EFFECT OF VERTICAL ILLUMINANCE ON VISIBILITY OF THE PEDESTRIAN AT CROSSWALK OBSERVED FROM RIGHT-TURNING DRIVERS AT NIGHT

摘要

Right-turn traffic in Japan is the most dangerous and problematical traffic at an intersection since a right-turning driver has to judge the traffic gap of oncoming traffic stream as well as avoid pedestrians in the crosswalk. At intersections, failure to yield the right of way to pedestrians causes vehicle-pedestrian conflicts at night. The objective of this research was to investigate driver comprehension in detecting pedestrians at a crosswalk ahead of right-turning traffic. A field experiment was conducted during nighttime using a full-scale intersection in the laboratory of the National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management in Tsukuba, Japan. The results show that vertical illuminance level, position of the pedestrian and headlight of the stopped car behind the pedestrian had a high influence on the visibility for detecting pedestrians. According to there results, increasing vertical illuminance at intersections is being proposed as an improvement method to decrease pedestrian-vehicle accidents.