This study was initiated to test a new method for determining what kind of visual information is essential for night driving. That is, drivers were asked for their experiences, and also their driving behaviour was observed, while driving over a 112 km stretch of both illuminated and unlit roads. The experiment was repeated under daylight conditions. When relating the data to type of road and lighting condition it turned out that 90% of the problems came from unlit or sparsely illuminated roads; with their frequency heavily dependent, however, on the type of road (virtually no problems were reported on unlit freeways). it is concluded that the visual problems, as found in this study, are due, in the first instance to lack of information with respect to changes in the course of the road. Considering the results obtained it is concluded that this method is suitable for the intended goal, and may also be applied in a more general sense for evaluating problems of the driving task in relation to variables of the road and traffic environment. (author/publisher)
Samenvatting