Items Under Tag: driving simulator

Mild Cognitive Impairment and driving: Does in-vehicle distraction affect driving performance? – 2017

A paper titled “Mild Cognitive Impairment and driving: Does in-vehicle distraction affect driving performance?” authored by Ion N. Beratis, Dimosthenis Pavlou, Eleonora Papadimitriou, Dionysia Kontaxopoulou, Stella Fragkiadaki, George Yannis, and Sokratis G. Papageorgiou, is now published in Accident Analysis and Prevention. In-vehicle distraction is considered to be an important cause of road accidents. Drivers with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), because of their attenuated cognitive resources, may be vulnerable to the effects of distraction; however, previous relevant research is lacking. The main objective of the current study was to explore the effect of in-vehicle distraction on the driving performance of MCI patients, by assessing their reaction time at unexpected incidents and accident probability, through a driving simulator experiment. Overall, the current findings indicate, for the first time, that a common driving practice, such as the use of mobile phone, may have a detrimental impact on the driving performance of individuals with MCI.

Dimosthenis Pavlou defended his PhD Thesis on cognition and driving 2016

Dimosthenis Pavlou has successfully defended his PhD dissertation titled: Traffic and safety behaviour of drivers with neurological diseases affecting cognitive functions. This PhD thesis was carried out at the Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering at the School of Civil Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens under the supervision of Prof. George Yannis. The impact of brain pathologies on reaction time, accident probability, driving errors, and driving performance was under investigation. The driving behaviour was examined in terms of both traffic and safety behaviour and the neurological diseases affecting cognitive functions concerned Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). A large-scale driving simulator experiment was carried out, comprising a medical/neurological and neuropsychological assessment of 225 drivers, and a set of driving tasks for different scenarios. An innovative statistical analysis methodology has been developed and implemented, based on Regression Models, Principal Component Analysis and Structural Equation Models.

Which are the effects of driver distraction and brain pathologies on reaction time and accident risk? – 2016

A paper titled “Which are the effects of driver distraction and brain pathologies on reaction time and accident risk?” authored by Dimosthenis Pavlou, Panagiotis Papantoniou, Eleonora Papadimitriou, Sophia Vardaki, George Yannis, Costas Antoniou, John Golias and Sokratis G. Papageorgiou is now published in Advances in Transportation Studies an international Journal. A driving simulator experiment with 140 participants (out of which 109 were patients) was carried out by an interdisciplinary research team of neurologists, neuropsychologists and transportation engineers. The brain pathologies examined include early Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Mild Cognitive Impairment. A statistical analysis was carried out by means of mixed generalized linear modelling and the results indicated significant differences between the driving performance of healthy drivers and patients. Patients with cerebral diseases reacted significantly slower at unexpected incidents than the healthy ones and were more likely to be involved in an accident. The mobile phone use had a significant negative effect on both reaction time and accident probability.

Assessment of Driving Simulator Studies on Driver Distraction – 2015

A paper titled ‘Assessment of Driving Simulator Studies on Driver Distraction‘ co-authored by Panagiotis Papantoniou, Eleonora Papadimitriou and George Yannis is now published in Advances in Transportation Studies Journal. The objective of this research is the critical assessment of driving simulator studies on driver distraction. For this purpose 45 scientific papers have been examined with respect to the design of driving simulator experiments on the effects of various sources of driver distraction (in-vehicle or external). Through this analysis it appears that the most common distraction sources examined are visual distraction and cell phone use, while other sources of distraction have received notably less attention in existing studies. The simulated road environment of most experiments was rural, whereas far less is known on the effects of distraction in urban areas; furthermore, ambient traffic is not explicitly simulated and the effect of traffic flow on distracted driving may be a key question for further investigation. Finally, driver distraction is expressed by a number of measurements, in terms of its impact to driver attention (hands-off the wheel, eyes-off the road), driver behaviour (vehicle speed, headway, lateral position, driver reaction time) and driver accident risk. Although these different measurements describe different aspects of the distracted driving mechanism, it would be important to focus on the most sensitive ones, keeping in mind the entire chain of distracted driving causes and impacts, in order to significantly enhance the potential of exploitation of the results of existing studies.

