Drivers’ Visual Search Patterns during Overtaking Maneuvers on Freeway

Wenhui Zhang, Jing Dai, Yulong Pei, Penghui Li, Ying Yan and Xinqiang Chen
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Wenhui Zhang: Traffic School, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
Jing Dai: Traffic School, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
Yulong Pei: Traffic School, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
Penghui Li: State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Ying Yan: Department of Automobile, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710064, China
Xinqiang Chen: Merchant Marine College, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai 201306, China

IJERPH, 2016, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-15

Abstract: Drivers gather traffic information primarily by means of their vision. Especially during complicated maneuvers, such as overtaking, they need to perceive a variety of characteristics including the lateral and longitudinal distances with other vehicles, the speed of others vehicles, lane occupancy, and so on, to avoid crashes. The primary object of this study is to examine the appropriate visual search patterns during overtaking maneuvers on freeways. We designed a series of driving simulating experiments in which the type and speed of the leading vehicle were considered as two influential factors. One hundred and forty participants took part in the study. The participants overtook the leading vehicles just like they would usually do so, and their eye movements were collected by use of the Eye Tracker. The results show that participants’ gaze durations and saccade durations followed normal distribution patterns and that saccade angles followed a log-normal distribution pattern. It was observed that the type of leading vehicle significantly impacted the drivers’ gaze duration and gaze frequency. As the speed of a leading vehicle increased, subjects’ saccade durations became longer and saccade angles became larger. In addition, the initial and destination lanes were found to be key areas with the highest visual allocating proportion, accounting for more than 65% of total visual allocation. Subjects tended to more frequently shift their viewpoints between the initial lane and destination lane in order to search for crucial traffic information. However, they seldom directly shifted their viewpoints between the two wing mirrors.

Keywords: visual behavior; overtaking; freeway; driving simulator (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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