Driving Simulator Study for Evaluating the Effectiveness of Virtual Warnings to Improve the Safety of Interaction between Cyclists and Vehicles

Globally, cyclists account for 3% of all deaths, with the highest percentage occurring in Europe (8%) where the bicycle is considered a true alternative mode of transport. Among the overall causes are vehicles overtaking cyclists, especially on rural roads. In this study, a new application of Augmented Reality (AR) warnings for connected vehicles is tested by means of a driving simulator. The overall objective of the study consists in assessing the effectiveness of three proposed AR systems in improving the safety of interactions between vehicles and cyclists, especially during overtaking maneuvers The AR systems were tested on a sample of forty-six drivers and provided them with additional virtual visual information aimed at improving the drivers’ risk perception and assessment of safe distances from cyclists. The virtual warning configurations were: 1) a yellow safety zone around the cyclist; 2) a color-changing safety zone that changes from red to green when the driver has safe lateral space to overtake the cyclist; 3) the same color-changing security zone but with an additional acoustic warning. The AR warnings were found to be quite effective as they helped drivers in performing safer cyclists overtaking. In fact, with AR warnings (especially with the additional audio), it was found that the driver adopted longer distances from the cyclist and entered the oncoming lane less frequently, thus lowering the risk of collision with the cyclist as well as a head-on collision with oncoming vehicles.