STUDDED AND UNSTUDDED VEHICLE SPEEDS ON ICY AND DRY ROADS. DRIVER REACTION TO A SAFETY MEASURE

An investigation has been carried out in order to find out if drivers of vehicles with studded tyres are making use of an eventually increased coefficient of friction at icy road conditions to maintain a higher speed or to drive at a higher level of safety than drivers with unstudded tyres. Speeds, distances to the vehicle in front and possession of studded tyres have been measured during early morning hours. The sample of drivers studied have been driving in pendulum-traffic to the town of Uppsala. The measurements have been carried out with traffic analyzers and studded tyre indicators in two consecutive curves. Studies have been made at both dry and icy road conditions. The results show that although drivers with vehicles equipped with studded tyres are driving somewhat faster than drivers with unstudded tyres at slippery (icy) road conditions this increase in speed is not leading to lower safety margins. On the contrary drivers with studded tyres are on the average driving with larger safety margins than drivers with unstudded tyres. In dry road conditions no clear differences are found. The results could also be interpreted to show that drivers use a safety measure introduced mainly in the way it is intended - not for other proposes like comfort speed etc. /HSRI/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Sponsored by Swedish Committee on Studded Tyres.
• Corporate Authors:

  Uppsala University, Sweden

  Department of Psychology, Tradgardsgaten 20
  75220 Uppsala,   Sweden 
• Authors:
  • Rumar, K
  • Berggrund, U
  • Jernberg, P
  • YTTERBOM, U
• Publication Date: 1974

Media Info

• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 49 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Coefficient of friction; Drivers; Icing; Manual safety belts; Motor vehicles; Reaction time; Slipperiness; Speed; Studded tires; Traffic speed
• Uncontrolled Terms: Driver reaction
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00148966
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Highway Safety Research Institute
• Report/Paper Numbers: Report No. 165
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 27 1977 12:00AM