College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

• Stop!
  

  Project by psychology's Derrick Parkhurst and honors student Nathan Willis looks at driver behavior.

  
  There's a general rule of thumb that drivers are supposed to stay stopped at a stop sign for three seconds.
  
  One Mississippi.
  
  Two Mississippi.
  
  Three Mississippi.
  
  Come on, admit it. Few of us really stay at a stop sign if no one is coming for three whole seconds.
  
  Most of us probably don't even stop at all.
  
  Derrick Parkhurst, assistant professor of psychology and a faculty member associated with Human Computer Interaction, would agree. He says at least on campus few people even stop completely at a stop sign - let alone stay for three whole seconds.
  
  "People run stop signs right and left on campus. It's amazing the number of people we've observed that don't come to a complete stop," Parkhurst said. "About the only drivers that faithfully stop are the CyRide drivers and those in University vehicles."
  
  Parkhurst and Nathan Willis, a sophomore aerospace engineering student, are working on a computer program that will automatically analyze video taken at intersections to measure the problem and help understand why some drivers ignore the law. The project started as a freshman honors project for Willis, who worked on the computer program this past summer.
  
  Since then, the two have received a $10,000 grant from the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT). That has been supplemented by na $8000 grant from the Midwest Transportation Consortium enabling Parkhurst and Willis to explore the problem further.
  
  The pair hopes to learn, among other things, how fast drivers go through an intersection, the number of near misses at a particular intersection, whether a driver's behavior is changed by circumstances at the intersection, and if the drivers are distracted or just continually ignore the stop sign.
  
  "There is significant potential for our work to enhance safety research," Parkhurst said. "The technology will allow us to look at events that don't generate a police report - typical everyday traffic patterns through an intersection such as high speed and near misses.
  
  "It will look at how a driver's behavior is impacted."
  
  Those circumstances could include pedestrians being near the intersection or another car approaching.
  
  Parkhurst said the software is being developed at a very low cost but could have lasting impact.
  
  "The software will allow us to collect data rapidly," he said, "the kind of information that can't be obtained using crash data alone."
  
  If the technology is successfully adapted for urban areas, Parkhurst said that additional testing could be done in high-speed rural intersections that are prone to traffic accidents.
  
  While Parkhurst won't admit to breaking any laws, he did say since he and Willis started the study he has become more faithfulto stop signs.
  
  "I find myself stopping more and more observing the three-second stop rule," he said.

Ames, Iowa 50011, (515) 294-4111. Published by: University Relations, online@iastate.edu. Copyright © 1995-2004, Iowa State University of Science and Technology. All rights reserved.

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