The Usability Of Lane Guidance System At Intersections

The lane guidance system at approaches of intersections is an interconnecting whole that provides lane distribution information to drivers.It mainly consists of Advance Intersection Lane Control(AILC)signs and arrow markings and plays an important role in guiding drivers to choose lanes.However,in reality,the irrational lane guidance system has become an important factor in the chaos of traffic order: some traffic signs are set up improperly and do not play a role when drivers need guidance information;or set up redundantly,resulting in greater waste of money.How the lane guidance system works and whether it is necessary to spend a lot of money to set up signs have not been proved.The purpose of this study was to reveal the mechanism of the lane guidance system and provide a basis for the set-up of lane guidance system.The concept of usability was introduced into the study of lane guidance system.Three aspects of usability were: effectiveness,efficiency and satisfaction.The proportion of that lane guidance system was gazed and helped driver choose the correct lane was took as effectiveness measurement index.The time and frequency of fixation and saccade were took as efficiency measurement index.The alertness and subjective rating were took as satisfaction measurement index.The methods for data collection based on traffic psychology experiments were proposed for calculating effectiveness,efficiency and satisfaction measurement,such as eye movement behavior,EEG signals,personal access data,etc.The usability of AILC signs was studied through naturalistic driving experiments.A human-machine-environment synchronization cloud platform was built to collect the eye movement data and related influencing factors information of 8 drivers using AILC signs.A binomial Logistic regression model was established to analyze the influencing factors of the effectiveness of AILC signs,and the difference in the efficiency of using AILC signs and arrow markings was analyzed by rank sum test.The results show that the effectiveness of AILC signs is poorer,but the efficiency is higher.The effectiveness of AILC signs is positively correlated with the number of lanes,while negatively correlated with the lane position of drivers and the effectiveness of arrow markings.The arrow markings are substitute for AILC signs.Driving simulation was conducted to study the overall usability of lane guidance system.The scenarios of driving simulation were developed.The eye movement data,EEG signal data and related impact factors information of 35 drivers were collected during driving.A multinomial Logistic regression model was established to analyze the influencing factors of the effectiveness of lane guidance system.The difference among efficiency and satisfaction of different lane guidance system modes were explored through one-way ANOVA.The interactive influence of AILC signs and arrow markings were explored through Student’s t test.The results show that the effectiveness of arrow markings is better and more stable than AILC signs.When the AILC sign is effective,the fixation time of arrow markings is longer,and when the arrow markings are effective,the fixation time of the AILC sign is shorter,indicating that the arrow markings play a major guiding role in the lane guidance system and can improve the efficiency of lane guidance system.In addition,drivers are most satisfied with arrow markings,second with the lane guidance system,and least satisfied with AILC signs.It is suggested that setting up Intersection Lane Control signs that mounted overhead over the specific lanes to which they apply instead of AILC signs and establishing traffic markings that enhance drivers’ situational awareness will improve the usability of lane guidance system.