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Driver License Renewal Issues and Concerns
Get PDFPeriodic renewal of driver licenses is an integral part of the driver licensing procedures for most states, including Kentucky. Renewal of driver licenses is usually required every four years, and many states conduct vision tests before granting renewal. Few states require additional testing, while several states, including Kentucky, have no vision or any other examinations at renewal. Past research has shown a relationship between crashes and driving records. Thus, it was considered important to develop mechanisms to identify potential problem drivers and to systematically review current practices regarding license renewal and retesting. Additional concerns included the increasing percentage of elderly drivers and their deterioration of vision due to aging. There is a universal agreement among researchers that vision plays a significant role in driving performance, that there are age-related visual changes, and that drivers over age 75 have proportionally higher crash rates than most younger age groups of drivers. However, there is no established standard for vision screening policies. The use of low-contrast charts may improve the effectiveness of vision tests. Age-based road tests are not considered as a practical means to identify drivers with deficiencies, and they would unnecessarily burden the license renewal process. However, using road tests as an additional means of evaluating select individuals, such as those failing vision tests or those referred by a physician or family member, could significantly improve the identification of deficient drivers. The work completed here indicates that safety gains might be achieved by implementing additional procedures for older drivers. The first step might be to require that drivers over 75 renew their driver license every 2 years. A second step would be to use vision screening tests that include a set of medical questions to be given at license renewal for older drivers. As noted earlier, road testing for renewal does not reduce crash rates nor assist in identifying at-risk drivers, and thus is not considered a good initiative. However, allowing renewal examiners the discretion to require road testing as deemed necessary is recommended as a third step. Despite the considerable amount of existing knowledge about the physiological changes of older persons and the impact of these changes on driving, further research is needed. Such research should seek to design and evaluate license renewal programs that would provide older persons with a fair assessment of their driving abiliti
Feasibility of Evaluating Design Ideas for Reducing Vehicular Entrapment at Railroad Crossings Using a Laboratory Experiment
Get PDFThe number of accidents at railroad crossings is particularly high at places where streets run parallel to the railroad tracks. Existing grade crossings were investigated for potential problems and studied for design solutions. The present study reports progress of the first phase of a NJ DOT sponsored project. A laboratory experiment was designed for evaluating various design ideas before they are implemented in the second phase field study. The laboratory study used images taken from actual scenes of railroad crossings in New Jersey, instead of graphical drawings commonly used in driving simulations. Possible design ideas were edited using image processing software. Those design ideas were saved in different layers for generating design combinations which were superimposed on the background images to create virtual railroad crossing scenes. Nighttime images were also made possible by retouching the digital daytime images. Preliminary results of the in-lab experiment were presented. The experience learned from the current project indicates that use of actual images with superimposed design ideas is a cost-effective approach of evaluating and redesigning display layout
Image Characteristics and Their Effect on Driving Simulator Validity
Get PDFDue to financial and computational limitations, the image quality presented in driving simulators is often a trade-off between resolution, pixel density and field of view. The current study examined this trade-off by investigating the effect of image resolution and horizontal field of view on the validity of the Leeds Driving Simulator. There were three levels of pixel density: low (3.6 arc min per pixel), high (2.6 arc min per pixel) and real world, and four levels of field of view: narrow (50°), medium (120°), wide (230°) and real world. Results seemed to show that widening the field of view improved the validity of speed choice and lane position between simulated and real world driving conditions, whilst there was no significant effect of image resolution
Recent European Projects on Driver Impairment
Get PDFThis paper gives an overview of recent European Union projects on the assessment of driver impairment. Whereas previous research has focused on vehicle technology (DREAM, DETER) or Human Machine Interfacing (SAVE), more recent efforts have been based on methods to detect the presence of substances (ROSITA) or the level of impaired performance at the roadside (CERTIFIED, IMMORTAL). This paper will summarize the objectives and main conclusions of the most recent project
The Influence of Conversation, Low-Dose Alcohol and Driving Experience on the Peripheral Vision System
Get PDFThe peripheral vision system plays a very important role in the orientation system. Its task is to detect information and select the relevant from the irrelevant. Many accidents happen when drivers miss important information because their visual field is reduced. One reason for such a reduction is that the driver focuses his attention on something that has nothing to do with his driving. When the cognitive system has insufficient attention at its command, it compensates by neglecting the peripheral vision system and focusing on the central field of vision. Consequently, every action which needs a high degree of attention poses a potential danger, because it reduces the visual field and may cause an accident
