The present study aimed at identifying factors for traffic safety support in older drivers. This was achieved by studying the co-operation between older drivers and their ordinary front seat passenger (co-driver). The knowledge emerging from such study can enhance the understanding of what kind of support an older driver needs and also help facilitate proper design of in-vehicle support systems and intervention training programs for older drivers. A within group field study was carried out, using a mixed-methods evaluation design. Four elderly couples participated in the study. The drivers included in the study requested and received on-going directional support, traffic -and driving strategic help, help with look-out and reminding of current speed limit. It was evident from comparisons between interview data and field data that how the participants themselves described their need of support differed from what support they requested (drivers) and gave (co-drivers) in real driving. Furthermore, data revealed that three out of four drivers were given a score of 2 in the Useful Field Of View test (UFOV). It was evident that there are areas in which older drivers need and request support. The results from the present study could be used in the design process, and in evaluation of, in-vehicle support systems as well as in developing intervention training programs customised for older drivers.

Maintaining high levels of road traffic safety is always important and when the road is in a tunnel, and especially in a long tunnel, maintaining the highest possible level of safety is paramount. In Sweden, the Stockholm Bypass tunnel (FFS), has been scheduled to commence construction in 2013. The tunnel will be approximately 16.5 km in length. The length of the tunnel is expected to affect the drivers’ experiences pertaining drowsiness, arousal, distraction and feelings of safety and security. The study included 24 participants, 12 men and 12 women, aged 30-45. All of the participants drove two versions of the tunnel, one version with a decoration design in terms of strings of lights in the ceiling of the tunnel and one version of the tunnel without any decoration design. The results revealed that 58 per cent of the participants preferred the tunnel with the strings of light in the ceiling and 29 per cent preferred the tunnel without the ceiling lighting. 13 per cent prefer neither one design more than the other. The participants perceived feelings of their driving through the tunnel suggested that the tunnel with the ceiling light design was experienced as being more ”visually cluttered” than the tunnel without the light strings but at the same time it was also experienced as more ”arousing/stimulating”. The results also revealed that 58 per cent of the participants preferred the tunnel with the strings of light in the ceiling and 29 per cent preferred the tunnel without the ceiling lighting. 13 per cent did not prefer either one design over the other. The negative safety implications of the elaborate interior lighting features would appear to be minimal in terms of distraction and irritation whereas the safety benefits in this particularly long road tunnel, in terms of subjective feelings of visual stimulation is encouraging. Based on the participants’ experiences of the interior design concept of the 16 km long tunnel, having stimulating lighting features in different locations alone the length of the tunnel is recommended.

Elvägar, där el överförs kontinuerligt till fordon på vägen, kan vara ett sätt att nå målet om en fossiloberoende transportsektor. För att testa och utvärdera elvägar och elfordon på elvägar i ett tidigt stadium utvecklades en demonstrationsmiljö i körsimulator. En studie genomfördes med 25 förare där varje förare fick köra en 40 kilometer lång vägsträcka, dels med en hybridlastbil på elväg, dels med en konventionell lastbil utan elväg. Körning på elväg uppvisade inga anmärkningsvärda skillnader på förarens upplevelser vad gäller säkerhet och estetik eller körbeteende jämfört med körning utan elväg. Undantaget var medelhastigheten vilken var cirka 2 kilometer/timme högre på elväg. Energianvändningen var cirka 35 procent lägre på elväg. För att sprida projektresultatet till aktörer och intressenter av elvägar har ett stort antal demonstrationer genomförts, samt kommunikation via pressreleaser och tidningsartiklar. Det har även tagits fram en mindre, mobil körsimulator för elvägar som ett led i att nå ut till en större målgrupp.

Electric road systems, ERS, where vehicles receive electricity continuously while driving, could be a way to reach the target of a fossil-free transport sector. A demonstration environment in a driving simulator was developed in order to test and evaluate ERS concepts and electric vehicles driving on ERS. A user study was conducted, where 25 drivers drove a 40 kilometre long route, both with a hybrid truck on ERS and with a conventional truck with no ERS. Driving on ERS showed no remarkable difference on driver’s experience of safety and aestethics or the driving behaviour compared to no ERS. The exception was average speed which was 2 kilometres/hour higher when driving on ERS. The energy consumption decreased 35 per cent on ERS. In order to disseminate project results to actors and potential users of ERS, a large number of simulator demonstrations have been conducted. There has also been a press release and a number of magazine articles. In addition, a portable ERS driving simulator was constructed and used in order to reach a broader public.

According to the literature, landscape (panoramas, heritage objects e.g. landmarks) affects people in various ways. Data are primarily developed by asking people (interviews, photo sessions, focus groups) about their preferences, but to a lesser degree by measuring how the body reacts to such objects. Personal experience while driving a car through a landscape is even more rare.

