Mid-America Transportation Center
Mid-America Transportation Center: Final Reports and Technical Briefs
Date of this Version
2012
Document Type
Article
Citation
Report # MATC-UNL: 325 Final Report 25-1121-0001-325
Abstract
This research primarily deals with truck driver stress and its nature, stressors, and their mutual relationship. During the study, the different demands of driving that are related to roads, vehicle, traffic conditions, driver predisposition to stress and the surrounding environmental conditions were explored. The two distinct clusters of ―Low Stress level‖ and ―High Stress level‖ were identified in the stress distribution. The binary logistic regression method was used to relate these two conditions of stress with wide range of stressors. The result found that truck driver training was a statistically significant factor in predicting the low stress level. Other statistically significant factors increasing the likelihood of high stress levels were right turning maneuvers, passive overtaking and the traffic control related factors, such as the presence of a STOP sign as a control of the intersection. The drivers own personal dispositions to the stress were highly correlated with stress levels. The driving duration, the vehicle parameters like lateral velocity and co-axial acceleration were also significant variables in explaining stress levels. The study clearly identified that the provision of driving training could lower the driving stress level. Additionally, the significance of surrogate factors for level of service like passive overtaking, controls, acceleration and turn maneuvers also implied that the improvement of Level of Services (LOSs) of Freeway segments and intersections would play an important role in reducing driver stress.
Comments
Copyright 2012 Mid-America Transportation Center