Driving simulator validation for deceleration lane design

The research project aimed at validating the interactive fixed-base driving simulator of the Interuniversity Research Center for Road Safety (CRISS) to enable its use for design of decelerations lanes, in function of the lane length. The research was developed in two phases. In the first one a field study was carried out on a section of a real highway to study driver’s behavior in deceleration lanes with three different lengths. The second one was a experiment using the driving simulator of CRISS. Forty-two drivers drove in the simulator on three configurations of the deceleration lane.Trajectories and speeds in field and in simulator were analyzed. The driver’s behavior in terms of deceleration rate was also analyzed. The analysis revealed that the average trajectory is developed in the same phases in field and in simulation. Taper is also used in a correct way in reality as well as in the driving simulation. Before arriving at the deceleration lane, speeds in virtual reality are higher than those in field measurement. This was probably determined by the fact that no inertial force on the driver is transferred in the driving simulator. The inability of driver to discern roadway scenario long distances ahead may have also contributed. Into the deceleration lane, the perception of the scenario is better, and consequently speeds were similar than field data. No relation between the deceleration rates and the lane length were found in reality as well as in driving simulator.