• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.26-33
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• 2009

The directions of the road are divided into two, the right-hand side and left-hand side of the road, by the convention and specific native method in the world. This paper deals with the characteristics and behaviors of drivers who are accustomed to driving on right-hand side of the road, drive with a handle on the left-hand side, and comparing with left-hand side drivers. The driver's eye movements were measured by eye camera and questionnaires were used for measuring subjective evaluation such as driving mental workload. The experimental results indicated even if the experts who had much experience on right-hand side driving, they had lower driving skill than novice driver, accustomed to driving on left-hand side. In terms of mental workload, MCH rating scale and MNASA-TLX, the right-hand side drivers were in lower stress condition than the left-hand side drivers because of having much driving experience. However, they conducted a few mistakes by confusing the position of turn signal and windshield wiper because of their driving habit or traits and it lead to operation mistakes. These results can be applied effectively to develop the driving support information with changed environments.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.9-16
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• 2009

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the driving performance and workload according to changing driving environment and types of steering wheel. Twelve drivers who participated in this study consisted of two groups; six Japanese as the left-lane drivers who was accustomed to driving on left-hand side of the road, and six Europeans, Americans, and Korean as the right-lane drivers who was accustomed to driving on right-hand side of the road. They were asked to operate a driving simulator while using two different types of steering wheel (for the left-hand side driving and the right-hand side driving). During the experiment, a range of data were measured including driving performance, mental workload, and eye movements which were recorded in order to identify the amount of time looking towards the in-vehicle route guidance. Results indicated that the use of the steering wheel by parallel moving led to increase high attentional demand and worse glance behavior to traffic signs for the left-lane drivers. In the case of the right-lane drivers, the effects by changing driving direction were more effective than the types of steering wheel due to their habit or traits.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.67-78
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• 2012

The current traffic regulations in Korea stipulate that traffic should keep to the right according to the Road Traffic Act; thus, customarily, the 'seat-on-the-left' system has been maintained. However, an increased number of 'seat-on-the-right' vehicles are being imported via a variety of routes from foreign countries, especially from Japan. According to the data from July 2004, 1,343 cargo vehicles and 593 passenger vehicles (for diplomats, etc.) were currently being driven on domestic road. As these 'seat-on-the-right' vehicles are not compatible with the domestic transportation system of driving on the right side of the road, there is a high risk of accidents. Experiments show that such system-driver mismatch causes longer operation time for directional signals, higher error frequency in yielding due to additional mental adjustments for 'seat-on-the-right' vehicle drivers. These are, therefore, influential factors which can lead to possible accidents. Furthermore, when the experiments test the visual range during overtaking maneuvers, the visual range of the drivers in the 'seat-on-the-left' vehicle was 2.95 meters as opposed to 1.7 meters for the drivers in the 'seat-on-the-right' vehicle. (In the experiment, the drivers were instructed to look at the paper cup 10 meters away from the back of drivers' seat.) The results demonstrate that it is necessary to have additional safety measures be implemented for the 'seat-on-the-right' vehicles.