• Naikan Ding, Shunying Zhu, Nisha Jiao, and Bing Liu.
• 206 Guanggu 1st Road, School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan 430205, China. Electronic address: andrei8901@gmail.com.
• Accid Anal Prev. 2020 Oct 1; 146: 105701.

AbstractRear-end crashes are closely related to car-following situation of vehicles. Speeding and insufficient headway are the major reasons as the drivers have not enough time to react to a sudden brake from the leading vehicle. Perceptual countermeasures, like speed reduction markings, are widely used in practice for accident prevention, and are verified with substantial effectiveness. However, compared with its practical application, the perceptual countermeasures are rarely analyzed in depth from the perspective of drivers' visual perception where the meaning of "perceptual" actually dwells. In addition, its effect on drivers' headway (distance) choice is almost ignored in previous research. Given this, the present study explored the effects of a certain type of perceptual treatment, i.e., the peripheral transverse line markings (PTLMs), on drivers' choice of speed and headway (distance) in car-following by a series of on-road experiments. In the on-road experiments, temporary line markings were installed on a real-world freeway in China to shape the PTLMs. The intersection angle (α) and the longitudinal spacing (λ) of the PTLMs were manipulated to attempt to associate the line markings with drivers' visual perception. Results of general and sectional relative differences of time headway (ηh, θh), speed (ηv, θv), and distance (ηd, θd) suggests that 1) the speed was reduced, the distance and time headway were increased significantly after the installation of PTLMs when compared with the original condition; 2) a larger intersection angle (α) and a smaller longitudinal spacing (λ) of PTLMs could lead to a greater variations in speed and headway (distance); in particular, the PTLMs in a form of α=150°, λ=2m resulted in 0.44 s increase in time headway, 1.33 m/s reduction in speed, and 4.07 m increase in distance in maximum; 3) the real-time crash risk variations under the influence of PTLMs were evaluated by two modified and extended surrogate safety indicators. The effects of PTLMs were discussed and explained considering the influences of optical illusion on lane width narrowing, edge rate on speed and "discontinuity effect" on distance, respectively. The findings of this study provide theoretical support for the perceptual countermeasures and suggest comparative advantages of PTLMs in dealing with rear-end crashes by intervening drivers' speed and headway choice.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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