Evaluation of speed reduction control by road marking measures in expressway sag using drive simulator

Abstract

About 40% of the outbreak factor of the traffic jam in the expressway in Japan is the speed reductions of a sag part and the uphill slope, and traffic jam cancellation in the sag part is an important problem. As for the traffic jam measures, construction and development of the reporting from the car navigation system with the soft aspect and the automatic driving to increase the traffic capacity with the hard aspect are performed. However, it takes cost and time so that they spread. In this study, we investigated road-marking measures that are effective for speed recovery in the highway sag by driving simulator experiments, targeting road markings that the driver is watching. As a result, the following two plans were found to be effective. A plan that changes the pitch of the arrow mark from dense to sparse for the purpose of enhancing the feeling of deceleration, and a plan that directly indicates “uphill” or “speed recovery” in letters.