A single-blind randomized study was conducted on young (18-21 years, n = 16) and mature (25-35 years, n = 16) drivers to assess how age, combined with a modest dose of alcohol (0.7 g/kg for males and 0.6 g/kg for females), influenced performance on a driving simulator. The driving tasks included detecting the presence of a vehicle on the horizon as quickly as possible, estimating the point on t...

The purpose of this study was to assess the speed differential threshold—if there is one—at which drivers decide to pass a lead vehicle. Drivers in a simulator encountered vehicles in front that were programmed to travel at speeds that were similar, slightly below, or even slightly above the drivers own speed. The study involved a total of 152 such passing opportunities. In almost all of the en...

Drivers’ acceptance of in-vehicle technologies is influenced by individual differences in user characteristics. Locus of control (LOC) can be assumed to be one of the most crucial psychological factors determining a drivers’ acceptance to new in-vehicle technologies. Internals may, for instance, choose to rely on their own driving skills and abilities rather than on in-vehicle technologies and ...

There is some evidence to suggest that people who drive for work purposes engage in less safe driving practices than other drivers. This issue was examined by surveying 204 people who drive for work purposes, from four different organisations. It was predicted that work-related drivers would report more unsafe driving behaviours in a work vehicle in comparison to their personal vehicle. In supp...

When introducing commercial driving simulators a few years ago, the main interest was focused either on operating the vehicle or on the reactions of the driver in traffic and in emergency situations. A comprehensive modeling of the vehicle dynamics was not required for these tasks. However, there are driving simulator applications which make much higher demands on the modeling of the vehicle dy...

The influence that injury and hospitalization from alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes may have on subsequent prosecution for drunk driving was studied utilizing concurrent controls consisting of three cohorts of drivers. The cohorts were drunk and injured drivers, drunk and not injured drivers, and sober and injured drivers. Even though the majority of intoxicated drivers were identified by ...

OBJECTIVES To compare national fatality rates for teen drivers by vehicle type. METHODS Fatality rates were calculated for 16- to 19-year-old drivers by vehicle type using data from the Fatal Analysis Reporting System (1999-2003) and estimates of miles driven from the National Household Transportation Survey (2001). Relative fatality risks for teen drivers of sports utility vehicles (SUVs) an...

BACKGROUND British Columbia, Canada is a geographically large jurisdiction with varied environmental and socio-cultural contexts. This cross-sectional study examined variation in motor vehicle crash rates across 100 police patrols to investigate the association of crashes with key explanatory factors. METHODS Eleven crash outcomes (total crashes, injury crashes, fatal crashes, speed related f...

The control of car following is essential due to its safety and its operational efficiency. For this purpose, this paper builds a model of car following behavior based on ARMAX structure from a real traffic dataset and design a Model Predictive Control (MPC) system. Based on the relative distance and relative acceleration of each instant, the MPC predicts the future behavior of the leader vehic...

In this on-road experiment, drivers performed demanding cognitive tasks while driving in city traffic. All task interactions were carried out in hands-free mode so that the 21 drivers were not required to take their visual attention away from the road or to manually interact with a device inside the vehicle. Visual behavior and vehicle control were assessed while they drove an 8 km city route u...