Simulatory evaluating the impact of color and size of truck rear lights on detection time of other vehicle drivers

Abstract

One of the most important factors of driving at night time is the tail lights of vehicles. Rapid and on time observation of the tail lights can lead to quick response of the other drivers and will prevent many accidences. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of color and the size of tail light of trucks on the time of other driver's detection. The present experimental research was implemented according to designed scenario in the simulated environment which the driving environment was provided for participants at night time. 40 students of Tabriz university of Medical sciences were participated voluntarily. After familiarizing and completing demographic, SSQ and ADHD questionnaires and performing vision and color blind tests, they drove and data were recorded by software and partially collected by the receiver test. Participants should be declared immediately after seeing the tail light of ahead car. Tail lights of this study were designed in two colors (blue, red) and in three different sizes (small, medium, large). Data were analyzed by using STATA14 software. According to the obtained results, There was no considerable relationship between two tail lights of blue and red (PV>0.05). In comparing three sizes of lights, there was significant relation which large light compared to the medium light and the medium light compared to the small light were seen in farther distance. Simultaneous analysis of the effect of color and size on the recognized distance of the tail light, revealed that blue tail light with large size has the best performance compared to the other lights with the different sizes (PV<0.05). It seems that further studies are required to precise analysis and judge with more accuracy about the effect of color of tail light in other to recognize vehicles at night time. Keywords: simulator, tail light, rear end crash, color