffic safety for pedestrians and drivers by providing real-time warnings. The initiative comes as pedestrian deaths have increased by 50% nationwide since 2014, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The project targets rural areas where poorly lit roads, infrequent traffic, and a lack of crosswalks contribute to higher rates of pedestrian-involved and failure-to-yield crashes. In Texas alone, the Department of Transportation reported that 772 pedestrians died on state roads in 2024—a slight decrease from the previous year but still nearly a 60% increase since 2014.
Led by Hongchao Liu, professor in Civil, Environmental & Construction Engineering, and Changzhi Li, associate academic dean in Electrical & Computer Engineering, the team received a nearly $1.75 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to develop and test a warning system using light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology. Over four years, they will collect data on driver and pedestrian behavior across locations with and without the system to evaluate its effectiveness.
“We chose to use LiDAR because it would not infringe on pedestrian and driver privacy and does not need external illumination, making it well suited for rural environments,” Liu said. “By rotating a full 360 degrees, it captures and monitors every movement in the surrounding area without blind spots.”
Lubbock has seen increases of over 40% in pedestrian-involved crashes since 2016 along major corridors such as U.S. Routes 84, 62 and 70; South Loop 289; Interstate 27; state Highway 114; and others within the South Plains Association of Governments region.
The new devices will be installed at high-risk intersections across Lubbock County and neighboring counties. The system processes point cloud data onsite every tenth of a second for real-time decision-making frameworks that trigger flashing lights only when hazards are detected.
“TxDOT reports after about six months people become used to the lights and start ignoring the signs,” Liu said.
Liu explained that radar may also be evaluated for coverage up to roughly a quarter mile at high-speed corridors: “This way people will realize when the sign is flashing they have to be careful because pedestrians are present or traffic is approaching,” he said. “Psychologically this works quite differently.”
If successful during this demonstration phase, researchers plan an implementation phase covering more areas to further validate effectiveness.
“My goal is to ensure that the work I have done can bring meaningful benefit to people,” Liu said. “If our work can help prevent even a single fatal crash and save one or two lives, that would be deeply meaningful to me.”
