title: Modeling the influence of Chevron alignment sign on young male driver performance: A driving simulator study.
abstract: In China, the Chevron alignment sign on highways is a vertical rectangle with a white arrow and border on a blue background, which differs from its counterpart in other countries. Moreover, little research has been devoted to the effectiveness of China's Chevron signs; there is still no practical method to quantitatively describe the impact of Chevron signs on driver performance in roadway curves. In this paper, a driving simulator experiment collected data on the driving performance of 30 young male drivers as they navigated on 29 different horizontal curves under different conditions (presence of Chevron signs, curve radius and curve direction). To address the heterogeneity issue in the data, three models were estimated and tested: a pooled data linear regression model, a fixed effects model, and a random effects model. According to the Hausman Test and Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), the random effects model offers the best fit. The current study explores the relationship between driver performance (i.e., vehicle speed and lane position) and horizontal curves with respect to the horizontal curvature, presence of Chevron signs, and curve direction. This study lays a foundation for developing procedures and guidelines that would allow more uniform and efficient deployment of Chevron signs on China's highways.
authors.affiliation: Beijing Key Laboratory of Traffic Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China.
authors.forename: Yiping
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Beijing Key Laboratory of Traffic Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China. Electronic address: xiaohuazhao618@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Xiaohua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Beijing Key Laboratory of Traffic Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China.
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Transport Planning and Research Institute, Ministry of Transport, Beijing 100028,China.
authors.forename: Jiayuan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Beijing Key Laboratory of Traffic Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rong
authors.affiliation: Texas Department of Transportation, 10016 Liriope Cove, Austin, TX 78750-2636, USA.
authors.forename: Jianming
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ma
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic; D000328:Adult; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000523:psychology*; D002681:China; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004779:Environment Design; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008954:Models, Biological; D010465:Perception; D012449:Safety; D013561:Symbolism; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Chevron alignment sign; Driver performance; Driving simulator; Random effects model