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1.
Sensors (Basel) ; 23(24)2023 Dec 07.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38139509

ABSTRACT

The i-DREAMS project established a 'Safety Tolerance Zone (STZ)' to maintain operators within safe boundaries through real-time and post-trip interventions, based on the crucial role of the human element in driving behavior. This paper aims to model the inter-relationship among driving task complexity, operator and vehicle coping capacity, and crash risk. Towards that aim, data from 80 drivers, who participated in a naturalistic driving experiment carried out in three countries (i.e., Belgium, Germany, and Portugal), resulting in a dataset of approximately 19,000 trips were collected and analyzed. The exploratory analysis included the development of Generalized Linear Models (GLMs) and the choice of the most appropriate variables associated with the latent variables "task complexity" and "coping capacity" that are to be estimated from the various indicators. In addition, Structural Equation Models (SEMs) were used to explore how the model variables were interrelated, allowing for both direct and indirect relationships to be modeled. Comparisons on the performance of such models, as well as a discussion on behaviors and driving patterns across different countries and transport modes, were also provided. The findings revealed a positive relationship between task complexity and coping capacity, indicating that as the difficulty of the driving task increased, the driver's coping capacity increased accordingly, (i.e., higher ability to manage and adapt to the challenges posed by more complex tasks). The integrated treatment of task complexity, coping capacity, and risk can improve the behavior and safety of all travelers, through the unobtrusive and seamless monitoring of behavior. Thus, authorities should utilize a data system oriented towards collecting key driving insights on population level to plan mobility and safety interventions, develop incentives for road users, optimize enforcement, and enhance community building for safe traveling.


Subject(s)
Automobile Driving , Humans , Accidents, Traffic/prevention & control , Coping Skills , Travel , Linear Models
2.
Accid Anal Prev ; 192: 107241, 2023 Nov.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37549597

ABSTRACT

Driver distraction and inattention have been found to be major contributors to a large number of serious road crashes. It is evident that distraction reduces to a great extent driver perception levels as well as their decision making capability and the ability of drivers to control the vehicle. An effective way to mitigate the effects of distraction on crash probability, would be through monitoring the mental state of drivers or their driving behaviour and alerting them when they are in a distracted state. Towards that end, in recent years, several inexpensive and effective detection systems have been developed in order to cope with driver inattention. This study endeavours to critically review and assess the state-of-the-art systems and platforms measuring driver distraction or inattention. A thorough literature review was carried out in order to compare and contrast technologies that can be used to detect, monitor or measure driver's distraction or inattention. The systematic review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. The results indicated that in most of the identified studies, driver distraction was measured with respect to its impact to driver behaviour. Real-time eye tracking systems, cardiac sensors on steering wheels, smartphone applications and cameras were found to be the most frequent devices to monitor and detect driver distraction. On the other hand, less frequent and effective approaches included electrodes, hand magnetic rings and glasses.


Subject(s)
Automobile Driving , Distracted Driving , Humans , Accidents, Traffic/prevention & control , Attention , Cognition , Distracted Driving/prevention & control
3.
Accid Anal Prev ; 191: 107195, 2023 Oct.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37441985

ABSTRACT

Driving simulator studies are popular means to investigate driving behaviour in a controlled environment and test safety-critical events that would otherwise not be possible in real-world driving conditions. While several factors affect driving performance, driving distraction has been emphasised as a safety-critical issue across the globe. In this context, this study explores the impact of distraction imposed by mobile phone usage, i.e., writing and reading text messages, on driver behaviour. As part of the greater i-DREAMS project, this study uses a car driving simulator experimental design in Germany to investigate driver behaviour under various conditions: (I) monitoring scenario representing normal driving conditions, (II) intervention scenario in which drivers receive fixed timing in-vehicle intervention in case of unsafe driving manoeuvres, and (III) distraction scenario in which drivers receive in-vehicle interventions based on task completion capability, where mobile phone distraction is imposed. Besides, eye-tracking glasses are used to further explore drivers' attention allocation and eye movement behaviour. This research focuses on driver response to risky traffic events (i.e., potential pedestrian collisions, and tailgating) and the impact of distraction on driving performance, by analysing a set of eye movement and driving performance measures of 58 participants. The results reveal a significant change in drivers' gaze patterns during the distraction drives with significantly higher gaze points towards the i-DREAMS intervention display (the utilised advanced driver assistance systems in this study). The overall statistical analysis of driving performance measures suggests nearly similar impacts on driver behaviour during distraction drives; a higher deviation of lateral positioning was noted irrespective of the event risk levels and lower longitudinal acceleration rates were observed for pedestrian collisions and non-critical events during distracted driving.


