Abstract
Tunnels are critical areas for highway safety because the severity of crashes in tunnels tends to be more serious. Controlling vehicle speed is regarded as a feasible measure to reduce the accident rate in the tunnel entrance and exit areas. This paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of three types of speed reduction markings (SRMs) in tunnel entrance and exit zones by conducting a driving simulation experiment. For this study, 25 drivers completed the driving tasks in the day and night scenarios. The vehicle speed and acceleration data were collected for analysing and the relative speed contrast, time mean speed and acceleration were adopted as indices to evaluate the effectiveness of SRMs. The repeated ANOVA test results revealed that SRMs have a significant effect in reducing vehicle speed, especially in the exit zone. Colour Anti-skid Markings (CASMs) produced a more obvious deceleration in the entrance zone. In the entrance zone, a similar downward trend was performed in the situation of NSRMs and SRMs, but a lower speed occurred in case of SRMs. Besides, CASMs work better and cause an obvious gap of 10 km/h in daytime and 5 km/h at night compared to the speed without SRMs. In the exit zone, the present study supports the conclusion that the drivers are prone to accelerate. Our results showed that the drivers accelerated in case of NSRMs, while they slowed down in case of SRMs. Thus, SRMs are necessarily implemented in the highway tunnel entrance and exit zones. Our study also indicates that though CASMs result in lower speed at night, the Transverse Speed Reduction Markings
(TSRMs) have a better performance than CASMs in daytime. The investigation provides essential information for developing a new marking design criterion and intelligent driver support systems in the highway tunnel zones.
References
National Bureau of Statistics of China. China statistical yearbook 2013; 2013.
Ding H, Zhao X, Rong J, et al. Experimental research on the effectiveness of speed reduction markings based on driving simulation: A case study. Accident Analysis & Prevention. 2013;60: 211-218.
Kircher K, Ahlstrom C. The impact of tunnel design and lighting on the performance of attentive and visually distracted drivers. Accident Analysis & Prevention. 2012;47: 153-161.
Carvel R, Marlair G. A history of fire incidents in tunnels; 2005.
Lemke K. Road safety in tunnels. Transportation Research Record. 2000;1740(1): 170-174.
Zhong D, Pan L, Tian Q. Studies on the characteristics of traffic accidents in expressway tunnels. Geo-China. 2016;2016: 109-116.
Cornelia N. Comparative Analysis of Safety in Tunnels. Young Researchers Seminar; 2007.
Ma Z, Shao C, Zhang S. Characteristics of traffic accidents in Chinese freeway tunnels. Tunneling and underground space technology. 2009;24(3): 350-355.
Lu L, Lu J, Xing Y, et al. Statistical analysis of traffic accidents in Shanghai River crossing tunnels and safety countermeasures. Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society. 2014;1740: 1-7.
Kirkland CJ. The fire in the channel tunnel. Tunneling and underground space technology. 2002;17(2): 129-132.
Leitner A. The fire catastrophe in the Tauern Tunnel: experience and conclusions for the Austrian guidelines. Tunneling and Underground Space Technology. 2001;16(3): 217-223.
Barth U. Managerial and technical aspects of tunnel safety regarding normal and emergency mode. Proceedings of the international conference tunnel safety and ventilation. 2002;8: 8-10.
Mashimo H. State of the road tunnel safety technology in Japan. Tunneling and Underground Space Technology. 2002;17(2): 145-152.
Ni HL, Dai YH, Zhao QX. Research on distribution characteristics of traffic accidents in expressway tunnel. Highway. 2010;4: 126-129.
Ding H, Zhao X, Rong J, et al. Experimental research on the effectiveness and adaptability of speed reduction markings in downhill sections on urban roads: a driving simulation study. Accident Analysis & Prevention. 2015;75: 119-127.
De Pauw E, Daniels S, Thierie M, et al. Safety effects of reducing the speed limit from 90 km/h to 70 km/h. Accident Analysis & Prevention. 2014;62: 426-431.
Allpress JA, Leland Jr LS. Reducing traffic speed within roadwork sites using obtrusive perceptual countermeasures. Accident Analysis & Prevention. 2010;42(2): 377-383.
