Transportation Research Part F-Traffic Psychology and Behaviour最新文献

This study aimed to understand the influence of surrounding vehicle configuration, driving lane, and traffic density on drivers’ situational awareness (SA), takeover performance, and eye-tracking behaviors in conditionally automated driving. An experiment was conducted with the participation of 40 university students using a fixed-base driving simulator configured to simulate SAE Level 3 automation. During the experiment, participants were engaged in playing Tetris on a tablet as a non-driving related task in automated driving mode. Upon hearing an auditory takeover request, participants were instructed to take control of the vehicle, and then complete a scene reconstruction task to report their SA after transferring control back to the automated driving system. Our findings showed that drivers often neglected vehicles at their sides and rear during the takeover, which was associated with higher collision risks. Higher oncoming traffic density led to drivers’ worse SA of surrounding vehicles but more cautious driving behavior. Driving in the right lane generally resulted in smoother takeovers with lower collision risks. Interestingly, while SA did moderate the impacts of driving conditions on safety margins, a higher level of SA did not consistently relate to improved performance, especially in complex scenarios. This suggests the need for support systems that guide drivers to focus on safety–critical objects rather than simply amplifying SA in general. These insights have significant implications for the design of driver monitoring and support systems in automated vehicles.

Situational action theory (SAT) is a comprehensive theory that explains offending behaviour from the context of the interaction between interpersonal factors, such as morals, self-control, and habits, with situational factors, such as environmental risk and social conditions. Illegal hand-held mobile phone use while driving (MPUWD), a prevalent and risky road behaviour, has yet to be examined under the SAT framework. Therefore, by utilising SAT, this exploratory study sought to investigate the interpersonal and situational factors preceding hand-held MPUWD in three distinct road environments (highways, built-up areas and stopped-at-traffic lights). To achieve this, Queensland drivers aged over 18 who owned a mobile phone (N = 821, M_age = 41.7 years, SD = 20.9 years) were invited to complete an online survey. Repeated measures ANOVAs demonstrated significant mean differences for participants’ perceived risks associated with MPUWD and subsequent likelihood of offending across the three environments, with traffic lights being more conducive to MPUWD behaviours. Three hierarchical multiple linear regressions also revealed that age, attitude, risk of judgement, and self-control were significant predictors of MPUWD across all environments, while the results for gender, risk of injury and risk of being apprehended varied across the different driving contexts. Together, these factors explained 38.5–39.6 % of the variance in the perceived likelihood of illegally engaging in MPUWD. Overall, the findings indicated that the application of SAT has predictive utility in determining MPUWD engagement and can provide a more comprehensive framework for approaching and intervening in MPUWD behaviour.

The development of automated vehicles (AVs) will remain in the stage of human–machine co-driving for a long time. Trust is considered as an effective foundation of the interaction between the driver and the automated driving system (ADS). Driver’s trust miscalibration, represented by under-trust and over-trust, is considered to be the potential cause of disuse and misuse of ADS, or even serious accidents. The estimation and calibration of trust are crucial to improve the safety of the driving process. This paper mainly consists of the following two aspects. Firstly, a dynamic and quantitative trust estimation model is established. A framework for trust estimation is constructed. Driver’s perceived risk and behavior features were monitored and a Kalman filter was used to dynamically and quantitatively estimate the driver’s trust. We conducted a driver-in-the-loop experiment and generated model parameters through a data-driven approach. The results demonstrated that the model exhibited precision in trust estimation, with the highest accuracy reaching 74.1%. Secondly, a reminder strategy to calibrate the over-trust of the driver is proposed based on the model from the first part. A scenario with four risky events was designed and the ADS would provide voice reminders to the driver when over-trust was detected. The results demonstrated that the reminder strategy proved to be beneficial for safety enhancement and moderate trust maintenance during the driving process. When the driver is over-trusting, the accident rates of the reminder group and the non-reminder group were 60.6% and 13.0%, respectively. Our contribution in this paper can be concluded by four points: (1) A real-time trust estimation model is proposed, which is dynamic and quantitative, considering the evolution pattern of driver’s trust and the perceived risk; (2) Mathematical modeling and machine learning methods are combined; (3) A trust-based reminder strategy that aims to enhance the safety of human–machine co-driving is designed; (4) Driver-in-loop experiment validates the effectiveness in enhancing the safety, maintaining driver’s trust and reducing trust biases in human–machine co-driving.

