Influence of basic environmental characteristics on driving speed

To date, inappropriately adjusted driving speed is still one of the main causes for traffic accidents (Aarts et al., 2011). Recent theoretical approaches of modeling speed behavior assume that choice of speed is partly determined by environmental characteristics (e.g. Fuller, 2005). In addition, empirical studies revealed an influence of basic changes of environmental characteristics (e.g. Godley et al., 1999; Manser & Hancock, 2007) on driving speed. However, these investigations exclusively discussed changes of environmental characteristics on the ground area (e.g. street surface) or on the lateral (e.g. tunnel walls) area of the peripheral visual field. A variation of basic environmental characteristics on the upper area of the peripheral visual field (i.e. above the street) has not yet been investigated. The present paper investigates this question. Visual stimuli were introduced to a simple simulation with varying rates (high/low) and positions (lateral, upper or complete periphery). It was hypothized that 1) the number of additional information and 2) the position of this visual information in the peripheral visual field (see also Gibson, 1979) influences driving speed. Empirical results showed that both, the rate and position of stimuli significantly influenced driving speed and subjective dimensions such as task difficulty and subjective arousal.