Driving simulator for speed research on two-lane rural roads.

The paper reports on a validation study of the interactive fixed-base driving simulator of Inter-University Research Center for Road Safety (CRISS) that was effectuated in order to verify the CRISS driving simulator's usefulness at a tool for speed research on two-lane rural roads. Speeds were recorded at eleven measurement sites with different alignment configurations on a two-lane rural road near Rome. The real world was reproduced in the CRISS driving simulator. Forty drivers drove the simulator. The results of the comparative and statistical analysis established the relative validity and also revealed that absolute validity was obtained in nine measurements sites. Only in two non-demanding configurations, were the speeds in simulator significantly higher than those recorded in the field. In these sites the mean speed in simulator was equal to or greater than 94 km/h. For these configurations, the higher speeds recorded in simulator appeared to stem from the different risk perception on the simulated road as opposed to that on the real road. The study's results should be considered for driving speed behavior research, in which simulator equipment with similar features of the CRISS driving simulator is used.