Eye-tracking data of 20 participants driving a car over pedestrian crossings in Weimar, Germany

The present study investigates the visual attention of car drivers at pedestrian crossings.

• The following selection criteria for the 20 participants were applied:
• Focus: Study on driving behaviour, therefore all participants needed a valid driving licence.
• Gender balance: 50% female, 50% male (10 each).
• Age range: 20–35 years (M = 25, SD = 4), to ensure comparable psychomotor abilities and driving experience.
• Driving experience: Mixed sample of frequent and less frequent drivers (weekly or less).
• Exclusion criteria: No participants requiring glasses unless they could use contact lenses, to avoid interference with eye-tracking technology.

A predefined route was developed for the experiments:

• Route location: Standardised 5.7 km route through Weimar, Germany
• Environment: Urban and suburban areas
• Speed limits: Between 30 and 50 km/h
• Duration: 12–21 minutes (average: 15 minutes), meaning a short route so no expected decrease in perception
• Pedestrian crossings: 6 total (4 unique crossings, 2 passed twice)

Overview and characteristics of pedestrian crossings

 Study execution

• Study period: Conducted on two weekdays in June 2021
• Timing: During peak traffic hours in Weimar city centre
• Preparation:
  • Participants were briefed on the route
  • Eye-tracking glasses were fitted, calibrated, and checked
  • Researchers accompanied participants in the passenger seat
• Calibration checks: Conducted twice
  • After the familiarisation phase (before the test)
  • Midway through the journey, to ensure higher accuracy of eye-tracking data

The folder contains two files:

• eyetrackingdata_raw.csv - containing the raw eyetracking data in German
• eyetrackingdata_filtered+translated.csv - containing a refined, filtered and translated version, focussing on the relevant columns

Most relevant columns are:

FGUE – ID number of the pedestrian crossing

PART_ID – ID number of the participant

CROSSID - ID number of the pedestrian crossing

AOI – Area of Interest

AVGFIX – Average fixation of an AOI in ms

FIXATION_COUNT – number of fixations

NUMFIX – number of fixations normalized by the duration of the observation

CARUSE – regularity of caruse

PEDRIGHT – presence of pedestrians in the right side area

PEDLEFT - presence of pedestrians in the right side area

CARFRONT – presence of a car in front of the test car

CAROPPOSE – presence of a car in the opposing lane

SUM_FIXATION – total number of fixations during the observation

FIXSH – share of the fixations for this AOI from all AOI

DRIVEEXP – years of driving experience