A study of Drivers' Behaviors using a Driving Simulator(with Special Reference of Driving Anger and Traffic Congestion

This study is to investigate the effects of driving anger and traffic congestion on drivers' behaviors. Driving anger is the propensity to become angry while driving, and people differ in the tendency to get angry when encountering frustration and provocation on the road. Individual differences of the propensity contribute to anger on the road and aggressive driving leading traffic vaiolations and accidents. In the experiment three traffic conditions (an open road condition, a bumper-to-bumper traffic condition and a being stuck behind a slower driver condition) were simulated and driving behaviors were collected with RTSA-DS(Road Traffic Safety Authority-Driving Simulator). The results were as follows: Most of high anger drives drove at higher speeds in an open road condition, and in the bumper-to-bumper condition they drove faster and had an higher crash rate, which suggests they did aggressive driving, and risky and unsafe behaviors.