Organisation: University of Leeds (Institute for Transport Studies)
Date uploaded: 13th May 2015
Date published/launched: September 2013
Real-world studies of driving behaviour and safety have face validity and have the distinct advantage of focussing on driving in its natural habitat. But their very naturalism can lead to problems with confounds and with noise in the data.
This paper reviews the three major categories of on-road studies — controlled observation, field operational tests and naturalistic driving studies — and discusses the major applications of each study type. It also assesses some of the methodological issues that arise in one or more category of study.
Highlights
• On-road studies of drive behaviour have face validity.
• But they suffer from potential confounds and from noise.
• They can be categorised into controlled observation studies, field operational tests and naturalistic studies. FOTs focus on interventions, whereas ND studies investigate driving in a more general and open-ended manner.
• Methodological issues arise in study design, data extraction, data analysis and interpretation of results.
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