To be able to recognize vehicles and their driving condition, a pedestrian requires sensory submitted information. However, so far there is no comprehensive knowledge about the general role of auditory information in the perception and behavior of pedestrians in interaction with motor vehicles. The vehicle exterior noise is attributed in literature a central role in the acquisition of information for those pedestrians who are without an opportunity of visual perception (visually impaired/blind). Even for situations where visual perception is basically possible, but due to limitations of face and/or visual field as well as the attention capacity cannot be done on a regular basis, estimates exists. The report "Perception and evaluation of vehicle exterior noise by pedestrians at different traffic situations and different operating conditions" is divided into two parts. The first part "auditory perception" contributes to the explanation of the relationship between vehicle external noise and their perception by pedestrians (visually impaired/normal sighted) in terms of potential risk for three selected traffic situations (approaching, starting and sustained vehicle). This section also gives guidance, which basic properties a synthetic vehicle noise has to have in order to be interpreted as vehicle condition "accelerateing" and "brakeing". The second part of the report investigates the bimodal (auditory-visual) perception of pedestrians (visually impaired/normal sighted) by starting (parking situation) and sustaining (pedestrian crossing situation) vehicles. The audibility shows even for normal sighted individual's significant effects on the perception and evaluation even in visually dominant situation. This gives rise to the final suggestion of greater investigation and consideration of the perception of acoustic vehicle and situational characteristics, also with respect to non blind people, for practical, traffic safety-oriented considerations. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting