Vehicle Occupants and Driver Behavior: An Assessment of Vulnerable User Groups

The question of whether driver behavior differs based on vehicle occupancy—and more specifically, the characteristics (such as age and relationship) of the occupants—is an important safety question related to the Safe-D application areas of risk assessment, vulnerable users, and driver factors and interfaces; as well as the theme of big data analytics. Although the Strategic Highway Research Program 2 (SHRP2) dataset, and data collected by insurance companies that use Global Positioning System (GPS) vehicle tracking to assess discounts, capture details about the driver and their habits, they lack concrete information (i.e., age, relationships) on passengers in the vehicle for a given trip. The objective of this research is to better understand the impact of vehicle occupants in speeding driving behavior. This will be accomplished through the use of Texas Department of Transportation Travel Survey Program (TxDOT TSP) household travel survey data, which includes a 10% sample of households with a GPS component for trip capture. TxDOT TSP GPS data will be linked to roadway characteristics using the TxDOT Road Highway Inventory Network (RHiNo) data and supplemental speed data from other sources. A crash risk assessment will be developed by linking to TxDOT Crash Records Information System (CRIS) crash data. Statistical analyses of speeding behavior will be performed, with special emphasis placed on vulnerable users (i.e., older drivers, teen drivers, and potential drivers with young children). The results will be used to recommend appropriate safety countermeasures and may be of interest to TxDOT, transportation engineering and public health statistics students, and safe driving technology firms interested in merging traditional planning data for use in a safety application.

• Record URL:
  http://www.vtti.vt.edu/utc/safe-d/index.php/projects/vehicle-occupants-and-driver-behavior-an-assessment-of-vulnerable-user-groups/

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $149980
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3551747115

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Safety through Disruption University Transportation Center (Safe-D)

  Virginia Tech Transportation Institute
  Blacksburg, VA  United States  24060

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Harwood, Leslie

• Performing Organizations:

  Texas A&M Transportation Institute

  Texas A&M University System
  3135 TAMU
  College Station, TX  United States  77843-3135
• Principal Investigators:

  Green, Lisa

  Martin, Michael

• Start Date: 20170601
• Expected Completion Date: 20181031
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Age; Behavior; Crash risk forecasting; Drivers; Global Positioning System; Passengers; Risk assessment; Speeding; Traffic safety; Travel surveys; Vehicle occupants; Vulnerable road users
• Identifier Terms: Texas Department of Transportation
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01637028
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Safety through Disruption University Transportation Center (Safe-D)
• Contract Numbers: 69A3551747115
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: May 31 2017 12:44PM