Studies on evaluation of geometrical design of forest roads by driver's psychological and physiological response: Alignment description of forest roads in mountain areas and variation in systolic blood pressure
1998
Pan, X.D. (Kochi Univ., Nankoku (Japan). Faculty of Agriculture) | Gotou, J. | Suzuki, Y. | Yamamoto, M.
Variation in systolic blood Pressure, which could reflect the psychological and physiological load of a driver, was investigated in order to evaluate the geometrical design of forest roads from the viewpoint of driver's psychological and physiological response. Alignment description of a certain length section of forest road was experimentally selected for examining the evaluation method based on the driver's psychological and physiological response, which was not previously established. The interrelation analysis between the systolic blood pressure of examined drivers and the 9 patterns of alignment description was carried out for 13 road sections about 800 m in length in present forest roads with different grades. It was concluded that the sight distance ratio was the best evaluation parameter through analyzing the following significant parameters; 1) the sight distance ratio (accumulated value of sight distance at various curve to length of road section), 2) curve length ratio 2 (the curve length summation of road section to the distance summation between intersection points), and 3) summation ratio of intersection angle (the intersection angle summation to length of road section). The systolic blood pressure only increased about 10 mmHg when the sight distance ratio was 100% on the road. The systolic blood pressure, however, increased 40 mmHg when the ratio decreased to 50%, which was not obviously suitable in the forest roads
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