Analysis of Driver’s Behaviour in Road Tunnels: a Driving Simulation Study

The subject of safety in road tunnels has always been one of the topics most discussed in literature, especially in applying the risk theories to the design of new galleries or measures for adaptation of existing tunnels. In this paper the author presents the main results of a preliminary study, developed in virtual reality environment with a driving simulator, on the dynamic and cinematic effects of road tunnels in driving behaviour: a sample of drivers has driven along the same stretches of an existing highway implemented on CRISS driving simulator, but in two different cases: in presence and in absence of road tunnels along the same scenario. The outcomes have been elaborated for comparing driving behaviours. Results show significant differences in terms of speed and trajectory adopted by drivers along the road sections with tunnels and along the same path in the absence of the galleries. Moreover it is presented the enlargement of the database of a previous research developed on other highways stretches, to verify the correlation between an experimental indicator able to interpret driver’s behaviour and the actual accident rate recorded in each kilometre of the road stretches implemented on driving simulation.