Cyclists’ expectations when encountering automated vehicles

Abstract

In the future, cyclists will be sharing the roads with automated and traditional vehicles [1]. Interactions between cyclists and automated vehicles (AVs) may differ from interactions with traditional vehicles, because cyclists may hold incorrect expectations about how AVs will react to their presence, leading to confusing and risky situations. The objective of this study was to assess the (self-reported) behaviour and expectations of cyclists when encountering an AV with different external features as compared to a traditional vehicle. This study builds on a smaller questionnaire conducted by Hagenzieker et al. [2]. 607 participants from 15 countries completed an online questionnaire, in which they were shown 12 photos from a cyclist's point of view. Each photo involved a traditional vehicle or an AV recognisable by a specific feature (door sign or roof sign with the message 'self-driving'). Moreover, three descriptions of the capabilities of AVs (negative, neutral, positive) were provided in a between-subjects design. Participants had to report, for each photo, (1) how sure they were that the car had noticed them, (2) how sure they were that the car would stop, both on a scale from unsure to sure, and (3) what they would do on a scale from 'increase speed' to 'wait'. Personal characteristics (trust in automation and sensation seeking) were also measured. The results showed that participants were more sure to be noticed by an AV with a door sign than by a traditional vehicle. They were also more sure that the car would stop when the vehicle was an AV. The type of AV description showed statistically significant interaction effects with vehicle type. Furthermore, results differed per country group. For example, European respondents were more sure to be noticed by the car than respondents from North America. Finally, trust and sensation seeking scores showed positive correlations with participants' answers to the three questions.