Abstract
Road accidents are increasing every year in Malaysia, and it is always challenging to collect reliable pre-crash data in the transportation community. Existing studies relied on simulators, police crash reports, questionnaires, and surveys to study Malaysia’s drivers’ behavior. Researchers previously criticized such methods for being biased and unreliable. To fill in the literature gap, this study presents the first naturalistic driving study in Malaysia. Thirty drivers were recruited to drive an instrumented vehicle for 750 km while collecting continuous driving data. The data acquisition system consists of various sensors such as OBDII, lidar, ultrasonic sensors, IMU, and GPS. Irrelevant data were filtered, and experts helped identify safety criteria regarding multiple driving metrics such as maximum acceptable speed limits, safe accelerations, safe decelerations, acceptable distances to vehicles ahead, and safe steering behavior. These thresholds were used to investigate the influence of social and cultural factors on driving in Malaysia. The findings show statistically significant differences between drivers based on gender, age, and cultural background. There are also significant differences in the results for those who drove on weekends rather than weekdays. The study presents several recommendations to various public and governmental sectors to help prevent future accidents and improve traffic safety.
Highlights
Following cardiovascular diseases and cancer, traffic accidents are the third leading cause of death [1]
Local drivers average significantly higher than foreign drivers
This study revealed that cultural background influences driver behavior in Malaysia, as local drivers exhibited significantly more aggressive steering behavior than foreign drivers
Summary
Following cardiovascular diseases and cancer, traffic accidents are the third leading cause of death [1]. Despite the government’s various preventive measures, the number of road accidents in Malaysia is increasing year after year [2]. From 2000 to 2015, the country saw a 93 percent increase in total vehicle accidents, resulting in a 17 percent increase in mortality [3]. Three main factors contributed to road accidents: human, vehicle, and road condition. Accidents are caused by the human factor alone in 80–90 percent of cases [4]. According to these statistics, most road accidents are caused by reckless driving, which has been identified as the leading cause of road accidents in most countries
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