Anna-Maria Sourelli, “Analysis of the impact of weather conditions on the behaviour and safety of young drivers on rural roads with the use of driving simulator”, Diploma Thesis, NTUA, School of Civil Engineering, Athens, November 2017.

The current Diploma Thesis focuses on the analysis of the impact of weather conditions on the behaviour and safety of young drivers on rural roads. In order to achieve this objective, an experimental process using a driving simulator was carried out, in which 40 participants aged 20-28 years drove in different driving scenarios. Lognormal regression methods were used in order to develop the mathematical model of the average driving speed and binary logistic methods were used for the model of the accident probability. The models’ application revealed that rain increases significantly the accident probability, despite the observed speed reduction. Furthermore, it appears that adverse weather conditions affect average driving speed. More precisely, significant speed decrease was observed during rainy conditions and some decrease during fog. Finally, fog seems to have a small but clear impact on the average speed as well as on accident probability.