An analysis of collision avoidance manoeuvres in emergency traffic situations

This paper provides an overview of the research into the driver behaviour in simulated near collision situations. The aim of such investigations is to determine various parameters characterising the driver performance, e.g. driver response time. The driver response time is a very important parameter used, for example, to analyse road accidents. The results presented in this paper come from a study performed for two different emergency traffic situations using some predefined procedures (scenarios). The tests included situations in which a person driving a subject vehicle on a test track was to respond to obstacle mock-ups on a conflicting path (intrusion of a pedestrian from the left or from the right and intrusion of a vehicle from the right). The test data was used to determine the parameters describing the driver behaviour, i.e. the braking response time (braking manoeuvre), the steering response time (steering manoeuvre) and the intensity of the two manoeuvres. This paper compares the values of the driver response time for two scenarios, each with two variants. The average values of the braking response time and the steering response time were determined on a closed track in relation to the Time-To-Collision (TTC) in the range 0,6÷3s, characterising a near collision situation. Another parameter describing the driver behaviour discussed in this paper is the intensity of an avoidance manoeuvre. In the case of braking, the relative brake pedal displacement was analysed, while in the steering manoeuvre, the steering angle was taken into account. The average values of the braking displacement and the steering angle were presented in the function of the TTC. This paper looks at the relationship between the intensity of the driver response (braking, steering), the driver response time and the TTC.