Ergonomic analysis and prevention of crossing collisions-Redesign of traffic management system by means of visibility improvement at intersections-

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One-fourth of the total road accidents in Japan include crossing collisions at intersections, and most of them occurred at urban uncontrolled intersections. Our previous studies revealed that these collisions were mainly caused by poor quality of visual environment at intersections focusing indirect visibility provided by traffic convex mirrors. We proposed intentional visualization of intersections by installing mirrors based on low-cost/low-technology oriented ergonomics 3 points guidelines as effective countermeasures to prevent them, and assured explicit effectiveness of adjusting mirrors to achieve reduction of crossing collisions at real accidents prone intersections. We arranged necessary basic data-base to develop a manual guideline to inspect and improve traffic convex mirrors distributed over the country (accounted for 2.2 million units) by making use of 3-dimensional computer graphics (3DCG) technology. The most explicit result of 3DCG simulation was a demonstration for the variation of the visible distance in the mirror image by 10m, by making fine adjustment of the depression angle of mirror plate by 1 degree. This fact suggests that fine adjustment of the depression/horizontal angle of the mirror plate is critical factors for the indirect visibility.