Simulation-Based Research on Driver Visibility of Black-and-White Striped Vehicles

Pei Xie,Minghua Cao,Qing Li,Tong Zhu,Runqing Zhao

doi:10.1155/2020/8848123

Pei Xie, Minghua Cao + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/8848123

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Abstract

The vehicle color is considered to be a significant factor affecting driver visibility. The primary objective of this study is therefore to determine the impact of black-and-white striped vehicles (BWVs) on driver visibility through simulation-based experiments. In these experiments, subjects were asked to perform front and rear target identification tasks under daylight and twilight conditions. Then, a 2 (lighting conditions) × 2 (vehicle size) × 5 (vehicle color) analysis of variance was conducted for each task. Under the front identification scenario, the main factors affecting visibility were found to be lighting conditions, vehicle size, vehicle color, and the interactions between these factors. Under the rear identification scenario, lighting conditions and vehicle color were found to be the main factors. The results of this study demonstrate that driver visibility of BWVs is poorer than that of other colors of vehicles and that BWV visibility is susceptible to lighting conditions.

Highlights

A human perceptual system consists of all sensory modalities functioning simultaneously [1, 2], vision is more essential for enabling drivers to perceive objects, make judgments, and generate avoidance behaviours [3]
Before the analysis of variance (ANOVA), the test results indicated that all the data were consistent in terms of normality and homogeneity of variance. e significance threshold was set to 0.05
Main Factors. e average front identification distances in daylight and twilight are shown in Table 1, in which there are several differences worth mentioning. e average identification distance of the striped car was far shorter than that of the cars in other colors under both daylight and twilight conditions

Summary

Introduction

A human perceptual system consists of all sensory modalities functioning simultaneously [1, 2], vision is more essential for enabling drivers to perceive objects, make judgments, and generate avoidance behaviours [3]. In previous road safety studies, poor visibility has always been identified as a crucial factor leading to a higher accident rate [4,5,6,7,8]. An object’s visibility is determined by its size, lighting conditions, and color difference [9]. An obvious color difference can lead to an eligible visibility [10, 11]. Previous studies have verified that bright colors help to improve the detection distance for traffic signs, automobiles, and cyclists [12, 13]. The lighting condition and vehicle size were considered as the affecting factors to drivers’ observation as well as speeding performance [14, 15]

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