The parking skill of drivers was studied by means of two experiments. In addition the subjects were subjected to a test to determine their mechanical/technical understanding and required to complete a questionnaire regarding their previous driving behaviour. In the first test 49 subjects were given the task of parking their own vehicle in a normal size parking space. This task was carried out adequately by all participants. In the second test, 20 test subjects took part in a laboratory experiment, which consisted mainly in the simulation of vehicle movements in a parking situation. The simulation equipment was linked to a computer. Furthermore, 16 driving tasks were set up, which included a series of operating procedures during various parking processes. The most notable result was that many of the test subjects found it difficult to relate their abstract capacity in the actual vehicle to the simulator. The consequences of steering wheel and gear change movements could not be transferred to the simulation process. Thus for some of the test subjects the simulator test was a new form of experience. In the experiment it was found that women with little driving experience reported poor results in the questionnaire and more failures in the test of their mechanical - technical understanding. Thus a cumulative qualified additive effect of these variables was assumed.
Abstract