William A. Schaudt

Development of a Performance Specification for Indirect Visibility Systems on Heavy Vehicles

Recent advances in video technology and image processing have heightened the prospect of improving commercial vehicle safety by enhancing the ability of the driver to perceive and respond safely to surrounding traffic. This paper describes the experimental method of an approach for testing the indirect viewing requirements, determined from previous research, using drivers performing maneuvers on a test track course. Various configurations of camera placement, camera optical characteristics, and image viewing surfaces were implemented for this research. These studies will be completed by April 2007. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to present the experimental methodology and research protocols that were implemented to develop the performance specifications for these indirect viewing systems. This research provides the foundation for developing enhancements of the video imagery in order to implement an all-weather indirect viewing system for commercial drivers.

A Survey of Light-Vehicle Driver Education Curriculum on Sharing the Road with Heavy Vehicles

INTRODUCTION Light-vehicle driver education programs that contain content about sharing the road with heavy vehicles may be helpful in reducing future light-vehicle/heavy-vehicle interactions. However, the extent of curricula in the United States including such content is unclear. METHOD Researchers developed an online survey targeted at instructors/administrators of state driver education programs to identify curricula addressing heavy vehicles and to determine perceived effectiveness. RESULTS Ninety-one percent of respondents indicated that the light-vehicle driver education curriculum they teach/administer included a component covering how to safely share the road with heavy vehicles (82% perceived this component to be effective). DISCUSSION Although a large proportion of these programs included a component on how to safely share the road with heavy vehicles, participants indicated there may be room for improvement. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY Participants recommended that future improvements to driver education programs include updated materials and student hands-on experience with heavy vehicles.

Towards Developing an Indirect Video Visibility System for Large Trucks

Large trucks were involved in approximately 14,800 crashes between April 2001 and December 2003 as a result of making lane changes and merges (Starnes, 2006). The elimination of blind spots may help drivers avoid such conflicts by improving their spatial awareness of surrounding vehicles. This study investigated the ability of two candidate Camera/Video Imaging Systems (C/VISs) to provide information on longitudinal clearance to an adjacent vehicle. Sixteen commercial vehicle drivers performed merge maneuvers in front of an adjacent confederate vehicle while driving a tractor-trailer on the Virginia Smart Road. Both C/VIS enhancements were found to significantly improve gap judgment and merge performance. Performance differences between the two C/VIS concepts are examined.

FMCSA's Advanced System Testing Utilizing a Data Acquisition System on the Highway

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) established the FAST DASH program to perform efficient independent evaluations of promising safety technologies aimed at commercial vehicle operations. In this third FAST DASH safety technology evaluation project, researchers evaluated a set of novel prototype mirrors to determine whether the mirrors perform as well as traditional production mirrors across the basic functions of field of view (FOV), image distortion, and distance estimation. Photographs of both types of mirrors and a summary of key findings are presented in Figure 1.