Design of Virtual Dynamic Traffic Events for Driver Safety Awareness Training

Driver behavior is an important factor for traffic safety. Enhancing driver safety awareness is an efficient method to reduce traffic accidents. Instead of real vehicles, driving simulator can be employed to simulate dangerous traffic scenes for driver training. In this study, typical traffic scenes with dynamic events were designed. Dynamic events were divided into motion states to describe the behavior of event-participants. Based on vehicle dynamics characteristics, the event occurrence timing and event-participants' actions were calculated according to vehicle's real-time speed and position. As an example, the event of Pedestrian Crossing Street (PCS) was designed in the virtual traffic scene. A driver can drive in the virtual traffic scenes and experience dynamic dangerous events. This developed stimulation training can increase driver safety awareness and improve driver skills when facing dangerous traffic situations.