S Saber Naseralavi - Ph.D. of Highway & Transportation Eng., Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman
S.Ehsan Jafari Nasab - MSc. Transportation Engineering, Faculty of Transportation, University of Isfahan

Increasing population growth on the one hand and the growth of transportationindustry on the other have had numerous positive and negative impacts insocieties. This issue has led to an increase in the volume of traffic demand inroad networks and has hence increased the number of road accidents. 30% ofvehicle-related accidents in the world are of the rear-end type. With respect to theimportance of rear-end collisions because of their high frequency, a new methodis presented in this study to calculate the evaluation of Vehicular Ad-hocNetworks' (VANETs) effects on Driver Behaviours like reaction times and trafficsafety. This study offers a new method for investigating the role of vehicular adhocnetworks (VANETs) in reducing the number of rear-end collisions infreeways by reducing drivers’ reaction time. In so doing, by using the micro dataof the traffic flow in the I-80 freeway of the NGSIM project, drivers’ behavior ina specific time period was analyzed; and by using the Urgent Deceleration Index(UDM), the safety of drivers at each moment was investigated. The results ofdata analysis reveal that the use of VANET communication networks can reducethe percentage of vehicles’ exposure to danger in the car-following process from68% to 15% by reducing drivers’ reaction time. Besides, according to thefindings, apart from preventing accidents, the use of VANETs reduces theprobability and intensity of accidents, too.

Vehicular communications; Traffic safety; Car Following; UDI Safety Indicator; Reaction Time