This report describes a study designed to compare on-the-road performance of drivers with their performance in a controlled laboratory setting on simulated driving tasks and driving related perceptual-motor tasks. The study involved comparisons between road performance, simulator performance, perceptual-motor skill performance, biographical factors and officially recorded accidents and violations during a five-year period. The population consisted of approximately 300 taxi operators from the Washington, D.C. Area. Some significant relations between perceptual-motor performance and simulator performance and simulator performance were found. Although not high, these relations tended to be higher than those between performance on the two simulators. Age and driving experience were the most consistent predictors of simulator performance. Relations between officially recorded accident and violation data and all performance measures used were low. /author/
Abstract