TY - JOUR A1 - von Sawitzky, Tamara A1 - Grauschopf, Thomas A1 - Riener, Andreas T1 - “Attention! A door could open.” - introducing awareness messages for cyclists to safely evade potential hazards BT - Multimodal Technologies and Interaction N2 - Numerous statistics show that cyclists are often involved in road traffic accidents, often with serious outcomes. One potential hazard of cycling, especially in cities, is “dooring”—passing parked vehicles that still have occupants inside. These occupants could open the vehicle door unexpectedly in the cyclist’s path—requiring a quick evasive response by the cyclist to avoid a collision. Dooring can be very poorly anticipated; as a possible solution, we propose in this work a system that notifies the cyclist of opening doors based on a networked intelligent transportation infrastructure. In a user study with a bicycle simulator (N = 24), we examined the effects of three user interface designs compared to a baseline (no notifications) on cycling behavior (speed and lateral position), perceived safety, and ease of use. Awareness messages (either visual message, visual message + auditory icon, or visual + voice message) were displayed on a smart bicycle helmet at different times before passing a parked, still-occupied vehicle. Our participants found the notifications of potential hazards very easy to understand and appealing and felt that the alerts could help them navigate traffic more safely. Those concepts that (additionally) used auditory icons or voice messages were preferred. In addition, the lateral distance increased significantly when a potentially opening door was indicated. In these situations, cyclists were able to safely pass the parked vehicle without braking. In summary, we are convinced that notification systems, such as the one presented here, are an important component for increasing road safety, especially for vulnerable road users. KW - accident prevention KW - awareness message KW - connected traffic KW - cycling KW - head-mounted display KW - lateral position KW - simulation KW - vulnerable road users Y1 - 2021 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-haw/frontdoor/index/index/docId/1307 UR - https://doi.org/10.3390/mti6010003 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:573-13079 SN - 2414-4088 VL - 6 IS - 1 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER -