Developing an Inverse Time-to-Collision Crash Alert Timing Approach Based Drivers

Kiefer, R.J., LeBlanc, D.J., Flannagan, C. 2005. Developing an Inverse Time-to-Collision Crash Alert Timing Approach Based Drivers. Accident Analysis and Prevention. vol. 37, no. 2 (Mar. 2005), p. 295-303.

Drivers were asked to execute last-second braking and steering maneuvers while approaching a surrogate target lead vehicle. This surrogate target was designed to allow safely placing naive drivers in controlled, realistic rear-end crash scenarios under test track conditions. Maneuver intensity instructions were varied so that drivers’ perceptions of normal and non-normal braking envelopes could be properly identified and modeled for forward collision warning timing purposes. The database modeled includes 3536 last-second braking judgment trials. A promising inverse time-to-collision model was developed, which assumes that the driver deceleration response in response to a crash alert is based on an inverse time-to-collision threshold that decreases linearly with driver speed.