Driving Behavior Analysis and Speed Limit Optimization with the Driving Simulator

Over-speeding is a major cause of traffic accidents. Proper speed limits provide guidance for drivers and help in improving traffic safety. This paper examines driving behaviors under different speed limits and proposes a speed limit optimizing methodology. First, vehicles steering wheel angles, acceleration, and the distance between the specified vehicle's center of gravity and centerline of the lane were compared using multiple independent samples nonparametric tests to study the influence of different speed limits. Then, the TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) and PCA (Principal Component Analysis) methods were used to determine the optimal speed limit. These methods were applied in the driving simulator and the results prove that these methods are effective. The results also suggest that speed limit has a significant influence on the lane changing and overtaking driving behaviors. Therefore, these methods could be applied in real traffic management to create a safe and efficient driving environment.