The driving simulator study presented here was conducted within Work-Package 2 of the EU-RISER project. This study serves as a means to include Human Factors principles within the roam of roadside infrastructure design by means of developing guidelines and analysis procedures necessary to select, implement, and operate a safe, efficient and affordable roadside infrastructure in the EU. Three specific research questions in this context were asked in respect to roadside furniture and how drivers respond to such structures: 1 How do drivers balance the potentially useful guidance information that roadside elements provide with the risk that is associated with their presence? 2 When do drivers move away from roadside obstacles? 3 How do these processes depend on obstacle characteristics? This report describes the driving simulator experiment conducted at TNO-Human Factors to give specific insight into the question what the influence is of continuous roadside furniture elements such a guard-rails and barriers. Considerable research has been done on how drivers manage to stay in their lane (lateral control) and how they manage their speed (longitudinal control) under different circumstances. The focus of the present experiment is to study the effects that roadside elements have on the lateral (lane-keeping) and longitudinal (speed-management) driving task. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting