PURPOSES : The purpose of this study is to evaluate the road design elements affecting the lateral driving safety under high-speed driving conditions with a speed limit of 140 km/h and to derive useful implications to design of safer roads. METHODS : A full-scale driving simulator was used to evaluate the various design scenarios. Different regression techniques and a random forest method were adopted to conduct comprehensive comparisons among the simulation scenarios. The relationships between the safety indicators, including the frequency of the lane departures and the standard deviation of the lateral acceleration, and the design elements were explored in terms of lateral driving safety. RESULTS : The length of the combined alignment was found to be a significant factor affecting the lateral driving safety based on the analysis of the frequency of lane departures. Regarding the standard deviation of the lateral acceleration, it was identified that the length of the horizontal curve, the length of the bridge, and the right-side superelevation must be considered significant factors associated with driving safety while designing the road under high-speed driving conditions. CONCLUSIONS : Based on the findings of this study, a set of recommendations for designing roads was proposed. For example, the proper length of the combined alignment and the horizontal curve should be determined to prevent crashes due to hazardous lateral driving events because the installation of sufficient superelevation in the bridge section would be limited under high-speed driving conditions. In addition, applying a larger horizontal curve radius with longitudinal grooving is a promising approach to tackle risky driving conditions.

PURPOSES : The desire of drivers to increase their driving speeds is increasing in response to the technological advancements in vehicles and roads. Therefore, studies are being conducted to increase the maximum design speed in Korea to 140 km/h. The stopping sight distance (SSD) is an important criterion for acquiring sustained road safety in road design. Moreover, although the perception-reaction time (PRT) is a critical variable in the calculation of the SSD, there are not many current studies on PRT. Prior to increasing the design speed, it is necessary to confirm whether the domestic PRT standard (2.5 s) is applicable to high-speed driving. Thus, in this study, we have investigated the influence of high-speed driving on PRT. METHODS : A driving simulator was used to record the PRT of drivers. A virtual driving map was composed using UC-Win/Road software. Experiments were carried out at speeds of 100, 120, and 140 km/h while assuming the following three driving scenarios according to driver expectation: Expected, Unexpected, and Surprised. Lastly, we analyzed the gaze position of the driver as they drove in the simulated environment using Smarteye. RESULTS: Driving simulator experimental results showed that the PRT of drivers decreased as driving speed increased from 100 km/h to 140 km/h. Furthermore, the gaze position analysis results demonstrated that the decrease in PRT of drivers as the driving speed increased was directly related to their level of concentration. CONCLUSIONS : In the experimental results, 85% of drivers responded within 2.0 s at a driving speed of 140 km/h. Thus, the results obtained here verify that the current domestic standard of 2.5 s can be applied in the highways designated to have 140 km/h maximum speed

In this paper, a new driving mechanism of security robots which should overcome obstacles with stability even though moving in high speed is introduced. The driving mechanism has spring-based suspension and two wheels positively necessary to overcome obstacles. From the driving mechanism, it is mainly discussed how we can decrease overshoot and impulse occurred when the robot is in the process of overcoming obstacles. Finally, design parameters of the driving mechanism which guarantees stable motion while overcoming obstacles is deduced based on simulation results. Experiments are also followed to demonstrate how well the manufactured system works in its early stage of the practical use.