Red-light Running and Limited Visibility Due to LTV's Using the UCF Driving Simulator

Book excerpt: The UCF Driving simulator was used to test a proposed pavement-marking design. This marking is placed upstream of signalized intersections to assist the motorists with advance warning concerning the occurrence of the clearance interval. The results of the experiment have indicated promising results for intersection safety. Firstly compared to regular intersections, the pavement marking could results in a 74.3 percent reduction in red-light running. In comparison, the pavement marking reduced the number of occurrences where drivers chose to continue through an intersection when it was not safe to proceed compared to the without marking, and this result is correlated to less red-light running rate with marking. According to survey results, all of the tested subjects gave a positive evaluation of the pavement-marking countermeasure and nobody felt confused or uncomfortable when they made stop-go decision. In comparison between scenarios without marking and with marking, there is no significant difference found in the operation speeds and drivers brake response time, which proved that the marking has no significantly negative effect on driver behaviors at intersections. The UCF driving simulator was also used to test vertical and horizontal visibility blockages. For the horizontal visibility blockage, two sub-scenarios were designed, and the results confirmed that LTVs contribute to the increase of rear-end collisions on the roads. This finding may be contributed to the fact that LTVs cause horizontal visibility blockage. Indeed, the results showed that passenger car drivers behind LTVs are prone to speed more and to keep a small gap with the latter relatively to driving behind passenger cars. From the survey analysis 65% of the subjects said that they drive close to LTVs in real life. As for the vertical visibility blockage, three sub-scenarios were designed in the driving simulator, and the results confirmed that LSVs increase the rate of red light running significantly due to vertical visibility blockage of the traffic signal pole. However, the behavior of the drivers when they drive behind LSVs is not different then their behavior when drive behind passenger cars. The suggested addition of the traffic signal pole on the side of the road significantly decreased the red light running rate. Moreover, 65% of the subjects driving behind an LSV with the proposed additional traffic signal pole said that the traffic signal pole is effective and that it should be applied to real world.