Citation

Kanellaidis G, Dimitropoulos I. Traffic Eng. Control 1994; 35(7-8): 451-454.

Affiliation

Natl Technical Univ of Athens, Athens, Greece

Copyright

(Copyright © 1994, Hemming Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The design of road infrastructure is often carried out without adequate investigation of the driver's own perception of risk. The present study features an attempt to investigate drivers perception of risk in a section of Katenaki Avenue in Athens, Greece. Thirty-four volunteer drivers rated five curves along that section, in both directions, according to perceived risk. For the same pairs of curves, objective evaluation was made using the German Guide for Traffic Evaluation of Highways (RVBS). Analysis of the results shows that curvature is clearly perceived by drivers as an important risk element. Concordance between raters, correspondence between subjective and objective ratings, and the similarity of subjective and objective dimensions or risk suggest that subjective evaluation is a reliable procedure. Indications emerged that substantial differences between perceived and actual risk may be associated with increased accident frequency. It is believed that the investigation of drivers' subjective perception of geometric design element risk can contribute to the safer design of road infrastructure and may prove successful in dealing with the issue of dangerous sites, where improvements may be sought not only by reducing risk, but also by suitable measures that create increased risk perception to users.