In this paper, the causes of frequent traffic accidents at the exits of highway tunnels are investigated. This study recruited 34 subjects to conduct vehicle experiments using an illumination meter, eye tracker, Smarter Eye and OBD to measure the illumination, eye movement characteristics, driving trajectory, and speed while driving in a tunnel exit. A questionnaire was used to investigate drivers’ subjective feelings while driving. The change trend of each indicator in the area near the tunnel exit was analyzed, and the relationships among the light environment, driver physiology, driving behavior, and driver psychology were explored. The psychological and physiological inconsistency phenomenon and abnormal acceleration behavior were observed at the tunnel exit, and the slack effect was verified. As the tunnel exit area is driven through, with the rapid increase in illumination, the rate of change of the driver’s pupil area increases, and the distance between the vehicle and the tunnel sidewall increases. It is unreasonable that in a tunnel exit with a poor traffic environment, some drivers experience psychological slack and tend to increase their speed and accelerate out of the tunnel. The slack effect is observed in most drivers, approximately 79.4% of the total. The white hole effect interferes with drivers’ vision and reduces their ability to obtain traffic information. The slack effect reduces drivers’ attention and increases vehicle speed. A coupling effect exists between the white hole and slack effects, which together threaten traffic safety at the tunnel exit.

Although several studies in the past discussed the effects of socio-demographic and trip characteristics on users’ preferences towards crossing facilities in urban areas, they were mostly confined to metro cities or million-plus cities. Adequate investigation has not been performed for the same in the small-sized cities where pedestrian activities are expected to be more frequent because of the higher share of shorter and walkable trip lengths. Accordingly, the present study aimed to investigate the heterogeneity in the perceived importance of crossing facility attributes among different pedestrian groups based on gender, age group, and walking preference. The study was conducted in a small-sized city, Roorkee, in the state of Uttarakhand, India. A face-to-face questionnaire survey of 554 pedestrians was conducted to collect their perceived importance towards 12 crossing facility attributes under study using a 5-point Likert-type ordinal scale. Collected data was analyzed using the non-parametric tests to measure the heterogeneity in the perceived importance of crossing facility attributes among aforementioned pedestrian groups. Subsequently, the TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) method was used to derive relative importance scores of attributes found statistically significant in heterogeneity tests for different pedestrian groups. The findings of the present study reveal that perceived importance towards crossing facility attributes is heterogeneous based on the pedestrians’ age group and walking preferences; however, it remains unaffected by gender. These findings would help policymakers, planners, and government authorities frame improvement strategies for the existing crossing facilities in the city.

Background

Shared spaces are intended to constitute an attractive urban space for everyone by blending protected and unprotected road users. However, our previous study showed that pedestrians prefer the traditional division between protected and unprotected road users, at the same time as elderly pedestrians focused less on traffic when the division was recreated by large flowerpots.

Objective

This follow-up study aimed to examine the effects of external factors, such as alternative design and pedestrian density, on motorists’ subjective experiences, and the speed and placement of their vehicles within a shared space.

Methods

To investigate this, Q-methodology was used to examine 32 motorists’ subjective experiences, and video recordings were analysed to measure the speed and placement of 150 vehicles on Fisherman’s Square in Västervik, Sweden, both without (75 vehicles) and with (75 vehicles) large flowerpots deployed.

Results

The motorists preferred when the large flowerpots were deployed to recreate the traditional division. The results also showed that both the large flowerpots and high pedestrian density decreased vehicles’ mean maximum speed. The deployment of large flowerpots also decreased the distribution of vehicles over the square.

Conclusion

Recreating some type of division between protected and unprotected road users appears to be preferred. Further studies are required to ascertain whether this solution works for all road user groups, including cyclists and e-scooter riders.

Peers play an important role in shaping the behaviours of their counterparts at different stages of life. Studies have shown that peer influence/pressure has a significant role in the traffic environment as well as in many other social settings, especially for risky behaviours. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine age and sex differences in respect of peer pressure and the role of peer pressure on driver behaviour in Türkiye. A total of 405 drivers with a mean age of 23.84 (SD=4.82) years completed an online survey consisting of the Peer Pressure on Risky Driving Scale (PPRDS), the Brief Sensation-Seeking Scale (BSSS) and the Short Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (S-DBQ, measuring aberrant and positive driver behaviour). First, the psychometric structure of the PPRDS, used for the first time in Turkish, was found to support the original structure, addressing direct pressure in the form of risk-encouraging or risk-discouraging and indirect pressure. Indirect pressure was seen to decrease with age for both males and females, whereas risk-discouraging direct pressure increased with age only for males. Sensation-seeking was positively related to aberrant behaviours. Risk-encouraging direct peer pressure and indirect pressure were positively associated with aberrant (risky) driver behaviour, whereas indirect peer pressure was associated with decreased aberrant driving behaviour and increased positive (helpful, polite) driving behaviour. The findings suggested that drivers feel strong peer pressure in traffic, but it varies by age and sex, and this pressure is stronger for young males. These findings have important implications for road safety and intervention studies.

