Using microscopic video data measures for driver behavior analysis during adverse winter weather: opportunities and challenges

This paper presents a driver behavior analysis using microscopic video data measures including vehicle speed, lane-changing ratio, and time to collision. An analytical framework was developed to evaluate the effect of adverse winter weather conditions on highway driving behavior based on automated (computer) and manual methods. The research was conducted through two case studies. The first case study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of applying an automated approach to extracting driver behavior data based on 15 video recordings obtained in the winter 2013 at three different locations on the Don Valley Parkway in Toronto, Canada. A comparison was made between the automated approach and manual approach, and issues in collecting data using the automated approach under winter conditions were identified. The second case study was based on high quality data collected in the winter 2014, at a location on Highway 25 in Montreal, Canada. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the automated analytical framework in analyzing driver behavior, as well as evaluating the impact of adverse winter weather conditions on driver behavior. This approach could be applied to evaluate winter maintenance strategies and crash risk on highways during adverse winter weather conditions.