Evaluation of Real-Time Freeway End-of-Queue Alerting System to Promote Driver Situational Awareness

This paper presents the final results of a connected-vehicles field experiment conducted under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s SafeTrip-21 Initiative. A real-time freeway end-of-queue alerting system was developed and tested at 3,400 locations along San Francisco Bay Area freeways in California. The Networked Traveler Foresighted Driving Advanced Driver Assistance System, which used vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, provided drivers with an auditory alert when they approached slow traffic ahead on a freeway to improve the driver’s situational awareness. The system was not a last-second collision warning; rather, it was designed to provide soft safety alerts approximately 60 s before the driver reached the slowed traffic. Twenty-four drivers participated in the experiment, and each was given an instrumented vehicle for 2 weeks. During the first week, the alerting system was active but muted, providing a measure of baseline driving behavior. During the second week, auditory alerts sounded whenever the driver approached traffic moving at least 15 mph slower. The desired outcome was an increase in driver situational awareness resulting in a smoother transition into the end of the queue and a reduction in the risk of rear-end crashes. Drivers rated the majority of alerts as either good or neutral and found the system most useful when they encountered an unexpected traffic queue. Several driving performance metrics were also examined. In addition to a smoother deceleration profile, the auditory alerts provided a small but significant reduction in mean peak deceleration rates during morning and off-peak travel as compared with baseline conditions.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.3141/2324-05
• Summary URL:
  http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=Evaluation+of+Real-Time+Freeway+End-of-Queue+Alerting+System+to+Promote+Driver+Situational+Awareness&author=C.+Nowakowski&author=D.+Vizzini&author=S.+Gupta&author=R.+Sengupta&publication_year=2012
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/168624.aspx
• Authors:
  • Nowakowski, Christopher
  • Vizzini, Daniel
  • Gupta, Somak Datta
  • Sengupta, Raja
• Publication Date: 2012

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: pp 37–43
• Monograph Title: Intelligent Transportation Systems and Vehicle–Highway Automation 2012
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
  • Issue Number: 2324
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alertness; Audible warning devices; Deceleration; Driver support systems; Field tests; Real time information; Traffic queuing; Vehicle to infrastructure communications
• Geographic Terms: San Francisco Bay Area
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01366422
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9780309263184
• Report/Paper Numbers: 12-0991
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 29 2012 7:14AM