No abstract

It was reported in a recent paper that, when meeting another car, drivers start turning the steering wheel left 2 s before the meeting, indicating, according to the authors explanation, approaching behavior due to the perceptual significance of the oncoming car. The current study was conducted to test an alternative correction-maneuver explanation. The lateral position of passing cars was recorded at several measurement points on two-lane roads, and the mean value was plotted as a function of the time from the meeting instant. The previous data on the steering-wheel angle and the current position data were compared, first on narrow and wide roads and second in car-following and open-road driving condition. Each case involving a more pronounced steering-wheel shift to the left was found to be accompanied by a more pronounced, or sharper, lateral displacement to the right, supporting the correction-maneuver explanation.

This research showed that when having passed a patrol car on the road side, drivers' responses to a cyclist coming from a side road occur at a shorter latency. When stopped and interviewed afterwards, the drivers were not able to veridically estimate the time available for their response.