Impact of roadside advertising to driver behaviour and safety in cities 2015

A Diploma Thesis titled ‘Investigation of the impact of roadside advertising to driver behaviour and safety in cities with the use of driving simulator‘ was presented by Anastasia Gkouskou in July 2015. An experimental process on a driving simulator was carried out, in which all participants drove in specially selected driving scenarios. Regression statistical models were developed to investigate the impact of roadside advertising on the mean speed and the lateral position of the vehicle from the right borderline (lognormal) and on the mean reaction time (linear). The models’ application demonstrated thatroadside advertising leads to small increase of the mean reaction time and the mean lateral position of the vehicle from the right borderline. At the same time, it leads to small decrease of the mean speed, perhaps due to overloaded driving environment. Finally, roadside advertising appears to have no effect on the headway distance and the probability of getting involved in an accident.

Impact of texting on young drivers’ behaviour and safety in urban and rural roads through a simulation experiment – 2014

A paper titled ‘Impact of texting on young drivers’ behaviour and safety in urban and rural roads through a simulation experiment‘ co-authored by George Yannis,Alexandra Laiou, Panagiotis Papantoniou and Charalambos Christoforou is now published in Journal of Safety Research. A driving simulator experiment was carried out in which 34 young participants drove in different driving scenarios; specifically, driving in good weather, in raining conditions, in daylight and in night were examined. Lognormal regression methods were used to investigate the influence of texting as well as various other parameters on the mean speed and mean reaction time. Binary logistic methods were used to investigate the influence of texting use as well as various other parameters in the probability of an accident. It appears that texting leads to statistically significant decrease of the mean speed and increase of the mean reaction time in urban and rural road environment. Simultaneously, it leads to an increased accident probability due to driver distraction and delayed reaction at the moment of the incident. It appeared that drivers using mobile phones with a touch screen present different driving behavior with respect to their speed, however, they had an even higher probability of being involved in an accident.

Comparative analysis of young drivers’ behaviour in normal and simulated conditions in interurban road 2014

A Diploma Thesis titled ‘Comparative analysis of young drivers’ behaviour in normal and simulated conditions in interurban road‘ was presented by Marios Nikas in January 2014. This Diploma Thesis aims to compare the behavior of young drivers in normal and simulated driving conditions. Data were collected through an experimental process on a driving simulator but also on real traffic conditions, in which all the participants drove in both cases the same driving scenarios. Lognormal regression methods were developed for the identification of the impact of driving environment (simulated and real traffic conditions), basic driver characteristics (mileage, age, gender), as well as the driving style (average acceleration, deceleration and standard deviations of them) to the average vehicle speed change. Through model implementation, it was revealed that absolute values of drivers’ traffic performance vary between simulated and real driving conditions. On the contrary, relative differences of driver behaviour at the two driving environments remain mostly the same. More precisely, speed difference between fast and slow drivers is the same at the two driving environments, as is also speed difference the same at the two driving environments between drivers talking and not talking to the co-driver.

University Roma Tre – Road Safety and Simulation Conference, Rome 2013

The 4th Edition of the Road Safety and Simulation 2013 (RSS 2013) Conference was organised by the University of Roma Tre and took place in Rome on 23-25 October 2013, with the participation of more than 250 scientistists from more than 45 countries. Special emphasis was put on driving simulationand how this tool can improve roadway design and the study of emerging technologies that take into consideration human factors as well and their effects on safety.

NTUA Associate Professor Matthew Karlaftis in a key note speech highlighted the “Conflicting Objectives and Modeling Implications in Road Safety Data Analysis”.

NTUA presentations concerned:

Design of a large driving simulator experiment on performance of drivers with cerebral diseases

Assessment of driving simulator studies on driver distraction

A Review of Driving Performance Assessment in Simulators with focus to cognitive impairments related to age or caused by neurodegenerxative disorders

Simulation of Texting Impact on Young Drivers Behaviour and Safety in Urban and Rural Roads

Challenges in simulation of pedestrians and motorised traffic

Factors Influencing Freeway Traffic Upstream of an Incident

Identification of safety hazards on existing road network regarding road Geometric Design: Implementation in Greece

Analytical Method For Three-Dimensional Stopping Sight Distance Adequacy Investigation