In this paper we study how different types of objects in the landscape affect drivers during their drive. A high-fidelity moving-base driving simulator was used to measure choice of speed and lateral position in combination with stress (heart rate measure) and eye tracking. The data were supplemented with questionnaires. Eighteen test drivers (8 men and 10 women) with a mean age of 37 were recruited. The test drivers were exposed to different new and old types of landscape objects such as 19th century church, wind turbine, 17th century milestone and bus stop, placed at different distances from the road driven.

The findings are in some respect contradictory, but it was concluded that that 33% of the test drivers felt stressed during the drive. All test drivers said that they had felt calm at times during the drive but the reason for this was only to a minor degree connected with old and modern objects. The open landscape was experienced as conducive to acceleration. No significant differences could be observed concerning the test drivers' gaze between old or modern objects, but a significant difference was observed between the test drivers' gaze between road stretches with faraway objects and stretches without objects.

The Stockholm bypass (Förbifart Stockholm) project is a new road project that will create a bypass of central Stockholm. The entire project includes motorways, bridges and two tunnels, one of which will be 16.5 km. The Stockholm bypass is the largest infrastructure project in Sweden to date. When the road is in a tunnel, and especially in a long tunnel, maintaining the highest possible level of safety is paramount. The present report describes a simulator study on the merging of traffic from entry-ramps into the main tunnel. The study focused upon the specific situation of driving down the entry-ramps and entering (merging) into the main tunnel with a special emphasis on measures of safety and driving performance. A group of 21 test drivers, 11 males and 10 females, participated in the study. They were instructed to drive a series of test scenarios in a 3D-model of the Stockholm bypass tunnel in the VTI driving simulator III. There was simulated traffic in the main tunnel to improve the realism. Two relatively small gap sizes between vehicles in the main tunnel were used, representing gape sizes that road users can observe on a daily basis when using the E4 motorway through Stockholm. Driving performance (speed, time headway, vehicle position, and distance to tunnel wall) and the test drivers’ experiences of the driving task were measured. The main results of the study suggest that the merging zones were too short for some of the drivers to merge comfortably and safely. The merging zones are found at the point where the entry-ramp tunnels merge with the main motorway tunnel and comprise an observation section, an adjustment section and a completion section. The distance-to-wall results for the Vinsta ramp (0.5 km) with heavy traffic are particularly concerning from a road traffic safety perspective because more than 25 % of the drivers completed the merging manoeuvre with less than two seconds of time headway remaining before the end of the completion section.

The present study explored the nature of the semantic deterioration normally displayed in the course of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The aim was to disentangle the extent to which semantic memory problems in patients with AD are best characterized as loss of semantic knowledge rather than difficulties in accessing semantic knowledge.

A longitudinal approach was applied. The same semantic tests as well as same items were used across three test occasions a year apart. Twelve Alzheimer patients and 20 matched control subjects, out of a total of 25 cases in each group, remained at the final test occasion.

Alzheimer patients were impaired in all the semantic tasks as compared to the matched comparison group. A progressing deterioration was evident during the study period. Our findings suggest that semantic impairment is mainly due to loss of information rather than problems in accessing semantic information.

Background: The purpose of the present study was to gain insight into Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients' perception of the world through the study of a few aspects of awareness. The aspects in focus of the study were disease awareness, metacognition, managing of everyday life, and as a complement, the agreement (calibration) between patients and their spouses on the studied aspects was considered.

Method: A mixed-method evaluation design was used involving 15 AD patients, their spouses, and 15 elderly healthy control subjects. The study comprised both a semistructured interview (AD patients and spouse) and a neuropsychological assessment (AD patients and control subjects).

Results: The patients were aware of their disease and able to report on their illness. Despite this awareness, they were unable to realize and manage the practical and cognitive implications of their impairment. The results also indicate that patients and spouses were not well calibrated regarding thoughts about the disease and problems in handling the cognitive deterioration.

Conclusions: The findings of our study have relevance to patients' well being and how they manage everyday life. An open dialogue on these issues between spouses and in the care for AD patients would hopefully enhance quality of life for all parties involved.

The aim of the present thesis was twofold, first to map the semantic memory decline in Alzheimer patients over time, second to take the patient’s perspective and create a multifaceted picture of the individual with Alzheimer’s disease through the study of memory, awareness, central coherence and emotions. Further issues concerned how Alzheimer individuals handled their cognitive erosion in everyday life and if they were well calibrated with their spouse in disease related matters.

Two studies were performed, the first involved a longitudinal study of sematic deterioration, the second had a mixed methods design involving both quantitative and qualitative measures as in neuropsychological assessment and interviews.

Through the longitudinal study it could be concluded that the nature of semantic deterioration is best described as loss of memory information rather than problems in accessing the information. It was further concluded that semantic concepts gradually lose their specific features during course of illness.

The results from the second study revealed that the Alzheimer individuals were aware of their disease although they could not foresee the implications of their cognitive shortcomings in their everyday life. They evidenced weak central coherence, in that they were unable to infer details into a meaningful whole. This implies that they perceive their surrounding world in a fragmented way as consisting of separate objects rather than a comprehensible context. Concerning emotions it was found that they responded to negatively valenced words in the same way as normal ageing individuals, although being impaired in their response to positively and neutral words. Finally, the Alzheimer individuals and their spouses were not well calibrated regarding disease related issues.

