Abstract
Driving safety in tunnels has always been an issue of great concern. Establishing delineators to improve drivers’ instantaneous cognition of the surrounding environment in tunnels can effectively enhance driver safety. Through a simulation study, this paper explored how delineators affect drivers’ gaze behavior (including fixation and scanpath) in tunnels. In addition to analyzing typical parameters, such as fixation position and fixation duration in areas of interest (AOIs), by modeling drivers’ switching process as Markov chains and calculating Shannon’s entropy of the fit Markov model, this paper quantified the complexity of individual switching patterns between AOIs under different delineator configurations and with different road alignments. A total of 25 subjects participated in this research. The results show that setting delineators in tunnels can attract drivers’ attention and make them focus on the pavement. When driving in tunnels equipped with delineators, especially tunnels with both wall delineators and pavement delineators, the participants exhibited a smaller transition entropy and stationary entropy , which can greatly reduce drivers’ visual fatigue. Compared with left curve and right curve, participants obtained higher and values in the straight section.
Highlights
Drivers’ safety on the road is always the most important issue in road design, especially in special sections such as tunnels
The remainder of the driver’s visual range outside of these five areas was defined as white space (WS)
The pavement delineator reference system shows the drivers of the edge marking in the tunnel, and the wall delineator provides the boundary position of the tunnel contour
Summary
Drivers’ safety on the road is always the most important issue in road design, especially in special sections such as tunnels. Tunnel environments are poorly lit, the internal space is limited and the driving environment is monotonous and repetitive. The idea that traffic accidents are caused by sudden environmental changes when drivers drive in tunnels was widely discussed [1]. Due to the special environments of tunnels, drivers need to concentrate on the surrounding environment to extract valid traffic information [2]. In many tunnels, drivers can only identify their surrounding environment under low illumination and given monotonous tunnel walls; it is difficult for drivers to obtain more effective information visually. Because of the lack of appropriate visual stimulation, drivers tend to feel fatigue and distraction [4]
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