Relationship Between Relative Velocity Detection and Driver Response Times in Vehicle Following Situations

Naturalistic Driver Behaviour in Response to the Multi-Sensory Experience of Rear-End Collisions

“…The observed relationships between driver behaviour and collision event severity are consistent with the urgency model of driver behaviour (Summala, 2000;Wang et al, 2016). In terms of timing, this relationship is typified by the observed relationship of relatively short PR intervals for hazards detected at shorter time-to-collision intervals and longer PR durations when hazards are detected at relatively greater distances (Muttart et al, 2005;Wang et al, 2016). Drivers also scale braking intensity to the severity of the collision threat, whereby greater braking rates (i.e., higher decelerations) are observed when responding to hazards approaching at greater speeds (Wang et al, 2016).…”

“…In addition to the scaled relationship between driver behaviour and hazard severity, previous research has also shown that both PR intervals and braking intensities approach asymptotes, demonstrating the limits of driver behaviour both in terms of processing time, as well as braking input forces (Muttart et al, 2005;Wang et al, 2016). Immediate hazards promote such ceiling and floor effects, thus reducing variability and rendering behaviours highly predictable when immediate hazards are detected.…”

Effects of Adjacent Vehicles on Judgments of a Lead Car During Car Following

“…These early responses constituted 5.4% of the trials in which the lead car decelerated. Instantaneous optical expansion rate (Hosking & Crassini, 2011) at the moment the participant responded was calculated based on the width of the lead car’s bumper (Hoffman & Mortimer, 1994; Muttart et al, 2005), which represented the maximum horizontal extent of the lead car.…”

“…Information that drivers potentially use to detect deceleration (other than brake lights) includes the lead car’s optical expansion pattern, that is, the increase in the visual angle subtended at the driver’s eye by the car being approached (DeLucia & Tharanathan, 2009; Lamble et al, 1999). When the optical expansion rate of a vehicle exceeds a threshold value, between 0.003 and 0.006 radians per second (rad/s), a driver putatively can determine that the relative velocity of the lead vehicle has changed and that it is getting closer (Hoffman & Mortimer, 1996; Muttart, Messerschmidt, & Gillen, 2005).…”

When Do Drivers Abort an Overtaking Maneuver on Two-Lane Rural Roads?

“…Inappropriate overtaking behavior, resulting from driver's poor observational and judgment skills of other vehicles' speeds and locations and of overtaking distances [6,7], is commonly seen as an important contributing factor to road crashes [6,8,9]. Several studies [10][11][12] have shown that until the angular velocity subtended by the vehicle in front was above a threshold value of about 0.003 -0.006 radians/sec, drivers were unable to give reasonable estimates of the time to collision and cannot tell how fast a vehicle is moving, making the judgment of gap adequacy difficult.…”