Distraction Effects of Phone Use During a Crucial Driving Maneuver
Get PDFForty-two licensed drivers were tested in an experiment that required them to react to an invehicle phone at precisely the same time as they were faced with making a crucial driving decision. Using test track facilities, we extended a previous evaluation of this form to include examination of the influence of driver gender and driver age. Specifically, each driver was given task practice and then performed two blocks of twenty-four trials each, where one trial represented a circuit of the test track. Half of the trials were control conditions in which neither the stop-light was activated or the in-vehicle phone triggered. Four trials required only stopping and a further four only phone response. The remaining four trials required the driver to complete each task simultaneously. The order of presentation of specific trials was randomized. The invehicle phone response task also contained an embedded memory task that was evaluated at the end of each trial. Results confirmed previous observations of slower task response followed by increased braking and that these patterns varied by driver age and gender. Most importantly, we recorded a critical 15% increase in non-response to the stop-light in the presence of the phone distraction task which represents stop light violations on the open road. Further, results showed that age had a much large effect on response than gender, especially on task components that required speed of response. Since driving represents a highly complex and interactive environment, it is not possible to specify a simplistic relationship between these distraction effects and outcome accident patterns. However, we can conclude that such technologies erode performance safety margin and distract drivers from their critical primary task of vehicle control. As such there is expectedly a causal relation in accident outcome that is a crucial concern for invehicle device designers and for all others seeking to ameliorate the adverse impact of vehicle accidents
Behavioral Entropy as a Measure of Driving Performance
Get PDFDelayed event detection and degraded vehicle control are observed when drivers fuel their need to perform extra-driving activities. Vehicle control and event detection are shown to degrade most if the in-vehicle task requires spatial cognitive resources and/or if the activity requires visual perception and/or manual control manipulation. In-vehicle tasks with auditory input and/or voice output that primarily demand low levels of verbal cognitive resources appear to affect event detection only to a small degree and seem to have no effect on vehicle control. A theory-based approach to measure, analyze, and interpret these performance assessments. Results from our SAE paper #1999-01-0892 are used as a vehicle to demonstrate that steering entropy (a measure of vehicle control) in conjunction with reaction times to unpredictable peripheral events (a surrogate measure for event detection) offer clear insight into the safety consequences of various in-vehicle tasks. These results are here discussed in the context of a simple linear predictive model that is based on Wickens’ theory of multiple resources. The model is shown to offer useful predictions about and interpretations of the effects that various in-vehicle tasks have on driving performance in general and driver distraction in particular
Driving Tests: Reliability and the Relationship Between Test Errors and Accidents
Get PDFIn the British practical driving test, serious or dangerous faults are those judged to involve potential or actual danger, and a single such fault results in test failure. As part of a wider project to review the driving test, TRL conducted a study of test-retest reliability. Test and retest outcomes differed for a substantial proportion of candidates. The paper argues that inconsistent performance on the part of the candidate is likely to explain much of this apparent unreliability. Faults that are less serious are also recorded during the test but few candidates make the 16 of them necessary to fail. Self-reported accidents during the first six months of post-test driving were analysed together with driving test records for approximately 30,000 drivers. Statistical modelling suggested that people who pass the driving test having made large numbers of the less serious faults may be intrinsically less safe as drivers, but that they also tend to drive less overall, and less often at night. This reduces (and for men removes) the association between test faults and the actual number of accidents reported
Modeling Driver Cognition Delphine Delorme
Get PDFA discussion of driver modeling is presented along with the design of the PADRIC (PATH DRIver Cognitive) model, and more specifically the perceptive module and its control by a tactical modul
Assessing and Predicting the Impact of Cowlshake in Convertible Cars on Subjective Comfort
Get PDFTorsional oscillations of the car body of convertible cars give rise to cowlshake of the wind-shield frame and the rear-view mirror, the dashboard, steering wheel, and seats. Drivers can perceive these oscillation which might impair subjective comfort and driving safety. Intensity reaches from just noticeable movements up to annoying shake of the steering wheel and distorted view in the mirror. A method to assess drivers´ subjective comfort is suggested which allows to determine a functional relation between objective parameters of cowlshake and subjective comfort. This study is a first step towards simulation of cowlshake which includes prediction of comfort impairment