The Influence of Noise Emitted by Vehicles on Pedestrian Crossing Decision-Making: A Study in a Virtual Environment

Abstract

When crossing a road, pedestrians must detect traffic, combine data coming from different perceptual modalities, evaluate the time envelope for safely cross the street, and monitor the position of oncoming vehicles to perform corrective actions if needed. This study analyzed the influence of noise emitted by vehicles, or its absence, on pedestrians’ crossing decision-making. Experiments were performed in a virtual environment using two road scenarios. Participants were presented with stimuli of approaching vehicles that varied regarding speed, movement patterns, and auditory condition: one concerning the approaching of an electric vehicle, another regarding the approaching of a gasoline combustion vehicle, and, finally, a condition regarding the absence of auditory cues. Participants were tasked with indicating the moment when they decided to cross the street. The results show that, despite the noise variations caused by the type of vehicle and its speed pattern, the participants’ decision to cross was mostly based on vehicle distance. When a vehicle approaches the crosswalk from a short distance and with no occlusion to the pedestrian’s visibility, the sound does not seem to influence the pedestrians’ crossing decision-making.

To cross or not to cross: Impact of visual and auditory cues on pedestrians’ crossing decision-making

“…At last, regarding the audio-visual and the merely visual stimuli, participants relied mostly on the visual information they received from the approaching vehicle to estimate the available crossing time, contradicting Barton et al (2012) and agreeing with the conclusions of Pugliese et al (2020) and Soares et al (2020). These results prove that the absence of the audio component regarding the road traffic does not compromise the results obtained in pedestrian safety studies performed in a virtual environment.…”

“…They verified that participants were faster to respond under the time-constrained condition, which also favoured a distance-based decision. It is possible that, in this study, the higher speeds and close distances have prompted a similar sense of urgency, which is known to accelerate decision processes, although at the cost of accuracy in judgments (Soares et al, 2020). This agrees with Beggiato, Witzlack, Springer, F. Soares et al and Krems (2018), who analysed the effect of daytime, approaching vehicle speed and pedestrian's age on the time gaps accepted to cross the road, and found that the participants took more risky crossing decisions, accepting lower time gaps with the increasing vehicle speed.…”

“…Their results point to a higher relevance of the visual cues. This is supported by Soares et al (2020), who compared the crossing behaviours with visual and auditory input of gasoline and electric vehicles and found no significant effects of the sound.…”

“…Here, an extension of the previous research presented by Soares et al (2020) is reported through a study that aims to clarify the role of the vehicle kinematics on pedestrians' crossing decision-making, mediated by the resulting visual and auditory cues. A more thorough analysis of the role of speed and distance, as well as the different speed profiles of the approaching vehicle, is also presented.…”

“…Misunderstandings are, however, common and often lead to crashes (Habibovic & Davidsson, 2012). Generally, it seems that pedestrians interpret speed reduction as an indication that the driver will yield (Dey, Martens, Eggen, & Terken, 2019;Schneemann & Gohl, 2016;Soares et al, 2020;Sucha et al, 2017). However, exactly how the vehicle speed before deceleration and particular kinematics affect crossing behaviour is still not fully understood.…”