Road safety research - Road safety measures to address fatigue

Austroads has published a report which highlights innovative ways of reducing driver fatigue.

The report is titled “Innovative Road Safety Measures to Address Fatigue: Review of Research and Results from a Treatment Trial”, and was published in April 2011. The research resulted from Austroads studies that showed that fatigue was a major contributing factor to rural and remote area crashes. The research focussed on the following categories:
 
  • Providing rest opportunities and encouraging drivers to use them
  • Advising drivers of the need to rest
  • Reducing monotony for drivers
  • Alerting drivers to specific hazards
  • Helping to avoid departure from the roadway
  • Alerting drivers to their departure from the roadway
  • Protecting drivers if they do depart from the roadway

Some of the key areas that were identified that could address the above were as follows:
 
  • Improving signage for rest opportunities
  • Anti-monotony roadside designs, such as roadside art and landscaping, to provide mental stimulation
  • Warning signs and road markings
  • Vehicle activated and variable messages that provide warnings, but don’t allow the driver to become habituated to them
  • Transverse audio-tactile treatments as an alerting device (such as rumble strips across the road surface)

The report can be found under the publications section of the Austroads website. Source: www.austroads.com.au  
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