Characterizing Driver Behavior on Signalized Intersection Approaches at the Onset of a Yellow-Phase Trigger

This paper involves a field test on 60 test participants to characterize driver behavior (perception-reaction time (PRT) and stopping/running decisions) at the onset of a yellow phase. Driver behavior is analyzed for five trigger distances that are measured from the vehicle position at the start of the yellow indication to the stop bar. This paper demonstrates that the 1.0-s 85th-percentile PRT that is recommended in traffic-signal-design procedures is valid and consistent with the field observations. Furthermore, this paper clearly shows that brake PRTs are impacted by the vehicle's time to intersection (TTI) at the onset of a yellow-indication introduction. This paper also demonstrates that either a lognormal or a beta distribution is sufficient to model the stochastic nature of the brake PRT. In terms of stopping decisions, this paper demonstrates that the probability of stopping varies from 100% at a TTI of 5.5 s to 9% at a TTI of 1.6 s. This paper also indicates a decrease in the probability of stopping for male drivers when compared with female drivers. Furthermore, this study suggests that drivers 65 years of age and older are significantly less likely to clear the intersection at short yellow-indication trigger distances when compared with other age groups. The dilemma zone for the less than 40 year old group is found to range from 3.9 to 1.85 s, whereas the dilemma zone for the greater than 70 year old group is found to range from 3.2 to 1.5 s.