Research into human abilities to observe situations accurately and to foresee and predict their development is called 'Situation Awareness' (SA). Different methods to determine SA have been developed. They are, however, not specifically aimed at carrying out steering tasks in traffic. That is why, first of all, a method had to be developed with which the SA of road users, while carrying out their steering tasks in traffic, can be measured. The development of such a method is the first phase of long-term research in the telematics field. A simulator experiment was carried out as a pilot study. In this, three methods were tested whether they are appropriate to measure SA in traffic situations. During a 'journey' in a simulator along a route involving a variety of traffic situations, the picture was frozen a number of times at set locations ('freezing'). Immediately after each frozen picture, subjects from three different groups were asked to either answer a structured questionnaire or describe the situation in their own words, or draw a sketch of the situation. The result of this experiment showed that none of these methods leads individually to a usable reproduction of the traffic situation. However, the hybrid form of the sketch-drawing with additional specific questioning of subjects seems to be a useful course to continue on, especially concerning the manoeuvre features of other road users. The research will be continued in this direction. At the same time, it will be attempted to link to a study of scenarios used by drivers when settling their mutual encounters at intersections.
Abstract