The following description was taken from Transport and Environment:
The research described in this report has been performed by Loughborough Design School (LDS) under the CLOCS programme funded by TfL. The project was specified to allow an understanding of the variability of blind spots in direct vision through windows and indirect vision through mirrors for the top selling HGVs in the UK. The impetus for the research was the increasing number of accidents between Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) and HGVs in London.
The aim was to compare the manufacturers’ most sold vehicle specifications to determine which vehicle design variables can affect the size of blind spots, and to explore issues that have been raised in previous research including the potential for construction HGVs to be involved in more accidents with VRUs than distribution variants of HGV designs. The LDS team have utilised a virtual modelling technique to explore this issue. This virtual approach allows multiple accident scenarios to be modelled and simulated. In order to allow the analysis of vehicle blind spots 19 vehicle models have been created by digitally scanning the real world vehicles.
The vehicles that have been modelled include construction, distribution and long haul HGV designs, as well as ‘high vision’ low entry cab designs. These models have been used in combination with simulations of cyclist and pedestrian VRUs in a manner which recreates critical accident scenarios that have been defined through the analysis of accident data.