Investigating the Impact of Road Condition Complexity on Driving Workload Based on Subjective Measurement using NASA TLX
DOI: 10.1051/matecconf/201713602007
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Summary
This study investigates the impact of road condition complexity and driving experience on driver mental workload, motivated by the recognition that mental load is a significant contributor to traffic accidents. The research aims to quantify subjective mental burden across different driving environments to inform the development of safer transportation systems and driver alert mechanisms. The methodology employed a field experiment involving 26 drivers in Malang, Indonesia, with an average age of 21 years and an average driving experience of 4.08 years. Participants drove through three distinct road conditions: urban (city/market), rural, and highway. Mental workload was measured subjectively using the NASA Task Load Index (NASA TLX), which assesses six dimensions: Mental Demand, Physical Demand, Temporal Demand, Performance, Frustration, and Effort. The study utilized a weighting and rating process to calculate an Overall Workload Score (OWS) for each condition. Data collection included video recording from three camera angles to document road hazards and constraints, followed by immediate post-drive questionnaire completion. The results indicate that drivers experienced high to very high mental workload across all road types. Specifically, 96.15% of drivers on city and rural roads fell into the "high" workload category, while 100% of highway drivers were categorized as "high." Urban roads yielded the highest average OWS of 69, followed by rural roads (OWS = 66) and highways (OWS = 62). Analysis of the NASA TLX dimensions revealed that Mental Demand, Frustration, and Effort were the dominant factors contributing to high workload, particularly in urban environments characterized by pedestrians and complex traffic interactions. In contrast, highway driving resulted in lower frustration and physical demand, with higher reported performance satisfaction. The study found that mental effort outweighed physical requirements in determining driver stress levels. The significance of these findings lies in the validation of NASA TLX as a tool for assessing subjective driving workload in diverse environments. The results suggest that road infrastructure improvements, particularly those reducing hazards in urban and rural areas to resemble the smoother flow of highways, could mitigate driver stress. The authors conclude that understanding these workload patterns is essential for designing effective driving safety systems, including alert technologies that monitor mental load to prevent accidents caused by cognitive overload.
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| archive | success | unpaywall | — | — | 2 | 2026-08-09 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 3 | 2026-08-10 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| enrich | success | semantic_scholar | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-nvidia | summ-v5 | 2 | 2026-08-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 10 | 2026-08-11 |
| verify | partial | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-08-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-nvidia on 2026-08-10; verification: verified_with_issues.
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