title: The effect of different delineator post configurations on driver speed in night-time traffic: a driving simulator study.
abstract: The aim of the study was to investigate how different delineator post configurations affect driver speed in night-time traffic. In addition, the potential speed effect of introducing a secondary task was investigated. The study was carried out in a car simulator on a road stretch including straight road sections as well as curves with different radii. Fourteen drivers participated in the study and the results show that absence of delineator posts leads to reduced speed. However, provided that there are delineator posts continuously present along the road, the overall driver speed is basically the same, regardless of the spacing between the delineator posts. The results also imply that to reduce driver speed in curves with small radius, using more compact spacing of posts in these curves as compared to in curves with a larger radius, could be a potential strategy. Additionally, the speed reducing effect of a secondary task was only prevailing where the task was initiated.
authors.affiliation: The Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI), SE-581 95 Linköping, Sweden; Department of Computer and Information Science, Linköping University, SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden. Electronic address: sara.nygardhs@vti.se.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nygårdhs
authors.affiliation: The Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI), SE-581 95 Linköping, Sweden. Electronic address: sven-olof.lundkvist@vti.se.
authors.forename: Sven-Olof
authors.initials: SO
authors.lastname: Lundkvist
authors.affiliation: The Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI), SE-581 95 Linköping, Sweden. Electronic address: jan.andersson@vti.se.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Andersson
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer and Information Science, Linköping University, SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden. Electronic address: nils.dahlback@liu.se.
authors.forename: Nils
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dahlbäck
mesh_terms: D000054:Acceleration; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001334:Automobile Driving; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004779:Environment Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008029:Lighting; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012449:Safety; D014584:User-Computer Interface
keywords: Delineator posts; Distraction; Driver speed; Night-time traffic; Simulator study