Kazemzadeh K, Dasoomi MH. The Role of Speed Reduction Model in Urban Freeways Tunnels Accidents. ICTTE 2015: International Conference on Transportation and Traffic Engineering; 2015.
Lee SJ. The speed review: road environment, behaviour, speed limits, enforcement and crashes. Report, 1993.
Standardization Administration of the People’s Republic of China. Road Traffic Signs and Markings (GB5768-2009). Beijing; 2009. Chinese.
JTG D81-2006. Design Guidelines for Freeway Safety Facilities. Beijing; 2017. Chinese.
Federal Highway Administration. Manual on uniform traffic control devices; 2009.
Denton GG. The influence of visual pattern on perceived speed. Perception. 1980;9(4): 393-402.
Montella A, Galante F, Mauriello F, et al. Effects of traffic control devices on rural curve driving behaviour. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. 2015;(2492): 10-22.
Ariën C, Brijs K, Ceulemans W, et al. The effect of pavement markings on driving behaviour in curves: A driving simulator study. Transportation Research Board 91st Annual Meeting. 2012. 19 p.
Charlton SG. The role of attention in horizontal curves: A comparison of advance warning, delineation, and road marking treatments. Accident Analysis & Prevention. 2007;39(5): 873-885.
Wan H, Du Z, Yan Q. The speed control effect of freeway tunnel sidewall markings based on colour and temporal frequency. Journal of Advanced Transportation. 2016;50(7): 1352-1365.
Shi X, Du Z, Zhou L, et al. Optimization of Deceleration Markings of Visual Illusion in a Freeway Tunnel. Journal of Freeway & Transportation Research & Development. 2016;10(4): 63-70.
Wan H, Du Z, Yan Q, et al. Evaluating the effectiveness of speed reduction markings in highway tunnels Transport. 2018;33(3): 647-656.
Zhao X, Ding H, Lin Z, et al. Effects of longitudinal speed reduction markings on left-turn direct connectors. Accident Analysis & Prevention. 2018;115: 40-52.
Xu M, Pan X, Deng Q. Setting method of thin-layer antiskid coloured pavement in tunnel based on increasing luminance of pavement. CICTP 2012: Multimodal Transportation Systems—Convenient, Safe, Cost-Effective, Efficient; 2012. p. 3073-3083.
Yuan H, Xiao G, Nie L, et al. Discussion on the Relation of Colour and Traffic Safety. Industrial Safety & Environmental Protection; 2006.
Xia Z, Lv Y, Pan X, et al. Research on design pattern of city tunnel side wall based on the driver visual effect. In: Stanton N, Landry S, Di Bucchianico G, Vallicelli A. (eds) Advances in Human Aspects of Transportation. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 484. Springer, Cham; 2017. p. 689-701.
Haack A. Fire protection in traffic tunnels: general
aspects and results of the EUREKA project. Tunneling and underground space technology. 1998;13(4): 377-381.
Lie H, Zhang Z, Guo D, et al. Research progress and prospect of application technology of thin-layer antiskid coloured pavement at home and abroad. International Conference on Electric Technology and Civil Engineering (ICETCE). IEEE; 2011. p. 2557-2560.
Ma Y, Fu R. Research and development of drivers’ visual behaviour and driving safety. China J Highway Transp. 2015;28(6): 82-94.
Underwood G, Crundall D, Chapman P. Driving simulator validation with hazard perception. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology & Behaviour. 2011;14(6): 435-446.
Zheng Z, Du Z, Yan Q, et al. The impact of rhythm-based visual reference system in long highway tunnels. Safety Science. 2017;95: 75-82.
Technical Standard of Freeway Engineering. Professional standard of the People’s Republic of China; 2014. Chinese.
Guidelines for Design of Freeway Tunnels. Professional standard of the People’s Republic of China; 2004.
Ding H, Zhao X, Ma J, et al. Evaluation research of the effects of longitudinal speed reduction markings on driving behaviour: A driving simulator study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2016;13(11): 15 p.
Martindale A, Urlich C. Effectiveness of transverse road markings on reducing vehicle speeds. NZ Transport Agency research report 423, 2010.