Liikenneturvallisuustavoite ja kohtaamisonnettomuudet

Liikennekuolemilla mitattu myönteinen turvallisuuskehitys yleisillä teillä johtuu valtaosaltaan ns. suojattoman liikenteen, jalankulkijoiden, pyöräilijöiden ja mopoilijoiden vähenevistä kuolonuhreista. Autossa kuolleiden määrä on sen sijaan pysynyt samana tai jopa lisääntynyt 1980-luvun alkupuolelta. Tämä kehitys ei vastaa sitä optimistista käsitystä, mikä liikennekuolemien puolittamistavoitteissa yleensä esitetään. Ajoneuvojen välinen kohtaamisaltistus selittää varsin hyvin pääteiden kohtaamisonnettomuuksien muutoksia 1980-luvulta lähtien. Näiden onnettomuuksien estäminen on olennaista liikennekuolemien vähentämiseksi

Anticipatory eye movements when approaching a curve on a rural road depend on working memory load

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Child passengers and driver culpability in fatal crashes by driver gender

PMID: 26507116AbstractObjective: Studies based on accident statistics generally suggest that the presence of a passenger reduces adult drivers' accident risk. However, passengers have been reported to be a source of distraction in a remarkable portion of distraction related crashes. Although the effect of passengers on driving performance has been studied extensively, few studies have focused on how a child passenger affects the driver. A child in a car is a potential distractor for parents, especially for mothers of small children who often suffer from sleep deficit. The aim of this study was to examine how the presence of child passengers of different ages is associated with a higher driver culpability, which was expected due to child related distraction and fatigue. Methods: The analysis was based on the comprehensive data of fatal crashes studied in-depth by multidisciplinary road accident investigation teams in Finland during 1988–2012. Teams determine the primary party who had the most crucial effect on the origin of the event. We define the primary party as culpable and the others involved as non-culpable drivers. The culpability rate was defined as the percentage of culpable drivers and rates were compared for drivers with a child/teen passenger aged 0–17 year (N = 348), with an adult passenger without children (N = 324) and when driving alone (N = 579), grouped by child age and driver gender. Drivers with specific risk-related behavior (substantial speeding, driving when intoxicated, unbelted, or without license) were excluded from the analyses, in order to make the drivers with and without children comparable. Only drivers 26–47 years old were included, representing parents with children 0–9 years of age. Results: Male drivers were less often culpable with 0–17 year old passengers in the car than alone or with adults. This was not the case with female drivers. The gender difference in culpability was most marked with small children of 0–4 years. Female drivers' culpability rate with a 0–4 year old child passenger was higher but male drivers' lower as compared to drivers without passengers or with only adult passenger. Conclusion: The results indicate that female drivers are at higher risk of crashes than male drivers when driving with small children. Further research is needed to replicate this finding and to determine causal mechanisms.Peer reviewe

Task-Difficulty Homeostasis in Car Following Models : Experimental Validation Using Self-Paced Visual Occlusion

Car following (CF) models used in traffic engineering are often criticized for not incorporating “human factors” well known to affect driving. Some recent work has addressed this by augmenting the CF models with the Task-Capability Interface (TCI) model, by dynamically changing driving parameters as function of driver capability. We examined assumptions of these models experimentally using a self-paced visual occlusion paradigm in a simulated car following task. The results show strong, approximately one-to-one, correspondence between occlusion duration and increase in time headway. The correspondence was found between subjects and within subjects, on aggregate and individual sample level. The long time scale aggregate results support TCI-CF models that assume a linear increase in time headway in response to increased distraction. The short time scale individual sample level results suggest that drivers also adapt their visual sampling in response to transient changes in time headway, a mechanism which isn’t incorporated in the current models.Peer reviewe

Situated accomplishment of well-being in interaction: a conversation-analytic study of instructor intervention, driver reflection and displays of (dis)comfort in voluntary post-licence training

