• Federal Highway Administration >
• Publications >
• Research Publications >
• Human Factors >
• 04137 >
• Introduction.Cfm
• Enhanced Night Visibility Series, Volume VI: Phase II—Study 4: Visual Performance During Nighttime Driving in Fog

Enhanced Night Visibility Series, Volume VI: Phase II—Study 4: Visual Performance During Nighttime Driving in Fog

PDF files can be viewed with the Acrobat® Reader®

CHAPTER 1—INTRODUCTION

Phase II—Study 4 of the Enhanced Night Visibility (ENV) project was the last in a series of studies conducted on the Virginia Smart Road testing facility that focused on drivers’ visual performances during adverse weather conditions (i.e., rain, snow, and fog). The tasks in this experiment consisted of driving at night in fog conditions testing six different vision enhancement system (VES) configurations (a subset of the configurations used for Phase II, Studies 1 and 2; see ENV Volumes III and IV). This study evaluates drivers’ ability to detect and recognize pedestrians while using the different VESs. Study participants also were asked to make subjective performance ratings following their use of each VES.

The driving portion of the study at the Virginia Smart Road testing facility was conducted with the road closed to all traffic except the experimental vehicles. No more than two vehicles were on the road at any time. A training session familiarized participants before the onroad study.

The next chapter discusses the methodology in this study.