Measurement Experiments on Recognition and Legibility Distance of Road Character Markings

Abstract

Since road markings occupy a large portion of the driver's field of vision, they are effective in conveying messages, and a variety of character markings have been laid down as nonlegal markings. We are developing visual 3D character markings, the advantage of which is their high legibility. However, we have not made a quantitative comparison with 2D character markings. Therefore, for the purpose of accumulating basic data, this study, we conducted an experiment to evaluate the recognizability and legibility from the driver's viewpoint for each type of road character markings, including 3D markings. The results showed that recognition distances ranged from 63 to 75 m and were less influenced by the type of road surface markings. Legibility distance was affected by the type of markings in the range of 19 to 42 m, with 3D markings having a greater distance of 13 to 20 m compared to 2D markings.