Work Zones Could be Safer with Use of Smartphone Alerts

In the last year alone, 44% of contractors reported that a vehicle had crashed into their work zone. A new study by the MnDOT hopes in-vehicle alerts will help reduce work zone crashes.

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Road People Street Smartphone

Work zones present an increased risk to road construction crews and the traveling public. In the last year alone, 44% of contractors reported that a vehicle had crashed into their work zone. To mitigate these risks, a new study by the Minnesota DOT (MnDOT) investigated the potential effects of in-vehicle messages to communicate work zone events to the driver.

The hope of this study was that  drivers would be more aware of any risky work zone events and drive appropriately due to the immediacy of an in-vehicle messaging system. However, the researchers worried that a potential downside of these alerts would be the risk of driver distraction, as numerous cellphone studies have demonstrated the hazards of having communication technology in the automobile.

And so the researchers began by conducting literature reviews on risks imposed by work zones, along with design guidelines for any in-vehicle messaging system. They then conducted a work zone safety survey to illustrate driver attitudes in Minnesota toward work zones, along with smartphone use and in-vehicle messages through smartphones. The survey found that a significant number of drivers make use of smartphones in the automobile, and they placed these smartphones in various locations throughout the vehicle. The research also uncovered that some drivers were skeptical of the validity of the warnings on roadside signs for work zones and were receptive to using electronic messaging systems that may be more reliable.

Putting Research to Work

Researchers at the HumanFIRST laboratory followed the survey with the design of the in-vehicle messages and the design of the simulated driving study to test the efficacy of the messaging system on driving safety. The simulated driving study tested drivers in two different types of work zones, a shoulder work route and a lane closure route. Participants drove through these work zones three times, each with different work zone events and messaging interfaces to communicate the hazardous events to the driver. These message interfaces included a roadside, portable changeable message sign (PCMS), a smartphone presenting only auditory messages, and a smartphone presenting audio-visual messages.

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Events in the work zone were typical, including slowed traffic, lane closure, heavy machinery, workers ahead, among others. The in-vehicle messaging smartphone was either mounted on the dashboard or placed in the passenger seat. During the drives, researchers recorded objective measures of driving performance subjective or reported variables such as event recall, mental workload, user-friendliness and eye-tracking metrics. The data analysis of the driving simulation study found that there was better driving performance on key metrics including speed deviation and lane deviation for both in-vehicle message conditions relative to the roadside signs.

Furthermore, drivers reported significantly less mental workload, better usability and greater work zone event recall for both in-vehicle conditions relative to the roadside sign condition. For eye-tracking, drivers took their gaze off the road less often for the in-vehicle messaging conditions, as drivers had to look over to read the roadside signs to understand the messages. Finally, the positive effects of in-vehicle messaging appeared to be elevated for the more difficult lane closure route in the driving performance data, suggesting that in-vehicle messages were helpful for more challenging roadway conditions.

Researchers on the study said the conclusions of the study were twofold. First, if the in-vehicle messages are delivered in a controlled and driving relevant manner, there appeared to be no effect of distraction and driving performance was improved. Second, placement of the smartphone did not appear to be a significant factor for driving performance when there was an auditory component for the messages. The researchers recommend field testing in-vehicle message systems and exploring possible avenues of broad implementation.     

Read the full report here. 

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