AN EVALUATION OF SAFETY COUNTERMEASURES AT MERGING SECTION FOR ORDINARY VEHICLE AGAINST PLATOONING OF TRUCKS

Abstract

 As the shortage of truck drivers becomes more serious, truck platooning is attracting attention. As technological development and institutional improvements progress, truck platooning is becoming a reality. However, danger arises when ordinary vehicles try to merge near a truck platoon which is traveling on the main highway. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to statistically verify the effectiveness of two measures: “painting trucks yellow” and “warning drivers with information boards.” By conducting a virtual driving experiment using a driving simulator, test subjects’ driving log data were obtained. Two indicators were used to evaluate the safety of merging behavior: “PICUD at the moment of merging” and “cumulative jerk.” The analysis revealed that both the yellow trucks and the information boards reduced the cumulative jerk of merging vehicles, in other words, improved driving stability. It was also found that the risk of collision increases when encountering a truck platoon for the first time.