• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.711-718
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• 2013

Traffic pavement markings are one of primary transportation facilities that provide drivers with various road information directly. Thus, a clear understanding of traffic pavement markings is utmost important to improve traffic safety as well as to establish a proper traffic culture. However, no past studies examined drivers' understanding of traffic pavement markings in Korea. Hence, this study investigated drivers' understanding of traffic pavement markings through an elaborated administrated survey, and analyzed the relationship between various drivers' characteristics and understanding regarding pavement marking via cross-classification table and logistic model. The analysis results show that drivers have limited understanding regarding the purpose of the markings. Specifically, the average understanding of pavement markings is 57.41%: the lowest understanding is 25.88% for yield pavement marking, and the highest understanding is 91.18% for advanced pedestrian crosswalk pavement marking. This study also revealed that the understanding of some pavement markings are somewhat influenced by user group such as drivers with suspended or revoked driver licenses, but the overall understanding of pavement markings are not significantly affected by drivers' characteristics such as gender and driving experiences at ${\alpha}$=0.05. Thus, it might be desirable for policy makers to establish pavement marking-related policies for overall drivers rather than specific drivers.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.161-171
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• 2023

It is largely agreed that elderly drivers (over 64 years) are more likely to cause fatal crashes than other age groups. According to national road crash statistics 2021, the number of road fatalities per 10,000 drivers over 64 years old was 1.77, while that of drivers in their 30s was 0.55. This indicates a 2.67 times higher probability of causing crashes among the former than the latter. The current study estimates how rear-end crashes may be reduced by installing Automatic Emergency Braking Systems (AEBS), particularly for elderly drivers. We analyzed data from Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance. The results show that the Odds Ratio of rear-end crash occurrence between vehicles with AEBS and without AEBS is 0.75, implying there were lesser rear-end crashes in the vehicles installed with AEBS. The Odds Ratio of male drivers was determined to be 0.78, which was lesser than the 0.81 Odds Ratio obtained for female drivers. Elderly drivers who had installed AEBS in their vehicles showed an Odds Ratio of 0.76, implying crash reduction. In particular, the Odds Ratio of male elderly drivers was found to be the lowest at 0.49. We believe incentivizing by giving discounted insurance premiums to the elderly who drive vehicles installed with AEBS will help reduce rear-end crashes.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.1-19
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• 2008

This research investigated the influences of excessively careful driving as well as chronic disease and medications on dangerousness of traffic accident in elderly drivers. Ninety-one drivers aged 65 years and older participated in the research. To evaluate the driving behavior, we used the self-rating on driving ability questionnaire asking driving speed, the amount of driving and driving situation adaptability' and surveyed the drive career, the number of violations and accidents experience(crash, crashed) for last three years. A review of the driving patterns of elderly drivers showed that the speed and amount of driving were decreased by increasing age. 'Driving- Situational Adaptability (DSA)' consisted of 2 factors such as 'Social Environment(SE)' and 'Physical Environment(PE)'. Elderly drivers reported that their confidence level was lower in PE than in SE. Moreover they had higher difficulty and stress in PE than in SE. DSA of elderly drivers had significant correlations with 'crash' and 'crashed'. This implies that excessively careful driving of elderly drivers directly associated with accidents. Elderly drivers who have nervous system disease or gastritis had more crash accidents. The majority of elderly drivers which take medicine by chronic disease don't think that medications give don't difficulty or inconvenience in driving and constantly drives during a term of taking medicine.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.147-157
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• 2014

Women's roles have changed substantially in economically developed countries; subsequently, the ratio of female drivers has also increased. In such countries, there has been considerable interest in assessing gender differences in vehicle accident risks and reasons to explain the gender differences. This study investigates the gender differences in vehicle accident risk based on 500,000 drivers randomly selected from a population sample. A Heckman model is used for accident damage and a negative binomial model is used for the accident frequency. Empirical results show that male drivers are 8.3% riskier than female drivers in terms of accident damage; however, female drivers are 113% risker than male drivers in term of accident frequency. We can implement more practical policies to reduce vehicle accidents if we can understand the reasons for the gender differences.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.15-25
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• 1994

Based on Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS) data, safety belt effect- tiveness in preventing fatalities is investigated for the following five types of crashes: frontal, left, rear, right, and rollover. Passenger cars containing two occupants, a driver and a right front passenger, are included in this analysis. For each crash type, these cars containing the two occupants are classified into four categories according to the safety belt usage categories for the two front seat occupants, namely, both belted, both unbelted, and either one was belted but not both. Relative risks of driver and right front passenger fatalities are compared among these four cases. For each crash type, two independent estimates of safety belt effectiveness are obtained for drivers and for right front passengers. The weighted average of the two estimates is calculated for drivers and for right front passengers for the five crash types. Using FARS data starting 1978 throught 1983, safety belts are more effective in rollover accidents than in frontal collisions. In rollover accidents, safety belt effectiveness estimate for drivers is $68%{\pm} 6% $ and that for right front passengers is $71%{\pm}6% $ , in which the error limits indicate one standard error. Sfety belt effectiveness estimates for drivers and right front passengers involved in frontal collisions are $41%{\pm} 9% $ and $37%{\pm} 10% $ , respectively. For left and right sided collisions and for both drivers and right-front-passengers, none of the four estimates are significantly different from 0%, statistically : however, when left and right sided collisions are combined with far sided occupants(drivers involved in right sided collisions and right front passengers involved in left sided collisions) safety belt effectiveness is significant, $38%{\pm} 12% $ . For rear collisions, the estimate for drivers shows statistically significant positive effect, $60%{\pm}23% $ . while for right-front-passengers the estimate is not significantly different from 0%. These results show that a safety belt is an effective restraint system not only in frontal crashes but also in a variety of crashes.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.109-117
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• 2010

