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Researchers Build Profile of the Drowsy Trucker
Among truck drivers, the practice of driving with a critical lack of sleep is an open secret. The transgression captured public attention earlier this month amid news of a New Jersey Turnpike accident that critically injured actor Tracy Morgan and killed comedian James McNair. Prosecutors say the Walmart truck driver, whose tractor-trailer plowed into the van shuttling the entertainers, had not slept in more than 24 hours. Health and behavioral researchers worldwide have uncovered the prevalence of sleep-deprived driving among truckers and commercial vehicle operators.
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Signs That Make Us Blue, But Safe
You approach an intersection just as the traffic light is turning yellow. Your decision to either barrel through or hit the brake may hinge on the last billboard you saw. On any car trip, visual stimuli ranging from accident scenes to billboards can evoke emotions. We may feel saddened when passing by a roadside memorial, or cheered by a billboard advertising our favorite fast-food restaurant. And new research suggests that negative stimuli (i.e. scenes that make us angry or sad) are particularly strong deterrents to hazardous driving. A research team in Spain set out to identify how emotion-laden stimuli on roadways affect drivers’ risk perception and decision-making.
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Does Your Personality Drive You to Express Lanes?
At least 12 US cities now have priced managed lanes on their highways. Also known as “express lanes” or “high-occupancy lanes,” these roadways are designed to manage traffic volume by offering priced, premium access. In some cases, drivers with multiple passengers can travel the roads for free, while single drivers pay a toll. The tolls to these roads generally vary by time of day, increasing as traffic increases (e.g. morning rush hour). Travelers often have to make spur of the moment decisions on whether to pay for a relatively free-flowing trip or a free-but-congested commute. And new research reveals that extent to which our basic personality traits drive those decisions (pun intended).
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Hop In!
Welcome to the new APS blog about science of behavior on wheels. In this new feature, we will showcase a variety of research on the habits, behaviors, and emotions we display when driving motor vehicles. The content will stretch across a variety of research areas, including cognition, perception, social interaction, and attention. We hope this will provide you with insights on driving safely.
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Kids and Traffic: Looking Without Seeing
Getting hit by a car is among the leading causes of death for kids 5- to 9-years-old. It’s not hard to speculate why. Children are easily distracted, and because they’re smaller, they’re more at risk of dying from their injuries. But recent studies suggest another basic reason that so many young pedestrians die in traffic accidents—they simply don’t see cars coming toward them. London researchers have found that kids’ perceptual and attention abilities are slow to develop, making them less capable of noticing an oncoming car, let alone the vehicle’s proximity and speed. One of these studies was reported recently in Frontiers of Human Neuroscience.
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Lines on the Road are Longer Than You Think
Most people believe that the dashed lines painted down the middle of a road are about 24 inches in length. And they’re off by about 8 feet. US federal guidelines dictate that the dashed lines separating traffic lanes or indicating where passing is allowed run 10 feet in length. But a recent study showed that people grossly underestimate the length of those lines, and thus could be misjudging distances as they drive. That means they could be driving too fast.
