NORC at the University of Chicago, in partnership with the University of Iowa’s National Advanced Driving Simulator (NADS), is conducting a study with funding from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety to identify and investigate effective countermeasures to reduce drowsy driving.

The study has two objectives: 1) conduct a comprehensive review of existing proven and promising drowsy driving countermeasures with the potential to be implemented more widely; and 2) conduct an experiment to investigate methods to improve drowsiness recognition and decision-making.

The study methods include a literature review and environmental scan to identify drowsy driving countermeasures; an expert panel and telephone interviews to review countermeasure and discuss their application; and an experiment to investigate the extent to which different methods can impact decisions of whether to initiate or continue driving while drowsy. NORC will lead activities related to the literature review, environmental scan, expert panel, and telephone interviews. NADS, a transportation safety research center with a world-class driving simulator, will lead activities related to the experiment.

This study will enhance the scientific literature on drowsy driving countermeasures.