Driver adaptation to change in road environment

Driving behaviour reflects the tendency and willingness of drivers to act in some specific ways without being informed or instructed. It may be argued that driving simulators measure driver’s performance in terms of information processing capacity and, thus, a poor marker of the behavioural aspect of driving. However, many reviews have in fact stated that driving simulators can provide substantial accurate observations on driver’s behaviour. A driving simulator will be used for the assessment as it provides a safer and controllable testing environment. It also enables ease of data collection. Driving simulator allows various driving conditions to be made and evaluated, including dangerous situation to examine the driver performance. By using a simulator to test out a driver’s reaction and behaviour to the different road environment, we will be able to see which controllable or uncontrollable factor is a more significant cause of accidents. Taking into consideration the experience and condition of the drivers, a more precise conclusion can be achieved. Road environment on the roads are vital elements for examination as several studies have found that they exert significant effects on drivers’ behaviour. Some controllable factors include road width, traffic lights and road signage while uncontrollable factors include the right of way, blind spots and pedestrians. Violation tasks such as speed regulation and hazard recognition reflect the behavioural aspects of driving. Studying driver’s behaviour in term of violations is important for safety as they are predictive of a driver’s crash involvement. Results of drivers’ speed control and lateral position on different lane width and their respective hazard perception reaction time will be discussed in this report. It was observed that there was not a significant difference in driver’s speed control and lateral position between the two different lane widths of 3.5m and 3.7m. Thus, for further experiments, it would be recommended to make the lanes narrower for a more significant result. It was also observed that drivers reacted faster to vehicle-to-vehicle hazards as compared to vehicle-to-pedestrian hazards due to difference in risk perception where they viewed vehicles as a more dangerous hazard. To improve this experiment, other forms of hazards should be tested to increase the reliability of the results.Bachelor of Engineering (Civil