TAKEMOTO Masanori, HIGUCHI Kazunori
JES Ergonomics, 48(1) 7-16, Feb 15, 2012
To prevent vehicle-pedestrian accident, this paper aimed to reveal the characteristics of unsafe driver behaviors when passing through a parked vehicle. Based on the interview with a driving instructor concerning desirable driver behavior, the lateral distance to a parked vehicle, driver's vehicle speed, and the completion timing of safety checking around a parked vehicle were used as evaluation indices. The instructor extracted unsafe driver behaviors of typical drivers with sitting on the passenger seat. These unsafe behaviors were analyzed in comparison with the instructor's behavior. The analysis revealed the characteristics of unsafe driver behaviors of typical drivers–they do not keep sufficient lateral distance, they do not decrease the speed sufficiently, and they finished a safety checking around a parked vehicle before they can see the blind spot. These unsafe driver behaviors must occur because unsafe typical drivers cannot correctly predict when a pedestrian appears that may crash against the driver's vehicle, or they cannot correctly understand how they should keep the vehicle speed and the lateral distance to a parked vehicle in order to avoid the crash. Finally, the examination of driver behavior patterns estimated the proportion of these factors in relation to the whole unsafe driver behaviors.