How do environmental characteristics at intersections change in their relevance for drivers before entering an intersection: analysis of drivers’ gaze and driving behavior in a driving simulator study

• Abstract Accident studies in Germany found that inabout 90 % of intersection accidents, failure to acquire therelevant information of the driving situation was the mainreason for drivers’ errors (Vollrath et al. in Ableitung vonAnforderungen an Fahrerassistenzsysteme aus Sicht derVerkehrssicherheit. Wirtschaftsverlag NW, Bremerhaven,2006). Studies of bicycle–car accidents assume thatimproper attention allocation strategies and unjustifiedexpectations by drivers are important for this kind of error(Ra¨sa¨nen and Summala in Accid Anal Prev 30:657–666,1998). Aim of the study was to examine the psychologicalprocesses of drivers’ attention allocation and drivingbehavior in different intersection situations varied by twoenvironmental characteristics. A give way T-intersectionwas varied by (1) low and high traffic density of oncomingcars from the left and (2) number of task-relevant informationareas (in addition to the oncoming cars from the leftwith or without pedestrians on the right). It was examinedhow these environmental characteristics change in theirrelevance for drivers while entering the intersections. Theanalysis was conducted in three intersection epochs(Approaching, Waiting, Accelerating). A total of 40 subjects(26 male, 14 female), ranged in age from 19 to55 years (M = 31.0 years), participated in the study. Theresults showed that drivers’ attention allocation (e.g., meangaze duration) and driving behavior (e.g., waiting time)systematically depends on these environmental characteristicswhich require different actions of the driver andchange in their relevance when entering an intersection.The results support the idea of attention allocation strategiesby drivers which are specific for certain driving situations.These findings can support approaches of drivermodeling at intersections.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi -- Tillämpad psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology -- Applied Psychology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

T-intersection

Intersection accident

Pedestrians

SEEV model

Human error

Traffic density

Visual scanning strategy

Publication and Content Type

art (subject category)

ref (subject category)