Quantifying aggressive driving at intersections in a driving simulator

Abstract

Aggressive driving behavior is often caused by frustrating events. It is manifested through violations such as running red lights and stop signs, engaging in risky behavior such as weaving in and out of traffic and accelerating rapidly, and other hostile actions such as honking and making rude gestures. This study utilizes a driving simulation experiment and a post-driving survey in order to examine the effect of three frustrating events at signalized intersections on aggressive driving behavior of university students. In the first event, drivers encounter a short green interval which starts and ends before they arrive at the intersection. In the second event, drivers miss a green light because the intersection is blocked by other vehicles in the perpendicular direction. In the third event, other vehicles violate a red light while the driver is at the same intersection. The experimental results indicated that these three events encourage subjects to violate red lights and engage in risky behavior after the intersection such as speeding, accelerating, and weaving laterally. In addition, driving aggressiveness increases as subjects witness more frustrating events. No significant differences in speeding, accelerating, or the likelihood of violating red lights were observed between males and females or based on student age. However, significant differences were observed between violators and non-violators in terms of speed and the extent of pedal depression. It was also observed that violators, males, and younger drivers are more likely to use the honk. The post-driving survey responses confirmed these results, with a higher likelihood to engage in violations and risky driving behavior being reported by those who violated red lights in the simulation. In addition, positive correlations were found between the survey responses related to risky driving and driving anger on one hand, and the extent of speeding and accelerating on the other hand. Classical exploratory factor analysis identified four factors related to