“It is a different type of policing than in the bush”: Police officers’ perceptions of the differences in enforcement of the phone use while driving legislation in rural and urban areas

Mobile phone use while driving continues to be a significant road safety concern, despite the severe legal countermeasures to reduce this behaviour. Phone use while driving-related crashes have been demonstrated to be an issue in rural areas, yet research into the impact of legal sanctions on phone use while driving has primarily focussed on...

External and internal influences on mobile phone use while driving: Combining the theories of deterrence and self-determination

Objectives: Various legal countermeasures have been introduced in numerous jurisdictions worldwide to reduce the risky behaviour of phone use while driving. However, external factors do not influence behaviour alone; internal factors may also play a large role in influencing behaviour. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the impact...

Is distraction on the road associated with maladaptive mobile phone use? A systematic review

Maladaptive Mobile Phone Use (MMPU) (also known as Smartphone Addiction, Nomophobia, Fear of Missing Out, or Problematic Mobile Phone Use) is a growing mental health problem. However, the health and safety consequences of MMPU remain unexplored in many real-life contexts. A potential setting where MMPU may have some negative repercussions is on...

Road-safety-II: Opportunities and barriers for an enhanced road safety vision

Road safety research is largely focused on prediction and prevention of technical, human or organisational failures that may result in critical conflicts or crashes. Indicators of traffic risk aim to capture the passage to unsafe states. However, research in other industries has shown that it is meaningful to analyse safety along the whole...

Do adaptive cruise control and lane keeping systems make the longitudinal vehicle control safer? Insights into speeding and time gaps shorter than one second from a naturalistic driving study with SAE Level 2 automation

Advanced driver assistance systems such as adaptive cruise control (ACC) and lane keeping system (LKS) potentially contribute to reducing crash rates and traffic congestion. On-road studies based on early ACC systems operational at medium–high speeds only have shown that the system reduces the proportion of short time gaps when activated....

How do dutch drivers perceive horizontal curves on freeway interchanges and which cues influence their speed choice?

Operating speeds in Dutch freeway curves differ often by 20 km/h compared to their design speeds. Operating speed is thought to be influenced by how drivers perceive curves when approaching a curve. This explorative research explores which curve cues and other variables influence drivers’ speed choice in curves. For this purpose, a survey was...

Driver speed compliance following automatic incident detection: Insights from a naturalistic driving study

Automatic incident detection (AID) systems and variable speed limits (VSLs) can reduce crash probability and traffic congestion. Studies based on loop detector data have shown that AID systems decrease the variation in speeds between drivers. Despite the impact on driver behaviour characteristics, most mathematical models evaluating the...

Adaptations in driver deceleration behaviour with automatic incident detection: A naturalistic driving study

Traffic congestion and crash rates can be reduced by introducing variable speed limits (VSLs) and automatic incident detection (AID) systems. Previous findings based on loop detector measurements have revealed that drivers reduce their speeds while approaching traffic congestion when the AID system is active. Notwithstanding these behavioural...

Design and operation of dedicated lanes for connected and automated vehicles on motorways: A conceptual framework and research agenda

Dedicated Lanes (DLs) have been proposed as a potential scenario for the deployment of Automated and/or Connected Vehicles (C/AVs) on the road network. However, evidence-based knowledge regarding the impacts of different design configurations, utilization policies, and the design of their access/egress on traffic safety and efficiency is...

Probabilistic field approach for motorway driving risk assessment

We present an approach to assess the risk taken by on-road vehicles within the framework of artificial field theory, envisioned for safety analysis and design of driving support/automation applications. Here, any obstacle (neighboring entity on the road) to the subject vehicle is treated as a finite scalar risk field that is formulated in the...

Modelling overtaking strategy and lateral distance in car-to-cyclist overtaking on rural roads: A driving simulator experiment

The involvement of cyclists in road crashes has not been decreasing with the same magnitude as the involvement of other road users. In particular, the interactions between cyclists and motorized traffic can lead to high-severity crashes. To improve the safety of these interactions, a thorough understanding of road user behaviour is first needed....

Will vehicle data be shared to address the how, where, and who of traffic accidents?

Vehicles are increasingly equipped with sensors that measure the state of the vehicle and surrounding road users. Although most of these sensor data currently remain local to the vehicle, the data could be shared with the aim to improve road safety. We postulate that there is a range of scenarios regarding data sharing, with two extremes: In...

Correlates of self-reported driving aberrations in Tehran: A study at the level of drivers and districts

There are relatively few comprehensive studies on driving errors and violations in Iran, a non-Western country with a high traffic fatality rate. In this study, 712 drivers completed a questionnaire at technical inspection centres and carwashes in Tehran, Iran. Respondents were asked about their demographic characteristics, accident...

Analysis of driver behaviour through smartphone data: The case of mobile phone use while driving

The aim of this paper is to explore driving behaviour during mobile phone use on the basis of detailed driving analytics collected by smartphone sensors. The data came from a sample of one hundred drivers (18,850 trips) during a naturalistic driving experiment over four months. A specially developed smartphone application was used, through...

Driver Behaviour during Control Transitions between Adaptive Cruise Control and Manual Driving: Empirics and Models

Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and automated vehicles can contribute to reduce traffic congestion and accidents. Field operational Tests have shown that drivers may prefer to deactivate ACC systems that are inactive at low speeds in dense traffic conditions and before changing lanes. These transitions between automated and manual driving are...

Modelling decisions of control transitions and target speed regulations in full-range Adaptive Cruise Control based on Risk Allostasis Theory

Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and automated vehicles can contribute to reduce traffic congestion and accidents. Recently, an on-road study has shown that drivers may prefer to deactivate full-range ACC when closing in on a slower leader and to overrule it by pressing the gas pedal a few seconds after the activation of the system. Notwithstanding...

Impact of distracting activities and drivers’ cognitive failures on driving performance

The rapid increase in the availability of smartphones and other infotainment devices, and their widespread use while driving, contributes significantly to car crash rates. Understanding of the impact of distracting activities on drivers’ behavior is essential in order to support the development of effective technology and policy solutions to...

Measuring drivers’ visual information needs during braking: A simulator study using a screen-occlusion method

It is commonly accepted that vision plays an important role in car braking, but it is unknown how people brake in the absence of visual information. In this simulator study, we measured drivers’ braking behaviour while they had to stop their car at designated positions on the road. The access to visual information was manipulated by occluding...