Traffic Safety and Driver Behaviour 2021

A special issue of Safety (ISSN 2313-576X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2021) | Viewed by 7297

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Director, Center for Data Reduction and Analysis Support, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
Interests: naturalistic driving; traffic safety; driver behaviour; big data; human-vehicle interaction; active safety systems
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The pace of change in personal mobility has greatly accelerated over the last several years, and promises to quicken even more. Automation in our transportation ecosystem is increasing. Technology conglomerates are increasing their footprint in the provision of traffic services and taking leading roles in developing necessary technologies and developing the mobility products of the future.

In the context of all these developments, it is essential to remember that the human driver is still an essential part of our transportation system and will likely remain one for decades to come. While automation promises to facilitate the driving task, perhaps even eliminate it at some point, it will be a long time before these automated systems can expect to exist in isolation of human drivers.

The last two decades have provided us an unparalleled glimpse into drivers. Data acquisition technologies have allowed us to look at driver behaviour at both the macro and micro levels. Our understanding of what, when, and how drivers perform different actions has increased, as we also have come to realize some of the relationships between driver behaviours and traffic safety.

Crashes, however, still occur and represent a sizeable economic and personal cost to those involved and to our society.

This Special Issue will provide a platform for research linking driver behavior and safety, both in the traditional context of manual driving and in the nascent paradigm of automation. Researchers are invited to submit manuscripts regarding any aspect of driver behaviour that influences the safety of the driver and the other actors in the transportation ecosystem. Papers addressing traffic safety in the context of evolving vehicle automation are especially welcome.

Prof. Dr. Miguel A. Perez
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Safety is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Traffic safety
  • Driver behaviour
  • Crashes
  • Automation
  • Driver distraction
  • Driver impairment
  • Emerging technologies
  • Driver assistance
  • Driver-vehicle interaction
  • Risk

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 4509 KiB  
Article
Visual Perception and Understanding of Variable Message Signs: The Influence of the Drivers’ Age and Message Layout
by Gianfranco Fancello, Patrizia Serra and Claudia Pinna
Safety 2021, 7(3), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/safety7030060 - 28 Aug 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 4668
Abstract
Variable message signs (VMS) are used to display messages providing up-to-date traffic-relevant information so that drivers can safely adapt their behavior in real time. The information reported in a VMS should be brief but comprehensive to minimize perception time. The latter can be [...] Read more.
Variable message signs (VMS) are used to display messages providing up-to-date traffic-relevant information so that drivers can safely adapt their behavior in real time. The information reported in a VMS should be brief but comprehensive to minimize perception time. The latter can be influenced by the way the message is displayed. This study investigates how the different ways of displaying the same message can influence reading time and the information perception process at different driving speeds. Specifically, the following message characteristics are investigated: (i) use of uppercase and lowercase letters; (ii) use of familiar pictograms; and (iii) use of less familiar pictograms. Furthermore, as perception time typically changes with ageing, drivers belonging to three different age classes are tested. The experimentation was performed by simulating a vehicle passing along a straight road upon which a VMS displaying different messages was placed. Experimentation results are analyzed using the Kruskal–Wallis test, Friedman rank-sum test and Welch one-way ANOVA, showing that: (i) the use of uppercase or lowercase does not seem to significantly affect reading times; (ii) the use of pictograms that are not very familiar to habitual road-users can be counterproductive for the perception process; (iii) elderly drivers always have greater difficulty in perceiving the message than young or middle-aged drivers. The findings of this study can be of help for traffic authorities to design the most suitable structure for a VMS so that its information can be unequivocally and immediately conveyed to drivers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Traffic Safety and Driver Behaviour 2021)
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