SOME EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL ON CAR DRIVING ON TWO-LANE AND LIMITED-ACCESS HIGHWAYS

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of moderate doses of alcohol on a number of driving skills involved in steering and car-following, and passing decision-making. It was found that subjects required about double the time gap to make a safe passing judgment at night than in the day, but no effect of alcohol was found. With the speed of a lead-car held constant, drivers under alcohol allowed a significantly greater headway than those of the placebo group. In addition, the variance in headway was significantly greater, both on the secondary road and the freeway, for the drinking drivers. When the speed of the lead-car was purposely varied in car-following, the mean headway and the variance in headway was significantly greater during the daytime than at night. In a limited set of the conditions there was also a significantly greater variance in headway attributable to alcohol. When subjects were requested to maintain the car at a fixed 80 km/h over 11.3 km, with the speedometer covered, there was a significantly greater variance in speed for the alcohol group than the placebo group. There were no sigificant effects of alcohol found in: judgments of the speed of overtaking vehicles, lateral position deviations in steering, speed production without the use of the speedometer and the minimum safe time judged to be required to pass a vehicle ahead of them. (Author)

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Meeting. Sponsored by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
• Corporate Authors:

  Human Factors Society

  1134 Montana
  Santa Monica, CA  United States  90403
• Authors:
  • Mortimer, R G
  • Sturgis, S P
• Publication Date: 1979

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: p. 254-258
• Serial:
  • Publication of: Human Factors Society
  • Publisher: Human Factors Society

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Blood alcohol levels; Car following; Decision making; Driver performance; Drivers; Headways; Passing; Personnel performance; Reaction time; Secondary roads; Steering; Two lane highways
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00325334
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Safety Council Safety Research Info Serv
• Report/Paper Numbers: Proceeding
• Contract Numbers: AA 00295
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 15 1981 12:00AM