The assured clear distance ahead rule: Implications for nighttime traffic safety and the law

Leibowitz, H. W.; Owens, D. Alfred; Tyrrell, Richard A.

doi:10.1016/s0001-4575(97)00067-5

Cited by 98 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Fatality Analysis Reporting System database indicate that pedestrian fatalities increase as illumination decreases even when other factors are held constant (Owens & Sivak, 1993Sullivan & Flannagan, 2002). Since many vehicle-pedestrian collisions appear to occur in situations in which the demands on the drivers exceed their capabilities, the problems that result from inconspicuous pedestrians interacting with traffic at night represent a significant and multi-faceted challenge (Johansson & Rumar, 1968;Langham & Moberly, 2003;Leibowitz, Owens, & Tyrrell, 1998). While the difficulty that drivers have in seeing pedestrians at night was first documented decades ago (e.g., Roper & Howard, 1938), the present study explored a different issue-pedestriansT overconfidence in the visual abilities of approaching drivers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On-road measures of pedestrians’ estimates of their own nighttime conspicuity

Tyrrell

Wood

Carberry

2004

Journal of Safety Research

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On-road measures of pedestrians’ estimates of their own nighttime conspicuity

Tyrrell

Wood

Carberry

2004

Journal of Safety Research

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“…These more detailed responses would also provide a more accurate comparison of actual headlight beam patterns and distributions. Even though drivers are responsible to travel at a speed in which they can stop for hazards, if drivers do not understand how much light and the distribution of that light is provided by their head beams this may be an unrealistic task to ask of drivers (Leibowitz, Owens, & Tyrrell, 1998).…”

Section: Implications and Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Well Do Drivers Understand Their Own Headlights?

Brooks

Goodenough

Tyrrell

et al. 2009

Proceedings of the 5th International Driving Symposium on Human Factors in Driver Assessment, Training, and Vehicle Design : Dr

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“…Leibowitz et al (1998) document, for instance, that strict adherence to the ACDA criterion would require human drivers of automobiles to travel no faster than approximately 20 miles/h (32 km/h) at nighttime on unlighted roads (regardless of roadway functional class), in order to be able to stop in time to avoid a 'dark-clad pedestrian'. Despite traffic speeds at night exceeding 20 miles/h (32 km/h) on much of the unlighted road network, as well as posted speed limits far in excess of this speed, courts have attributed negligence to drivers not observing the ACDA rule at nighttime (cf.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vehicle automation and freeway ‘pipeline’ capacity in the context of legal standards of care

et al. 2017

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The study evaluates, in the context of freeway segments, the interaction between automated cars' kinematic capabilities and the standard legal requirement for the operator of an automobile to not strike items that are in its path (known as the 'Assured Clear Distance Ahead' criterion). The objective is to characterize the impacts of ACDA-compliant driving behavior on the system-level indicator of roadway-network capacity. We assess the barriers to automated cars operating non-ACDA-compliant driving strategies, develop a straightforward ACDAcompliant automated-driving model to analytically estimate freeway 'pipeline' capacity, compare this behavior to human drivers, and interpret quantitative findings which are based on a range of rationally-specified parameter values and explicitly account for kinematic uncertainty. We demonstrate that automated cars pursuing ACDA-compliant driving strategies would have distinctive ''fundamental diagrams'' (relationships between speed and flow). Our results suggest that such automated-driving strategies (under a baseline set of assumptions) would sustain higher flow rates at free-flow speeds than human drivers, however at higher traffic volumes the rate of degradation in speed due to congestion would be steeper. ACDA-compliant automated cars also would have a higher level of maximum-achievable throughput, though the impact on maximum throughput at free-flow speed depends on the specific interpretation of ACDA. We also present a novel quantification of the tradeoff between freeway-capacity and various degrees of safety (one failure in 100,000 events, one failure in 1,000,000, etc.) that explicitly accounts for the irreducible uncertainty in emergency braking performance, by drawing on empirical distributions of braking distance testing. Finally, we assess the vulnerability of ACDA-compliant automated cars to lateral 'cut-ins' by vehicles making lane changes. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of policy questions and research needs.

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The assured clear distance ahead rule: Implications for nighttime traffic safety and the law

Cited by 98 publications

References 12 publications

On-road measures of pedestrians’ estimates of their own nighttime conspicuity

On-road measures of pedestrians’ estimates of their own nighttime conspicuity

How Well Do Drivers Understand Their Own Headlights?

Vehicle automation and freeway ‘pipeline’ capacity in the context of legal standards of care

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