• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.41 no.6
• /
• pp.697-705
• /
• 2021

Currently, roadway operation agencies provide interior zones of tunnels with emergency information including crash, fire, and vehicles' stop, through state-of-the-art technologies such as variable message signs and radio-based broadcast systems. However, when coping with an emergency in tunnel interior zones, such information could be too late for drivers to access. A radio-based emergency alert system at the access zones of freeway tunnels, on the other hand,could be a good alternative for solving this problem. Therefore, the objective of this study is to assess user acceptability of such an alternative system. To carry out this study, an online survey was conducted on 762 drivers, and the survey results were analyzed using a structural equation modeling to identify factors affecting acceptability of the proposed system. As a result, driver characteristics such as age group, driving frequency, and driving career, utilization of conventional traffic information, and usefulness of conventional traffic information have a positive impact on acceptability. It is expected that the findings of the study will be a basis to effectively address and deploy a new emergency alert system at the access zones of freeway tunnels.