Analysis of reaction time during car-following process based on driving simulation test

Understanding car-following behavior and which decisions drivers preferred to choose during car-following process are essential for driver safety. Drivers´ reaction time as a key variable was analyzed in this paper, which may affect the collision results. Experiments based on driving simulator test were conducted and totally 47 participants were recruited. Three kinds of traffic flow density scenarios were built to examine the variation of reaction time under different traffic flow density. In each scenario, three accelerations and three decelerations were arranged respectively. Results suggested that the effect of scenario on reaction time during the first and the third acceleration is statistically significant. Drivers´ reaction time tends to be smaller in high traffic flow density compared to the low and middle traffic flow densities. Effects of gender and vocation on reaction time are also tested, which suggested that male and non-professional drivers´ reaction time are prone to be slightly larger.