The Use of a Driving Simulator to Determine How Time Pressures Impact Driver Aggressiveness

Speeding greatly contributes to traffic safety with approximately a third of fatal crashes in the United States being speeding-related. Previous research has identified being late as a primary cause of speeding. In this driving simulator study, a virtual drive was constructed to evaluate how time pressures, or hurried driving, affected driver speed choice and driver behavior. In particular, acceleration profiles, gap acceptance, willingness to pass, and dilemma zone behavior were used, in addition to speed, as measures to evaluate whether being late increased risky and aggressive driving behaviors. Thirty-six drivers were recruited with an equal male/female split and a broad distribution of ages. Financial incentives and completion time goals calibrated from a control group were used to generate a Hurried and Very Hurried experimental group. As compared to the control group, Very Hurried drivers selected higher speeds, accelerated faster after red lights, accepted smaller gaps on left turns, were more likely to pass a slow vehicle, and were more likely to run a yellow light in a dilemma zone situation. These trends were statistically significant and were also evident with the Hurried group, but a larger sample would be needed to show statistical significance. The findings from this study provide evidence that hurried drivers select higher speeds and exhibit riskier driving behaviors. These conclusive results have possible implications in areas such as transportation funding and commercial motor vehicle safety.

• Record URL:
  http://safersim.nads-sc.uiowa.edu/final_reports/UM-3-Y3_Report.pdf
• 
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This document was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  Safety Research Using Simulation University Transportation Center (SaferSim)

  University of Iowa
  Iowa City, IA  United States  52242

  University of Massachusetts, Amherst

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  130 Natural Resources Road
  Amherst, MA  United States  01003

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Knodler, Michael
  • Fitzpatrick, Cole
• Publication Date: 2017-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 25p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aggression; Drivers; Driving simulators; Speeding; Time; Traffic crashes; Traffic safety
• Uncontrolled Terms: Time pressure
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01644647
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: UTC, NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Aug 29 2017 10:09AM