University of Twente Student Theses
Conflicting greens between straight-ahead cyclists and right-turning vehicles analysed, using naturalistic observations
Oversteeg, V.J.A. van (2017) Conflicting greens between straight-ahead cyclists and right-turning vehicles analysed, using naturalistic observations.
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| Abstract: | Cyclists are the most vulnerable road users and the road users that are most frequently involved in an accident (Noord-Brabant, 2015; Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, 2017). Accidents between straight-ahead cyclists and right-turning motor vehicles are the most frequent accidents cyclists get involved in (Buch & Jensen, 2016). Despite several measures for vehicles, they fail to give priority to cyclists, because vehicle users fail to see cyclists (Kwan & Mapstone, 2004; Räsänen & Summala, 1998). With the vulnerability of the cyclist in mind Noord-Brabant (2015) came up with a plan for the purpose of zero deaths in 2020, as a result of traffic accidents. Because vehicles ‘fail to see’ and fail to give priority, cyclists have to be alarmed of the hazardous situation. Therefore, different measures were tested to see if the number of conflicts reduced. The measures were a road sign and a flashing light, both separately and the combination of the measures were tested. For these situations, the interactions between the vehicle and cyclist were analysed. In order to determine if cyclists were more aware of the dangerous situation, the number of times they looked aside was noted. The outcome of the test was remarkable; every situation had nearly the same number of conflicts. However, a cyclist looked more frequently aside for a vehicle for both the situation with only the flashing light and the combination of the flashing light and the sign. The situations with the flashing light and both the flashing light and the road sign resembled to have the same positive effect. The positive effect of a flashing light, for making road users aware of potential dangerous situations and drawing more attention to a sign, which is why also the combination of measures helped increase the times a cyclist looked aside, is in line with other papers. Although these clear indications are also supported by other research, more extensive reseach is needed for more firm conclusions. If this research is performed another time with longer observation times at multiple junctions, the benefits of warning a cyclist could contribute to a general measure for all conflicting greens between straight-ahead cyclists and right-turning vehicles and even contribute to the zero deaths target of Noord-Brabant (2015). |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | ET: Engineering Technology |
| Subject: | 56 civil engineering |
| Programme: | Industrial Design BSc (56955) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/74456 |
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