Simulator Study of Pedestrian and Bicycle Collision Warning Systems: The Effects of Warning Overreliance in Latent Threat Scenarios

Pedestrian/bicycle collision warning (PBCW) systems are increasingly being installed in passenger cars, trucks, and buses. These systems have the potential to reduce significantly the number of pedestrian and bicycle fatalities. Since 2010, the US has seen an 25% increase in pedestrian fatalities reaching upwards of 5,400 in 2015. Similar increases are seen with bicyclists. Many of the transit bus fatalities occur from right and left turn collisions when the pedestrian/bicyclist is in the driver’s blind spot, so it would make sense that drivers with a PBCW system installed would be less likely to get into such accidents. However, it is possible that operators become overly reliant on such a system, glance patterns become more narrow, and operators fail to scan for latent hazards (not visible to the warning system or driver, but predictable for the driver). It is the purpose of this study to see if drivers are still likely to scan for latent hazards when they are told that they have a highly reliable PBCW system. Each of the participants navigated through nine scenarios in a driving simulator with different latent and visible hazards. Sixteen participants in the Alarm Group were given a warning if a visible pedestrian or bicycle threat was too close (Alarm Group); sixteen participants received no warning (No Alarm Group). The warning was similar to those installed on transit buses. Those without the PBCW were more likely to glance towards a latent hazard than those who had the alarm system (39.4% versus 30.8% respectively).

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AND20 Standing Committee on User Information Systems.
• Authors:
  • Young, Jared
  • Fisher, Donald L
  • Flynn, Dan F
  • Gabree, Scott
  • Nadler, Eric
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 17p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bicycles; Bus drivers; Buses; Crash avoidance systems; Crash characteristics; Fatalities; Pedestrians; Proximity detectors; Warning systems
• Subject Areas: Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01663568
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-04874
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 22 2018 11:56AM