Implications of Smartphone Messages on Driving Performance along Local Streets

The driver’s driving performance may affect the operation of transportation system in terms of safety, mobility, and air quality. Particularly, in a complicated traffic situation such as a local community area with multiple school zones and other public activity facilities, driver’s driving performance becomes critical to the safety of road users within the neighborhood. Many studies have demonstrated that driver’s driving performance could be altered by advance warning messages in the forms of either image or sound. With the advent of innovative wireless communication technologies, various smartphone applications have been developed to provide drivers with abundant information, so as to enhance traffic operations. In this paper, the implications of one such smartphone applications were evaluated through an on-road test in a complicated community area in Houston, Texas, United States. This study focused on the measurement of a following vehicle’s driving performance in a local street area. Three scenarios with two different speed limits were designed to explore the impacts of warning messages from the smartphone application and the sensitivity of message settings on driving performance (speed profile, deceleration rates, and braking distance). Results show that, the smartphone messages could improve the following vehicle’s performance by smoothing the speed profiles and deceleration rates, and extending the braking distances to either the leading vehicle or the stop line at an intersection, when the leading vehicle was approaching a stop sign controlled intersection, or slowed down for turning movement.