Investigation of Behavioral Adaptation to Lane Departure Warnings

Abstract

Behavioral adaptation describes the collection of behaviors that occur after a change in the road traffic system. Typically, those behaviors not intended by the initiators of the change having a negative impact on safety are of particular interest. Although behavioral adaptation is frequently cited as an explanatory variable for observed discrepancies between engineering estimates and actual outcomes of safety interventions, a thorough understanding of behavioral adaptation does not, at present, exist. Most theories posit that a driver’s goal to maintain an acceptable level of risk will determine if and when behavioral adaptation will occur; few models incorporate individual driver characteristics into their explanation of behavioral adaptation. Recently, a qualitative model of behavioral adaptation was proposed. The model predicts that the degree of behavioral adaptation to a novel road safety intervention depends on several psychological characteristics of the individual, including propensity to trust automation, “locus of control,” and inclination toward sensation-seeking. To test the predictions of this model, simulator and test-track studies were conducted to investigate the ability of lane departure warnings to induce behavioral adaptation in drivers performing a secondary number-entry task. While the presence of reliable warnings in both settings improved lane-keeping performance, drivers tended to report a high degree of trust in both accurate and inaccurate systems, despite the intentional infidelity of the latter. Externals and low sensation-seekers were more likely to report an increase in trust in the system, regardless of its accuracy. The collective results from both studies indicate that, because of the propensity of some people to trust unreliable or faulty devices, caution should be used in attempting to predict the aggregate safety benefits of these systems.

Effectiveness and acceptability of milled rumble strips on rural two-lane roads in Sweden

“…These results are in line with measurements of speed and lateral position in traffic flow made in a pre-study [34] showing a speed reduction of 2 km/h in average and a change in lateral position of 5 cm to the right (right hand traffic). In relation to in-vehicle LDW systems an evaluation whether a LDW system would induce BA was done [35]. Results showed that drivers with LDW systems tend to overreliance on such systems which might lead to less positive safety effect.…”

Intention to use a fully automated car: Attitudes and a priori acceptability

“…Someone who believes he/she can control events has an internal locus of control, whereas those who do not believe it are external. Concerning partially automated driving and locus of control, overconfidence is more salient for drivers with an external locus of control than those with an internal locus of control; this result has been observed on a simulator but not on a test-track (Rudin-Brown & Noy, 2002). Yet, locus of control was not affected by simulated partial automation (i.e.…”

“…Among studies on behavioral adaptation to ADAS, one of the main findings is that locus of control and sensation seeking are personality traits which could have an influence on driving behavior when using ADAS (Rudin-Brown & Noy, 2002;Rudin-Brown & Parker, 2004;Stanton & Marsden, 1996;Ward, Fairclough, & Humphreys, 1995).…”

“…ACC, Stanton & Young, 2005), whereas locus of control did increase external drivers' reaction time to ACC failure compared to internals in Rudin-Brown and Parker's experiment on a test-track (2004). It might be easier for external drivers to trust automated driving system, considering they rely less on their own driving skills than internals (Rudin-Brown & Noy, 2002). In order to measure driving locus of control, Montag and Comrey (1987) developed a driving internality-externality scale, with two independent (not bipolar) dimensions.…”

Drivers’ Reliance on Lane-Keeping Assistance Systems as a Function of the Level of Assistance

“…Second, the secondary task was designed to foster drivers' reliance on the lane keeping assistance systems by generating a resource-demanding dual-task situation (cp. Rudin-Brown & Noy, 2002). The aim was to manipulate task demands in a way that encourages drivers to rely on the lane keeping assistance systems as a strategy to limit the expenditure of mental effort in the driving task while maintaining or even improving concurrent task performance.…”