The impact of electric vehicle’s strong acceleration performance on traffic safety risks at signalized intersections: A case study in China

Electrification has become a major trend in the automotive industry. Compared to traditional fuel-powered vehicles, electric vehicles (EVs) exhibit stronger acceleration performance, which may impact traffic safety risks. The pronounced acceleration capability of EVs is particularly evident at lower speeds, with signalized intersections—key components of road networks—facing complex traffic flows and heightened safety risks. Therefore, investigating the impact of EVs’ strong acceleration on traffic safety risks at signalized intersections is crucial for ensuring urban traffic safety. This study utilizes UAVs and roadside cameras to construct a detailed trajectory dataset, including license plate types and vehicle dimensions. Based on Time to Collision (TTC) as a fundamental metric and incorporating the Risk Management Quadrant Principle, a two-dimensional integrated safety surrogate indicator is proposed, accounting for both collision probability and severity. The study also achieves automated extraction of safety surrogate indicators from trajectory data, quantifying the impact of EVs on traffic safety risks at signalized intersections. Case studies in urban and suburban areas provide a comparative analysis of driving behaviors and interactive safety risks between EVs and fuel-powered vehicles. At a 90% confidence level, the frequency of events where EVs have a higher likelihood of collisions but lower severity is 0.87% higher than that of fuel-powered vehicles, indicating that EVs are more likely to experience low-severity collisions.