How do drivers allocate visual attention to vulnerable road users when turning at urban intersections?

Abstract

IntroductionDrivers turning at urban intersections pose a high risk to Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs), such as cyclists and pedestrians. In vehicle collisions with VRUs, driver attention misallocation is considered a leading contributor. While previous naturalistic studies have examined driver gaze behaviors at intersections, findings are limited to general gaze directions obtained through video analysis, meaning specific areas to which drivers attend cannot be determined. MethodWe present a secondary analysis of an on-road instrumented vehicle dataset collected in 2019 which offers eye-tracking and video data from 26 experienced drivers (13 cyclists and 13 non-cyclists). Three coders jointly examined eye-tracking footage from four right-signalized turns (n = 96) to quantify drivers’ glance distributions to various areas of interest, including those most relevant to VRU safety when drivers turn. Individual temporal glance patterns and general attention allocation trends are presented and described. Results(1) Relevant pedestrians were the top objects of glance irrespective of signal status, and (2) at red light turns, driver attention was heavily skewed toward leftward traffic. ConclusionsThis analysis provides a detailed report of driver glance distributions toward scene-specific areas (as opposed to general directions) at urban intersections and discusses how these patterns may influence VRU safety. Practical applicationsThis study provides important information regarding the human factors challenges of vehicle-VRU collisions and their prevention.