Analysis of the factors influencing overtaking in two-lane highways: A driving simulator study

Background: Human factors are among the leading causes of frontal collision accidents. Therefore, understanding the factors that affect driver behaviour during overtaking is essential. Objective: This research proposed a methodology to observe passing manoeuvres on two-lane highways in a driving simulator and to investigate the effects of the speed of an impeding vehicle, the type of the vehicle to be overtaken and the passing sight distance on the following gap distance as an indicator of driver behaviour. Method: The repeated measures experiment allowed for 640 possible overtakings with a sample of 80 participants. The speed of the impeding vehicle, the type of the impeding vehicle and the passing sight distance were used as within-subject factors with eight treatments. The driver's age, gender, and experience were considered the between-subject factors. Results: When the speed of the impeding vehicle was 60 km/h, the participants adopted a following gap in passing sight distance of 446 m (M = 81.32 m), which was larger than the following gap in passing sight distance of 560 m (M = 70.84 m). Conclusion: Among the factors that were considered, the effect of the speed of an impeding vehicle on the following gap at the beginning of overtaking was higher than the effect of the type of the impeding vehicle or the passing sight distance. Together, these combination values can describe the driver behaviour and help to improve the standards-based design values to increase safety. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.