Relationships among driving styles, desire for control, illusion of control, and self-reported driving behaviors

Prediction of driving stress on high-altitude expressway using driving environment features: A naturalistic driving study in Tibet

OBJECTIVE

Owing to the harsh environment in high-altitude areas, drivers experience significant driving stress. Compared with urban roads or expressways in low-altitude areas, the driving environment in high-altitude areas has distinct features, including mountainous environments and a higher proportion of trucks and buses. This study aims to investigate the feasibility of predicting stress levels through elements in the driving environment.

METHODS

Naturalistic driving tests were conducted on an expressway in Tibet. Driving stress was assessed using heart rate variability (HRV)-based indicators and classified using K-means clustering. A DeepLabv3 model was built to conduct semantic segmentation and extract environment elements from the driving scenarios recorded through a camera next to the driver's eyes. A decision tree and 4 other ensemble learning models based on decision trees were built to predict driving stress levels using the environment elements.

RESULTS

Fifty-six indicators were extracted from the driving environment. Results of the prediction models demonstrate that extreme gradient boosting has the best overall performance with the F1 score (harmonic mean of the precision and recall) and G-mean (geometric mean of sensitivity and specificity) reaching 0.855 and 0.890, respectively. Indicators based on the variation rate of trucks and buses have high feature importance and exhibit positive effects on driving stress. Indicators reflecting the proportion of mountain, road, and sky features negatively affect the expected levels of driving stress. Additionally, the mountain feature demonstrates multidimensional effects, because driving stress is positively affected by indicators of the variation rate for mountain elements.

CONCLUSIONS

This study validates the prediction of driving stress using environment elements in the driver's field of view and extends its application to high-altitude expressways with distinct environmental characteristics. This method provides a real-time, less intrusive, and safer method of driving stress assessment and prediction and also enhances the understanding of the environmental determinants of driving stress. The results hold promising applications, including the development of a driving state assessment and warning module as well as the identification of high-risk road sections and implementation of control measures.

Driving anxiety and anxiolytics while driving: Their impacts on behaviour and cognition behind the wheel

Introduction

The interaction between road safety and drivers' mental health is an important issue to take into consideration on transportation and safety research. The present review deals specifically with the link between anxiety and driving activity from two complementary points of view.

Method

A systematic review into primary studies, following the PRISMA statement, was carried out in four databases: Scopus, Web of Science, Transport Research International Documentation and Pubmed. A total of 29 papers were retained. On the one hand, we present a systematic review of research articles exploring the cognitive and behavioural effects of driving anxiety, regardless its onset, when concerned people have to drive. The second goal of the review is to compile the available literature on the influence of legal drugs, which are used to fight against anxiety, on actual driving tasks.

Results

Eighteen papers have been retained for the first question, whose main findings show that exaggerated cautious driving, negative feelings and avoidance are associated with driving anxiety. Most of the conclusions were drawn from self-reported questionnaires and little is known about the effects in situ. Concerning the second question, benzodiazepines are the most studied legal drugs. They affect different attentional processes and could slow reaction times down depending on the population and treatment features.

Conclusions

The two standpoints included in the present work allow us to propose some possible lines of research to study certain aspects that have not been explored in depth about people who either feel apprehensive about driving or who drive under the effects of anxiolytics.

Practical applications

The study on driving anxiety may be crucial to estimate the consequences for traffic safety. Furthermore, it is relevant to design effective campaigns to raise awareness about the issues discussed. To propose standard evaluations of driving anxiety and exhaustive research works to find out the extent of anxiolytics use are also important to be considered for traffic policies.

The use of car safety seats for children in China: A questionnaire survey based on the theory of planned behavior

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to analyze the psychological characteristics underlying Chinese parents' behaviors in using child car seats and to understand their decision-making processes. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), three extended variables of perceived accident severity, perceived benefits, and perceived barriers were introduced. From the perspective of social psychology, the psychological factors that influence parents' use of child car seats and their interrelationships were explored.

METHODS

A questionnaire was designed to collect data, including information on demographic characteristics, basic components of the TPB, and relevant extension variables. Using on online survey, 585 valid questionnaires were collected. Structural equation modeling was used to calibrate the data, and multiple group analysis was performed on the demographic variables.

RESULTS

The extended TPB can effectively explain and predict parents' behaviors when using children's car seats. The results of the model show that parents' positive attitudes toward child safety seats (CSSs), others' recognition of their own use and perceptual control of the use of CSSs increase their willingness to use CSSs. Parents' willingness to use has a positive impact on the use of CSSs. Additionally, for the three extended variables introduced, perceived benefit significantly promoted parental intention and behavior to use CSS for children; perceived barriers significantly reduced parental use of CSS; and perceived accident severity had no significant effect on parental use of CSS.

CONCLUSIONS

This study established the validity of the extended TPB model in predicting parents' behaviors in using car seats for their children. In addition, the current findings may provide a theoretical basis for policy development to promote CSS use.