The purpose of advanced traffic information system(ATIS) is to help drivers save time and energy in getting to their destinations by providing traffic information through variable message sign(VMS), internet, traffic broadcasting and mobile phones. ATIS does not just provide drivers with benefits in terms of time and energy, but it provides them with psychological benefit as well, i.e., the drivers can relieve their anxiety by getting provided with traffic information. In this study, the efficiency of traffic information system is evaluated and degree of satisfaction of drivers with the system is analyzed by building satisfaction models of various media of traffic information. Each medium has different factors for satisfaction and each factor has different degree of influence, but in general, the efficiency of traffic information in helping drivers choose routes and in providing drivers with peace of mind is considered to have the highest influence on satisfaction of drivers with the system.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.25-37
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• 2011

This research aimed to investigate whether commercial drivers' situation awareness ability is related to their frequency and magnitude of caused accidents and penalty points. For the purpose of measuring drivers' situation perception and interpretation capacities, two tests named 'situation awareness test' and 'hazard perception test' were developed. The tests were based on the data from 299 commercial drivers (test drivers) using a driving simulator. The outcome of drivers' performance on situation awareness and hazard perception tests was designed to be categorized into 5 grades, classifying the best as grade 1 and the worst as grade 5. As the result, low grades on situation awareness test had positive relationship with accumulated penalty points, frequency of accidents and safety index. Grades on hazard perception test were also positively correlated with accident frequency and safety indices. This suggests situation awareness ability of commercial drivers is significantly related to traffic violations and accident causing tendencies.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.162-172
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• 2009

Improvement of roadway environments to accommodate elderly drivers' declining driving capabilities are required. Currently, even the types of roadway designs vulnerable to elderly drivers have not been revealed in Korea. Thus, this study aims to analyze the types and vulnerabilities of the roadway designs that elderly drivers experience more accidents based on crash data of the Korean National Police Agency. This study has also reviewed foreign guidelines enhancing their safety on different roadway designs. Compared with normal drivers, elderly drivers tend to be more frequently involved in traffic accidents on intersections and vehicle-to-vehicle accidents on curved roadway segments. Assuming freeway interchanges are also risky sections, this study has also examined several methods to reduce elderly driver-related accidents on freeway ramp areas.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.187-192
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• 2018

Purpose: This study compared the functional fitness and brake response of elderly and young drivers to confirm the correlation between the functional fitness and brake response. Methods: This study was a cross sectional observational design. Older drivers (>65age, n=21) and young adult drivers (20-40aged, n=20) were enrolled as subjects. The functional fitness of the subjects was measured using a senior fitness test consisting of a back scratch (BS), chair sit and reach (CSR), arm curl (AC), chair stand up (CSU), foot up and go (8-FUG), and 2-minute step (2-MS). The brake response used the virtual driving simulator to measure the brake reaction time (BRT) and braking distance (BD) according to the pedestrian protection and traffic signal compliance. Results: The older drivers had a lower BS (p<0.000), CSU (p=0.040), and 8-FUG (p=0.011) than the young adult drivers. BS and 8-FUG showed a significant positive correlation with the BRT and BD of pedestrian protection and traffic signal compliance. CSU showed a significant negative correlation with the BRT of pedestrian protection and traffic signal compliance. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the flexibility of the upper extremity, lower extremity strength, and agility are strongly correlated with the driving performance of elderly drivers.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.57-66
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• 2015

PURPOSES: Nighttime driving is very different from daytime driving because drivers must obtain nighttime sight-distances based on road lights and headlights. Unfortunately, nighttime driving conditions in Korea are far from ideal due to poor lighting and an insufficient number of road lights and inadequate operation and maintenance of delineators. This study is conducted to develop new standards for nighttime road visibility based on experiments of driver perception for nighttime visibility conditions. METHODS : In the study, perception level and satisfaction of nighttime visibility were investigated. A total of 60 drivers participated, including 34 older drivers and 31 young drivers. To evaluate driver perceptions of nighttime road visibility, fuzzy set theory was used because the conventional analysis methods for driver perception are limited in effectiveness for considering the characteristics of perception which are subjective and vague, and are generally expressed in terms of linguistic terminologies rather than numerical parameters. RESULTS : This study found that levels of nighttime visibility, as perceived by drivers, are remarkably similar to their satisfactions in different nighttime driving conditions with a log-function relationship. Older drivers evaluated unambiguously degree of nighttime visibility but evaluations by young drivers regarding it were unclear. CONCLUSIONS : A minimum value of brightness on roads was established as YUX 30, based on final analyzed results. In other words, road lights should be installed and operated to obtain more than YUX 30 brightness for the safety and comfort of nighttime driving.