News
- January
2025 WIVW publishes study on car sickness in Transportation Research Part FToo sick to take over? Does car sickness affect cognitive performance relevant to driving?
With the introduction of higher levels of automation, the risk of experiencing car sickness increases. Not only can car sickness affect comfort, but it might also have a negative impact on performance, which could be safety-critical when taking over in a demanding situation. Therefore, the WIVW conducted a study as part of the European Hi-Drive project to investigate the impact of car sickness on cognitive performance relevant to driving. The main findings were prolonged reaction times to sudden events, impaired hand-eye coordination, and reduced visuospatial abilities, while visual search was not negatively affected.
The study has now been published in Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour and is freely available until mid-February 2025 here.
- December
2024 WIVW publishes study on pedestrian-driver interaction in Applied ErgonomicsHow do pedestrians communicate with car drivers in urban traffic?
The WIVW has published a study on the interaction between pedestrians and car drivers. In terms of content, 18 pedestrian gestures were identified. Methodologically, it was also investigated whether a virtual environment is comparably well suited to researching these interaction patterns compared to a real environment.
The results were published in the journal Applied Ergonomics and are available here. Until end of February 2025, the article can also be accessed free of charge here.
The study was conducted as part of the INITIATIVE project, which was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.
- December
2024 WIVW at the 15th International Motorcycle ConferenceWhat defines a „normal“ motorcycle riding behaviour? What is an appropriate warning timing and which rider reactions should be expected?
WIVW addressed these topics in two presentations at the 15th International Motorcycle Conference hosted by the Institut für Zweiradsicherheit (ifz) in Cologne on December 5th and 6th:- A Matter of Time: Investigation of Warning Timing for Motorcycle Rider Assistance Systems (study on WIVW’s dynamic motorcycle riding simulator on behalf of the Connected Motorcycle Consortium, CMC)
- An Approach to Rider Behavior Profiling based on Naturalistic Riding Data (results from the project KIMoVe that is supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, BMWK, and conducted together with x-log GmbH and Hochschule Landshut)
Furthermore, WIVW was involved in three other presentations dealing with head-up displays (HUD) for motorcyclists, rider training and full-body motion capture of motorcyclists.
More information about the conference and presentations can be found here.
Fotos: ifz e.V.
- November
2024 Publication of the report on the results of the project “SESPIN - Safe and efficient S-pedelec infrastructure”S-pedelecs offer pedal assistance up to 45 km/h. This gives them the potential to also be used on medium-distance routes that would otherwise be covered by car (e.g., commuting routes). In addition to other advantages, this would have a positive impact both on the health of users and on more climate-friendly mobility.
However, the legal regulations in the D-A-CH region are inconsistent. In Germany, for example, S-pedelecs may only be used on the road in mixed traffic, whereas in Switzerland, cycle traffic facilities must be used. In the framework of an extensive transnational funding project (Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft, FFG GmbH), it was the aim of the study to develop recommendations for action for the D-A-CH region on how S-pedelecs can be safely and efficiently integrated into the existing traffic system, while ensuring the broadest possible acceptance by all road users. These recommendations for action can be found in the now published final report, which is the result of a collaboration with partners from Austria (Salzburg Research) and Switzerland (University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland, University of Applied Psychology and University of Applied Sciences for Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geomatics). The results report is available here and on the project website.
- November
2024 WIVW publishes BASt report on the psychological consequences of accidentsWhat are the psychological effects of road accidents? What mental disorders are common as a result of these accidents? How do the psychological consequences of accidents affect driving behavior?
As part of an extensive research project funded by the German Federal Highway Research Institute (research project 82.0734), the Würzburg Institute for Traffic Sciences (WIVW GmbH) and the University of Würzburg's University Outpatient Clinic for Psychotherapy jointly conducted a detailed literature review and an experimental study in public traffic.
The report has now been published and is available here.
- November
2024 Presentation at the 13th GMTTB Annual Conference in ConstanceThe WIVW gave a presentation at the 13th Annual Conference of the Society for Medical and Technical Trauma Biomechanics (GMTTB), which took place at the University of Konstanz on 17th and 18th October. The society promotes the understanding of road traffic events and accidents, in particular the improvement of medical, technical and trauma-biomechanical knowledge and expertise for accident-related injuries and their prevention.
The topic of the talk was the presentation of a method for human factors assessment of semi-automated systems in vehicles based on observation of driver behaviour and interviews. Other presentations covered topics such as cannabis in road traffic, accident research and road safety in Europe and worldwide. Further information can be found here.
