Modeling driver information transmission during turning at unsignalized intersections: a driving simulator study

The proportion of older drivers has increased with the aging population. In order to solve the problem of high accident tendency at unsignalized intersections caused by improper driving behavior of older drivers (OD-ER), this study analyzed turning behavior differences between OD-ERs and young and middle-aged drivers (YM-ERs), and then a petri net was used to describe the change in the behavior characteristics of two driver groups. The shortcoming of OD-ER's behavior can be found through the information transfer model, thereby improving driving safety.

Virtual scenarios of unsignalized intersections were built for drivers who were recruited from the general population for the study. Data on vehicle operation, driver visual behavior and physiological information were collected and analyzed. A petri net was applied to construct an information transfer model of turning behavior for two driver groups.

YM-ERs performed better than OD-ERs in three types of data. The most significant difference was observed in the vehicle operation data, for which all examined metrics showed statistically significant differences (p < 0.05). The information transfer model indicated that the primary limitation for OD-ERs is saccade behavior, which introduced additional transmission delays and constrained information flow compared with YM-ERs, particularly during left turning scenarios.

OD-ERs exhibit weaker turning ability than YM-ERs in terms of vehicle operation, information processing and judgment. Driver's turning behavior characteristic can be described from the turning information transfer model and then evaluate the driving quality, OD-ERs can identify their areas of focus from the graph for training and improvement of driving safety. It can be used for the application of improvement face to the older driver when they enter into the unsignalized intersection.