Correlation between Driver Subjective Fatigue and Bus Lateral Position in a Driving Simulator

Area of Science:

• Transportation Safety
• Human Factors Engineering
• Occupational Health

Background:

• Driver fatigue is a major cause of transportation accidents.
• Impaired driving performance is a consequence of fatigue.
• The relationship between driver fatigue and vehicle lateral position requires further exploration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the correlation between subjective driver fatigue and bus lateral position.
• To analyze driving performance metrics in relation to fatigue levels.

Main Methods:

• A descriptive-analytical study involving 30 professional male bus drivers in a 2-hour driving simulation.
• Subjective fatigue assessed using the Fatigue Visual Analogue Scale (F-VAS) at 10-minute intervals.
• Lane drifting (mean and standard deviation of bus lateral position - SDLP) measured during the simulation.

Main Results:

• Driver fatigue increased progressively with driving time.
• Time-on-task significantly influenced fatigue self-evaluation (r = 0.605, p < 0.0001).
• A significant positive correlation was observed between fatigue self-evaluation and bus lateral position (r = 0.567, p < 0.0001).

Conclusions:

• Increased driving time adversely affects driving performance, indicated by higher SDLP.
• Individual differences in drivers can influence driving performance.
• Predicting driver fatigue states from group data presents application challenges.