Within a remarkably short time, a wide range of small scale, short-range transportation options have catapaulted themselves into the urban environment throughout the US and the world. Incorporating these micromobility vehicles into the existing built environment poses several uniquely human opportunities and challenges. They hold out the promise of meeting the classic first mile/last mile transit access problem, but confusion remains about the best place for their use, parking, storage, and operations. This presentation will summarize a vehicle categorization scheme and an urban audit process to support urban designers and engineers as they incorporate this challenging opportunity into their community. It will also touch on specific vehicle design details that are critical to user safety. A discussion of potential options for behavioral modification using software platforms and vehicle hardware will also be provided. The presentation will conclude with design, planning, and policy recommendations for supporting micromobiltiy appropriately.
Express lanes (ELs) are an increasingly accepted traffic management tool for congestion relief and traffic efficiency. White, yellow, and orange vertical delineators are typically used for lane separation and channelization applications. However, upcoming changes to sections of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices that would affect the current use of the orange retroreflective delineators will have a statewide impact on current and future ELs. The availability of a wide array of delineator colors and the potential range of application purposes brings into question this blanket requirement. The ineffective use of color in roadway design could lead to an increase in driving errors/response time, driver fatigue, loss of situational awareness, and increased workload. Driver perception and reaction time is shown to be affected by visual factors, such as color, luminance, distractions, and speed. The objective of this study is to determine the impact of color usage and other environmental and demographic factors on driver perception. A fractional factorial experiment was designed to study the EL delineator color selection using a driving simulator and an eye-tracking device. The potential factors included time of day (night versus day), visibility (high versus low), traffic density (high versus low), and road surface type (concrete versus asphalt). Some 176 subjects were selected to participate in the experiment. It was found that, in general, white was the quickest to be noticed, while black took the longest time to perceive. Furthermore, it was found that delineators were generally more noticeable under night-time conditions, likely because of the standard use of retroreflective striping on delineators.
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