No Need to Slow Down! A Head-up Display Based Warning System for Cyclists for Safe Passage of Parked Vehicles

Abstract

The development of driver assistance systems and technologies for vehicle automation is pushed forward in order to increase road safety. However, there are still numerous situations that cannot (easily) be solved with on-vehicle assistance systems, particularly during the interaction of vehicles with vulnerable road users. Bicyclists, especially in urban areas, are traveling at relatively high speeds compared to pedestrians. Even on dedicated bicycle lanes, numerous accidents are caused by vehicle doors opening. Our proposed approach aims at warning cyclists of suddenly opening doors of parked vehicles when passing. We plan to conduct a user study in mixed reality, comparing the baseline (no system) to two warning concepts (visual and visual-Auditory). We expect that awareness of the possible danger will let cyclists feel safer and help to prevent accidents. We estimate that the visual-Auditory system leads to better reaction times and lower mental workload as the visual-only system.