Investigating the effect of personality on left-turn behaviors in various scenarios to understand the dynamics of driving styles

Objectives: To explore whether the driving style is static or dynamic, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of drivers’ personality traits and driving scenarios on left-turn behaviors. We also evaluated drivers’ perceptions in different situations to understand the occurrence of unreasonable driving behaviors. Methods: Two self-administered questionnaires were used to calculate participants’ personality dimensions and driving style scores, respectively. Two experimental tasks were conducted by driving simulator with different weather, light, and speed of the opposing through vehicles. Results: Results showed that personality was significantly related to driving style. Neither the left-turn response process nor gap acceptance maneuvers were directly influenced by light conditions. In the test area, the average speed and the minimum speed of the left-turning vehicle, as well as the distance of the vehicle from the collision point when the speed is the smallest were significantly related to the weather, interaction type, and velocity difference, and the time to collision during which first brake or release gas pedal occurs was significantly related to velocity difference. Three out of the four driving conditions (except for light conditions) exhibited a statistically significant effect on the judgment of the arrival time of autonomous vehicles and their risk assessment, and personality was significantly related to risk assessment. Moreover, dangerous driving behavior was found to be significantly associated with drivers’ driving personality. Conclusions: The driving style is dynamic and influenced by personality and driving conditions. Not only the wrong assessment of driving scenarios may lead to danger, but also the driver’s personality characteristics such as self-interest, impulsively, and lack of self-confidence will lead to decision-making mistakes even when the judgment of driving scenarios is correct.