Effects of Urban Landscape and Soundscape on Driving Behavior

Aiming to improve traffic safety, we investigated the effect of landscape and soundscape on driving behavior in urban roads using a VR driving simulator. While active and passive systems are implemented in vehicles and safer infrastructure is being proposed and built, previous research has suggested that the environment around roads also affects driving behaviors. Although changes in infrastructure and technological improvements are costly, well-implemented policies and better maintained road environments could also affect driving behaviors, especially with respect to risky driving. In this paper, we focus on traffic noise and road maintenance, which are examples of soundscapes and landscapes that can be improved relatively easily via appropriate policies. Specifically, we investigated the effects of soundscapes and landscapes on speed, lateral deviation from the road center, and behavior at crosswalks. The experimental results showed that both the soundscape and landscape affected driving behaviors; more precisely, horn noise and dirty environment enhanced aggressiveness in driving and driver distraction. This implies that policies targeting those aspects may improve safety without costly interventions.