Virginia Tech Studying Driver Behavior of Big-City Commuters
IVsource.net
11 November 2001

Virginia Tech's Transportation Institute is preparing to launch a massive one-year, real-world study of driver behavior and accidents on the roads around Washington DC.

With $3 million from both federal and state governments, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) is gearing up to conduct one of the most comprehensive studies ever of driver performance during crashes and near-crash situations.

Beginning next summer, VTTI researchers will equip 100 private vehicles belonging to volunteers living throughout congested Northern Virginia with complex computer equipment that will record the drivers' nearly every move for one year.  Each vehicle will also be outfitted with several cameras to record the motions of other cars who influence -- or are influenced by -- the volunteer driver.

Statistically speaking, the equipment is expected to record an estimated half-dozen rear-end collisions involving the volunteers' cars; roughly 30 to 60 accidents involving either the volunteer vehicles or those within the camera's purview; and an estimated 33,000 "critical" events, which could include a full-blown accident, near crashes, or incidents of driver error.

"We're basically looking at how people drive and what type of things they do just prior to an incident," said Vicki Neale, head of VTTI's safety and human factors engineering group.  "This is really a first in terms of the amount of information being collected and the fact that it is being collected for a year continuously."

Northern Virginia was the obvious test plot for the experiment, Neale said.  Between the Capital Beltway and the crowded arteries among the sprawling suburbs around Washington, DC, the test participants will provide VTTI with a wide variety of driving situations and, more than likely, a good number of accident case studies.

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