Ypsilanti Township, Mich. ---July 9, 2026 --- The American Center for Mobility (ACM), a 500-acre campus and test track located at the historic Willow Run site near Ann Arbor, Michigan, and focused on safe, sustainable, and secure advances in mobility technology, has released research findings showing that deliberate modifications to road infrastructure can improve machine vision recognition of areas designed for Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs), such as green-painted bike lanes.
Dr. Sushanta Das, ACM’s Vice President of Research & Development, led ACM’s safety testing and analysis program for the project, with Peter Apostol and Dr. Mojtaba Bahramgiri, both from Michigan Technological University, providing technical, engineering and data analytical support. Apostol presented the findings at the ASCE Transportation Conference held in Detroit, Michigan, on June 28-July 1, 2026.
Building on the research trio’s previous work, which demonstrated that green bike lanes enhance the detectability of road users, this study investigated the performance degradation of state-of-the-art computer vision models when detecting VRUs on green bike lanes under varying environmental conditions, including rain, fog, and different lighting scenarios, and compared it with detection performance on standard road surfaces.
“By measuring both the vehicle-to-target distance and the confidence levels of object detection, we performed a comparative analysis across multiple detection models to assess their robustness as a function of environmental and lighting conditions,” Das said. “The results provide insight into how green bike lanes influence the safety of VRUs when Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), such as Pedestrian Automatic Emergency Braking (PAEB), are in use.”
In addition to research provided by Das, Bahramgiri and Apostol, the project also benefited from the collaboration and support of Tony Geara, former deputy chief of mobility innovation for the City of Detroit.
About the American Center for Mobility
The American Center for Mobility is a nonprofit mobility and technology campus located at historic Willow Run in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan. ACM provides infrastructure, testing environments, event space, and convening power to help organizations advance safe, sustainable, and secure technologies across transportation and related industries. Learn more at acmwillowrun.org.
