Transport Safety Research Centre
Key interests
Road User Behaviour
Research into road user behaviour and the manner in which the traffic systems are used is fundamental to effective road safety policies.
The Centre conducts research into the decisions that road users make in order to explain their involvement in crashes and is developing and applying new models of accident causation to its research. Its team of behavioural researchers works closely with crash investigators to analyse the causes of collisions from the driving phase to the moment of the crash.
A systems approach is used which brings together road user interactions with the vehicle, road, traffic system and other road users. Research is also conducted into the effect of longer standing driver attributes on safety. The effects of pre-existing medical conditions and the relationship between the driving behaviour and previous traffic offences are a continuing research theme.
The Centre also investigates the manner in which driver information systems are used and the changes in driving behaviour that may result. In-vehicle information systems may introduce distraction which can increase accident risk while stability and dynamics technologies may encourage over-reliance or increased risk acceptance.
Our researchers are increasingly examining the effects of new intelligent transport technologies on driver behaviour and investigating the impact on safety, driving efficiency and the environment.
Featured projects
The TSRC is a major partner in the EU FP 7 funded project Telefot which evaluates the impact of nomadic information systems on behaviour, safety and driving efficiency. The team is responsible for the UK test site and will be conducting small and large scale field operational trials of a range of information and navigation equipment.
Prologue is a related project which is developing new protocols for naturalistic driving observations. The research methodology will enable drivers and riders of vehicles to be unobtrusively observed in order to evaluate their decision making and normal behaviour. The results will feed into a large scale survey of driving behaviours that will be related to new indicators of crash risk and serve as the basis for technology impact assessments.
Working with colleagues in the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering the Centre has conducted early simulations of driver decision making. Using a rule based software model with vehicle and environment interactions it has been possible to simulate crash events and to obtain alternative outcomes by modifying driving styles and characteristics.
Researchers in the Centre have investigated the impact of long-term behaviour in relation to crash involvement. By assessing previous offence histories of drivers involved in crashes the team are investigating the association between risk taking behaviours resulting in collisions and the expected levels of previous offences.
The in-depth accident causation data gathered within the On-The-Spot project is a rich source of information on driver behaviour and a variety of classification systems are available to analyse it. The Human Functional Failure method is being used to identify and explain specific crash scenarios on the basis of observed driver behaviours, vehicle manoeuvres and other contributory factors.
People
TSRC team members conducting research in this area include:
- Deniz Atalar