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Road Environment and Driver Fatigue
Get PDFWe distinguish between fatigue caused by the demands of the drivingtask itself (see Hancock & Desmond, 2001) from the standard traditionalapproach that links fatigue predominately to the lack of sleep. Fatigue can becaused by two sources: (1) the driver’s initial state before starting the drive, or (2)the characteristics of the drive and the road environment; both sources can have acumulative effect. It is not clear what principles are involved in making one roadenvironment more prone to inducing driver fatigue than another. For the purposeof the current presentation we provide empirical data on road environment anddriver fatigue summarized from a series of three experiments that the first authorhas conducted at Ben-Gurion University (see Oron-Gilad, 2003; Oron-Gilad, etal., 2001). Those are examined in relation to the Hancock and Warm (1989)model of adaptability. The most significant and consistent findings of the threeexperiment is in the way that fatigue is reflected in driving performance acrossdifferent road environments. These findings suggest that drivers are flexible in theway they handle fatigue over the course of time. They can adopt differentstrategies to compensate for their performance decrement, by focusing efforts oncritical elements of each different type of roadway. Understanding of thisdependency of fatigue symptoms on road conditions is of especial relevance todesigners of technological fatigue countermeasures as well as those of futureroadway systems
Shut up I'm Driving! Is Talking to an Inconsiderate Passenger the Same as Talking on a Mobile Telephone?
Get PDFThe objective of this study was to compare driving performance whilst talking on a hands-free mobile (cellular) telephone with performance during conversations with “considerate” and “inconsiderate” passengers. Using the Leeds Advanced Driving Simulator, participants were asked to drive through a road containing four driving scenarios: (1) car following along a straight road section, (2) car following along a curved section of road, (3) a braking event, and (4) a coherence event. A working memory digit recall and sentence verification task were used to simulate conversation in three conversation conditions: (1) “considerate passenger,” where the experimenter asked drivers to responsd to the working memory task before and after a driving event, (2) “inconsiderate passenger,” where the experimenter asked drivers to responsd to the working memory task throughout a driving event, and “3) “mobile phone task,” which involved digital presentation of the working memory task via a mobile telephone throughout the driving events. A silent condition was also used as control. The effect of the three conversation conditions on driving performance was the same during the simple car following scenarios. However, talking to an “inconsiderate” passenger was found to be as disrupting as a mobile phone conversation, and different from conversing with a considerate passenger, during the braking and coherence conditions. Therefore, the high workload imposed by conversation was only detrimental during the more difficult driving conditions, when demand for central attentional resources from both tasks was at its highest
The Relation Between Speed-Lane Choice and Road Accidents in Jordan
Get PDFMore than 96% of traffic casualties in Jordan take place on nonintersection roadway segments. Speed variation and improper lane change are considered to be some of the main factors contributing to these casualties. This research paper describes an attempt made to study speed-lane choice behavior in Jordan. Drivers’ behaviors with regard to their choice of speed and/or traveled lane are assessed. One-fifth of the observed drivers are speeding and one-forth of them changes lanes along the tested segment. Two models are developed and investigated to describe the relationships between speed and lane choice using binary and linear regression models. Results indicate that driving behavior varies with respect to roadway geometry and lane. Speed influences the driver choice of lane changing and his/her decision about changing lanes influences his/her speed choice
What Drivers Don't Know; or Don't Care
No full textMany behaviors of drivers and passengers in automobiles are not safe practices. Three surveys were conducted to determine whether or not some of the behaviors examined previously by us and other investigators were currently occurring. In addition, we asked the respondents whether they knew their behaviors were unsafe and if they were aware of the possible risks, why did they continue to perform the behaviors? Information was also gathered about the extent to which having experienced a formal driving course affected the responses. With the exception of a few items, the participants indicated some awareness of the risks. However, they did not appreciate the relative levels of risk involved in some activities. There was little effect of having taken a formal driving course. Reasons for unsafe behaviors included lack of knowledge, presumption of low increased risk, and acceptance of risk for increased comfort
Assessing Driver Fitness to Participate in FHWA Field Experimentation at Night
Get PDFA Driving Fitness Form was developed to ensure that drivers areready to participate in field driving experiments at night. The form was tested in afield experiment conducted in Delta, Pennsylvania, during August 2004. The fieldexperiment was part of a cooperative research program conducted by the FederalHighway Administration and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.Sixteen research participants drove a curvy stretch of rural two-lane highway eachnight for 8 nights with different pavement markings and markers on the roadway.Partly due to the Driving Fitness Form, the experiment was completedsuccessfully by all participants without any incidents or crashes. The DrivingFitness Form performed well, and summary data were collected on the sample of16 drivers
