Driver's risk perception assessment: the case of highways with poor geometric characteristics, in heavy traffic conditions

The scope of this paper is to assess-interpret the behaviour of experienced and nonexperienceddrivers in high-way driving circumstances, where, due to intense traffic and non proper road designing, the level of the provided service is low and the driving task becomes a stressful procedure. In order to assess-estimate the level of drivers' stress, a several numbers or drivers' behaviour characteristics were measured (velocity, acceleration-deceleration, driving tracketc.). The monitoring of driving behaviour was recorded using the VBOX II and VideoVbox(Racelogic Ltd, U.K) device, which is a Differential GPS based set of instruments, including a3D accelerometer. The setup of the research was to monitor driving behaviour of 8 different drivers, driving 2 different typical (for Greek car-fleet) passenger cars, on typical sections of national highway network. The trial tests, in order to assess drivers' perception, were carried out during peek hours (Morning and Noon) as they are defined using Highway Capacity Manual Procedure. The present paper presents the first results of a research effort, which is dedicated to the detailed drivers' behaviour analysis. It is obvious that the proper highway design should notonly be based on geometric aspects, but on oncoming traffic conditions, especially on highand heavy traffic volume highways. A lot of research has to be done on drivers' behavioural analysis, in order to achieve better road alignment (beyond standard regulations and guidelines) and better signing, with emphasis to safety.