Abstract
Drivers, particularly with increasing age, cite driving at night as being problematic and feeling unsafe. Ultimately this may result in self-regulation and avoidance, with potentially negative health effects. The issue is commonly mitigated through provision of street lighting, but with it comes cost, environmental impact, and other negative effects. Research has suggested that provision of LED Active Road Studs may be of assistance to drivers at night. However, it is not known how implementation of this measure affects driver confidence, as research to date has focused on observational study of actual driving behaviour. The present work addresses this gap in knowledge using data from 698 respondents to a questionnaire survey of households around a recently treated route. Overall, 72% reported an increase in confidence driving at night, with key reasons cited as increased preview time and reduced glare. A total of 80% of respondents believed the overall safety of the study route had improved. Underlying confidence was found to be lower in females, with confidence increasing with mileage driven. This study is the first to suggest the use of active road studs may increase driver confidence and provide increased travel opportunities, particularly where street lighting is impractical or undesirable in terms of sustainability.
Highlights
Meta-analysis of the effect of road lighting across the world as an accident countermeasure has suggested that general overall reductions in fatal and injury collisions can be expected during hours of darkness [1,2,3]
The presence of lighting may itself be counterproductive in this respect; drivers may compensate for the presence of road lighting on links in terms of increased speed or reduced concentration [7]
It is suggested that the active road stud may potentially contribute to addressing such concerns, in situations where alternative travel options are limited, such as rural areas
Summary
Meta-analysis of the effect of road lighting across the world as an accident countermeasure has suggested that general overall reductions in fatal and injury collisions can be expected during hours of darkness [1,2,3]. An increased collision frequency at night has been shown to occur on longer links in the network, it has been postulated that this may be down to other factors such as increased speed rather than lighting conditions [6]. The impact of weather conditions in combination with lighting has been shown to have an effect, suggesting collisions may be caused by an inability in drivers to adjust speed in accordance with degraded visual performance [8]
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