Xuedong Yan,Mohamed Abdel-Aty,Essam Radwan,Xuesong Wang,Praveen Chilakapati
Abstract:This study focuses on validating a driving simulator using traffic and safety measures. To achieve the objective of this research, a signalized intersection that has one of the highest crash frequencies in Central Florida was replicated in the driving simulator system. Eight scenarios were designed at the intersection in a driving simulator experiment. Subjects were classified by gender and five age groups were recruited to test the eight scenarios. The experimental measurements from subjects performances in the simulator were compared to speed observations in the field and safety trends based on police crash report analysis. It was found that drivers have similar speed behaviors and traffic risk patterns in the driving simulator as found at the real intersection. Therefore, the experiment results validated the driving simulator, indicating that it could be an effective tool to be employed in driving behavior research and traffic engineering studies.