On December 17th, it was a pleasure to participate in the technical session about naturalistic driving in the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) in Madrid. The event was chaired by María Seguí (Head of DGT) jointly with Juan Carlos González Luque and María Anuncia Ocampo; and I was invited as speaker to show our experience working in Naturalistic Driving observations (ND) and Field Operational Tests (FOTs).

During the session I presented three projects funded by the European Commission in which we have worked in the past years or in which we are now working in:

• TeleFOT (Field Operational Tests of Aftermarket and Nomadic Devices in Vehicles)
• 2BESAFE (2-Wheeler Behaviour and Safety)
• UDRIVE (European Naturalistic Driving and Riding for Infrastructure & Vehicle Safety and Environment)

ND observations (i.e. 2BESAFE and UDRIVE) refers to studies undertaken using unobtrusive observation when driving in a natural setting, while FOTs (i.e. TeleFOT) are large-scale studies undertaken to evaluate a function (or functions) under real conditions using quasi-experimental methods. Nevertheless, in general terms, methodologies, protocols and lessons learned are applicable to both situations.

My presentation was focused on methodological aspects (such as impact areas, type of tests, functions and hypothesis, experimental designs, subjective and objective variables, etc.) and organisational issues (e.g. test sites and communities, type of tests, data acquisition systems, pilots, briefings, meetings with subjects, etc.).

As a conclusion, it could be highlighted that both ND observations and FOTs are extremely valuable methods to analyse users behaviour, although there are some aspects that should be carefully planned to obtain valuable results in due time.

The full video of the session will be available soon in the DGT website, but meanwhile you can have a look at the presentation and read the post of one of the attendants.