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Objective This study aims to understand drivers' visual attention before and after take-over requests during automated driving (AD), when the vehicle is fully responsible for the driving task on public roads. Background Existing research on transitions of control from AD to manual driving has mainly focused on take-over times. Despite its relevance for vehicle safety, drivers' visual attention has received little consideration. Method Thirty participants took part in a Wizard of Oz study on public roads. Drivers' visual attention was analyzed before and after four take-over requests. Visual attention during manual driving was also recorded to serve as a baseline for comparison. Results During AD, the participants showed reduced visual attention to the forward road and increased duration of single off-road glances compared to manual driving. In response to take-over requests, the participants looked away from the forward road toward the instrument cluster. Levels of visual attention towards the forward road did not return to the levels observed during manual driving until after 15 s had passed. Conclusion During AD, drivers may look toward non-driving related task items (e.g., mobile phone) instead of forward. Further, when a transition of control is required, drivers may take over control before they are aware of the driving environment or potential threat(s). Thus, it cannot be assumed that drivers are ready to respond to events shortly after the take-over request. Application It is important to consider the effect of the design of take-over requests on drivers' visual attention alongside take-over times.

High pre-World-War-2 modal shares of cycling in European countries sharply decreased during the post-war decades. In the 1990s, European governments introduced policies to increase bicycle use. However, a database or longitudinal study on the development of bicycle use in European countries is lacking. The goal of this paper is to examine to what degree the amount of cycling has increased over the past decades, also in the context of potentially competing modes. Distances travelled per capita according to National Travel Surveys have been collected and were aggregated to seven 4-year periods between 1990 and 2017. Multilevel regression analyses on distance travelled per capita by bicycle, on foot, by public transport, and by passenger car were conducted for all countries. Additionally, analyses were conducted for which the 14 countries with data on bicycle use were divided in three groups categorised according to distance cycled per capita at the beginning of the study period. Distance cycled per capita per year ranged from some 30 km to 900 km. The results of all four regression analyses suggested that distance cycled per capita remained fairly constant over the past decades. Germany is an exception with some 150 km per capita more, in relative terms a 50% increase. Geographical variation in development is evidenced by a substantial increase of distance cycled per inhabitant in the capital cities of the countries included in the study. The outcomes suggest distance travelled on foot and by public transport (bus, tram, and metro) also remained fairly constant while the distance travelled by car increased by about 10% during the study period. We did not find indications that cycling substitutes travel on foot, by public transport or by car.

High pre-World-War-2 modal shares of cycling in European countries sharply decreased during the post-war decades. In the 1990s, European governments introduced policies to increase bicycle use. However, a database or longitudinal study on the development of bicycle use in European countries is lacking. The goal of this paper is to examine to what degree the amount of cycling has increased over the past decades, also in the context of potentially competing modes. Distances travelled per capita according to National Travel Surveys have been collected and were aggregated to seven 4-year periods between 1990 and 2017. Multilevel regression analyses on distance travelled per capita by bicycle, on foot, by public transport, and by passenger car were conducted for all countries. Additionally, analyses were conducted for which the 14 countries with data on bicycle use were divided in three groups categorised according to distance cycled per capita at the beginning of the study period. Distance cycled per capita per year ranged from some 30 km to 900 km. The results of all four regression analyses suggested that distance cycled per capita remained fairly constant over the past decades. Germany is an exception with some 150 km per capita more, in relative terms a 50% increase. Geographical variation in development is evidenced by a substantial increase of distance cycled per inhabitant in the capital cities of the countries included in the study. The outcomes suggest distance travelled on foot and by public transport (bus, tram, and metro) also remained fairly constant while the distance travelled by car increased by about 10% during the study period. We did not find indications that cycling substitutes travel on foot, by public transport or by car.