Subject(s)
Automobile Driving , Cell Phone , Distracted Driving , Text Messaging , Humans , Distracted Driving/prevention & control , Accidents, Traffic/prevention & control , Eye Movements
4.
Accid Anal Prev ; 190: 107155, 2023 Sep.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37379650

ABSTRACT

The application of naturalistic driving data (NDD) has the potential to answer critical research questions in the area of driving behavior assessment, as well as the impact of exogenous and endogenous factors on driver safety. However, the presence of a large number of research domains and analysis foci makes a systematic review of NDD applications challenging in terms of information density and complexity. While previous research has focused on the execution of naturalistic driving studies and on specific analysis techniques, a multifaceted aggregation of NDD applications in Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) research is still unavailable. In spite of the current body of work being regularly updated with new findings, evolutionary nuances in this field remain relatively unknown. To address these deficits, the evolutionary trend of NDD applications was assessed using research performance analysis and science mapping. Subsequently, a systematic review was conducted using the keywords "naturalistic driving data" and "naturalistic driving study data". As a result, a set of 393 papers, Published between January 2002-March 2022, was thematically clustered based on the most common application areas utilizing NDD. the results highlighted the relationship between the most crucial research domains in ITS, where NDD had been incorporated, and application areas, modeling objectives, and analysis techniques involving naturalistic databases.


Subject(s)
Accidents, Traffic , Automobile Driving , Humans , Accidents, Traffic/prevention & control , Transportation , Bibliometrics
5.
Accid Anal Prev ; 188: 107089, 2023 Aug.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37182426

ABSTRACT

Traffic enforcement cameras can lead to unwanted side-effects. For instance, red-light cameras at intersections can increase the chance at rear-end collisions, probably caused by slowing down abruptly. Additionally, on the highways, speed cameras could lead to kangaroo-jumps in driving speed. Warning drivers about cameras is a possible solution. Cameras that are uncommonly decorated (e.g. colored in pink or in yellow) may provide better conspicuity compared to those in standard colors like gray. However, besides warning drivers about their presence, more conspicuity of cameras could also distract drivers from the primary driving task. Therefore, the impact of such decoration on safety is unclear. This study evaluates different decorated designs of the camera housing and how such decoration may influence camera's conspicuity and induce distraction while driving. Three camera colored-designs were evaluated (gray, pink, and a mixture of yellow and black) using a driving simulator. Fifty-four participants drove nine different conditions, i.e. three camera-designs in three roadway-settings (basic highway segments, intersections operating during the amber-phase, and intersections with a bicycle-lane). Subjective and objective measures allowed to assess if: 1) decorated camera housings increased conspicuity, 2) signs of distraction could be found, and 3) driving was influenced. In addition to the detection success rate, other eye-tracking parameters were: time-to-first-fixation, fixation count, and average and total fixation duration. Driving measures, i.e. speed, acceleration or deceleration rate, lane-keeping behavior, and minimum time-to-collision, were included to assess if the tested camera-designs impacted driving behavior. Moreover, a post-drive questionnaire assessed the participants' opinions. Using camera colored-designs improved the camera's conspicuity. However, driving measures remained comparable across the three camera-designs. Although the subjective data indicated some distraction from the decorated cameras, clear indications for an effect on traffic safety were lacking. Meanwhile, a little over half of the respondents supported camera decoration. The current study does not allow firm conclusions, and additional research is recommended.


