Nicole Brennan writes in the Waikato Times about research from the University of Waikato showing that people’s perception of the speed of oncoming trains can be seriously inaccurate.
In fact, found the research, our perceptions can be up to 20km/hr too slow, and it is hoped the finding could help improve rail crossing safety.
An excerpt: (read in full here)
“Ms Clark’s research, which is part of a wider Marsden-funded vision science project, looked at the role eye movements had in people’s perception of the speed of moving objects. She tested people’s perception of how fast trains travelled toward them when compared to cars, using a computer simulation.
“What she found was that people perceived trains to be going much slower than they actually were – sometimes 20 kilometres slower.
“Ms Clark said the findings were very relevant for New Zealand, which had a lot of rural roads with level crossings without signals.”