Threshold Research on Highway Length under Typical Landscape Patterns Based on Drivers’ Physiological Performance

Abstract

The appropriately landscaped highway scenes may not only help improve road safety and comfort but also help protect ecological environment. Yet there is very little research data on highway length threshold with consideration of distinctive landscape patterns. Against this backdrop, the paper aims to quantitatively analyze highway landscape’s effect on driving behavior based on drivers’ physiological performance and quantify highway length thresholds under three typical landscape patterns, namely, “open,” “semiopen,” and “vertical” ones. The statistical analysis was based on data collected in a driving simulator and electrocardiograph. Specifically, vehicle-related data, ECG data, and supplemental subjective stress perception were collected. The study extracted two characteristic indices, lane deviation and LF/HF, and extrapolated the drivers’ U-shaped physiological response to landscape patterns. Models on highway length were built based on LF/HF’s variation trend with highway length. The results revealed that the theoretical highway length threshold tended to increase when the landscape pattern was switched to open, semiopen, and vertical ones. And the reliability and accuracy of the results were validated by questionnaires and field operational tests. Findings from this research will assist practitioners in taking active environmental countermeasures pertaining to different roadside landscape patterns.

Study on the Effect of Driving Time on Fatigue of Grassland Road Based on EEG

“…AcqKnowledge 4.1 software is used to extract one EEG power every 30 s as absolute power. The 5-minute absolute power at the beginning and end of driving is deleted, SPSS 20.0 software and the method of Pauta criterion are used to remove the abnormal value of EEG power [ 16 ], and finally, the analysis of EEG power within 130 minutes is determined.…”

The influence of landscape intervention used as an alertness maintaining ‘tool’ on driving behaviour

“…Landscapes also have an adequate duration. Xia proved the threshold of highway landscape length tended to increase when the landscape pattern was switched to open, semi‐open and closed [12]. Although these studies remain in environmental assessment and do not take the landscape as alertness maintaining ‘tool’ to counter monotony, they all find that the landscape can reduce speed, keep the lane position, and maintain smaller SWA.…”

Human Personality Based Investigation on Distance Threshold for Freeway Landscape Pattern

“…The degree of closure felt by drivers, also known as the sense of space (5), is measured by spatial pattern and calculated according to S = D/ H (1) where: S = classification value for spatial pattern; D = lateral distance from the driver's line of sight to right shoulder landscape; and H = height of right shoulder landscape. The relationships between the spatial patterns and drivers' subjective visual perceptions are listed in Table 1 (6).…”

“…The relationships between the spatial patterns and drivers’ subjective visual perceptions are listed in Table 1 ( 6 ).…”

“…Freeway driving has characteristics such as high speed and changing surroundings. Using indicators such as subjective degrees of visual fields, previous research classified freeway spatial patterns into three typical enclosure types, namely, open (S>3.0), semi-open (S∈[2.0, 3.0]), and vertical (S<2.0) (Figure 1) ( 6 ).…”