How eye movement and driving performance vary before, during, and after entering a long expressway tunnel: considering the differences of novice and experienced drivers under daytime and nighttime conditions

Abstract

IntroductionDriving environment in tunnels is quite different from the ordinary roadway sections, especially the entrance locations, which causes great difficulty in obtaining and interpreting information through fixations and saccades that are relevant to driving safety. Therefore, it is necessary to understand driver's visual behaviors while entering a tunnel so as to take the countermeasures for accident prevention.Case descriptionIn order to identify the variation of driver’s visual features during the process of tunnel entry, 18 participants were recruited to take part in a driving test conducted in real tunnel sections between Qipanguan toll and Jinshui toll of the G5 expressway in Shaanxi, China. During this test, the drivers’ fixations, saccades and driving performances were captured for further analysis.Discussion and evaluationThe test data revealed that the driver’s number of fixations, duration of fixations and number of saccades increased gradually at the transition zone. The number of fixations, duration of fixations and number of saccades then drop slightly until the end of the transition zone, and then rise just a little to a stable value after fully adapting to the driving conditions inside the tunnel. Meanwhile, the driver’s number of saccades and saccade amplitude value decreased first, and then increased gradually until reaching a relatively stable value inside the tunnel. Additionally, drivers are more cautious at the transition zone, driving conservatively at lower speed, while decreasing their steering wheel angle and minimizing the vehicle’s lateral deviation. Specially, novice drivers require a longer transition zone before tunnel entry compared to the experienced ones. Moreover, both novice and experienced drivers take more time to get prepared for tunnel entry while driving at night.ConclusionTunnel entrance section is far more dangerous, so drivers should be educated to get ready ahead for tunnel entry, drive cautiously at lower speed and pay full attention to the traffic flow conditions while driving through the tunnel, especially for the novice drivers in night tasks. Tunnel entrance is suggested to have easily identifiable frame design, with effective traffic signs placed at least 170 m before the entrance and gradually changeable LED lighting along the transition zone. All these suggestions provide insight into potential strategies for reducing and preventing traffic accidents and injuries at the tunnel locations.

Effects of In-Vehicle Navigation on Perceptual Responses and Driving Behaviours of Drivers at Tunnel Entrances: A Naturalistic Driving Study

“…Moreover, Zone 3 was identified as the key zone of psychological responses. This result may explain recent findings [10,13,45,46] that the driving workload increased sharply when approaching the tunnel portal, and it achieved the largest level in the range of 50 m inside the tunnel portal.…”

“…The average duration of fixations reflects the depth of the driver's fixation and could effectively represent the difficulty of driving information cognition experienced by the driver during environmental transition at the tunnel entrance. For a driver, the longer the average duration of fixation, the more difficult the cognition of information from the driving environment [46]. Figure 5 shows the results of the average duration of fixations in each zone of the tunnel entrance.…”

“…Testing in driving simulations may not endanger the real safety of drivers [44]. With this cognition, drivers in the driving simulation may not reflect the same perceptual responses and behaviours as in naturalistic driving conditions [45,46]. Therefore, drivers' perceptual responses and driving behaviours based on naturalistic driving experiments should be combined in the analysis of the effectiveness of in-vehicle navigation.…”

How does long trip affect on driving performance, eye blinks and awareness of sleepiness among commercial drivers? A naturalistic driving test study

“…As claimed by extensive previous research, monotonous driving condition makes drivers fall asleep at the wheel more easily and quickly [24,25]. The selected line route b passes through Yimeng Mountain area containing lengthy tunnels; therefore, drivers may feel more seriously impaired with higher subjective sleepiness, quicker eye blink movement, and poorer driving performance values.…”

Influence of spatial visual conditions in tunnel on driver behavior: Considering the route familiarity of drivers

“…The mean saccade speed (°/s) is the average ratio of each saccade angle to its duration, which indicates the speed and efficiency of visual searching and information processing. 20 The route familiarity difference was weakly significant with F(1, 30) = 0.987, p = 0.057, h 2 = 0.256, while the spatial visual conditions were not significantly different (F(1, 30) \ 1, p . 0.05).…”