Safety Differences between Novice and Experienced Drivers under Car-Following Situations

As more Chinese families can afford their own cars, a large number of novice drivers have obtained their licenses and begun to drive. This paper discussed the safety differences between Chinese novice and experienced drivers under carfollowing situations on urban roads. Based on two safety indicators, time gap and time to collision (TTC), an experiment collecting the parameters of driving behavioral characteristics under real road traffic conditions was designed for experienced and novice drivers respectively. According to the analysis, the range of time gap for safe, hesitant, and unsafe car followings were proposed for novice and experienced drivers respectively. Safe TTC under car-following situations was related to speed of following vehicles and the speed difference between leading vehicles and following vehicles. The relations equations were established for experienced and novice drivers separately. “Safe stopping time” was derived to simplify the equations.