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Abstract for presentation (Poster or Podium) with a Paper in the Conference Proceedings

Transportation Safety

Evaluating the impact of weather on driver's speed behaviour in different climate regions

Sunday, June 16, 2024

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM ET

Room: Galleria

Primary Author(s)

DW

Dhammika LSB Wagage, Bsc

Student
University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
Winnipeg, MB, Canada

Presenter(s)

DW

Dhammika LSB Wagage, Bsc

Student
University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
Winnipeg, MB, Canada

Co-Author(s)

WD

W.R. Samal Sanjeewa Dharmarathna, PhD,

Senior Lecturer – Survey, Transportation, Highway, and Remote Sensing Laboratory
University of Peradeniya
Peradeniya, Central Province, Sri Lanka

Submitter(s)

DW

Dhammika LSB Wagage

University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Abstract: A typical driver population consists of slow drivers and aggressive drivers. Slow drivers believe

that driving slowly would ensure safety. In contrast, fast drivers often focus on reducing travel

times although they acknowledge the risks associated with speeding. Unlike slow drivers, fast

drivers may choose to continue driving fast irrespective of the prevailing weather conditions.

Such versatile speed choice patterns thus increased speed variability observant in driver

populations may pose significant safety threats to all road users. Thus, many researchers focus on

evaluating the impacts of weather conditions on drivers’ speed choice. Yet, most of such studies

are quantitative studies which developed speed-weather models: regression models which model

vehicular speed as a function of weather. The credibility of such speed-weather models is often

critiqued mainly due to the limited sampling conditions (i.e., less vehicles on roads) prevalent in

weather events which may lead to poor statistical performance of speed-weather models.

This study attempts to evaluate the impact of weather on drivers’ speed choice by conducting a

qualitative study in (i) Canada (representing cold regions), (ii) Australia (representing subtropical

environments), and (iii) Sri Lanka (representing tropical environments). A pilot study was

conducted by distributing a questionnaire survey among 25 pre-selected drivers from each

country which introduced different driving cultures to the dataset. The questionnaire survey was

designed to collect information about respondents’ (i) demographics, (ii) weather-specific travel

patterns, and (iii) weather-specific speed choice. Novelties of this study are twofold. First, in

contrast to the conventional speed-weather modelling approach, this study evaluates the impacts

of weather on drivers’ speed choice through a questionnaire survey, which is highly

representative of drivers’ speed choice. Second, this study attempts to compare the differences of

the impacts of weather on drivers’ speed choice in three climatic regions which represent three

unique driver populations with distinct driver characteristics (e.g., driving cultures).

The study results reveal that, in all three countries, the majority of respondents are male

passenger car drivers aged 30-39 who possess a driving experience of 5 to 9 years. The survey

responses reveal that most respondents are not willing to change their travel plans even in

adverse weather conditions. Yet, respondents’ speed choice was revealed to be significantly

affected by the prevailing weather condition at the time of their travel. The maximum speed

reduction under any inclement weather condition was reported for snowy weather by respondents

from Canada; the minimum was reported for rainy conditions from the respondents from

Australia. Speed reduction due to poor visibility conditions was reported as maximum and

minimum in Sri Lanka and Australia respectively. A comparison of study results with other

similar quantitative studies reveal that study results are consistent with the findings of similar

studies from Australia and Canada. To the best of authors’ knowledge, no studies evaluated the

impacts of weather on drivers’ speed choice. Road safety practitioners may use the study results

to understand the impacts of weather on speed in different geographic regions thus propose

weather-specific road safety strategies for jurisdictions with similar climatic conditions.

Learning Objectives:

Attendees can expect to learn the following from this session:

Upon completion of the research, participant will be able to identify speed behaviour in different weather conditions among different driving cultures and different driving demographics.
Upon completion of the research, participant will be able to evaluate speed limit compliance under different weather conditions.
Upon completion of the research, participant will be able to identify location-specific and weather-specific speed reduction values which may improve rural road safety.