Traffic Engineering Applications of Driving Simulation

Driving simulation has primarily been used to study issues of driver distraction and to evaluate in-vehicle devices. The visualization and driver performance capabilities of simulators can be applied to more traditional traffic engineering problems as well. This project aimed to demonstrate the usefulness of a driving simulator in evaluating geometric designs for two lane roads. Paved surface width has been shown to be correlated with crash rates and travel speeds on two lane rural roads throughout Texas. The current project examined how travel lane width, edge line striping, and shoulder width solutions affect driver errors on these roadway types. In addition, as a result of this project, the library of roadway cross sections in the driving simulator was increased and is available for use in future studies.