Subject(s)
Accidents, Traffic , Automobile Driving , Humans , Accidents, Traffic/prevention & control , Law Enforcement , Photography , Attitude
6.
Neurobiol Aging ; 123: 145-153, 2023 03.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36572595

ABSTRACT

Motor control, a ubiquitous part of driving, requires increased cognitive controlled processing in older adults relative to younger adults. However, the influence of aging on motor-related neural mechanisms in the context of driving has rarely been studied. The present study aimed to identify age-related changes in cognitive control and attention allocation during a simulated steering task, using electroencephalography. Midfrontal theta, a marker for cognitive control, and posterior alpha power, a marker for attention allocation, were measured in a total of 26 young, 25 middle-aged, and 28 older adults. By adapting driving speed, the difficulty level of this steering task was individualized for each participant. Results show age-related changes in midfrontal theta power, but not in posterior alpha power, despite similar steering accuracy across age groups. Specifically, only younger and, to a lesser extent, middle-aged adults exhibited increased theta power while driving through more demanding curved segments relative to straight segments. In contrast, theta power upregulation was absent in older adults, suggesting a saturation of cognitive resources while driving, possibly due to a limitation in resource capacity, or less automatic motor-related neural processing.


Subject(s)
Aging , Electroencephalography , Humans , Aged , Middle Aged , Aging/psychology , Theta Rhythm/physiology
7.
Autism ; 27(5): 1219-1234, 2023 Jul.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36341960

ABSTRACT

LAY ABSTRACT: Transportation plays an essential role in daily life, allowing people to participate in the community and form social relationships. Many autistic people rely on public transportation to meet their mobility needs. However, research shows that it is not always easy for them to use it. The exact issues autistic individuals face when traveling with public transportation and how public transportation can be made more autism-friendly have yet to be researched. The current study allowed autistic individuals to express themselves regarding issues they face while traveling by public bus transportation, to raise awareness for making public transportation more autism-friendly. We interviewed 17 autistic individuals about their experiences riding the bus. Three main themes emerged from the results: creating predictability, limiting stimuli, and open and accessible communication. If transport companies take initiatives related to these themes, autistic people traveling by bus can have a more pleasant experience. Participants also described coping strategies for stressful or uncomfortable situations while using public bus transportation, such as using noise-cancelling headphones or digital applications for real-time route tracking, etc. These findings may lead to a more autism-friendly public transportation.


Subject(s)
Autism Spectrum Disorder , Autistic Disorder , Humans , Transportation , Emotions , Adaptation, Psychological
8.
Accid Anal Prev ; 174: 106763, 2022 Sep.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35780562

ABSTRACT

Among all crashes involving cyclists, a motorist approaching from behind a cyclist on a shared lane is particularly dangerous and likely to result in serious injuries and fatalities. Previous research has highlighted that inadequate lateral distance and high vehicle speed are among the main contributing factors of crashes involving cars overtaking cyclists. A new advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) which supports drivers as they overtake cyclists was designed to avoid or, at least, mitigate crashes. In human-machine interface (HMI) design, the information was presented via multiple modalities with a multistage warning system. A combination of lateral clearance (LC) and time-to-danger (TTD) parameters was used as ADAS activation criterion. Experimentation was carried out using the medium-fidelity driving simulator at the Transportation Research Institute (IMOB) of Hasselt University in Belgium. Forty-eight drivers drove the two-lane rural experimental route two times, in baseline condition and with the ADAS activated, testing three overtaking events. Statistical tests showed that the proposed in-vehicle driving assistance system had a significant effect in increasing 1) the length of the passing phase, 2) the LC in the overtaking passing phase, and 3) the TTD along the overtaking maneuver. No effect of the ADAS system on vehicle speed was observed. Overall, the designed system is effective in improving car-cyclist overtaking behaviour in terms of both safety and cyclists' mobility.


