Highway-rail grade crossings (HRGCs) present multiple collision risks for motorists, suggesting the need for additional countermeasures to increase driver compliance. The use of in-vehicle auditory alerts (IVAAs) at HRGCs has been increasing, but there are limited standards or guidelines on how such alerts should be implemented. In the current study, we sought to investigate the effect of different auditory display variables, such as display type and acoustics, on subjective user assessments. We recruited 24 participants and asked them to rate 36 different IVAAs belonging to one of three display types (earcons—short synthetic tones, speech alerts, and hybrid alerts consisting of an earcon and speech) along 11 subjective ratings. Results showed that a hybrid alert led to better overall ratings for acceptance, safety, and semantic understanding when compared with earcon or speech alerts. Additional analyses revealed that semantic variables, such as speech order and gender, should be accounted for when designing IVAAs in an HRGC context. Hybrid IVAAs with spatial audio showed lower Urgency and Hazard level ratings. Findings of the current study can help inform the design of IVAAs for HRGCs.

高速公路-铁路平交道口（HRGC）为驾车者带来多重碰撞风险，这表明需要采取其他对策来提高驾驶员的依从性。在HRGC上使用车载听觉警报（IVAA）的情况正在增加，但是关于如何实施此类警报的标准或指南却很有限。在当前的研究中，我们试图调查不同的听觉显示变量（例如显示类型和声音）对主观用户评估的影响。我们招募了24名参与者，并要求他们对11种主观评分中属于三种显示类型（耳符-短合成音，语音警报以及由耳塞和语音组成的混合警报）之一的36种不同的IVAA进行评分。结果表明，混合警报可提高接受度，安全性，与耳塞或语音警报相比，还有语义上的理解。进一步的分析表明，在HRGC环境中设计IVAA时应考虑语义变量，例如语音顺序和性别。具有空间音频的混合IVAA显示出较低的紧急度和危害等级。当前研究的结果有助于为HRGC设计IVAA。