Private car travel constitutes an important means of transportation for senior members of society: having access to a car is often key to gaining access to various services and activities. Among the retired population, many couples have adopted practices that promote driving performed by the husband while demoting driving performed by the wife. If the husband then ceases driving, the wife may be faced with the dilemma of having a need to drive, owning a car and holding a valid driving licence – but not having the skills and confidence to drive. Post-licence training offers a solution to such situations in providing a safe, supportive environment to practice. Nevertheless, as part of any training, drivers have to deal with various settings and situations, some of which may be emotionally intense and have adverse effects on the willingness to drive. This study takes a look at one such case, where an instructor treats a trainee driver’s conduct so problematic as to stop the dual-control car at a junction. The study examines how the participants attempt to establish, maintain and update their mutual understanding of the unfolding situation, how they produce and respond to displays of emotion, (dis)comfort in particular, and how those displays contribute to the course of the training, the ultimate goal of which is independent driving. The study thus explores how participants accomplish well-being in situ in interaction with one another. The study employs ethnomethodological conversation analysis and draws on video recordings from on-road post-licence training for older women drivers

Effect of driving experience on anticipatory look-ahead fixations in real curve driving

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Look-ahead fixations in curve driving

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Females do not have more injury road accidents on Friday the 13th

BACKGROUND: This study reinvestigated the recent finding that females – but not males – die in traffic accidents on Friday the 13th more often than on other Fridays (Näyhä S: Traffic deaths and superstition on Friday the 13th. Am J Psychiatry 2002, 159: 2110–2111). The current study used matched setting and injury accident data base that is more numerous than fatality data. If such an effect would be caused by impaired psychic and psychomotor functioning due to more frequent anxiety among women, it should also appear in injury crashes. METHODS: We used the national Finnish road accident database for 1989–2002. To control seasonal variation, 21 Fridays the 13th were compared in a matched design to previous and following Fridays, excluding all holidays, on number of accidents, male/female responsibility for accidents, and the number of dead, injured and overall number of active participants (drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists) as a consequence of the accident. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in any examined aspect of road injury accidents among the three Fridays, either in females or males. Women were not overrepresented in crashes that occurred on Fridays 13th. CONCLUSION: There is no consistent evidence for females having more road traffic crashes on Fridays the 13th, based on deaths or road accident statistics. However, this does not imply a non-existent effect of superstition related anxiety on accident risk as no exposure-to-risk data are available. People who are anxious of "Black Friday" may stay home, or at least avoid driving a car

Gaze doesn’t always lead steering

In car driving, gaze typically leads the steering when negotiating curves. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether drivers also use this gaze-leads-steering strategy when time-sharing between driving and a visual secondary task. Fourteen participants drove an instrumented car along a motorway while performing a secondary task: looking at a specified visual target as long and as much as they felt it was safe to do so. They made six trips, and in each trip the target was at a different location relative to the road ahead. They were free to glance back at the road at any time. Gaze behaviour was measured with an eye tracker, and steering corrections were recorded from the vehicle’s CAN bus. Both in-car ‘Fixation’ targets and outside ‘Pursuit’ targets were used. Drivers often used a gaze-leads-steering strategy, glancing at the road ahead 200–600 ms before executing steering corrections. However, when the targets were less eccentric (requiring a smaller change in glance direction relative to the road ahead), the reverse strategy, in which glances to the road ahead followed steering corrections with 0–400 ms latency, was clearly present. The observed use of strategies can be interpreted in terms of predictive processing: The gaze-leads-steering strategy is driven by the need to update the visual information and is therefore modulated by the quality/quantity of peripheral information. Implications for steering models are discussed.Peer reviewe

Trade-off between jerk and time headway as an indicator of driving style

Variation in longitudinal control in driving has been discussed in both traffic psychology and transportation engineering. Traffic psychologists have concerned themselves with “driving style”, a habitual form of behavior marked by it’s stability, and its basis in psychological traits. Those working in traffic microsimulation have searched for quantitative ways to represent different driver-car systems in car following models. There has been unfortunately little overlap or theoretical consistency between these literatures. Here, we investigated relationships between directly observable measures (time headway, acceleration and jerk) in a simulated driving task where the driving context, vehicle and environment were controlled. We found individual differences in the way a trade-off was made between close but jerky vs. far and smooth following behavior. We call these “intensive” and “calm” driving, and suggest this trade-off can serve as an indicator of a possible latent factor underlying driving style. We posit that pursuing such latent factors for driving style may have implications for modelling driver heterogeneity across various domains in traffic simulation.Peer reviewe