Abstract
Understanding human interactions in today’s transportation system is a prerequisite for developing well-accepted cooperatively interacting autonomous vehicles. This paper is devoted to the two-sided narrow passage scenario and uses trajectory data to investigate drivers’ interaction behavior when encountering each other from opposite directions. Trajectory data of 209 encounters at a road narrowing were analyzed in terms of drivers’ approaching behavior and arrival order. The exploratory analysis has shown that in this specific location an informal traffic rule has developed: It was not the order of arrival but the direction of travel that primarily determined who passed the road narrowing first. This result shows that informal rules can influence drivers’ interaction behavior and should accordingly be considered in the development of autonomous vehicles to ensure safe and efficient encounters with human road users.
Zusammenfassung
Ein umfassendes Verständnis des menschlichen Interaktionsverhaltens im Straßenverkehr ist Voraussetzung für die Entwicklung kooperativer autonomer Fahrzeuge. In diesem Beitrag wurde anhand von Trajektoriendaten das Interaktionsverhalten von Fahrern an einer beidseitigen Fahrbahnverengung, insbesondere hinsichtlich der Ankunftsreihenfolge, untersucht. Die explorative Analyse hat gezeigt, dass sich an diesem speziellen Ort eine informelle Verkehrsregel entwickelt hat: Nicht die Ankunftsreihenfolge, sondern die Fahrtrichtung bestimmte primär, wer die Straßenverengung zuerst passierte. Dieses Ergebnis zeigt, dass informelle Regeln das Interaktionsverhalten von Fahrern beeinflussen können und dementsprechend bei der Entwicklung von autonomen Fahrzeugen berücksichtigt werden sollten, um sichere und effiziente Begegnungen mit menschlichen Verkehrsteilnehmern zu gewährleisten.
About the authors
Laura Quante studied psychology at the University of Bielefeld (B.Sc.) and the University of Münster (M.Sc.). From 2015 to 2018, she worked at the Department of Psychology, University of Münster. In 2018, she has joined DLR’s Institute of Transportation Systems, focusing on human factors research.
Kay Gimm studied industrial engineering (M. Sc.) with a focus on traffic at the Technical University of Braunschweig. In 2014 he joined the Institute for Transportation Systems at DLR to investigate safety critical events based on naturalistic traffic data. Since 2017 he is leading a research group for “Modelling of traffic behavior”.
Dr. Caroline Schießl received her diploma degree in psychology in 2002, her PhD in 2009. Since 2003 she has worked at the DLR, Institute of Transportation Systems. 2021 she became head of department “information flow modelling in mobility systems”. Her research focuses on Human Factors and user-centered research methodologies for digitalised and automated future mobility.
Acknowledgement
The authors thank Marek Junghans for extracting the analyzed encounters.
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Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.
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Research funding: This project was funded within the Priority Program (SPP 1835) “Cooperatively Interacting Automobiles”.
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Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this article.
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