Subject(s)
Accidents, Traffic , Automobile Driving , Accidents, Traffic/prevention & control , Dangerous Behavior , Humans , Research , Rural Population
9.
Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol ; 279(4): 1813-1829, 2022 Apr.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34057598

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The aim of this systematic review was to identify and evaluate studies dealing with driving performance of dizzy patients or patients with a vestibular disorder. METHODS: A systematic review was performed according to the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis guidelines. (1) PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane library. (2) Study selection: articles about driving ability and reported driving difficulties in patients with dizziness, or a diagnosed vestibular disorder, were included. (3) Data extraction was performed by two independent authors using predefined data fields: patient's characteristics, diagnostic criteria, sample size, and type of evaluation of driving ability and outcome of the study. RESULTS: Eight out of 705 articles matched the inclusion criteria but varied widely regarding the study population, study design, and outcome measures. The majority of studies reported a negative impact of dizziness and/or vestibular disorders on self-reported driving ability and car accidents. Yet several studies could not identify any impairment of driving ability. CONCLUSIONS: Driving ability was negatively affected by dizziness or a vestibular disorder in the majority of included studies with low risk of bias. This systematic review revealed a significant heterogeneity in studies reporting driving performance and contradictory results. We were, therefore, unable to identify a causal relationship between dizziness and driving ability. There is a need for prospective studies in populations with different vestibular disorders using subjective and objective outcome measures that have been validated to evaluate driving performance.


Subject(s)
Dizziness , Vestibular Diseases , Dizziness/diagnosis , Dizziness/etiology , Humans , Prospective Studies , Self Report , Vertigo/diagnosis , Vestibular Diseases/complications , Vestibular Diseases/diagnosis
10.
Accid Anal Prev ; 161: 106362, 2021 Oct.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34474334

ABSTRACT

Highway exit gore areas are common and essential components of highway networks everywhere. Drivers need to navigate, decelerate, and change lanes at exit gore areas through specified and compacted geometry. This makes exit gore areas potentially crash-prone locations. Studies analyzed factors contributing to crashes at exit gore areas. Although marking and delineation techniques can play a major role in enhancing safety, traffic control devices that serve this end were not given sufficient attention in recent research. Furthermore, the currently used marking and delineation treatments are widely different around the world and deploy devices of various forms, shapes, sizes, and colors. The Flemish Agency for Roads & Traffic (AWV) launched a study to explore the feasibility of adding colored and sizeable eye-catching objects, mounted or grounded exactly at the physical nose, to attract driver's attention and improve driving performance. The eye-tracking and driving behavior of 49 Belgian drivers was investigated in a driving simulator. Participants were also queried about the conspicuity of the control devices and their personal preferences. The results were univocal for situations including a guardrail. Using two mounted panels together, i.e., the horizontal and the vertical, scored better on all levels than the horizontal panel alone. The bigger surface size of the traffic control device significantly improved driving performance and was also favored by the participants. Situations without a guardrail lacked such clear results, which were mixed depending on the measure at hand. A larger size of a grounded object-marker, again, improved driver's performance. Findings concerning the colors red or green appeared to favor red, although this was less univocal. These findings are aimed to spark ideas for further research and to assist practitioners and policy-makers in better designing exit gore areas while achieving more consistency and safety.


Subject(s)
Accidents, Traffic , Automobile Driving , Accidents, Traffic/prevention & control , Attention , Humans
12.
Accid Anal Prev ; 159: 106284, 2021 Sep.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34242862

ABSTRACT

Work zones are established to provide a safe environment for all road users and road workers. However, based on the statistics, they can be considered as crash prone zones due to changes in the road alignments and the posted speed limits. In this driving simulator study, we aimed at investigating the safety impacts of a newly proposed system composed of graphical and animation-based variable message signs (VMSs) in the state of Qatar. The proposed VMS condition was compared with a control condition that was designed following the Qatar Work Zone Traffic Management Guide. A total of seventy subjects were invited to participate in the experiment voluntarily. Study results showed that in the VMS condition, drivers reduced their traveling speeds in advanced compared to the control condition. Drivers' traveling speed in the VMS condition was significantly reduced by 6.3 and 11.1 km/h on the leftmost and the second leftmost lanes, respectively. Next, the results uncovered that the proposed system motivated drivers to initiate early lane changing maneuvers, i.e., 150 m earlier than the control condition. Finally, the VMS condition was effective in stimulating drivers to keep larger headways with a merging vehicle. In sum, the proposed VMS system outperformed the control condition in terms of speed reduction, early merging, and higher headways between the through and the merging vehicle.


