01519510

Component

A new regulation of “solid yellow” has been implemented at the beginning of this year in China, saying that drivers should stop when they are approaching yellow light. “Yellow violation” has been punished for the first week, but then it has been abolished since some safety problems have aroused during the initial periods of its implementation, and the public discussed about the necessity of installing green signal countdown devices (GSCD) to support people to take proper actions. The paper aims to find out how the new regulation impacts driving behavior, and explore whether GSCD devices are helpful to improve traffic safety under the new situation. Based on field observation and data collection at four intersections (two of them are GSCD intersections) before and after the regulation’s implementation, a comparison of driving behavior including driver type distribution (namely aggressive, normal and conservative drivers), speed distribution, car following behavior has been carried out; Models of drivers’ stop/go decision and rear-end collision probability has been developed, based on which the distribution of indecision zones and rear-end collision potential has been estimated by using Monte Carlo simulation. The comparison results showed that: (1) the new regulation helps to restrain aggressive driving behavior effectively, and meanwhile it encourages conservative behavior. It helps to reduce approaching speeds and speeding percentages significantly, larger car following headways are more likely to be accepted; (2) the new regulation can significantly shift indecision zones towards the stop line resulting in more rear-end collisions occurring near stop line while much fewer collisions at upstream of intersection; (3) in most cases GSCD devices result in higher rear-end collision potential, especially for vehicles in indecision zones. Based on the above findings, the authors recommend that education should be given to drivers in order to avoid too conservative behaviors; GSCD devices are not recommended to install since there they have negative effects on traffic safety in terms of increasing rear-end collision potential.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AHB50 Traffic Control Devices. Alternate title: Impacts of New Chinese Regulation of Yellow Signal on Driving Behavior and Rear-End Collision Potential

01503729

14-1433

English

16p

2014

Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

Before and after studies; Monte Carlo method; Rear end crashes; Regulation; Traffic safety; Traffic safety education; Traffic violations; Yellow interval (Traffic signal cycle)

Countdown traffic signals

China

Highways; Law; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning; I73: Traffic Control; I80: Accident Studies

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2014 Paper #14-1433

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 27 2014 2:32PM