5 Apr 2016
University selected to monitor natural driver behaviour in unique EU experiment
The real behaviour of Europe’s road users will be revealed for the first time as part of a naturalistic driving study involving Loughborough University.
The €10 million collaborative study, funded by the European Commissionand co-ordinated by SWOV - Institute for Road Safety Research (The Netherlands), will observe unobtrusively the various aspects of driver and rider behaviour - including acceleration, lane position, speed, eye movements, traffic densities and road conditions, among others.
UDRIVE, as it is known, involves the monitoring of cars, trucks and scooters for up to 21 months as part of naturalistic data collection whenever the vehicle is in motion; in daylight, darkness and all weather conditions.
Volunteers from six countries - the UK, The Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain and Poland - have agreed to cameras and data recorders being fitted to their vehicles and scooters for continuous footage and data collection.
Loughborough's Driver Behaviour and Injury Prevention Research Group is leading on the UK data gathering along with the Institute of Transport Studies at the University of Leeds, by equipping 30 cars with seven video cameras and a smart camera to cover both the external view of the vehicle and the internal view, including the driver’s face, hands, and feet.
The aim is to gain an accurate and in-depth understanding of actual road user behaviour in a natural setting and analyse the inter-relationship between driver/rider, vehicle, road and other traffic in a range of situations. The study will assess the risk of safety critical behaviour and eco driving. The insights gained will be used to identify new measures to make the European traffic system safer and more sustainable.
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