Experimental variables assessment for virtual road safety audit using analytic hierarchy process

Technological advances have reached the fusion idea of virtual road safety audits that use a driving simulator for road safety audits. To improve this concept, researchers have proposed frameworks for virtual road safety audits at the initial stage. Until recently, VRSA experiments have been performed by experts’ decisions without taking into account the testability and feasibility of experimental variables. Therefore, this study attempts to propose and apply an approach to prioritize the relative importance of experimental variables for virtual road safety audits using a driving simulator. As a method, experts completed the survey for the analytic hierarchy process method, a multiple criteria decision-making process. Results showed that the “work zone and crash handling” and “sign and marking” alternative has a slight advantage over the other variables. The “pavement and drainage” variable is the least for evaluation using VRSA. Overall, the findings of this study can provide a primitive decision-making model and useful insights to design an experiment for virtual road safety audits.