Drivers need to make judgements of physical relationships related to driving speed, such as mean speed, risks, travel time and fuel consumption, in order to make optimal choices of vehicle speed. This is also the case for the general public, politicians and other stakeholders who are engaged in traffic issues. This thesis investigates how drivers’ judgements of travel time (Study I and II), fuel consumption (Study III) and mean speed (Study IV) relate to actual physical measures. A cognitive time-saving bias has been found in judgements of travel time. The time saving bias implies that people overestimate the time saved when increasing speed from a high speed and underestimate the time saved when increasing speed from a low speed. Previous studies have mainly investigated the bias from a cognitive perspective in questionnaires. In Study I the bias was shown to be present when participants were engaged in a driving simulator task where participants primarily rely on perceptual cues. Study II showed that intuitive time saving judgements can be debiased by presenting drivers with an alternative speedometer that indicate the inverted speed in minutes per kilometre. In Study III, judgements of fuel consumption at increasing and decreasing speeds were examined, and the results showed systematic deviations from correct measures. In particular, professional truck drivers underestimated the fuel saving effect of a decrease in speed. Study IV showed that subjective mean speed judgements differed from objective mean speeds and could predict route choice better than objective mean speeds. The results indicate that biases in these judgements are robust and that they predict behaviour. The thesis concludes that judgements of mean speeds, time savings and fuel consumption systematically deviate from physical measures. The results have implications for predicting travel behaviour and the design of driver feedback systems. / Förare bör göra bedömningar som relaterar till hastighet, såsom bedömningar av medelhastighet, risk, restid och bränsleåtgång. Dessa bedömningar är nödvändiga för att föraren ska kunna välja en optimal hastighet, men också för att allmänheten, politiker och andra intressenter som är involverade i trafikfrågor ska kunna fatta välgrundade beslut. Denna avhandling består av fyra delstudier där förares bedömningar av restid (Studie I och II), bränsleåtgång (Studie III) och medelhastighet (Studie IV) studeras i relation till faktiska fysikaliska mått. Tidigare enkätstudier har påvisat ett kognitivt bias i tidsvinstbedömningar vid höga och låga hastigheter som påverkar mänskligt beteende. Studie I visade att detta bias också förekommer i en primärt perceptuell motorisk uppgift där förarna i studien kör i en körsimulator. Studie II visade att dessa intuitiva tidsbedömningar kan förbättras genom att köra med en alternativ hastighetsmätare i bilen som indikerar den inverterade hastigheten i minuter per kilometer istället för hastigheten i kilometer per timme. I Studie III undersöktes bedömningar av bränsleåtgång vid hastighetsökningar och hastighetssänkningar, och resultaten visar att bedömningarna systematiskt avviker från faktisk bränsleåtgång. Ett intressant resultat var att lastbilsförare i allmänhet underskattade bränslebesparingen som kan göras till följd av en hastighetssänkning. Studie IV visade att subjektiva bedömningar av medelhastighet som avviker från objektiva medelhastigheter kan predicera vägval, vilket tyder på att systematiska fel i dessa bedömningar är robusta och kan predicera vägval. Sammanfattningsvis visar avhandlingen hur bedömningar av medelhastighet, tidsvinst och bränsleåtgång systematiskt avviker från fysikaliska mått. Resultaten har betydelse för modellering av resebeteende och design av förarstödssystem. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Submitted. Paper 3: Submitted.</p>

The time-saving bias is a cognitive error which systematically influences human perception of relationship between speed and time. As a consequence they overestimate time gained/lost when accelerating/decelerating from higher speed and underestimate time gained/lost when accelerating/decelerating from lower speed. This bias is most salient in the context of a car driving where such a misperception might lead to an excessively high travelling speed. Apart from the impact on the driving safety, unduly high speed have negative effect also on the fuel economy. An undue fuel consumption can be an issue not only for firms, but also for the environment. This work tested a formerly proposed de-biasing measure, a paceometer, in a field experiment with the intention to find out if this kind of intervention can alter drivers' behaviour in order to reduce speeding and thus increase the driving safety and decrease the fuel consumption. To test also the strength of the measure the experiment was done within a middle size company where employees did not bear driving costs. Results based on 1 year fuel consumption data of 45 participants showed no particular effect of the measure on the average fuel consumption. A reason for this finding can be an existence of a principal/agent problem which considerably affects incentives of drivers.