An investigation of perceived vehicle speed from a driver's perspective

Abstract

PurposeSpeed estimation of drivers’ own vehicles and other vehicles on the road is an important task for drivers and is also crucial to the roadway safety. The objective of the study was to examine the effects of multiple factors such as image scale, speed, road type, driving experience, and gender on the speed perception of drivers’ own vehicles.MethodsThirty participants consisted of 17 males and 13 females, including 13 without driving experience. All participants estimated the driving speed of 192 5-second video clips, which were selected from naturalistic driving recordings. The recorded driving speeds were evenly distributed across the entire range from 5mph to 65mph. Half of the selected video clips were recorded on wide roads and another half were recorded on comparatively narrow roads. Video clips were played on a large screen, with each clip shown in one of 4 image scales (100%, 75%, 50%, and 38% of the actual field of view in the real world).ResultsSpeed estimates were most accurate for the smallest image size (38% of the actual field of view). As the image size increased, the driving speed was increasingly underestimated. Participants with driving experience accurately estimated the driving speed on both wide and narrow roads whereas those without driving experience had greater underestimates on wider roads. Speeds were most accurately estimated within the range 25-35mph, but the speeds slower than the range tend to be overestimated and the speeds faster than the range are more likely to be underestimated. While males and females showed the same pattern across speed groups, females have greater estimation errors at the highest and lowest speed groups. Participants without driving experience showed increasing underestimation of speed as driving speed increased whereas participants with driving experience primarily underestimated the highest speeds.ConclusionsThe present study shows the effect of multidimensional influential factors on perceived vehicle speed from drivers’ perspective. The results also have implications for driving simulation scenario design, driving simulator setup, and the assessment of speed control in simulated and naturalistic environments.

The impact of driving homogeneity due to automation and cooperation of vehicles on uphill freeway sections

“…In the literature, there are references that drivers underestimate high driving speeds under freeway conditions [32]. Variable Speed Limit (VSL) strategies have been used as a freeway metering mechanism or a homogenization scheme to reduce speed differences, which most probably derive from the variability in the vehicle specs and the driving style [27].…”

The effect of cellphone position on driving and gaze behaviour

“…There was also a significantly higher change in speed after the text message was delivered to the phone in the lap position, showing a reduction in attention being spent on speed control. Human speed perception, especially in simulators 46 , is much less instinctive that direction, and more prone to adaptation 47 , requiring frequent recalibration by glancing at a speedometer. We did observe a higher number of glances at the dashboard when the cellphone was in the lap, perhaps reflecting the difficulty in maintaining speed estimates with less available cognitive resource, causing the increased reliance on the speedometer.…”

A Bee Colony Optimization (BCO) and Type-2 Fuzzy Approach to Measuring the Impact of Speed Perception on Motor Vehicle Crash Involvement

“…The results of the study conducted by Fildes and Lee (1989) show that the interaction of driving experience, road type, and drivers' gender affects speed estimation. Perceiving the speed of own vehicle and other vehicles is critical to ensure safe driving and, in particular, that the maneuvering actions do not violate the law, such as not going over the speed limit unintentionally and promptly maneuvering vehicles to avoid accident crashes (Wu et al, 2017). Close links exist between real vehicle speed and perceived vehicle speed, namely, based on the research by Zheng et al, 2018, the average driver's perceived speed is approximately twice less than the actual vehicle speed.…”