An Exploratory Study, Wearable Development and Experiment to Understand Driving Stress in Urban Bangladesh

Driving stress has a significant impact on driving behavior that mostly initiates from roadside factors where driving itself is more challenging in developing countries (i.e., Bangladesh) for unique cultural and infrastructural setups. We conduct an exploratory study (Qualitative n=26, and Subjective Feedback n=88) along with a correlational analysis involving professional and private car drivers in urban Bangladesh. The study reveals drivers' demography and driving stress factors on the road. These findings motivate us to identify driving stress from physiological factors through developing a low-cost wearable, namely Stress Wear. This is capable of detecting stress from varying Heart Rates, validated by expensive commercial wearables. Between subject experiments on drivers (total n=14 in two phases) with wearables, we also found the road factors are responsible for driving stress. The developed system might help these drivers self-sensing their stress, increase self-awareness that might help in reducing stress