HAROLD: HAzards, ROad Lighting and Driving

如果驾驶员能够在足够的时间内发现和识别潜在的危险，采取刹车和转向等规避行动，道路碰撞的频率和严重程度就会降低。在数百毫秒内测量的检测时间的改进可以大大增加避免碰撞的可能性。天黑后，反应时间等视觉功能显著降低，安装道路照明作为这种视觉障碍的对策。道路照明对于揭示车辆前灯无法触及的危险（例如从侧面出现的行人）尤为重要。英国政府认识到有必要大幅减少道路交通碰撞，特别是涉及行人等弱势道路使用者的碰撞，并在2015年英国道路安全声明中承诺加强对这些人的保护。该项目将研究如何使用照明来提高主要道路的安全。具体来说，我们寻求增加驾驶员看到危险的机会并减少看到危险所需的时间的照明。这些危险包括其他车辆、静止物体和行人。目前的情况有两个问题。首先，虽然英国和欧洲标准提供了道路照明的指导，但推荐照明的经验基础并不明确。因此，我们不知道他们是否推荐最佳条件。第二，我们怀疑有一种更好的方法来增强行人的检测，当他们是意外的，这是经常的情况下，行人在主要道路上。这是行人应该使用脉冲或闪烁的LED带，戴在手腕或脚踝上，以利用生物运动。LED带可以提供低成本的对策，以减少事故的风险。为了研究这些建议，我们将首先进行实验，以了解包括行人在内的危险检测如何受到照明变化的影响，使用照明强度和光谱（颜色）的变化。虽然司机应该不断扫描潜在的危险，但有许多分心的事情-听音乐，与乘客交谈，查看地图或数字导航设备。这些干扰降低了我们发现危险的能力。因此，我们还将研究危险检测是如何受到分心的影响，以及最佳照明是否可以减轻分心减量。这项研究对老年驾驶员特别有益;老年人的视力往往较差，总体而言，他们在分心驾驶时的表现比年轻人差。这些建议将通过在高保真驾驶模拟器内操纵照明条件来验证。模拟器将测试参与者置于更真实的环境中，同时仍然保持对道路情况的控制并确保参与者的安全。为了促进结果的实施，我们将努力确保照明设计师使用的指导和标准文件得到修订，以包括拟议的标准。

The frequency and severity of road collisions are reduced if drivers are able to detect and recognize potential hazards in sufficient time to take evasive action such as braking and steering. An improvement in detection time measurable in hundreds of milliseconds could substantially increase the probability that a crash can be avoided. After dark, visual functions such as reaction time are significantly reduced, and road lighting is installed as a countermeasure to this visual impairment. Road lighting is of particular importance for revealing hazards beyond the reach of vehicle headlights such as pedestrians emerging from the side. The British Government recognise the need for significant reductions in road traffic collisions, particularly those involving vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, and committed to enhancing protection of these people in the 2015 British Road Safety Statement. This project will investigate the way in which lighting can be used to enhance safety on main roads. Specifically, we seek lighting that increases the chance of drivers seeing a hazard and reduces the time taken to see the hazard. These hazards include other vehicles, stationary objects and pedestrians. There are two problems with the current situation. First, while British and European standards provide guidance on road lighting, the empirical basis of the recommended lighting is not clear. Therefore, we do not know whether they recommend optimal conditions. Second, we suspect there is a better way for enhancing the detection of pedestrians when they are otherwise unexpected, which is frequently the case for pedestrians on main roads. This is that pedestrians should use a pulsing or flashing LED band, worn on the wrist or ankle to take advantage of bio-motion. An LED band could provide a low-cost counter-measure to reduce the risk of accident. To investigate these proposals we will first carry out experiments to find out how the detection of hazards including pedestrians is affected by changes in lighting, using variations in the intensity and spectrum (colour) of lighting. Whilst drivers should be continuously scanning for potential hazards, there are many distractions - listening to music, speaking to passengers and looking at maps or digital navigation devices. These distractions reduce our ability to detect hazards. We will therefore also investigate how hazard detection is affected by distraction and whether optimal lighting can mitigate the distraction decrement. This research is of particular benefit to elderly drivers; the elderly tend to have poorer vision and, overall, they perform worse than younger people when driving with distractionsFrom these data we will identify the changes in lighting conditions likely to improve safety. These recommendations will be validated by manipulating lighting conditions within a high fidelity driving simulator. The simulator places the test participant in a more realistic setting while still maintaining control on road situation and ensuring participant safety. To facilitate implementation of results we will work to ensure the guidance and standards documents used by lighting designers are revised to include the proposed criteria.