Naturalistic observations of driver hand positions

This paper examines driver hand positions on the steering wheel as a method of measuring perceived risk in the road environment. Naturalistic observation was used to record the number of hands present in the 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock position on the steering wheel. Hand positions were observed at eight road situations selected for differences either in their level of accident risk or driving difficulty. Repeated observations of the same drivers at different sites were made in two cases enabling a within-subject analysis. Drivers were most often observed to have one hand on the steering wheel in the target position. Patterns of hand positions were found to vary between the different driving situations. Repeated observations suggest that patterns of hand positions do note relate solely to driving style, habit, or arm fatigue. There is some evidence that hand position observations could be developed to measure perceived risk of the road context, as hand positions patterns vary with speed and complexity of the driving environment. This measure is discussed along with other possible uses for observing hand positions.