A Study on Cognitive Error Validation for LED In-Ground Traffic Lights Using a Digital Twin and Virtual Environment

Traffic accident prevention is considered one of the most crucial public safety issues due to the ongoing rise in traffic accidents. The installation of LED in-ground traffic lights is one strategy that has proven to be quite effective in preventing numerous traffic accidents, notably pedestrian accidents. The traffic signal helps reduce accidents for pedestrians, but there is a drawback in that such installations may lead to cognitive errors, such as the driver making a mistaken start or stop. Therefore, it is crucial to validate cognitive errors in advance of the widespread adoption of LED in-ground traffic signals. To this end, in this study, we (i) built an experimental environment that can be employed for various traffic tests using digital twins and virtual simulators; (ii) designed test scenarios and measurement plans for validation to conduct a validation test, and (iii) demonstrated cognitive errors through data from various experiments. As a result, it was proven that there is a possibility that the LED in-ground traffic lights may cause cognitive errors for drivers, and the causes of this were analyzed. In the future, this framework can be used to demonstrate various transportation problems and can contribute to improving the quality of public safety.