Study On The Influence Of Highway Landscape On Parking

Highway landscape is an important part of highway traffic system. Design of highway landscape not only involves aesthetics, but also affects highway traffic safety. Previous studies have shown that highway landscape has some impact on driving characteristics of drivers. Therefore, investigations about the influence of the highway landscape on the driving characteristics can give guidance and reference for road traffic safety evaluation and landscape design. The reaction time is one of the important parameters of the drivers, and is also an important factor for calculating stopping sight distance. Landscape has an impact on the psychological and physiological characteristics of drivers, which is bound to affect the driver’s reaction time, and further exerts an effect on the stopping sight distance. Therefore, it is possible to improve the model of stopping sight distance under different highway landscapes by studying drivers’brake reaction time.The presented thesis adopts a driving simulation system (KMRTDS) and an eye movement tracker to study the influence of the highway landscape on the stopping sight distance, analyze braking-reaction time of drivers in different landscapes and build the models of the stopping sight distance based on different highway landscapes. The main contents are described as follows:Firstly, emphasis is placed on analyzing the influence of the braking-reaction time on the stopping sight distance after reviewing influence of drivers, vehicles, highways and surroundings of the highway traffic system. The process to develop a model of stopping sight distance is proposed by taking the braking dynamics and previous models into considerations. After analyzing the relations between the highway landscape and the stopping sight distance, the real-time landscape information about the traffic road is acquired employing the vehicle-based acquisition system of the landscape exploited in our laboratory. From the perspective of the braking-reaction time, the collected highway landscapes are classified into different types according to elements, alignments and space morphology of the landscape.Secondly, the situational design software, VSDesign is applied to design the three-dimensional virtual landscapes which are the same types as those collected by the vehicle-based acquisition system.24 drivers are organized to carry out the braking simulation experiment in different highway landscapes using the KMRTDS driving simulation system developed in our laboratory, and the braking-reaction time in each highway landscape is collected. Furthermore, in order to explore the mechanism between the highway landscape and the braking-reaction time, the information about the drivers’psychology, physiology, driving behavior and so on, is obtained using questionnaire, and the eye movement tracker is used to obtain the eye movement of the drivers.Thirdly, basic statistical methods are employed to analyze the braking-reaction time of drivers collected in different highway landscapes. In order to study the influence mechanism of the highway landscape on the braking-reaction time, both the eye movement data in different highway landscapes and the results from the questionnaires, including the drivers’fixation time, fixation region, path deviation and physiological and psychological indices, are analyzed. The results show that different highway landscapes and road alignments have significant influence on the drivers’reaction time. In the landscape in which the bends are wholly closed, the drivers’reaction time is the shortest. While in open landscape the drivers’reaction time is the longest. The differences of the braking-reaction time among different highway landscapes mainly result from the influence of landscapes on drivers’ attention. In different highway landscapes, the drivers’age, gender, character, driving years and driving behavior have no obvious influence on the reaction time.Finally, the stopping sight distances in different landscapes are calculated using the measured braking-reaction time and the developed model of the stopping sight distance. Moreover, comparisons between the calculated stopping sight distance and the previous stopping sight distance calculated by other models are discussed.This thesis achieves the goal of studying the influence of the highway landscape on the stopping sight distance by investigating the braking-reaction time of the drivers. The results not only improve the model of stopping sight distance, but also achieve the quantitative assessment of the landscape safety, the modification of the adverse landscape and the improvement of highway traffic safety.