Effects of Information Provision on Driver’s Curve Sharpness Judgment

In this study, the effects of information on driver’s judgment of curve sharpness were investigated by field experiment. Sixteen curves of real road were picked up. 80 subjects performed the driving test in the daytime and at nighttime. Four kinds of variables were proposed to judge curve depth: “No Information”, “Paper Map”, “Car Navigation System” and “Proposed Warning Sign”. Each subject performed one round trip on the test section. The subjects were required to judge the sharpness before each curve as: “very sharp”, “sharp” and “gentle”. After passing of each curve, the subjects were asked to valuate it as: “Underestimation”, “Accurate Estimation” and “Overestimation”. As a result, we found the following: Effects of information provision was verified from subjective and objective assessment. Information provision had positive effect to judgment. Most significant driving performance (rapid speed reduction) was observed at sharp downward curves, especially in the case of “Car Navigation System”.