2024 Volume 80 Issue 20 Article ID: 24-20005
Rear-end crashes account for a very high percentage of accidental fatalities in bicycle-vehicle crashes. Although research using probe bicycles has become active for analyzing phenomena related to bicycle accidents and bicycle safety, few studies have been conducted in tunnels. In a study by Kojima et al., it was also pointed out that the rate of serious accidents in tunnel sections is high in Japan. The most common countermeasure against bicycle accidents in tunnels is the installation of warning signs. In the case of installing warning signs, drivers may become accustomed to seeing them and may not pay attention to them. In this study, the effectiveness of the introduction of a bicycle alert system in tunnels was verified as a joint research project with the Hokkaido Regional Development Bureau and Bunkyo University. As a result, it was confirmed that when the system was in operation, there was an effect of decreasing the speed at which a car overtakes a bicycle.
