Development and validity of a hazard prediction test for Chinese drivers

Development of a hazard prediction test for Chinese cyclists and its association with crash involvement

Introduction

Hazard perception is the ability to sense the road environment and predict and respond to the upcoming dangerous events, and this factor is closely related to cyclists' crash involvement. However, due to a lack of valid instruments, studies concerning the hazard predictions and crashes of cyclists in China remain limited. This study attempted to develop a hazard prediction test for cyclists.

Method

The experiment presented 44 video clips filmed from cyclists' perspectives to 61 children aged 13-16 years and 119 adults aged 18-30 years. After the video clip displayed a black screen, participants were asked to answer the following questions: "What is the hazard?" (question 1), "Where is the hazard?" (question 2), and "What happens next?" (question 3). The differences in test scores between cyclists with high and low levels of experience, cyclists of different ages, and crash-involved and noncrash-involved cyclists were compared to examine the validity of the test.

Results

The final test contained 21 video clips and the internal consistency reliabilities of the three questions were satisfactory. Experienced cyclists are better able to identify and predict hazards than are cyclists with less experience, and adult cyclists have better hazard prediction abilities than child cyclists. More importantly, crash-involved cyclists receiving lower scores with respect to their ability to identify and predict hazards than noncrash-involved cyclists, thus indicating that the discriminant validity of the test was acceptable.

Practical applications

This newly-developed test exhibits acceptable reliability and validity and can be used as an effective tool to measure the hazard prediction abilities of cyclists with different ages and levels of experience in China. The natural driving videos and test in the study may hold promise for future practical applications, and the implications for road safety are discussed.

Driving Hazard Perception Tests: A Systematic Review

Objective

The present study was conducted to evaluate previous studies on hazard perception among road users.

Methods

A comprehensive search was conducted using electronic databases and search engines including Science Direct, PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, Iranmedex, SID, Irandoc, and Google Scholar from January 2000 to September 2021. The search was performed using a combination of medical subject heading terms and keywords. Endnote software version 20.0 (Clarivate, Philadelphia, PA, USA) was used to organize the included articles. Thematic content analysis was used to analyze the findings. The entire review process was conducted by two authors, and unresolved challenges were discussed with other researchers.

Results

Findings of the study show that all of the tests could discriminate between inexperienced and experienced drivers. The use of dynamic hazard perception tests was more common than static tests, and in some cases, simulators were used. Moreover, the results indicated a weak correlation between the results of dynamic and static tests. Therefore, it could be claimed that both dynamic and static methods measured certain dimensions of hazard perception.

Conclusion

Regarding the importance of hazard perception, the findings of this study can provide further progress in designing hazard perception tests. The hazard perception tests can be sensitive to cultural or legal differences. It should also be noted that in developing tools for measuring drivers' hazard perception, different dimensions of hazard perception must be considered, so that the level of drivers' hazard perception can be reported accurately.