Incorporating Driver Behavior and Characteristics into Safety Prediction Methods

Driver behavior and characteristics are influential contributing factors to traffic crashes, but current safety analysis tools primarily incorporate infrastructure-related factors affecting crashes. The lack of behavior and characteristic information can create a problem when considering safety applications since some of the most important factors are not included. This could lead to safety solutions that may not work as well as intended. In the AASHTO Highway Safety Manual (HSM), the measures of driver characteristics are divided into several categories such as attention and information processing, vision, perception-reaction time, and speed choice. However, these characteristics are provided at a very high level. Police officers usually report driver characteristics such as gender, age, speeding, blood alcohol content, seat belt use, and distracted driving. While several studies have evaluated the impact of these factors on crash severity, there is a need to incorporate these factors in crash prediction methods to achieve a better picture of the true potential effects on crash severity and frequency for decisions in planning, design, and operations. Research is needed to develop a methodology to incorporate a variety of factors related to driver behavior and characteristics into crash prediction methods to allow for a more comprehensive assessment of existing and expected safety performance, for use in design and operational decision-making, and incorporation into the AASHTO HSM and other safety tools and guidelines. The objective of this research is to continue and complete the work begun under NCHRP Project 22-47 to develop a methodology to incorporate driver characteristics and behavior into safety prediction methods to estimate the expected crash frequency and severity related to infrastructure features for use in planning, design, and operational decisions.

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=5388
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Work on project 22-47 was temporarily suspended and is being continued as this project (NCHRP project 22-47A).

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $464645
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 22-47A

• Sponsor Organizations:

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Zhao, Yi

• Performing Organizations:

  Regents of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

  Wolverine Tower, Room 1038
  3003 South State St
  Ann Arbor, MI  United States  48109
• Principal Investigators:

  Flannagan, Carol

• Start Date: 20240515
• Expected Completion Date: 20260114
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Behavior; Crash rates; Crash risk forecasting; Crash severity; Data collection; Driver performance; Drivers; Driving behavior; Highway safety; Human characteristics; Methodology; Predictive models; Traffic crashes
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01851883
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 22-47A
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: Jul 19 2022 2:24PM