Subject(s)
Accidents, Traffic , Automobile Driving , Accidents, Traffic/prevention & control , Humans , Qatar , Safety
13.
J Safety Res ; 77: 67-85, 2021 06.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34092330

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Currently, risky driving behaviour is a major contributor to road crashes and as a result, wide array of tools have been developed in order to record and improve driving behaviour. Within that group of tools, interventions have been indicated to significantly enhance driving behaviour and road safety. This study critically reviews monitoring technologies that provide post-trip interventions, such as retrospective visual feedback, gamification, rewards or penalties, in order to inform an appropriate driver mentoring strategy delivered after each trip. METHOD: The work presented here is part of the European Commission H2020 i-DREAMS project. The reviewed platform characteristics were obtained through commercially available solutions as well as a comprehensive literature search in popular scientific databases, such as Scopus and Google Scholar. Focus was given on state-of-the-art-technologies for post-trip interventions utilized in four different transport modes (i.e. car, truck, bus and rail) associated with risk prevention and mitigation. RESULTS: The synthesized results revealed that smartphone applications and web-based platforms are the most accepted, frequently and easiest to use tools in cars, buses and trucks across all papers considered, while limited evidence of post-trip interventions in -rail was found. The majority of smartphone applications detected mobile phone use and harsh events and provided individual performance scores, while in-vehicle systems provided delayed visual reports through a web-based platform. CONCLUSIONS: Gamification and appropriate rewards appeared to be effective solutions, as it was found that they keep drivers motivated in improving their driving skills, but it was clear that these cannot be performed in isolation and a combination with other strategies (i.e. driver coaching and support) might be beneficial. Nevertheless, as there is no holistic and cross-modal post-trip intervention solution developed in real-world environments, challenges associated with post-trip feedback provision and suggestions on practical implementation are also provided.


Subject(s)
Accidents, Traffic/prevention & control , Automobile Driving/standards , Formative Feedback , Mobile Applications , Motor Vehicles/standards , Railroads/standards , Automobiles/standards , Humans , Mentoring/methods , Retrospective Studies , Risk-Taking
14.
Accid Anal Prev ; 157: 106166, 2021 Jul.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33962351

ABSTRACT

Pedestrians being the most vulnerable road users account for a large proportion of injuries and fatalities from road traffic crashes. Pedestrians are involved in around one-third of the whole fatalities coming from the road traffic crashes in the state of Qatar. In areas with uncontrolled midblock crosswalks, it is very crucial to improve drivers' alertness and yielding behavior. The objective of this driving simulator study is to investigate the impact of pedestrian detection strategies and pavement markings on driving behavior at high-speed uncontrolled crosswalks. To this end, an untreated condition (i.e. Control) was compared with three treatment conditions. The three treated conditions included two detection strategies, i.e., advance variable message sign (VMS) and LED lights, and road markings with pedestrian encircled. Each condition was tested with a yield/stop controlled marked crosswalk for two situations, i.e. with vs. without a pedestrian present. The experiment was conducted using the driving simulator at Qatar University. In total, 67 volunteers possessing a valid Qatari driving license participated in the study. Different analyses were conducted on vehicle-pedestrian interactions, driving speed, variations in acceleration/deceleration and lateral position. The results showed that both the LED and VMS conditions were helpful in increasing yielding rates up to 98.4 % and reducing the vehicle-pedestrian conflicts significantly. Furthermore, both treatments were effective in motivating drivers to reduce vehicle speed in advance. Considering the findings of this study, we recommend LED and VMS conditions as potentially effective solutions to improve safety at yield/stop controlled crosswalks.


