Effect of auditory in-vehicle warning information on drivers’ brake response time to red-light running vehicles during collision avoidance

• RT is the most influential variable on the collision occurrence; and with one second of brake RT increase, the RLR collision likelihood would increase by 13.15 times.
• RLR-CWS can significantly reduce drivers’ brake RT and collision occurrence rate.
• Early warning is more effective than late warning in terms of both brake RT and collision rate but the late warning also can lower the collision rate.
• There is no significant difference in reducing drivers’ RT between the directional and undirectional warning information.

There is usually a high red-light running (RLR) collision rate at signalized intersections because of the unpredictability of dangerous RLR vehicles traversing intersections illegally. The RLR collision warning systems can help drivers be aware of the red-light running (RLR) vehicles and take collision avoidance actions timely. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the effects of auditory warning information on brake response time (RT) to red-light running vehicles during the collision avoidance process based on a driving simulator experiment. Warning status (e.g., warning vs. no warning), warning lead time (3 s vs. 5 s) and warning content (directional information vs. undirectional information) were considered to examine the effectiveness of the RLR collision warning system under different conditions. The experiment results showed that the auditory warning information can effectively reduce brake RT and collision occurrence rate and RT is the most influential variable on the collision occurrence. Although early warning is more effective than late warning in reducing brake RT and collision rate, the late warning can still lower the collision rate by 37%. However, the directional warning information did not have apparent advantages over the undirectional warning information. The findings of this study are helpful for the designers of RLR collision warning systems to enhance the effectiveness of the systems’ application on traffic safety.