Car following model of the distracted driver

Car following model of the distracted driver

Vlaar, T.J.

Happee, R. (mentor)

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

Biomechanical Engineering

BMD

2015-02-17

Driving a car is common but complex everyday task. Nowadays the mobile phone, infotainment and navigation systems are used while driving. These distract the driver from their driving task. What is the implication on driving safety? How is the car following behaviour influenced by distraction? Can this be described by a car following model? The multiple resource model tells us that there is limited resources to perform a task. Consequently when a driver performs a secondary task it is expected that its performance decrease. The car following model should be able to capture this behaviour. In this study data from a simulator experiment performed by IFSTTAR is used. Participants drove with and without a visual secondary (VST) task. The obtained driving behaviour is then modelled using the Helly and IDM model. With a traffic flow model, the influence of distracted driving on traffic flow is studied. Analysis of the simulator data showed that against expectations the subjects with VST drive closer to the lead vehicle with less speed difference. Their car following performance increased. This behavior can be explained by assuming an underload situation, where performance is suboptimal, when driving without VST. The Helly model can be used to describe the different conditions by using different parameters. The subjects are more vigilant when performing a secondary task. This better car following performance leads to an increased road capacity for the visual ST condition.

distraction
car following
simulator experiment
traffic flow

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:b20d309b-e0de-4b17-a75f-cde32fc30dfd

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2015 Vlaar, T.J.