Effects of extra signals on drivers´ distance keeping-a simulation study

Author

Fraser, David A. ; Hawken, Robert E. ; Warnes, Anthony M.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron. & Electr. Eng., King´´s Coll., London Univ., UK

Volume

43

Issue

4

fYear

1994

fDate

11/1/1994 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1118

Lastpage

1124

Abstract

One hundred and twenty-one older drivers (ages 55-86) followed a lead car in a driving-simulator. They were asked “to keep at a safe and comfortable distance” behind the lead car, to respond if they wished to a separation indicator which provided a visual signal when the lead vehicle was closer than 26 m, and to cancel a distracting light. When the older drivers´ performance is compared to that of a control group of 25 younger drivers (ages 30-44), it is found that the ability to match the varying speed of the lead car of most of the older drivers is indistinguishable from that of the younger drivers, but that a few older drivers have a substantially worse performance. Any additional task reduces performance of all the drivers but the older drivers were able to use an indication of the distance between the cars to reduce the effect of the distracting task

Keywords

automated highways; behavioural sciences; human factors; road traffic; road vehicles; safety; simulation; driving simulator; intelligent vehicle highway systems; lead car; older drivers; safe distance keeping; separation indicator; simulation study; varying speed; visual signal; younger drivers; Analytical models; Computational modeling; Computer simulation; Intelligent vehicles; Layout; Microcomputers; Road transportation; Senior citizens; Testing; Vehicle safety;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Vehicular Technology, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9545

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/25.330176

Filename

330176