Vision

Previous research (COST 331) and studies (Improver) have confirmed that the night visibility of road markings is an essential contributor to driver comfort and road safety.

COST 331 which ran from 1996 to 1999, mainly focused on dry night conditions and indicated that the increased luminance of road markings, resulting in a better delineation of the road, contributes to an increased comfort by offering more reaction time to the drivers. On average a slight increase in speed was noted, but the increased visibility was mainly converted into more reaction time.

IMPROVER, which ran from 2004 to 2006, concluded that road markings are a key factor to achieve safe road infrastructure. Nevertheless, road markings are generally neglected and, in many cases, have even completely disappeared. Several recommendations were provided for high accident areas and the project confirmed the need for ‘wet-night visibility’.

Capitalising on previous projects, RAINVISION, aims to study the influence of road marking on driver behaviour, by mainly analysing how different age groups (young vs middle vs old) and different gender groups (male vs female) adapt their driving behaviour on the basis of the visibility and retroflectivity of road markings under all weather conditions, (i.e. dry, wet, wet and rainy) during night time driving.

The basic questions that will be addressed are:

• Does better visibility of pavement markings during wet and rainy nights contribute to better driving comfort and road safety?
• How does the impact of increased visibility vary according to age?
• Other things being equal, do men and women show different reactions?

The final test results will be transposed into a series of recommendations that will be widely distributed to stakeholders involved in road safety