Brake response time under near-crash cases with cyclist

In this paper, brake response time of 110 near-crash cases with cyclist is researched. Cyclists include bicyclist, electric bicyclist, motorcyclist and tricyclist. This paper refers to the time interval from the moment a collision threat appears to the moment the vehicle begins to decelerate to avoid the collision as brake response time (BRT). Values of BRT range from 0.47s to 2.13s with a mean of 1.016s and a standard deviation of 0.3875s. Influence of seven factors on BRT is analyzed using one-way Analysis of Variance and path analysis. Factors include occurrence time of near-crash, visibility, number of potential threat vehicles, intersection or not, road type, moving status and velocity of the vehicle. The results show that visibility, intersection or not and number of potential threat vehicles are significant factors. Better visibility in the darkness can significantly shorten BRT. BRT decreases with the increase of potential threat vehicles. However, when there are too many (more than three) potential threat vehicles ahead, drivers show significantly longer BRT. Drivers brake significantly more lately at intersection.