Road Safety Audit: A comparative Review of Current Guidelines and 1 Designers’ Approach

Impact of texting on young drivers’ traffic and safety on motorways by the use of a driving simulator 2012

A Diploma Thesis titled ‘Impact of texting on young drivers’ traffic and safety on motorways by the use of a driving simulator‘ was presented by Christos Gartzonikas in July 2012. An experimental process on a driving simulator was carried out, in which all the participants drove in different driving scenarios. Lognormal regression methods were used to investigate the influence of text messaging as well as various other parameters on the mean speed and the mean distance from the front vehicle. Binary logistic methods were used to investigate the influence of text messaging as well as various other parameters in the probability of an accident. It appears thattext messaging leads to statistically significant decrease of the mean speed and to increase of the headway in normal and in specific conditions in motorways and simultaneously leads to an increase of accident’s probability, probably due to increased reaction time of the driver in case of an incident.

Simulation of texting impact on young drivers’ behaviour and safety in urban and rural road 2012

A Diploma Thesis titled ‘Simulation of texting impact on young drivers’ behaviour and safety in urban and rural road‘ was presented by Charalambos Christoforou in July 2012. An experimental process on a driving simulator was carried out, in which all the participants drove in different driving scenarios. Lognormal regression methods were used to investigate the influence of texting as well as various other parameters on the mean speed and mean reaction time. Binary logistic methods were used to investigate the influence of text messaging use as well as various other parameters in the probability of an accident. It appears that text messaging leads to statistically significant decrease of the mean speed and increase the mean reaction time in urban and interurban road environment and simultaneously leads to an increase of accident’s probability, perhaps due to distraction of driver attention and as a result of the delayed reaction time at the moment of the incident.

The impact of mobile phone use and music on the driver behaviour and safety by the use of a driving simulator 2011

A Diploma Thesis titled ‘The impact of mobile phone use and music on the driver behaviour and safety by the use of a driving simulator’ was presented by Elena Papathanasiou and Evridiki Postantzi in March 2011. The analysis of the experiment results revealed that the lower speed and the increase of the distance from the middle of the road of the drivers who have a difficult conversation at the mobile phone while driving, cannot compensate for the much greater risk of an accident, in case of an unexpected event, due to increased reaction time.

Impact of the conversation with passenger, eating and smoking on driver behavior and road safety 2010

A Diploma Thesis titled ‘Investigation of the impact of the conversation with passenger, eating and smoking on the driver behavior and the probability of being involved in an accident by the use of a driving simulator’ was presented by Charalampos Bairamis and Vasileios Sklias in October 2010. From the lognormal regression models developed it appeared that conversation, eating and smoking lead to a statistically significant decrease in speed, while the difficult conversation leads also to an increase in reaction time and decrease in the distance of the vehicle from the right borderline. From the binary logistic model developed it appeared that the difficult conversation leads to an increased likelihood of an incident. In summary, it appears that the lower speed and the deviation to the right of the drivers who have a difficult conversation while driving cannot offset the much greater risk of an accident due to increased reaction time.

Investigation of the impact of mobile phone use to driver behaviour and safety with the use of driving simulator 2010

A Diploma Thesis titled ‘Investigation of the impact of mobile phone use to driver behaviour and safety with the use of driving simulator’ was presented by Leonidas Roumpas in February 2010. Lognormal regression and binary logistic methods were used to investigate the influence of mobile phone use as well as various other parameters on the mean speed and the probability of an accident. From the models application it appears that mobile phone use leads to a statistically significant decrease of the mean speed in urban and interurban environment and to an increase of accident’s probability, probably due to distraction of driver attention and as a result, delayed reaction time at the moment of the incident. It appeared that in rainy conditions drivers did not present different driving behaviour, however, they had a high probability of being involved in an accident.

International Conference Road Safety and Simulation 2009

The International Conference Road Safety and Simulation took place in Paris, in October 2010.

NTUA presented ‘About pedestrian safety in Europe – 2009‘.

The objective of this research is to create an overall picture of pedestrians’ road safety in European countries, to identify factors associated with increased pedestrian fatality risk, and to propose countermeasures for the improvement of pedestrians road safety in Europe.