Does the effect of traffic calming measures endure over time? – A simulator study on the influence of gates

Abstract

Accident statistics show that transitions from rural to urban areas are accident prone locations. Inappropriate speed and mental underload have been identified as important causal factors on such transitions. A variety of traffic calming measures (TCM) near rural-urban transitions has been tested in field experiments and driving simulator studies. Simulator experiments where drivers are exposed a single TCM in one session are well reported in the literature. However, the extents to which drivers' behavior will be consistent over time when exposed to the same treatment over time are relatively scare and unclear. This study examined drivers behavior when exposed to the same treatment (a gate construction located at a rural-urban transition). Over a period of five successive days, seventeen participants completed a 17 km test-drive on a driving simulator with two thoroughfare configurations (gates present or absent) in a within-subject design. Results indicate that gates induced a local speed reduction that sustained over this five-day period. The effect on standard deviation of acceleration/deceleration and lateral position was rather limited. Overall we conclude that gate constructions have the potential to improve traffic safety in the direct vicinity of rural-urban transitions, even if drivers are repeatedly exposed. Notwithstanding, we advise policy makers to appropriately use this measure. Best is to always carefully consider the broader situational context (such as whether the road serves a traffic-rather than a residential function) of each particular location where the implementation of a gate construction is one of the options.

Traffic Calming Measures: An Evaluation of the Effect on Driving Speed

“…Ariën et al [23] investigated the effect of gateways on rural-urban transitions from several viewpoints. Firstly, the effect on the driving behaviour, and secondly, effective distance of the measures.…”

Driver's braking behavior approaching pedestrian crossings: a parametric duration model of the speed reduction times

“…The study was conducted using the advanced driving simulator of the Department of Engineering-Roma Tre University. Several studies have demonstrated that driving simulators are useful tools for the evaluation of the driver's behavior induced by the road configuration [42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53]. Moreover, driving simulators are ideal tools for studies whose field survey is made impossible by the implicit high risks that the experimenters would be subjected to and the difficulty of ensuring controlled experimentation conditions.…”

Unified methodology for estimating efficiency of traffic calming measures – example of Estonia

“…Among the different speed-related parameters known in the literature, mean speed is very often used as measure for safe driving, mainly because elevated crash risk and severity have been related to an increase in mean speed (Ariën et al 2013). Other speed related efficiency parameters are 85 th percentile speed, standard deviation of longitudinal acceleration and deceleration, percentage of drivers exceeding the speed limit, the highest speeds, 10 mph pace (Ariën et al 2013(Ariën et al , 2014Corkle et al 2002;Mountain et al 2005). Among other commonly used TCM efficiency parameters are reduction of traffic volume, change in the number of fatal and injury accidents, traffic noise level, vehicle emission and public health impact (Čygaitė et al 2014;Huang, Cynecki 2001;Lee et al 2013).…”