In order to obtain and validate design criteria to improve active safety in road traffic, driver behaviour was analysed in an interdisciplinary approach. Effects of stress (e.g. route properties) and individual human characteristics (age, sex, personality, driving experience) on driver performance (especially the use of friction potential) and driver strain (physiological and psychological measures) were analysed. This paper focuses on inter-individual variations of performance and strain in field experiments. They were interpreted with individual characteristics: subjects with more driving experience and higher age show lower strain. Female subjects drive with higher safety margins and less strain. Conspicuousness in certain personality measures is related to conspicuous driver performance measures. Strain generally increases with performance, the slope value is determined by the task difficulty. (A)
Abstract