COMPARISON OF DAY AND NIGHT GAP-ACCEPTANCE PROBABILITIES

OF THE MANY FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE ABILITY OF THE DRIVER TO SEE AND PERFORM THE DRIVING TASK AT NIGHT, ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT IS THE EFFECT OF THE HEADLIGHT BEAMS OF OTHER VEHICLES. THE HEADWAY DISTRIBUTION AND GAP-ACCEPTANCE PROBABILITIES BETWEEN DAY AND NIGHT ON AN ISOLATED, UNLIGHTED, SUBURBAN INTERSECTION WERE COMPARED, AND THE DRIVER'S BEHAVIOR AS A RESULT OF THE CHANGE IN LIGHTING CONDITIONS EXPLORED. THE TEST FOR CONDITIONAL HOMOGENEITY, AN ANALYTICAL METHOD, AND RUFF'S METHOD, A PURELY GRAPHICAL METHOD, WERE USED TO ANALYZE AND COMPARE THE DATA OBTAINED. ALTHOUGH NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE IN THE GAP-ACCEPTANCE PROBABILITIES WERE SHOWN BY THE RUFF METHOD, THE RESULTS OBTAINED BY THE ANALYTICAL METHOD INDICATED THAT THE GAP- ACCEPTANCE PROBABILITIES FOR DAY AND NIGHT CANNOT BE CONSIDERED CONDITIONALLY HOMOGENEOUS, PARTICULARLY FOR VERY SHORT AND LONG GAPS. FOR THE MEDIUM SIZE GAPS, THE ACCEPTANCE PROBABILITIES DID NOT INDICATE SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES. IT WAS SHOWN THAT THERE WERE NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DAY AND NIGHT IN THE FORMATION OF THE AVAILABLE GAPS UNDER LIGHT TRAFFIC-VOLUME CONDITIONS; BUT AS THE VOLUME INCREASED, THERE WAS A HIGHER PERCENTAGE OF LONGER GAPS AT NIGHT THAN DURING THE DAY. FURTHER EXPERIMENTATION WILL BE NECESSARY BEFORE IT CAN BE DECIDED THAT THE GAP ACCEPTANCE DEPENDS ON LIGHTING CONDITIONS. /AUTHOR/

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/1586080
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Vol 35, pp 157-165
• Authors:
  • Tsongos, N G
  • Weiner, S
• Publication Date: 1969-4

Media Info

• Serial:
  • Public Roads
  • Publisher: Federal Highway Administration
  • ISSN: 0033-3735
  • Serial URL: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/
• Publication flags:

  Open Access (libre)

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alternatives analysis; Behavior; Daylight; Drivers; Gap acceptance; Glare; Headlamps; Light; Lighting; Night; Opposing traffic; Probability theory
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00223152
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Traffic Systems Reviews & Abstracts
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 4 1970 12:00AM