PROCEEDlNGS of the HUMAN FACTORS SOCIETY-26th ANNUAL ME,ETING-l982 SPECTRAL ANALYSIS OF DRIVER STEERING BEHAVIOR

In order to examine the utility of spectral analysis as a means of quantifying driver steering behavior in a steady-state (expressway) driving task, 10 novice and 10 experienced drivers drove an instrumented car on a 90-minute drive on an "uncongested" expressway, and (for the experienced drivers only) on a 60-minute drive on a "congested" expressway during rush-hour conditions. Results of analyses of variance of RMS steering amplitude in 0.025 hz-wide frequency bands indicated that novice drivers exhibited significantly greater RMS steering amplitude than experienced drivers in the two frequency bands 0-0.025 hz and 0.125-0.150 hz, and that experienced drivers exhibited significantly greater RMS amplitude on the "congested " expressway than the "uncongested " expressway in the six 0.025 hz-wide frequency bands between 0 and 0.150 hz. were found between RMS amplitudes measured during the first and second halves of a number of the test drives, indicating that behavior in the two test halves was not equivalent. Significant difference