Investigation into passing behavior at passing zones to validate and extend the use of driving simulators in two-lane roads safety analysis

A passing maneuver allows drivers to maintain their desired speed on two-lane highways. However, it entails a high risk of collision with vehicles travelling in the opposite direction. Investigating drivers' behavior while performing passing maneuvers could provide helpful information on the factors that influence this process. Driving simulators have become important tools for driving behavior research studies as they are safe, facilitate the controlled use of experimental variables, and generate detailed output data. It remains to be seen whether simulator results can be considered representative of real-life driving conditions. With respect to passing maneuvers, no study has made a comprehensive and direct comparison between drivers' passing behavior in the field and driver behavior observed in a simulated environment. In this validation study, a fixed-base interactive simulator was used to collect data from fifty-four participants (eighteen Iranians and thirty-six Italians) involved in several traffic scenarios on a two-lane rural highway segment (obtained by varying the speed of opposing vehicles, lead vehicles and headways in the opposite direction). A 3D model and its environmental characteristics were realized from the real segment which had previously been surveyed with drones to collect videos and derive data on real passing maneuvers. The results for the two-sided K-S test revealed no statistically significant difference in the accepted gap, effective accepted gap, perception reaction time, and time to collision variables between the field and the simulator at the 95 % confidence level. However, when conducting a one-sided K-S test, some statistical directional differences were found in the cases of the accepted gap and perception reaction time variables, which exhibited lower values in the field compared to the simulator again at the 95 % confidence level. Although the passing duration was statistically higher in the simulator than in the field, the shape of the two distributions was not statistically different. Analysis showed that differences in the passing duration are due to the lower passing vehicle speed and lower speed difference with the simulator than in the field, which are caused by truncating headways in the subject direction in the simulator. The cultural background of participants did not result in any discernible difference in passing behavior. The results would support a more extensive use of driving simulators in future passing behavior studies.

Non-Parametric Comparison of Single Parameter Histograms

A number of methods have been developed to compare single parameter histograms. Some perform a channel-by-channel analysis and others give a single statistic about how the histograms may or may not differ. If they do differ, then the significance of the difference or confidence limit is usually provided. The specific location(s) for the greatest deviations may also be given. Some are more effective at resolving severely overlapping populations and others work poorly when there is any significant overlap. Each method makes certain assumptions about the data. It is important to understand the assumptions being made and to understand the limitations of each method. It is essential to know how to identify when a comparison method will work for a given set of histograms. This unit explores the different methods, and provides a guide for the reader to choose the most appropriate method(s) to use for a specific data set(s). © 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.