DRIVING SIMULATOR EXPERIMENTS ON THE EFFECTS OF EARLY WARINIG OF SEISMIC MOTION TO EXPRESSWAYS DRIVERS

Abstract

In order to investigate the driver's reactions during an earthquake, the present authors have performed a series of virtual tests using a driving simulator. Based on the results, traffic accidents may occur in case of heavy traffic because of strong shaking. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) have a plan to establish a system to issue “Nowcast Earthquake Information”, which is an early warning of seismic motion. In this study, the effects of early warning to drivers are investigated based on the driving simulator experiments. The reactions of drivers with/without warning are compared to reveal the effects of early warning.