Analysis of driving left-turn errors of young and older drivers at urban intersections

Abstract

Numerous traffic crashes occur at intersections in urban areas. Understanding the mechanism of driving errors at intersections and providing effective solutions will significantly reduce traffic injuries. The objective of this study is to examine the age and hazard level’s effects on driver left-turn errors at urban intersections. In order to achieve this goal, this study customized the cognitive reliability and error analysis method (CREAM) for left-turn driving task at intersections, and driver error profiles were investigated using a driving simulation experiment as a case study. The results showed that age did not significantly affect drivers’ left turn error probability, while the error probability of both groups of drivers increased with the hazard level. Drivers were most likely to have inadequate monitoring and misjudgment in left-turn maneuvers, more so in the older group. Young drivers were more likely to make planning, decision-making, and adjustment errors compared to older drivers. In addition, observation errors were the most likely cognitive (74.5%). This study achieves the common and characteristic performance of human errors under the three hazardous intersections for the two age groups, and provides a basis for the design of effective training modules and driver assistance systems.