Hazard anticipation of young novice drivers - SWOV

313 Pages·2011·5.56 MB·Dutch

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Hazard anticipation of young
novice drivers

Assessing and enhancing the capabilities
of young novice drivers to anticipate latent hazards
in road and traffic situations

Willem Vlakveld
SWOV-Dissertatiereeks, Leidschendam, Nederland.

Dit proefschrift is tot stand gekomen met steun van de Stichting
Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Verkeersveiligheid SWOV. Hiernaast hebben
het Centraal Bureau Rijvaardigheidsbewijzen CBR en het Human
Performance Laboratory van de Universiteit van Massachusetts Amherst
UMASS mensen en middelen beschikbaar gesteld voor onderzoek.

Uitgever:
Stichting Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Verkeersveiligheid SWOV
Postbus 1090
2260 BB Leidschendam
E: [email protected]
I: www.swov.nl

ISBN: 978-90-73946-09-5

© 2011 Willem Vlakveld
Omslagillustratie © Transport Accident Commission (TAC), Geelong,
Australia 2011

Alle rechten zijn voorbehouden. Niets uit deze uitgave mag worden
verveelvoudigd, opgeslagen of openbaar gemaakt op welke wijze dan ook
zonder voorafgaande schriftelijke toestemming van de auteur.
RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN

HAZARD ANTICIPATION OF YOUNG NOVICE DRIVERS

Assessing and enhancing the capabilities of young novice drivers to
anticipate latent hazards in road and traffic situations

Proefschrift

ter verkrijging van het doctoraat in de
Medische Wetenschappen
aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
op gezag van de
Rector Magnificus, dr. E. Sterken,
in het openbaar te verdedigen op
woensdag 30 november 2011
om 16.15 uur

door

Willem Pieter Vlakveld

geboren op 17 mei 1953
te Hilversum
Promotores: Prof. dr. W.H. Brouwer
Prof. dr. D.L. Fisher
Prof. dr. K.A. Brookhuis

Beoordelingscommissie: Prof. dr. O.M. Tucha
Prof. dr. O.F. Brouwer
Prof. dr. J.A. Groeger
Preface
Although at moments during this PhD-project I felt lonesome, you never do
research completely on your own and I would like to thank the people and
institutes that made this fascinating journey through the land of science
possible.

First, there were the guides I had in this land of science. These were my three
supervisors: Prof. dr. W.H. Brouwer, Prof. dr. D.L. Fisher and Prof. dr. K.A.
Brookhuis. Wiebo, discussions with you were always very stimulating and
you made me acquainted with the intriguing world of cognitive
neuropsychology. Your wise words kept me on track and it was your idea to
expose novice drivers to hazardous situations in a driving simulator. Don,
your hospitality and your openness to share knowledge are special. You
hardly knew me and asked me to stay with you and your family in your
family vacation home in Vermont. Thanks to the stimulating discussions
with you, but also thanks to the creativeness and skilfulness of all the other
people of the lab, I was able to run a unique experiment. Of the people of the
lab, I especially would like to thank Sandy Pollatsek, Matt Romoser and
Hasmik Mehranian. Karel, your share in this project was only at the end, but
thanks to your comments, the final version has improved considerably.

Foremost, I would like to thank SWOV. When I started this project, I was
fifty-three years old. Research institutes that not only facilitate older
employees to realize a PhD project, but also encourage them to do so are very
rare. I especially would like to thank our managing director Prof. F.C.M.
Wegman. Fred, to my opinion you have succeeded in creating the right
climate for scientist to grow and develop. Second, I would like to thank the
Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment that showed interest in the
development of hazard perception tests and funded SWOV to carry out
research on this topic. The third institute I would like to thank is CBR (the
Dutch driving license authority). The various task to measure hazard
anticipation used in this PhD project, were made by CBR in close co-
operation with SWOV. CBR also facilitated the experiments, recruited part of
the participants and rented the eye tracking equipment.

I am very grateful for what the mentioned institutes have done for me, but it
is the people in these institutes that really matter. Marjan Hagenzieker, you
persuaded me to start this project. En route, during my few moments of
despair, I sometimes hated myself for having given in so easily. Now of
course, I thank you for the fact that you believed in my capabilities and have
stimulated me to do all this. Divera Twisk, you were my fellow traveller. You
were involved in almost all the important steps of this project. I had told you
that I was impressed by the work of Don's human performance laboratory at
the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. When we were attending ICTTP
in Washington, you suddenly proposed not to fly immediately back home
and to take me to Amherst first instead. You had to take me there, as I cannot
drive. You also stimulated me to ask Don if I could work in his lab for a
couple of months. I am very grateful for the fact you did this and for many
things more. Saskia de Craen and Maura Houtenbos, we did not work
together in the studies presented in this thesis, but I would like to thank you
for your dissertations on adjacent subjects that have inspired me a lot. Saskia,
I also thank you for the fact that I could make use of your participants when
you were conducting one of your own experiments. Michelle Doumen, thank
you for helping me with the experiments in which use was made of an eye
tracker. Two trainees of SWOV also helped me to conduct the experiments:
Suzanne van der Sluis and Bas Tabak. I still feel a bit ashamed about the
tedious work I asked you to do for me. Of my colleagues at SWOV, I finally
would like to thank Marijke Tros. The content of this book may have its flaws
but thanks to your work, it looks perfect. Of the people of CBR, I would like
to thank René Claesen, Theo van Rijt and Rumy van den Heuvel for their
enthusiasm and commitment. During the first year of this project, I have
spent much time at CBR and it felt as if we were colleagues. I would also like
to thank Jörgen Langedijk and Carolien Bijvoet for the wonderful animation
videos they have made.

First of all, this project was intended to proof my qualities as a scientist. At
the moment I am writing this preface, I do not know yet whether I have been
successful in this or not. Regardless whether I will pass or not, I do hope the
results will help to reduce the crash rate of young novice drivers. In this
thesis, road safety is discussed scientifically with lots of figures, but let us not
forget that each young victim is a personal tragedy and that we (the society
and the young people they themselves) have to do our utmost best young
lives are not lost on our roads. For myself, now this project has ended, I do
hope to have some time to go out sailing again.

Willem Vlakveld
Utrecht, September 2011

Table of contents
1. General introduction 13
1.1. Hazard anticipation 13
1.2. The crash rate of young novice drivers 14
1.3. The problem 19
1.4. Outline of the thesis 20
2. Determinants that influence hazard anticipation of young novice
drivers 21
2.1. Introduction 21
2.2. A taxonomy to classify studies on young novice drivers 22
2.3. Biological aspects (Nature) 24
2.4. Norms Values / Competences (Nurture) 43
2.5. Capabilities/Acute impairments 51
2.6. Task demands 64
2.7. Conclusions 70
3. Driving and hazard anticipation: a theoretical framework 73
3.1. Introduction 73
3.2. Hazard anticipation 74
3.3. Models of driving behaviour and hazard anticipation 79
3.4. Schemata, controlled behaviour and automatic behaviour 88
3.5. Norman & Shallice model and driving 90
3.6. An adapted framework for the driving task 92
3.7. The framework, attention and driving 96
3.8. The framework and the supposed differences in hazard
anticipation between young novice drivers and older, more
experienced drivers 98
3.9. Some preliminary evidence in support of the framework 103
3.10. Assumptions about the acquisition of hazard anticipation skills 107
3.11. Conclusions 112
4. Hazard anticipation, age and experience 115
4.1. Introduction 115
4.2. Method 136
4.3. Results 146
4.4. Discussion 165