Abstract:

This paper aims to improve safety and driving comfort on the sections between bridges and tunnels. The paper collects the driver’s physiological response parameters, speed and other data through actual vehicle tests, and analyses the safety distances between bridges and tunnels on highways based on the driving behaviors from the data collected. The main content of the paper is as follows.

Firstly, the paper introduces wavelet theory. The paper argues that when the driver’s heart rate is used as the physiological response parameter, a noise reduction method is required. This method is chosen to reduce the noise of the original signal and to make the periodicity of the heart rate signal more apparent. The use of appropriate data processing methods will effectively reduce the difficulty of data analysis and increase the efficiency of analysis.

The paper then presents some real-life experiments based on actual sections between bridges and tunnels. For the bridge and tunnel sections, data on speed, heart rate increase and lighting levels are collected. These data form the basis of the subsequent analysis of the driver’s physiological response parameters. This method of experimentation can be further applied to testing the physiological response parameters of drivers on other roads.

The paper again analyses the relationship between heart rate increase and illumination at the tunnel entrance and obtains a model of the relationship between the heart rate increase and the illumination change rate.It also analyses the speed characteristics of the sections between bridges and tunnels and obtains a model of the relationship between driver heart rate increase and speed on these sections. These models will be useful to stakeholders in determining whether it is safe for vehicles to travel on the sections between bridges and tunnels.

Finally, the paper proposes a calculation method for the safe distance of the transition sections between bridges and tunnels with different connection forms based on a comprehensive consideration ofspeed and heart rate increase and determines the minimum safe distance values for transition sections. The conclusions of the paper provide a theoretical reference for route design and traffic safety management of motorway bridge and tunnel sections.

In summary, the paper proposes a method for calculating safe distances between bridges and tunnels using wavelet theory and velocity consistency theory. The heart rate increase is chosen as the cardiac physiological index of the driver, and the effect of light and speed on the changes in the driver’s physiological response parameters is investigated through real vehicle driving tests. This method of road safety assessment, which takes into account of the driver’s psychological and physiological responses, can be used as a reference to improve the safety of sections between bridges and tunnels on motorways to a certain extent.