Cognitive and Psychomotor Correlates of Self-Reported Driving Skills and Behavior
Get PDFThe purpose of this study is to predict self-reported driving and safety skills, traffic violations, and errors by using the measures of cognitive and psychomotor abilities. Male drivers (N = 716, mean age = 36.59) were administered the computerized measures of monotonous and selective attention, visual pursuit, eye-hand coordination, reaction time, and peripheral perception. They also responded to the measures of driving skills and behaviors. Examination of the correlations indicated that the indices of visual pursuit, coordination, peripheral perception, and reaction time significantly correlated with driving skills and aberrant behaviors. The results of the sequential regression analyses controlling for age, level of education, and annual km revealed that selective attention negatively and significantly predicted both types of skills and positively predicted violations and errors. Peripheral perception, visual pursuit, and reaction time were the significant predictors of driving skills and errors in the expected direction. Cognitive and psychomotor abilities accounted for 11% to 17% of the variances in the self-reported driving variables. Results suggested that although the magnitude of the associations was relatively weak, psychomotor and cognitive/perceptual abilities are associated with self-reported driving performance and behaviors for young and middle-aged drivers. These findings indicated that certain measures of cognitive and psychomotor abilities, such as peripheral perception and selective attention, have implications for driver assessment systems and should be carefully examined in future research
Quantifying Driver Response Times Based upon Research and Real Life Data
Get PDFThe purpose of this paper was to build upon previous research,identify the variables that significantly influence driver response times, and todetermine the amplitude (constant) of that influence. The goal is that this researchwill explain why seemingly analogous published studies have come to verydifferent driver response time results. An analogous driver response situation isdefined as being in one of four groups: (1) lead vehicles that were stopped ormoving slowly, (2) being cut off (when a vehicle changes lanes into the path ofthe responding driver), (3) path intrusions, or (4) known lights, icons or sounds. Itwas found that research that measured response times in analogous situations canbe used to estimate the mean response time for a particular situation ifadjustments are made to account for methodological differences between thestudies. Non-analogous studies are poor predictors of driver response (Ananticipated light stimulus response cannot accurately predict the response time toa path intrusion or lead vehicle). Mean driver response times can be predictedwithin 400 ms without accounting for individual difference. Therefore, externalvalidity can be obtained regardless of the testing method (closed course, simulatoror road), as long as the subject is unaware of either the stimulus or the appropriateresponse. Having a subject respond to multiple events does not (by itself) suggestthat drivers will respond significantly faster
The Effects of Speech Production and Speech Comprehension on Simulated Driving Performance
Get PDFWe performed two experiments comparing the effects of speechproduction and speech comprehension on simulated driving performance. In bothexperiments, participants completed a speech task and a simulated driving taskunder single- and dual-task conditions, with language materials matched forlinguistic complexity. In Experiment 1, concurrent production and comprehensionresulted in more variable velocity compared to driving alone. Experiment 2replicated these effects in a more difficult simulated driving environment, withparticipants showing larger and more variable headway times when speaking orlistening while driving than when just driving. In both experiments, concurrentproduction yielded better control of lane position relative to single-taskperformance; concurrent comprehension had little impact on control of laneposition. On all other measures, production and comprehension had very similareffects on driving. The results show, in line with previous work, that there aredetrimental consequences for driving of concurrent language use. Our findingsimply that these detrimental consequences may be roughly the same whetherdrivers are producing speech or comprehending i
Verbal Collision Avoidance Messages of Varying Perceived Urgency Reduce Crashes in High Risk Scenarios
Get PDFCollision Avoidance Systems (CASs) are increasingly being installed in motor vehicles. Concurrently, verbal warnings are increasingly utilized in aviation, surface transportation, and medical environments. The current driving simulation investigation examined crash avoidance behaviors in high risk driving situations and crash rate reduction as a function of exposure to different types of verbal CAS messages. CAS messages varied in presentation level (PL) and signal word. Postdrive ratings of perceived urgency, alerting effectiveness, and annoyance were also examined. The type of CAS warning presented resulted in significant differences in appropriate crash avoidance behaviors and crash rates. In the current paradigm, the most effective CAS warnings were those of moderate PU, specifically the low PU signal word “notice” presented at high PL and the high PU signal word “danger” presented at low PL. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for CAS warning design and hazard matching applicability