Effect of Headlight Swivel Angle on Driver Behavior to Avoid Conflict with Pedestrians Approaching from the Right

Abstract

In Japan, where vehicles travel on the left side of the road (i.e., right turns correspond to left turns in the United States), right turns have the potential to make drivers’ workloads heavy at intersections, because the driver has to judge the headway in oncoming traffic while avoiding pedestrians in the crosswalk. Few investigations have addressed measures for avoiding conflicts with pedestrians in the crosswalk. This study proposes a headlight that is designed to swivel rightward during right turns to illuminate pedestrians coming from the right. The authors conducted a field experiment to determine whether the swivel angle conditions affected drivers’ responses. Drivers’ avoidance behavior does not differ greatly among the three swivel angles. However, from the results of the braking position after the vehicle started turning right, the swivel angle increases the distance between the conflict point on the crosswalk and the braking position of the right-turning vehicle. The driver could estimate the time lag early and accurately while turning right as the swivel angle increases.