• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.2049-2056
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• 2013

With the advance in information communication, the information age has come, and desire of human being in increasing. In this circumstance, the necessity for design for building of superhighways is arising to improve the mobility in the field of transportation, too. This study was conducted to analyze if driver can drive at a design speed on a superhighway with a design speed exceeding 120km/h. For this study, it was experimented if the running speed that makes a driver feel anxious, increased, when road alignment and standard improved, due to the differences of design speed. For the experiment, 30 subjects were asked to attach brain wave analyzers to bodies. Then, this study compared powers of ${\beta}$ waves generated, when they felt anxious, driving on the roads with different design speeds, and driving virtually through a simulator. Here, Kangbyeonbukro (90km/h), Jayuro(100km/h), Joongang Expressway(110km/h), and Seohaean Expressway(120km/h) were selected as experimental sections. While drivers drove on the Kangbyeonbukro and Jayuro at a speed of 80km/h - 130km/h, on the Joongang Expressway at a speed of 100km/h - 150km/h, and Seohaean Expressway at a speed of 110km/h - 180km/h, powers of anxiety EEGs(electroencephalogram) were compared, and during the simulation driving at the same speed of 110km/h - 180km/h, powers of anxiety EEGs were compared and analyzed. Moreover, the speed when anxiety EEGs increased, was statistically verified through paired t-test. As the result, the speed when anxiety EEGs increased during the simulation driving was nearly 30km/h higher than when they increased during the actual driving on the expressways, and anxiety EEGs increased at the same speed, when subjects drove on the roads with a design speed of 90km/h and 100km/h. It means that there were small differences in road alignment and standard. However, the running speed to make drivers feel anxious was increased at both roads with a design speed of 110km/h and 120km/h. It implies that drivers can drive at a higher speed, as road alignment and standard improve.