Analysis of Driving Behaviors at Roundabout Intersections by Using Driving Simulator

Japanese road traffic act was revised in November, 2011. In the revised traffic act, the configuration of roundabout intersection and its traffic regulation are defined. The roundabout intersection is already widely used in Europe, but Japanese people are less familiar with it. According to the report of MLIT (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism), there are only about 140 roundabout intersections in Japan, but most of them are narrow and small compared to Europe. Tentative examinations about the effect of the roundabout intersection were carried out in a few cities (e.g., Karuizawa-Cho and Iida-shi). The results of the examination indicate that the intersection environment can be improved by introducing the roundabout intersections. It seems that the roundabout intersection will become more popular in Japan. Therefore, we aim at analyzing the driving behaviors at roundabout intersections to model a virtual driver for traffic simulation. The traffic simulation based on the model will assist novice drivers to avoid accidents in roundabout intersections. In this paper, we construct a virtual driving course based on an existing roundabout intersection at Ichinomiya-shi, Aichi by using a driving simulator “UC-win/Road”. Moreover, we analyze the log data such as accelerator and brake pedals from some viewpoints.