Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Open Access Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Applied Cognitive Science and Human Factors (MS)

Administrative Home Department

Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences

Advisor 1

Elizabeth Veinott

Committee Member 1

Samantha Smith

Committee Member 2

Pasi Lautala

Abstract

Driver noncompliance and poor decision-making are known contributors to highway-rail grade crossing incidents and accidents. Recent advances in intelligent in-vehicle warning systems have provided new opportunities for improved safety at highway-rail grade crossings. Intelligent warning systems that can communicate between connected vehicles and the infrastructure (V2I) have been proposed to improve safety. However, limited human factors research has been conducted regarding how drivers might react to these in-vehicle warnings. This study evaluated driver preferences, use cases, and message design variations for in-vehicle audiovisual warnings for rail crossing warning violations by varying two message factors: message length and whether the message content is a warning or a call to action. Results indicated that both message length and message content affected driver preferences and perceived usefulness depending on the type of highway-rail grade crossing scenario. These results have implications for future research implementing rail crossing warning systems and driving simulator behavior research.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License.

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