Effectiveness of Active Luminous Lane Markings on Highway at Night: A Driving Simulation Study

Abstract

Road lane markings play an essential role in maintaining traffic order and improving traffic safety and efficiency. Active luminous lane markings have emerged with advances in technology recently. However, it is still not completely clear what impact their application will have on drivers. This paper aimed to study the effectiveness of active luminous lane markings on highways at night. A driving simulation experiment was carried out based on advanced driving simulators at Tongji University. The driving simulation experiment involved 31 participants and 9 simulation scenes with 6 different types of lane markings models and the same 2-way highway segment, which was 5300-m long with four 3.75-m wide driving lanes. The study participants drove through the simulated highway while the vehicle operation data and the driver’s eyes changing data were continuously captured. Overall, the pupil area change rate, steering wheel speed, brake pedal force, gas pedal, lane departure, and operating speed indicators were selected to evaluate the effectiveness of the active luminous lane markings. The results are shown as follows: (1) the active luminous lane markings have excellent visual recognition performance at night. Compared with the passive luminous lane markings, the active luminous markings can reduce the mental and physical loads of drivers, increase the early braking distance significantly, improve the lane-keeping ability and smooth the operating speed; (2) for the specific parameter settings of the active luminous lane markings at night, the yellow lane markings are better than the white ones, the point-line-type lane markings are superior to the conventional-type ones, and the blinking frequency is reasonable to set, at a moderate level, as 40 times per min. The results suggest that there are positive effects of active luminous lane markings on the promotion of highway traffic safety and efficiency at night, providing theoretical support for the popularization and application of active luminous road lane markings.

Safety evaluation of visual load at entrance and exit of extra-long expressway tunnel based on optimized support vector regression

“…Shang [ 26 , 27 ] proposed a method to set exit advance guide signs in highway tunnels, and evaluated their influence on the trajectories and speeds of passenger cars. Zhu [ 28 ] evaluated the effectiveness of three types of speed reduction markings (SRMs) in tunnel entrance and exit zones through a driving simulation experiment, and found that SRMs are necessarily implemented in the highway tunnel entrance and exit zones. Rain and snow can lead to a bad line of sight, weaken anti-skiing ability, and aggravate risks at tunnel entrances and exits.…”

Development of a cyan blue-emitting Ba3La2(BO3)4:Ce3+,Tb3+ phosphor for use in dental glazing materials: color tunable emission and energy transfer

“…Recently, many investigations have been devoted to the search for new application fields for phosphor materials, such as plant growth, 7–11 optical sensors, 12–17 cosmetics 18,19 anti-counterfeiting 20 and road signs/lanes. 21,22 In addition, the phosphors have been used in the dental field to enhance the aesthetics of artificial crowns and restoration. 21–29 Under UV-light irradiation, human natural teeth emit cyan blue color with peak at 450 nm and the photoluminescence (PL) properties of teeth make whiter and brighter for human natural teeth in daylight.…”

“… 21,22 In addition, the phosphors have been used in the dental field to enhance the aesthetics of artificial crowns and restoration. 21–29 Under UV-light irradiation, human natural teeth emit cyan blue color with peak at 450 nm and the photoluminescence (PL) properties of teeth make whiter and brighter for human natural teeth in daylight. 30 The artificial crowns and restorative materials can match the shade of the natural teeth to satisfy aesthetic requirements by adding phosphors or pigments.…”