Detection of Quiet Vehicles by Blind Pedestrians
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 1
Abstract
This paper examines participants who are blind, with and without normal hearing, regarding detection of forward approaching and backing vehicles operating in electric mode (identified in this paper as quiet vehicles) under low speed conditions. Testing under low ambient sound conditions involved evaluation of internal combustion engine vehicles, hybrid vehicles operating in electric mode (EM), and the same hybrid vehicles operating in EM but with five different artificially generated sounds. Three of the five artificial sounds improved detection relative to the internal combustion engine condition for both forward and backward detection tasks. Regression analysis indicated that significant predictors of forward detection performance include average wind speed, amplitude modulation of the signal, hearing loss in the 500 Hz range, vehicle velocity, minimum ambient sound level, and overall vehicle sound level in units of A-weighted decibels. The corresponding analysis for backward detection indicated significant predictors, including a hearing loss in the 4 or 500 Hz ranges, vehicle velocity, minimum ambient sound level, vehicle sound level at the 250 Hz octave band, and the overall vehicle sound level in A-weighted decibels.
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Acknowledgments
This project was supported by Grant No. 2R01 EY12894-07 from the National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, and a contract with General Motors. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Eye Institute.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 139 • Issue 1 • January 2013
Pages: 50 - 56
Copyright
© 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 15, 2011
Accepted: Jun 20, 2012
Published online: Aug 22, 2012
Published in print: Jan 1, 2013
Discussion open until: Jan 22, 2013
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