Safety and Sustainable Development of Automated Driving in Mixed-Traffic Urban Areas—Considering Vulnerable Road Users and Network Efficiency

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This paper investigates safety in the interactions between AVs, human-driven vehicles, and vulnerable road users within a simulated urban environment. However, there are some questions about this paper:

1. There are several writing mistake, eg, the conclusion should be Section 8, and some errors about Reference source not found.

2. In Section 5.1, why there is no bike model? In addition, a lack of the statistical data about bike in Table 5 and Table 10. 

3. Why there are 3 SSI indicators in Table 4 while more SSI indicators are needed in Table 6?

4. What does it mean for the uncertainty in line 594?

5. In conclusion, lowering the speed limit is highly suggested. It is better to give the specific speed limitation. 

Author Response

please refer to the attached answer letter

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript contains interesting material and is well constructed in general. I formulated some remarks to enhance the readability and understandability of the content.

The acronyms: V2V, V2I, and V2X should be defined in the first part of the paper and should be not used in the summary. What understood the Authors of these terms and in what sense were used these in the study? For example, what is “everything” (X) in the acronym “V2X”? What tool is used (or proposed) to communicate with “everything”?

That will be profitable to better explain the meaning of “Vulnerable Road Users”. They are only pedestrians and bicyclists? Or the “new” and developing group of “Personal Transporter” like scooters, skateboards, segways, unicycles, etc. too?

I noticed that these transport means are not considered in the model. The methodology and tool could be developed in the future, but I please the Authors to comment on these conditions in the discussion part of the paper and in the conclusions.

Probably the better form of title will be: “Safety and Sustainable Development of Automated Driving in Mixed-Traffic Urban Areas – Considering Pedestrians and Network Efficiency”.

What is the meaning of digits (1, 2, etc.) presented in figure 5? Are they the entrances (exit points) collected in table 3? Why some digits are pointed only once, and others twice or more? This must be clarified.

Please correct also the number of section “Conclusions” and complement the section “Author contributions”.

Author Response

please refer to the attached answer letter

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf