In Austria, for different reasons an investigation of a driver's psychophysical abilities and/or his/her willingness to co-operate in traffic is required by law. To investigate both "will and skill" may be necessary in some cases when car drivers have lost their driving licence because of, e.g., driving under the influence of alcohol (above 1.6%o) or if one wants to gain a driver's licence for busses and become a professional driver. Also when authorities suspect that some elderly drivers have lost theirupsychophysical competences to drive a motor vehicle some testing will be necessary. The purpose of this was to obtain appropriate indicators for the prognosis of future traffic behaviour, not only on the basis of the standardised tests of the psychophysical status, but also considering the background of the clients with the help of the results of the "exploration". The field study lasted from July to November 2004. The outside criterion was the driving behaviour of at least 100 test persons observed with the help of the "Wiener Fahrprobe", the "Vienna driving test". The behaviour observation in the field has a dual character in this connection: As a criterion, as a mark is given after the driving test, dividing between apt or not apt for driving; and as a set of predictors, as many observation results can be used for completing the assessment, and for improving prognoses, e.g. about possibilities of compensation of bad test results. This could be the case if the testee for instance shows clear anticipatory strategies when driving, good communication with the social environment, etc. All test persons, which were observed drove along a standardised route, which is about 25 km long. The test-route includes different speed limits (30 km/h, 50 km/h, 60 km/h, 80 km/h and 100 km/h) and different kinds of road-types (small one-way roads, roads with two-way traffic, motorway etc.). The observations were made with a driving school car and a driving instructor sitting next to the observed test person (the driving instructor was needed to intervene in possibly accruing conflict situations). In the back of the car two observers were seated. One observer (so called "standardised") counted all errors which were made by the test person, (correct using of indicator, choice of speed in different situations, distance to the car ahead etc.).The second observer (so called "free") registered all kind of communication procedures with other road users, including behaviour at zebra crossings etc. For a better overview the test-route was divided in 25 different section. After each observation the two observers and the driving instructor reviewed the driving test and appointed a mark between 1 (very good) and 5 (very bad) for the observed client. For the covering abstract see ITRD E137120.
Abstract