Active Road Studs as an Alternative to Lighting on Rural Roads: Driver Safety Perception
1
Transport Research Institute, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh EH10 5DT, UK
2
Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, UCL, London WC1E 6BT, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2020, 12(22), 9648; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229648
Received: 17 October 2020 / Revised: 15 November 2020 / Accepted: 16 November 2020 / Published: 19 November 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Technologies and Sustainable Road Safety)
Drivers, particularly with increasing age, cite driving at night as being problematic and feeling unsafe. Ultimately this may result in self-regulation and avoidance, with potentially negative health effects. The issue is commonly mitigated through provision of street lighting, but with it comes cost, environmental impact, and other negative effects. Research has suggested that provision of LED Active Road Studs may be of assistance to drivers at night. However, it is not known how implementation of this measure affects driver confidence, as research to date has focused on observational study of actual driving behaviour. The present work addresses this gap in knowledge using data from 698 respondents to a questionnaire survey of households around a recently treated route. Overall, 72% reported an increase in confidence driving at night, with key reasons cited as increased preview time and reduced glare. A total of 80% of respondents believed the overall safety of the study route had improved. Underlying confidence was found to be lower in females, with confidence increasing with mileage driven. This study is the first to suggest the use of active road studs may increase driver confidence and provide increased travel opportunities, particularly where street lighting is impractical or undesirable in terms of sustainability.
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Keywords:
active road studs; street lighting; driver perception; road safety; human factors; rural roads; junctions; crash countermeasures
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MDPI and ACS Style
Llewellyn, R.; Cowie, J.; Maher, M. Active Road Studs as an Alternative to Lighting on Rural Roads: Driver Safety Perception. Sustainability 2020, 12, 9648. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229648
AMA Style
Llewellyn R, Cowie J, Maher M. Active Road Studs as an Alternative to Lighting on Rural Roads: Driver Safety Perception. Sustainability. 2020; 12(22):9648. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229648
Chicago/Turabian StyleLlewellyn, Richard, Jonathan Cowie, and Mike Maher. 2020. "Active Road Studs as an Alternative to Lighting on Rural Roads: Driver Safety Perception" Sustainability 12, no. 22: 9648. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229648
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