Currently, the car holds the position as the primary mode of transportation in Germany and many other countries, serving diverse purposes. This widespread reliance has resulted in negative impacts on individuals, societies, as well as the environment and the climate. Reducing car use would therefore come with considerable benefits. While the role of many socio-economic, structural and psychological factors in car use reduction is well established, the socio-cultural context of automobility is not well conceptualised and integrated into quantitative studies. The goal of this paper was to explore the role of the socio-cultural context of automobility, differentiating between past and future car use. To this end, we applied Automobility Engagement (AE) as a concept operationalising consumer interactions with cars within the automobility system. In regression models predicting past car use (i.e., one week of actual travel behaviour) and the intention to reduce car use in the future, we tested the explanatory power of AE’s seven facets in addition to selected socio-economic, structural and psychological factors. We recruited a sample of more than 2,000 participants in the German federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in the summer of 2023. Results showed that the AE facets perceived car dependence, concern about the negative environmental effects of car use, house ownership preferences and car identity made small but significant contributions to our models whilst the three remaining AE facets did not. We found stronger associations with several socio-economic, structural and psychological variables such as owning a car, degree of urbanisation and transportation habits. We discuss the relevance of AE as an operationalisation of the socio-cultural context of automobility, its relatedness to other psychological factors and derive implications for policy design.

Mobile phone use is one of the most frequent causes of distraction among drivers. While there have been a significant number of studies that have examined individuals’ intentions to use a mobile phone while driving, the influence of individuals’ in-situ judgement of driving conditions has received considerably less attention. The aim of this investigation was to provide a systematic understanding of how factors associated with the driving context and environment influence a driver’s decision to engage in mobile phone use while driving. Following a systematic classification scheme, 41 research articles from the years 2011 to 2020 were reviewed and synthesised to identify the contextual determinants of mobile phone distraction. Overall, the findings provided support for the role that contextual features play in influencing individuals’ mobile phone use engagement. This finding was particularly the case in instances where mobile phone tasks required relatively high cognitive and physical demands on an individual, such as texting and/or reading mails. The findings also indicated that as contextual complexity increases, mobile phone use decreases as well. A deeper understanding of the relationship between contextual factors and phone use while driving may aid in the design of more efficient driver support systems and the development of distraction-sensitive road design guides. This understanding can also assist in the identification of mobile phone use hotspots and the improvement of law enforcement and educational strategies to prevent the behaviour.

Background

In collaboration with a bicycle airbag helmet company, data were collected to help explain events where head protections are deployed. The head protection records activations continuously, and when a head protection is deployed, this information is sent to the company. The company invited affected cyclists to (i) participate in a web survey, and (ii) share their data with researchers. The first aim of the study was to investigate the proportions between different severities of crashes, i.e., how many crashes with serious injuries occur for every crash with minor injuries, while the second aim was to predict when bicycle crashes will occur. Method: A total of 196 cyclists completed the web survey. Participants were 20–76 years old (mean age 46 years) and consisted of 125 women and 55 men. The cyclists were highly educated, and 73 percent had completed a university or college education. In addition, head protection data were collected from 355 other cyclists, of which 264 had their helmet deployed. Results: One of the 182 (included events) cyclists ended up in hospital care. The data collected indicated the proportions of cyclists who needed hospital care (1 = severe injuries), cyclists with injuries (15), slight injures (85) and cyclists who could continue as before (81 = no injuries). The head protection data confirmed the web survey findings, but also demonstrated that the head protection, on journeys that ended with head protection deployment, had a higher degree of activations before the event) compared to journeys where it was not deployed. Furthermore, on trips made after deployment, the head protection had lower levels of activations, which can be understood as the cyclists adapting their behavior by, for example, riding more carefully (but not slower). Conclusion: This study highlights the proportions of events leading to minor injuries versus hospitalization. Activation measures (head protection conditions) can predict when events will occur, and cyclists will adjust their behavior accordingly following events.