Influence of oncoming traffic on drivers’ overtaking of cyclists

Modelling overtaking strategy and lateral distance in car-to-cyclist overtaking on rural roads: A driving simulator experiment

“…Binary logistic regression models were developed to predict which manoeuvre a driver will perform when approaching a cyclist in the presence of an oncoming vehicle. In all models, the subject vehicle speed has been shown to be a good indicator of the driver's choice, in line with the findings of Bianchi-Piccinini et al (2018) and Dozza et al (2016), showing that the subject vehicle speed is different in the two manoeuvres. The suggested explanation for this difference is that drivers adapt their speed once they have decided which overtaking manoeuvre to perform.…”

“…When a vehicle is approaching, drivers drive significantly closer to the cyclist not only when passing, but also when approaching and steering away from the cyclist. Bianchi-Piccinini et al (2018) and Kovaceva, Nero, Bärgman, and Dozza (2018) found similar results-from research with a driving simulator and the UDRIVE naturalistic dataset, respectively. Finally, Abe, Sato, and Itoh (2018) were interested in understanding the factors that affect driver's trust in the behaviour of automated vehicles when passing a scooter or a bicycle.…”

“…The purpose of the test trial, Trial route, was to allow the participants to get comfortable in the driving simulator and get familiar with the scenery and the task (overtaking a cyclist). The experimental trials, Route 1 and Route 2, were designed to evaluate the drivers' comfort zone boundaries and overtaking strategies without and with oncoming traffic, respectively (for more details about the experimental setup, please see Bianchi, Piccinini et al, 2018). The trials were conducted on a two-lane rural road (one for each direction of travel) with no divider; Lanes were 3.2 m wide and the shoulders were 0.4 m wide.…”

“…Additionally, on left curves drivers tended to cut the curve when overtaking, exposing themselves to a higher risk of a collision with oncoming vehicles. Bianchi-Piccinini, Moretto, Zhou, and Itoh (2018) conducted a driving simulator study in Japan in which 36 Japanese drivers (21 males and 15 females) performed seven cyclist-overtaking manoeuvres on a rural road, with oncoming vehicles approaching at different nominal times to collision (TTC). The authors found a significant correlation between the overtaking strategy and the nominal TTC: as the TTC decreased, more drivers used the accelerative strategy, because they slowed down and waited for the oncoming vehicle to pass before accelerating to overtake the cyclist.…”

Modeling Drivers’ Strategy When Overtaking Cyclists in the Presence of Oncoming Traffic

“…Cyclist overtaking maneuvers can be split into four phases [6], [27], [30], which may help to prioritize and develop safety systems that support the driver in reducing crash risks in those phases: 1) approaching phase: when the ego vehicle approaches the cyclist, and the driver has to decide between a flying or an accelerative maneuver, 2) steering away phase: when the driver steers away to achieve a lateral distance to the cyclist, 3) passing phase: when the ego vehicle passes the cyclist while driving in parallel, 4) returning phase: when the driver has passed the cyclist and steers back into the lane. Several recent studies investigated driver behavior in these phases by leveraging different test environments: simulator studies [31], [32], test-track studies [30], [33], field test studies [27] and naturalistic driving studies [6], [34]- [36]. While simulator and test-track studies have lower ecological validity than field tests or naturalistic driving studies, they can offer more controlled data with higher resolution, which facilitates the development of predictive driver models [5].…”