Benefits & added value

Naturalistic observations provide information that would be difficult or even impossible to obtain by another traffic research method. For well known risk factors such as distraction and fatigue, naturalistic observations are actually the only method that would provide reliable information about their prevalence and the actual relationship with crashes, i.e. the actual risk level.

Tangible advantages of the new approach

Naturalistic studies result in a huge data base which can be used for various purposes.

Issues for which naturalistic observation would be an ideal method include

• the effect of road design characteristics, or weather conditions on the interaction between driver and vehicle;
• driving style comparison of specific road user groups, e.g. novice drivers, elderly;
• the identification of crash contributing factors;
• the prevalence of mobile phone or other in-car information devices and the relationship with particular behaviour patterns or crashes;
• the effect of particular interventions;
• the effect of passengers on distraction, particular driving behaviour or incidents/crashes;
• the interaction between motorised vehicles and vulnerable road users;
• and many other ...