
PREFERRED OR ADOPTED TIME HEADWAY?
A DRIVING SIMULATOR STUDY
Magali Gouy
1
, Cyriel Diels
2
, Nick Reed
1
,
Alan Stevens
1
& Gary Burnett
3
1
TRL, UK
2
Coventry School of Art and Design, UK
3
University of Nottingham, UK
The aim of this study was to disentangle two concepts that are
often confounded in driving and ergonomics research: preferred and
adopted time headway (THW). It is argued that preferred THW rep-
resents a range of THWs drivers feel safe and comfortable with. In
contrast, the adopted THW is the THW that drivers indeed adopt
in a certain driving situation, which depends on current situational
factors (e.g. visibility, other drivers, traffic flow). Situational ...