Driver Behavior in Pedestrian Crash Scenarios

While pedestrian injuries account for only a small percentage of traffic injuries, they disproportionately account for 12% of traffic related fatalities. The goal of the present study was to understand how different situational factors affect drivers’ responses to crash imminent situations involving pedestrians in a high-fidelity, full-motion simulator. Forty-eight drivers encountered eighteen pedestrian crash scenarios that systematically manipulated four factors: location, driver expectation, side of the street, and crossing speed. These factors were derived from a review of the pedestrian crash literature. The results showed that mid-block events were harder to avoid than intersection events, resulting in harder braking and more collisions. Side of the street and driver expectation also influenced how drivers responded. These findings demonstrate that many factors influence how a driver responds to a crossing pedestrian, with factors affecting driver expectancy appearing to play a very significant role. These results can be used to inform pedestrian detection/avoidance systems in intelligent vehicles. Future research should address additional factors that might further explain driver-pedestrian crashes, such as driver distraction.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANF10 Standing Committee on Pedestrians.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Gaspar, John G
  • Schwarz, Chris W
  • Chrysler, Susan T
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2016-1-10 to 2016-1-14
• Date: 2016

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 18p
• Monograph Title: TRB 95th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Behavior; Drivers; Driving simulators; Forecasting; Intelligent vehicles; Location; Midblock crossings; Pedestrian vehicle crashes; Proximity detectors
• Uncontrolled Terms: Driver expectations
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01593457
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 16-6696
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 10 2016 4:07PM