Road Projections: Impact on Road Users and Potential to Enhance Awareness of Backing Situation in Parking Lots
Résumé
Road projections, i.e., light projections on the road surface of patterns, lanes, symbols, pictograms, or text, represent a very promising feature for automotive lighting to support the communication between vehicles and human road users and to attract users’ attention and awareness in given situations. Nevertheless, such advanced functions are still under discussion, and it should be assessed, regardless of the lighting technologies, if they can actually benefit the safety of road users. Indeed it has to be investigated whether such road projections can provide a clear and relevant message to road users in a specific usage context and if this can result in awareness of the situation, anticipation, and adoption of safe behaviors. Within this scope, this paper presents a research work to investigate the impact of road projections on road users’ behaviors in a specific use-case, i.e., a backing situation in a parking lot. The study was conducted as an observational study by testing subjects, acting as drivers, cyclists, and/or pedestrians in an indoor parking garage. Based on the comparison of the backing indication with reverse lights, the tests were designed to assess different dimensions: perception, understanding, adopted behaviors, safety feeling, and acceptability. This was performed using various methods: video recordings, driving data, an interview to identify sticking points and benefits, as well as a questionnaire. Results and conclusions are given on whether such light-based communication can further enhance situation awareness regarding a backing situation in parking lots and improve road safety.