Visual Communication between Truck Drivers and the Surroundings : - A Master’s Thesis Project for Increasing Communication and Reducing Accidents between HGV and VRUs

Sammanfattning: In recent years, accidents between trucks and other vehicles have decreased while accidents be-tween trucks and vulnerable road-users have increased. The reason for this is unknown, which is why this Master’s Thesis project was initiated. The project is a co-operation between two students from two different universities, LTU and KTH, done for Volvo GTT in Gothenburg. A user study containing interviews and co-rides has been executed with truck drivers in the Gothenburg area during the autumn of 2017. A survey was also sent to different organizations for cyclists, motorcyclists, car drivers and to Facebook groups for the two universities. Critical situations mentioned by the truck drivers were chosen with the help of the survey answers from other road-users. Right hand turns with a truck that crosses a bike lane and intersections with a zebra crossing were the situations the project focused on, based on the Volvo Trucks Safety Report 2017 which stated those situations as the most dangerous. Serious accidents occurring when a truck turns right is when vulnerable road-users end up under the truck’s back wheels, which cuts corners. This made the project focus on trying to find a solution that could reduce this type of accident. The project also concentrated on increasing the commu-nication at intersections, based on the survey comments where it became clear that eye contact is insufficient, which led to focus on communication between trucks and fellow road-user instead. Through benchmarking, literature reviews and idea generation the final concept solution was cre-ated and developed after a workshop. The final concept solution is a turning projection that visualizes the dangerous area when a truck is turning and a light matrix in the front grille for increasing the understanding, visually, of the truck driver’s intentions of slowing down or speeding up. The final concept solution contains a zebra crossing projection in the front of the truck to facilitate the communication today, and in the future to even replace eye contact and gestures done between truck driver and fellow road-users at crossings. Further development of the concept solution includes choices and adaption of available technology and research concerning legislation for color usage on lights and projections to the front and sides of the trucks.