INFLUENCE OF MENTAL SET AND DISTANCE JUDGEMENT AIDS ON FOLLOWING DISTANCE

LITTLE INFORMATION IS PRESENTLY AVAILABLE ON THE RELATION BETWEEN VARIOUS DRIVER CHARACTERISTICS AND FOLLOWING DISTANCE. USING A PHOTOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUE FOR MEASURING DISTANCE BETWEEN VEHICLES, TWO EXPERIMENTS WERE DESIGNED TO MEASURE (1) THE EFFECTS ON FOLLOWING DISTANCE OF DRIVER SET, OR GENERAL ATTITUDE TOWARD THE PARTICULAR DRIVING SITUATION, AND (2) THE ABILITY OF DRIVERS TO MAINTAIN SPECIFIED FOLLOWING DISTANCES, BOTH WITH UNAIDED VISION AND WITH TWO SIMPLE JUDGMENT AIDS. WHEN DRIVERS WERE ASKED TO DRIVE ON A NEWLY CONSTRUCTED HIGHWAY NOT YET OPEN TO TRAFFIC UNDER EACH OF THREE SETS--EMERGENCY, HABITUAL, AND MAXIMUM SAFETY--AT SPEEDS OF BOTH 30 AND 50 MPH, THE RESULTS INDICATED THAT DRIVERS BELIEVED THEY HABITUALLY DROVE WITH MAXIMUM SAFETY, AS FAR AS ACTUAL FOLLOWING DISTANCES WERE CONCERNED. THE DISTANCES OBTAINED UNDER THE HABITUAL SET WERE FOUND TO BE SOMEWHAT GREATER THAN THOSE FOUND IN REGULAR TRAFFIC ON SIMILAR HIGHWAYS BY PREVIOUS INVESTIGATORS. BOTH AIDS TO DISTANCE JUDGMENT SUBSTANTIALLY REDUCED ERRORS MADE WITH THE UNAIDED EYE, AT BOTH 6- AND 8-CAR LENGTHS AND A SPEED OF 40 MPH. /AUTHOR/

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/hrbbulletin/330/330-006.pdf
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Authors:
  • Wright, Stuart
  • Sleight, Robert B
• Conference:
  • 41st Annual Meeting of the Highway Research Board
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 1962-1-8 to 1962-1-12
• Publication Date: 1962

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 52-59
• Monograph Title: Driver characteristics
• Serial:
  • Highway Research Board Bulletin
  • Issue Number: 330
  • Publisher: Highway Research Board

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Distance measuring equipment; Drivers; Following distance; Human characteristics; Judgment (Human characteristics); Photography; Vision
• Uncontrolled Terms: Driver characteristics
• Old TRIS Terms: Driver vision; Following distance (Of vehicles); Photographic methods
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00222762
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Aug 28 1994 12:00AM