Dual task scenarios have long been used to evaluate the demands imposed by secondary in-vehicle information systems. International effort has been expended to develop standardised methodologies for valid, reliable, and efficient system assessment. The `Lane Change Test' is an example of one of these protocols. A multi-laboratory coordinated data calibration exercise was undertaken to explore the utility of the Lane Change Test. This paper reports on UK data which contributed to this exercise. The Lane Change Test encompasses a primary task representative of some control aspects of the driving task. It was evaluated in the context of several secondary tasks, with easy and difficult variations. These tasks were an auditory one, a visual one and an integrated audio, visual and manual route guidance task. Results indicate broadly the same directionality of findings for all laboratories. For example, mean lane deviations were found to be smallest for the auditory tasks, followed by the visual only tasks, with the integrated tasks being most disruptive of primary task lane deviation. However, some laboratory-specific findings were identified. (Author/publisher)
Abstract