Investigating Individual Driver Performance: Applying DEA on Simulator Data

Abstract

The main purpose of the present study is to investigate individual driver's behavior by using the data from a driving simulator, in order to distinguish the best drivers and identify the problematic behavior of 'underperforming' drivers. To this end, 129 participants with different age and gender were enrolled to take part in a particular simulator scenario (i.e., curve taking) and their speed, acceleration and lateral position, the three most important driving performance indicators based on literature review, were monitored at various points (before, during and after the curve) while driving a STISIM simulator. As a widely accepted tool for performance monitoring, benchmarking and policy analysis, the concept of composite indicators (CIs), i.e., combining single indicators into one index score, was employed, and the technique of data envelopment analysis -an optimization model for measuring the relative performance of a set of decision making units, or drivers in this studywas used for the index construction. Based on the results from the model, all drivers were ranked, and valuable insight were gained by comparing the relative performance of each driver. Finally, the sensitivity of the results was examined.