On a national basis, red light running contributes to substantial numbers of motor vehicle crashes and injuries. Every year red-light runners throughout the United States cause 100,000 wrecks, resulting in 89,000 injuries and 1,000 deaths. [1] A proposal in the Florida legislature would raise the fine for red-light running from $60 to $120. In California, the fine is nearly $300. The number of fatal motor vehicle crashes at traffic signals increased 18% between 1992 and 1998, far outpacing the 5% rise in all other fatal crashes. Motorists are more likely to be injured in crashes involving red light running than in other types of crashes, according to analyses of police-reported crashes from four urban communities. Occupant injuries occurred in 45% of the red light running crashes studied, compared with 30% for all other crashes in the same communities. The objective of this research is to investigate the potential use of the UCF driving simulator to study traffic engineering problems. More specifically, this research proposal is focused on two safety aspects of city streets and arterials operations. The first problem is the clearance period at signalized intersections and the potential for running red lights and the second is the limited visibility afforded to the drivers of vehicles traveling behind light truck vehicles (LTV's). The use of a modern advanced driving simulator for human factors research has many advantages over similar real world or on-road driving research. These advantages include experimental control, efficiency, expense, safety, and ease of data collection. In this project, the UCF driving simulator is used as a testbed to evaluate the effect of a new pavement marking design to alleviate the problem of red-light running. It will also be used to collect data on the effects of straight ahead view blockage caused by LTV's preceding passenger cars. (Author/publisher)
Abstract