00781542

Component

https://doi.org/10.3141/1692-14

http://scholar.google.com...hlen&publication_year=1999

Pavement marking visibility models and tightly controlled pavement marking field experiments indicate that increased pavement marking retroreflectivity does in fact result in longer pavement marking visibility distances. The authors suggest that drivers should be provided with a pavement marking visibility distance long enough to allow for a preview time of 3.65 s at a given vehicle speed. This minimum required preview distance can be translated into a minimum required pavement marking retroreflectance. Questions were raised that perhaps drivers may not take advantage of brighter pavement markings (increased retroreflectance)--that is, drivers may not be looking as far ahead as possible from a pavement marking visibility point of view. This study was conducted to test whether drivers increase their longitudinal eye fixation distance when pavement marking retroreflectance is increased. Eye scanning data from six subjects were used to establish longitudinal eye fixation distributions on straight and level roads under low-beam illumination at night. In general, drivers appear to adjust their visual information acquisition behavior (longitudinal eye fixation distances and eye fixation preview times) when driving on roads with bright and highly visible pavement markings. Within the range of pavement marking retroreflectances investigated, it appears that, at least for half the drivers tested, brighter markings are indeed better and provide longer preview distances, which is desirable from an information acquisition, information processing, and safety point of view.

This paper appears in Transportation Research Record No. 1692, Traffic Signing, Visibility, and Rail-Highway Grade Crossings.

English

p. 129-141

1999

Transportation Research Record

0309071151

Figures (6) ; References (18) ; Tables (2)

Drivers; Eye fixations; Field studies; Night; Retroreflectivity; Road markings; Traffic safety; Visibility distance

Preview distance

Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors; I73: Traffic Control

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 28 2000 12:00AM

• ADVANCE WARNING FLASHERS: DO THEY IMPROVE SAFETY?
• BENEFIT SENSITIVITIES OF ADAPTIVE TRAFFIC CONTROL STRATEGIES AT ISOLATED TRAFFIC SIGNALS
• CHANGEABLE MESSAGE SIGN MESSAGES FOR WORK ZONES: TIME OF DAY, DAYS OF WEEK, AND MONTH DATES
• COMPARATIVE STUDY OF RURAL STOP-CONTROLLED AND BEACON-CONTROLLED INTERSECTIONS
• DRIVER'S SPEED REDUCTION BEHAVIOR AT HIGHWAY-RAIL INTERSECTIONS
• DRIVER-HEADLAMP DIMENSIONS, DRIVER CHARACTERISTICS, AND VEHICLE AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS IN RETROREFLECTIVE TARGET VISIBILITY CALCULATIONS
• EVALUATION OF TWO NEW CROSSBUCK DESIGNS FOR PASSIVE HIGHWAY-RAILROAD GRADE CROSSINGS
• EVALUATION OF UNASSIGNED SIGN COLORS FOR INCIDENT MANAGEMENT TRAILBLAZING
• INFLUENCE OF PAVEMENT SURFACE CHARACTERISTICS ON NIGHTTIME VISIBILITY OF OBJECTS
• LEGIBILITY OF TRAFFIC SIGN TEXT AND SYMBOLS
• PERFORMANCE COMPARISON OF THREE FREEWAY GUIDE SIGN ALPHABETS
• RECOGNITION DISTANCES OF DIFFERENT PAVEMENT ARROW DESIGNS DURING DAYTIME AND NIGHTTIME
• STUDY OF EFFECTIVENESS OF SELECTED SCHOOL ZONE TRAFFIC CONTROL DEVICES
• SUPERVISED INTERCONNECTION CIRCUITS AT HIGHWAY-RAIL GRADE CROSSINGS
• VIOLATIONS AT GATED HIGHWAY-RAILROAD GRADE CROSSINGS
• VISIBILITY OF ROAD MARKINGS AS A FUNCTION OF AGE, RETROREFLECTIVITY UNDER LOW-BEAM AND HIGH-BEAM ILLUMINATION AT NIGHT
• VISUAL TARGET DETECTION MODELS FOR CIVIL TWILIGHT AND NIGHT DRIVING CONDITIONS (WITH DISCUSSION AND CLOSURE)