Subject(s)
Automobile Driving , Pedestrians , Accidents, Traffic/prevention & control , Humans , Qatar , Safety
15.
Accid Anal Prev ; 153: 106013, 2021 Apr.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33578269

ABSTRACT

Statistics show that horizontal curves, especially those of radii less than 200 m, present an increased road accident risk mainly due to inappropriate speed and failure to maintain proper lateral position. This simulator study aims to analyse how two low-cost road marking measures (red median and horizontal warning signs), alone or combined with a vertical warning sign, affect driver behaviour (driving speed, lateral movement, acceleration/deceleration) before and throughout dangerous horizontal curves on a two-way rural road. With GIS-supported mapping of traffic accidents, we identified the most dangerous curves on the main rural road in Croatia and replicated them on the driving simulator. Based on the driving runs of 43 participants, the study concluded that both measures, used either alone or combined with a vertical warning sign, significantly reduced the speed compared to the control condition (vertical warning sign alone). Additionally, the use of a red median prompted the lateral movement of the vehicle closer to the edge line. The paper also defines the potential use of the measures for dealing with specific types of curve-related accidents.


Subject(s)
Accidents, Traffic , Automobile Driving , Accidents, Traffic/prevention & control , Computer Simulation , Croatia , Environment Design , Humans
16.
Accid Anal Prev ; 151: 105964, 2021 Mar.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33421730

ABSTRACT

Intersections are established dangerous entities of a highway system due to the challenging and unsafe roadway environment they are characterized for drivers and other road users. In efforts to improve safety, an enormous interest has been shown in developing statistical models for intersection crash prediction and explanation. The selection of an adequate form of the statistical model is of great importance for the accurate estimation of crash frequency and the correct identification of crash contributing factors. Using a six-year crash data, road infrastructure and geometric design data, and traffic flow data of urban intersections, we applied three different functional forms of negative binomial models (i.e., NB-1, NB-2, NB-P) and a generalized Poisson (GP) model to develop safety performance functions (SPF) by crash severity for signalized and unsignalized intersections. This paper presents the relationships found between the explanatory variables and the expected crash frequency. It reports the comparison of different models for total, injury & fatal, and property damage only crashes in order to obtain ones with the maximum estimation accuracy. The comparison of models was based on the goodness of fit and the prediction performance measures. The fitted models showed that the traffic flow and several variables related to road infrastructure and geometric design significantly influence the intersection crash frequency. Further, the goodness of fit and the prediction performance measures revealed that the NB-P model outperformed other models in most crash severity levels for signalized intersections. For the unsignalized intersections, the GP model was the best performing model. When only the NB models were compared, the functional form NB-P performed better than the traditional NB-1 and, more specifically, the NB-2 models. In conclusion, our findings suggest a potential improvement in the estimation accuracy of the SPFs for urban intersections by applying the NB-P and GP models.


Subject(s)
Accidents, Traffic , Models, Statistical , Environment Design , Humans , Safety
17.
Accid Anal Prev ; 150: 105916, 2021 Feb.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33296840

ABSTRACT

Transition zones are a road section where posted speed drops from higher to lower limits. Due to the sudden changes in posted speed limits and road environment, drivers usually do not adapt to the posted speed limits and underestimate their traveling speed. Previous studies have highlighted that crash rates are usually higher in these sections. This study aims at improving the safety at transition zones by introducing perceptual measures that are tested using a driving simulator. The proposed measures are speed limit pavement markings with a gradual increase of brightness and/or size that were placed at transition zones in simulation scenarios replicating the real-world environment of the Doha Expressway in Qatar. These innovative measures aim to produce the impression of increased speed that could stimulate drivers to better adapt speed limits. The driving behavior of 81 drivers possessing a valid Qatari driving license was recorded with a driving simulator interfaced with STISIM Drive® 3. Results showed that pavement markings combining size and brightness manipulations were the most effective treatment, keeping drivers' traveling speed significantly below the traveling speed recorded in the untreated control condition. In this regard, the maximum mean speed reductions of 5.3 km/h and 4.6 km/h were observed for this treatment at the first transition (120 to 100 km/h) and second transition (100 to 80 km/h) zones, respectively. Regarding the variations in drivers' lateral position, the results showed that the proposed pavement markings did not negatively influence drivers' lateral control on the road as the maximum observed standard deviation of lateral position was around 0.065 m. This study shows that the proposed pavement markings are recommended for improving the speed adaptation of drivers in the transition zones.


