Simulation of Highway Accidents

Abstract

Based on a new motivational model of driving and/or pedestrian behavior, a technique has been developed for simulating highway accidents to include both the favorable consequences of completing a trip without an accident and the unfavorable consequences (including injury and pain) of having one. Thereby trip-making, accident-avoidance behavior, and risk-taking behavior can be brought into the laboratory for experimental examination of variables that might make accidents less likely.

Appropriate simulation of vehicular accidents can bring them into the laboratory for experimental investigation of variables that could be manipulated on the highway to reduce accident frequency. Such simulation should include both making a trip and having an accident, including simulation of the accident's unfortunate effects on a driver (or pedestrian). Before I describe how these have been simulated in a laboratory environment, let us consider the premises on which the simulation is based.

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