Driver behaviour analysed by Image Analysis

Driving behaviour is a direct consequence of the stimuli that the driver receives from the road infrastructure, from the surrounding environment and from the environment inside the vehicle. There is consensus that all these factors affect driving behavior and it has been confirmed by the recent advances in road safety research. Driver perceptions of the road context are the result of analyses based on an unconscious selection of information received from the surroundings. To examine these issues, the present study focused on driver behaviour in relation to both road environment and interaction with other vehicles. This was achieved by calculating a series of characteristic variables such as distance, speed, and relative acceleration to a vehicle ahead from video recordings.