Drivers’ Decision-Making When Experiencing a Traffic Conflict: A Scoping Review

Abstract

When drivers encounter a traffic conflict, making a prompt and correct decision to take evasive actions is crucial to prevent collisions. Therefore, studying information processing in drivers’ decision-making is essential for driving safety. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for scoping reviews reporting guidelines, the aim of this scoping review was to map current studies on drivers’ decision-making in such situations. Our search strategy identified 2,506 peer-reviewed articles, out of which 20 were selected. The results indicated that the selected studies mainly measured drivers’ decision-making less holistically by focusing only on the perception phase instead of measuring the entire information processing phase involved in decision-making. Additionally, these studies explored interactions between drivers, vehicles, and the environment less comprehensively. There are opportunities to explore drivers’ decision-making in traffic conflict situations further, and this scoping review presents several challenges for further research and some strategies for overcoming them.