The findings of the present thesis have important clinical implications and gives valuable input to the understanding of the individual with Alzheimer’s disease.

Föreliggande avhandling hade två huvudsyften; dels att kartlägga försämringen av semantiskt minne hos Alzheimerpatienter över tid; dels att ta patientens perspektiv och skapa en mångfacetterad bild av individen med Alzheimers sjukdom. Fyra begrepp studerades i relation till detta, nämligen minne, medvetande, central koherens och emotioner. Ytterligare aspekter som studerades var hur Alzheimerindivider hanterar sina kognitiva tillkortakommanden i sin vardag samt hur väl kalibrerade de är med sin make/maka angående sjukdomsrelaterade frågor.

Två studier genomfördes varav den första var en longitudinell studie av semantisk minnesförsämring och den andra hade en ’mixed methods’ design, inkluderande både kvantitativa (neuropsykologiska tester) och kvalitativa (intervjuer) metoder.

Resultaten från den longitudinella studien avslöjade att semantiska begrepp som inte längre är välrepresenterade hos individen har gått förlorade snarare än att det skulle vara från om att individerna inte kan plocka fram informationen. Vidare kunde konstateras att semantiska begrepp gradvis tappar sina nyanser i takt med att sjukdomen fortskrider.

Den andra studien visade att Alzheimerindividerna var medvetna om sin sjukdom och sina minnesproblem men att de inte kunde förutsäga vilka problem deras kognitiva tillkortakommanden skapade i deras vardag. De konstaterades ha svag central koherens vilket innebär att de ser sin omgivning på ett fragmentariskt sätt utan att kunna få ihop de olika objekten runt omkring sig till en meningsfull kontext. Vad gäller emotioner så kunde konstateras att Alzheimerindivider reagerar likadant som normalt åldrande individer på negativt laddade ord men att de är signifikant försämrade i förmågan att känna igen positiva och neutrala ord. Alzheimerindividerna och deras make/maka var inte väl kalibrerade vad gäller sjukdomsrelaterade frågor.

Avhandlingens resultat har viktiga kliniska implikationer och ger ett värdefullt bidrag till förståelsen av en individ med Alzheimers sjukdom.

Objective: The study examines how drivers experience a conventional W-beam guardrail (metal crash barrier) along both sides of narrow versus wider roads (single carriageway with 2 lanes) in terms of stress, feelings, and driving patterns and whether subjective experience concurs with the actual driving patterns captured by the quantitative data.

Methods: The study used different methods to capture data, including the VTI Driving Simulator III (speed and lateral vehicle position) in conjunction with electrocardiogram (ECG) data on heart rate variability (HRV) and questionnaires (oral during driving and written after driving). Eighteen participants-8 men and 10 women-were recruited for the simulator study and the simulator road section was 10 km long.

Results: Driving speeds increased slightly on the wider road and on the road with a crash barrier, and the lateral driving position was nearer to the road center on the narrower road and on the road with a crash barrier. The HRV data did not indicate that participants experienced greater stress due to road width or due to the presence of a crash barrier. Participant experience captured in the oral questionnaires suggested that road width did not affect driver stress or driving patterns; however, the written questionnaire results supported the simulator data, indicating that a wider road led to increased speed. None of the participants felt that crash barriers made them feel calmer.

Conclusions: We believe that there is a possibility that the increased speed on roads with crash barriers may be explained by drivers’ sense of increased security. This study demonstrates that an experimental design including experience-based data captured using both a simulator and questionnaires is productive. It also demonstrates that driving simulators can be used to study road features such as crash barriers. It seems more than likely that features such as street lamps, signs, and landscape objects could be tested in this way. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Maintaining high levels of road traffic safety is always important and when the road is in a tunnel, and especially in a long tunnel, maintaining the highest possible level of safety is paramount. In Sweden, the Stockholm Bypass tunnel (FFS), has been scheduled to commence construction in 2013. The tunnel will be approximately 18 km in length. The length of the tunnel is expected to affect the drivers’ experiences pertaining drowsiness, arousal, distraction and feelings of safety and security. The study included 24 participants, 12 men and 12 women, aged 30-45. All of the participants drove two versions of the tunnel in VTI driving simulator; with a decoration design in terms of strings of lights in the ceiling of the tunnel and without any decoration design. The results revealed that 58 per cent of the participants preferred the tunnel with the strings of light in the ceiling. The participants perceived feelings of their driving through the tunnel suggested that the tunnel with the ceiling light design was experienced as being more ”visually cluttered” than the tunnel without the light strings but at the same time it was also experienced as more ”arousing/stimulating”. The negative safety implications of the elaborate interior lighting features would appear to be minimal in terms of distraction and irritation whereas the safety benefits in this particularly long road tunnel, in terms of subjective feelings of visual stimulation is encouraging. Based on the participants’ experiences of the interior design concept of the 18 km long tunnel, having stimulating lighting features in different locations alone the length of the tunnel is recommended.