Influences of Waiting Time on Driver Behaviors While Implementing In-Vehicle Traffic Light for Priority-Controlled Unsignalized Intersections

Abstract

In-vehicle traffic lights that assist drivers in crossing intersections are in development; however, the availability of the in-vehicle traffic light will be limited if the waiting time of a vehicle is not considered in actual traffic conditions, especially at prioritycontrolled unsignalized intersections that normally consist of one major and two minor roads. The present study therefore investigated the effects of the waiting time on driver behaviors to improve the in-vehicle traffic light for the priority-controlled unsignalized intersections. Gap acceptance theory that considers the waiting time was adopted in the implementation of the invehicle traffic light, to assist minor-road drivers in passing through the intersections by selecting appropriate major-road gaps. A driving simulator experiment involving 12 participants was performed for the minor and major roads, by applying the in-vehicle traffic light with and without the consideration of waiting time. Results demonstrate that the maximum acceleration strokes of minor-road vehicles were significantly reduced, indicating a lower possibility of aggressive driving when the in-vehicle traffic light was applied while considering the waiting time. Meanwhile, an improved steering stability was observed from the driver behaviors at the intersections, as the maximum lateral acceleration of minor-road vehicles significantly decreased when the waiting time was considered.

Multimodal Study of the Effects of Varying Task Load Utilizing EEG, GSR and Eye-Tracking

“…Signal to noise ratio in fixation positions could be strongly correlated to task performance. Further, a strong positive relation between subjectively measured frustration and blink rate (r = 0.71) hints at the relevance of blink rate to quantify mental states, an observation that has been made very recently (Yang et al, 2017). Pupil diameter on the other hand was presumably confounded by the experimental design as cognitive load, and fatigue acted oppositely to potentially level out each other.…”

Inter-Vehicle Communication Protocol Design for a Yielding Decision at an Unsignalized Intersection and Evaluation of the Protocol Using Radio Control Cars Equipped with Raspberry Pi

“…However, it does not consider cases where cars are waiting on two or more roads going in different directions. The method in Reference [7] is an improvement over this in that it considers waiting time and can handle cases where cars are waiting on multiple roads. It thus further enhances traffic safety.…”

“…Except for the methods proposed in Reference [3,6,7], all methods use roadside units to control traffic and thus cannot be applied to all intersections. The method in Reference [3] addresses only T-shaped intersections and does not describe how vehicles recognize each other and communicate with each other.…”

“…The method in Reference [3] addresses only T-shaped intersections and does not describe how vehicles recognize each other and communicate with each other. While the methods in Reference [6,7] do not require roadside units, they are designed to support human drivers and do not consider cases where both self-driven and human-driven vehicles are present. In contrast, the present paper proposes a protocol that can be applied to an unsignalized intersection and a situation in which there is a mix of self-driven and human-driven vehicles.…”

“…While the introduction of self-driving systems is expected to reduce the number of accidents and traffic jams, it is necessary to implement new vehicle running control regulations and invest in roadside infrastructures if we are to ensure safe and efficient traffic on the road. Many researchers have proposed traffic control methods, in particular for application to accident-prone intersections [2][3][4][5][6][7]. Generally, it is difficult for vehicles to recognize other vehicles and exchange information with them autonomously.…”