The feasibility of undertaking a naturalistic driving project in

New Zealand

Peter Baas

Current road safety research tools

Police crash data (CAS)

Limited by Police: role, resources and reporting

Driving simulator studies at Waikato Uni

Snapshot in controlled environment

Need to understand real life driving behaviours

Examples of possible NDB use in New Zealand

Driver inattention Driver fatigue Failure to see other party Young drivers Safety of older drivers Self explaining roads Link between safety and fuel efficiency Fleet safety

Road designs that promote desirable driver behaviour

Changing driver scripts and schema (hierarchy of roads)

Self explaining roads

Next stage of SER research

MSI (FRST) funded research with instrumented vehicle:

Influence of road environment on speed

Road features that redirect driver attention

Tandem model (Samuel Charlton)

Safety & fuel efficiency

Common driving style:

– Anticipating situation ahead

– Driving to the conditions

– Maintaining a relaxed, calm driving style

– Managing speed

35% difference between drivers in amount of fuel used

Alexander Petroleum

Achieved in 3 years:– 18% reduction in fuel consumption (l/100km) – 50% reduction in incidents – 99% reduction in 90km/h speed exception

reports from vehicle instrumentation

Four main factors addressed:– Management / leadership– Drivers– Vehicles– Journey

SAFEDNZ

MOT and NZTA driver training scheme

Based on UK govt scheme with proven safety and fuel efficiency benefits

Launched July 2010

284 drivers trained (7.26% fuel saving on day of training)

– www.safednz.govt.nz

SAFEDNZ Senior instructors

Reduction in trip time

Reduction in fuel use

Reduction in gear changes

Reduction in brake use

Reduction in braking distance

Reduction in time spent braking

6.0% 4.9% 48.2% 25.7% 38.3% 49.8%

• Standard circuit ~ 35 km long

• Mix of: urban and rural roads, intersections and different terrains

• Before and after measurements

Effect on travel time

Fuel savings diminish when driver has to manage fuel and time saving together (Dogan et al 2011)

Drivers speed to keep the boss happy

Small reductions in posted speed limit have minor impact on travel time (Archer, Fotheringham et al 2008, Haworth, Ungers et al 2001)

5 minute difference in travel time but 30% difference in fuel use for 61km journeys in Melbourne (RACV 2000)

Influence of fleet management on safety

Fleets with good safety management systems: have less than ½ the crash rate of those that don’t irrespective of fault

Crash rates halved when safety management systems introduced

Based on: – Analysis of the crash rates of 48,000 heavy vehicles in NSW,

Queensland and Victoria, half of which were accredited to Trucksafe or NHVAS

– US, Australian, Canadian and other studies

NDB tool limitations

Cost: NZ has very small road safety research budget

Large sample sizes often required

Variables measured and equipment required can vary considerably

Data analysis can be complex and time consuming

May be more suited for comparative studies in NZ especially the effectiveness of interventions

Possible equipment options

Most have GPS, video cameras (2 to 6), accelerometers, microphone and event trigger

Range in price from $500 to >$60,000

DriverVisionR by Transecurity (ex 100 car study) about $15,000

Low cost systems ($500 to $1,000) developed for fleet monitoring purposes (e.g. Drive Cam). Promoted by insurance companies.

Key measures for basic system

Camera data

GPS

Lateral and longitudinal acceleration

Speed

Speech (to help identify events)

T-eye ADR3000 trial Video images acceptable

Unable to identify events from accelerometer (poor resolution)

Generally difficult to identify events. Would require highly trained observers

Driver wore sunglasses most of the time, making it very hard to check if distracted

Looking at trialling SBX3100 device

For Self Explaining Roads research will use Waikato Uni instrumented vehicle.

Summary

NDB tools provide the opportunity to make a major step forward in the understanding how to improve road safety and fuel efficiency

Likely NZ use is for evaluating the effectiveness of interventions because of cost

International collaboration would help