Highway Deceleration Lane Safety: Effects of Real-Time Coaching Programs on Driving Behavior

Abstract

Real-time coaching programs are designed to give feedback on driving behavior to usage-based motor insurance users; they are often general purpose programs that aim to promote smooth driving. Here, we investigated the effect of different on-board real-time coaching programs on the driving behavior on highway deceleration lanes with a driving simulator experiment. The experiment was organized into two trials. The first was a baseline trial, in which participants drove without receiving any feedback; a cluster analysis was then performed to divide participants into two groups, based on their observed driving style. One month later, a second trial was carried out, with participants driving on the same path as the first trial, this time receiving contingent feedback related to their braking/acceleration behavior. Four feedback systems were tested; overall, there were eight experimental groups, depending on the clustered driving style (aggressive and defensive), feedback modality (visual and auditory), and feedback valence (positive and negative). Speed, deceleration, trajectory, and lateral control variables, collected before and onto the deceleration lane, were investigated with mixed ANOVAs, which showed that the real-time coaching programs significantly reduced speeds and maximum deceleration values, while improving lateral control. A change toward a safer exit strategy (i.e., entering the lane before starting to decelerate) was also observed in defensive drivers.

Driving simulator performance worsens after the Spring transition to Daylight Saving Time

“…Another set of repeated measures ANOVAs was carried out to investigate the exit maneuver. The variables chosen, again based on previous studies (Orsini et al, 2021), included speed, deceleration, trajectory, and lateral control indices.…”

“…The driving scenario consisted of a route of about 11,5 km, encompassing both rural and urban sections, and including signalized, unsignalized and roundabout intersections, and a freeway stretch, all in cloudy weather. The same route had been utilized in previous studies investigating the effect of in-vehicle visual and auditory cues on driving behavior (Orsini et al, 2021;Rossi et al, 2021aRossi et al, , 2021b. The route includes a wide range of driving situations, which are relevant to road safety, and have been extensively studied in the literature: car-following task (Ranney, 1999), braking on yellow onset at a signalized intersection (Zhang et al, 2014), bicycle overtaking (Dozza et al, 2016), freeway exit maneuver (Calvi et al, 2012).…”

Prediction of Crash Severity as a Way of Road Safety Improvement: The Case of Saint Petersburg, Russia

“…The complex innovative development of a region requires the systematic development of the transport industry in terms of increasing road safety, which will ensure not only an increase in the efficiency of transport logistics but also an overall improvement in the quality of people's lives and regional sustainability, along with its economic, social, and environmental components. This is why many studies have focused on improving road safety-e.g., Orsini et al [1], Anastasopoulos et al [2], and Karpova et al [3]. Such studies highlight ways of improving road infrastructure to attain the objective of decreasing fatal crashes and serious injuries.…”

Combination Layout of Traffic Signs and Markings of Expressway Tunnel Entrance Sections: A Driving Simulator Study

“…Statistics of tunnel accidents in China show that the relatively high traffic accident rate in tunnel entrance sections is mainly due to the transition between two different operating environments in tunnel entrance sections. That is to say, the differences in alignment, skid resistance, lighting and climate environment have a great impact on driving safety [1,4]. The question of how to improve the operating environment of tunnel entrance sections mainly depends on how to provide accurate tunnel entrance information for drivers, so it is very important to use and set up marking lines.…”