Examining Individual and System Level Effects of AmI Traffic Environments

Drivers on the road are constantly interacting. The development of new sensor, display and communication systems has laid the basis for ambient intelligence (AmI) technology in road traffic. The effects of such devices on driver behavior and emotional response have to be analyzed, e.g. by using driving simulator studies. By implementing the results of these studies into traffic simulation and "scaling up", emerging effects on the system level can be investigated, e.g. on emotional climate, road safety, and traffic flow. This paper describes an environment for the analysis of AmI systems applied to merging points on highways. Results from an advanced driving simulator study are presented and show positive effects of such a system on anger in driving. The implications of such a device on the system level of road traffic can be investigated by using the instrument of traffic simulation. This is illustrated by evaluating the anger present in the traffic simulator interactions using the results from the driving simulator experiment.