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Is Wider Better?: Enhancing Pavement Marking Visibility for Older Drivers
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Is Wider Better?: Enhancing Pavement Marking Visibility for Older Drivers

Phillip J Ohme and Thomas Schnell
Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, Vol.45(23), pp.1617-1621
10/2001
DOI: 10.1177/154193120104502312

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Abstract

A field study was conducted to evaluate the effect of pavement marking edge line width (100 mm, 150 mm, 200 mm) and pavement marking material type (normal paint+beads, wet-weather tape, ceramic element) on forward detection distance when driving on a two-lane rural road under automobile low-beam illumination at night. The aim of the study was to generate a set of recommendations to improve nighttime driving conditions for old motorists, especially under wet weather conditions. Prior to the experiment, the markings were purposely worn in situ by traffic for one year to obtain realistic in-service retroreflectances. Fourteen participants, including 7 young drivers (range 19-26 years) and 7 old drivers (range 65-81 years), detected a 60 m gap in each pavement marking treatment under both dry and wet roadway conditions. The width of the edge lines showed no significant effect on detection distance, however, the material type significantly increased detection distance, especially under wet roadway conditions. These results suggest that enhanced pavement marking materials could be useful to improve pavement marking visibility and thus safety of the nighttime motorist, especially in high-risk areas such as extremely sharp curves or other situations where increased forward preview is needed to allow adequate driver reaction.

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