Subject(s)
Accidents, Traffic , Automobile Driving , Accidents, Traffic/prevention & control , Computer Simulation , Environment Design , Humans , Qatar , Safety , Vision, Ocular
18.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33260453

ABSTRACT

To enable older drivers to maintain mobility without endangering public safety, it is necessary to develop more effective means of assessing their fitness-to-drive as alternatives to an on-road driving test. In this study, a functional ability test, simulated driving test, and on-road driving test were carried out for 136 older drivers. Influencing factors related to fitness-to-drive were selected based on the correlation between the outcome measure of each test and the pass/fail outcome of the on-road driving test. Four potential alternatives combining different tests were considered and three modeling techniques were compared when constructing the fitness-to-drive assessment model for the elderly. As a result, 92 participants completed all of the tests, of which 61 passed the on-road driving test and the remaining 31 failed. A total of seven influencing factors from all types of tests were selected. The best model was trained by the technique of gradient boosted machine using all of the seven factors, generating the highest accuracy of 92.8%, with sensitivity of 0.94 and specificity of 0.90. The proposed fitness-to-drive assessment method is considered an effective alternative to the on-road driving test, and the results offer a valuable reference for those unfit-to-drive older drivers to either adjust their driving behavior or cease driving.


Subject(s)
Accidents, Traffic , Automobile Driving , Activities of Daily Living , Aged , Humans , Task Performance and Analysis
19.
Accid Anal Prev ; 138: 105484, 2020 Apr.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32105839

ABSTRACT

Inter-national benchmarking of road safety, with the purpose of achieving continuous improvement by learning lessons from existing best practices, has currently been widely encouraged by most countries as an emerging management tool to improve the level of road safety. However, performing a successful road safety benchmarking practice is by no means easy. Challenges exist from ascertaining the benchmarking framework at the very beginning to making final policy decisions. In this study, based on the identification of leading road safety risk factors, a comprehensive set of hierarchically structured safety performance indicators was developed, some necessary data processing procedures were conducted, and the use of data envelopment analysis (DEA) for composite indicator (CI) construction was elaborated. An interval multiple layer DEA-based CI model was proposed to take both the hierarchical structure of the indicators and the data uncertainty into account, and was used to benchmark road safety performance for a set of European countries. Based on the model output, best-performing and underperforming countries were distinguished and all the countries were further ranked by computing their cross-index score. Moreover, by taking the characteristics of each country in the data set into account, country-specific benchmarks for those underperforming countries were identified, and useful insight in the areas of underperformance in each country was gained. Meanwhile, by summarizing the risk aspects that need urgent policy action for all these countries, some specific road safety enhancing recommendations for this region as a whole were formulated.


Subject(s)
Benchmarking/methods , Built Environment/standards , Safety Management/methods , Accidents, Traffic/prevention & control , Europe , Humans
20.
Ergonomics ; 63(4): 407-420, 2020 Apr.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31994986

ABSTRACT

Road geometric design standards provide various possibilities for merging freeways with a decreasing number of lanes. In this study, an alternative design (i.e. taper design) is investigated and compared with the standard design under three different heavy vehicle compositions to understand driving performance in relation to the flow of traffic. Taper design is not always the first choice in the road geometric design guidelines and the designer has to provide arguments for selecting this design. Taper design and its comparison with other alternatives are also not well explored in literature. In this study, a driving simulator was used to examine and compare the performance of these two designs under different heavy vehicle compositions. Qualitative results showed that the perceived safety was better for the standard design compared to the taper design. Mean speed, acceleration, standard deviation of acceleration/deceleration, and cumulative lane changes were chosen as behavioural parameters to compare these two designs using MANOVA and repeated measures ANOVA. Results revealed that drivers' discomfort in performing merging manoeuvres was greatest in case of a taper design and when the percentage of heavy vehicles was moderate (15%). Overall, the standard design was found to be more favourable. Practitioner summary: Driving behaviour at merging freeways with a decreasing number of lanes is underexplored. We analysed safety in driving behaviour considering heavy vehicles for taper and standard designs provided in Dutch guidelines using a driving simulator. The standard design was found to be safer and the presence of moderate heavy vehicles caused more disturbances in driving behaviour.


Subject(s)
Automobile Driving , Computer Simulation , Environment Design , Safety , Adult , Female , Humans , Male
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