A New Measure to Evaluate Left Turns of Novice Drivers

Reliable measures of driving skill are important for driving simulators to play a larger role in driver education and training. In this study we measured the adequacy of left turns of 12 novice and 12 experienced drivers using a new performance measure. We called this Entry Lane Position Error (ELPE) and defined it as the perpendicular distance from the center of the lane being entered to the center of the vehicle's width at the point of new lane entrance. The different between average scores of ELPE for the novice and experienced groups was highly significant. In a driving simulator the participant's position and the road database are always available. Participants should be able to receive near real-time feedback as to the goodness of their lane turns. Visual playback of left turns is also easily implemented on most driving simulators We hope to investigate and analyze other simple performance measures that can reflect the skill level of novice drivers.