Young Adult Drivers: Simulated Behaviour in a Car-following Situation

• Published in: Promet Vol. 29; no. 4; pp. 381 - 390
• Main Authors: Jurecki, Rafał, Poliak, Miloš, Jaśkiewicz, Marek
• Format: Journal Article Paper
• Language: English
• Published: Fakultet prometnih znanosti Sveučilišta u Zagrebu 28.08.2017; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences
• Subjects: car-following situation; response time; simulator; two-lane motorway; young driver
• ISSN: 0353-5320; 1848-4069
• DOI: 10.7307/ptt.v29i4.2305

This paper provides a description of driver testing in a simulator. As young drivers are more susceptible to collisions, this was done to determine how young drivers behaved in simulated road situations on a motorway. One of the traffic safety concerns is the failure to keep a proper distance from the vehicle in front, which may result in a rearend collision. The tests simulated car-following situations in which the preceding vehicle performed emergency braking. The experiments were conducted for two scenario variants using different distances from the vehicle in front. The drivers could perform the following emergency manoeuvres: braking with steering away or only braking. The driver response times were compared and analysed statistically. The results were used to determine the emergency manoeuvres performed by the drivers in the simulated road situations. The study reveals that the vehicle surroundings may have a considerable influence on the type of emergency manoeuvres and the driver response time.