Impacts of Drivers’ Physiological and Psychological Characteristics on Road Traffic Safety Based on Traffic Safety Management Database

Abstract

As traffic accidents dramatically increased on highways, this paper aims to study how drivers’ physiological and psychological characteristics can affect traffic safety. This paper studies and analyses the physiological and psychological characteristics of drivers during highway congestions, including drivers’ eye blink rate, level of fatigue and heart rate. Moreover, the k-means clustering algorithm is used to determine the relationship between the drivers’ level of fatigue and dangerous driving paths. It is found that the drivers’ average blink rate under traffic congestion is higher than those under normal conditions, which indicates that traffic congestion can affect the driver’s visual state; The longer traffic congestion lasts, the higher level of fatigue the drivers have, and the more dangerous driving paths appear. This paper can provide a theoretical basis for the studies of how to reduce unsafe driving behavior resulting from drivers’ dangerous driving convictions.