Advances in roadside signage technology, smartphones and in-vehicle navigation devices have led to increased, and increasingly personalized, communications to travelers en route. In fact, recent reports suggest that the number of automobiles with in-vehicle navigation systems will quadruple in North America by 2019, growing to nearly 13 million new systems annually. Regrettably, this rise in information available to travelers can lead to increased distracted driving.

Until now, there has been little research into how travelers process real-time information, what and how much information travelers can safely process and absorb while driving and how much information should be provided to drivers for effective information-based traffic management.

Funded through the NEXTRANS Center, the Purdue Driving Simulator Laboratory (DSL) is a quasi-living laboratory where investigators seek to discover the benefits of real-time information for travelers.

Srinivas Peeta, professor of civil engineering and director of the NEXTRANS Center, says, “The Purdue DSL is a unique facility in that the driving simulator is integrated with a real-time microscopic traffic simulator. This enables us to reflect on driver decisions, road capacity changes (for example, due to accidents) or demand fluctuations seamlessly as drivers travel to their destinations.”

This facility can mimic the multi-tasking environment in which drivers maneuver their vehicles, interact with other vehicles under surrounding traffic conditions and analyze how drivers respond to real-time information.

NEXTRANS is the U.S. Department of Transportation Region 5 Regional University Transportation Center and encompasses Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Established in 2007, the center is based on an award from the USDOT Research and Innovative Technology Administration and supports a multidisciplinary program of transportation research, education and technology transfer.

NEXTRANS is led by Purdue University. Its partners are The Ohio State University, Central State University, Chicago State University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Trine University, University of Michigan and University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In addition to simulating traffic, signal timing, weather and other conditions, the simulator and lab are unique in that they enable researchers to quantify the value of real-time information on a network under regular or extreme traffic conditions. Using a simulation of the Indianapolis road network, researchers expect their project will contribute to the development of better methods of providing information to travelers and enhancing the quality and safety of the travel experience.

For Shubham Agrawal, a graduate student working on this project, understanding the role of technology that people use in their daily lives is rewarding. He says, “I get the opportunity to work with a sophisticated system, which is very challenging and interesting.”

Dong Yoon Song, also a graduate student, says, “Our research is designed to capture driver perception of information in addition to revealing behaviors under realistic travel contexts. For policymakers, our work justifies investing in an advanced network for disseminating real-time traffic information.”