The impacts of the traffic situation, road conditions, and driving environment on driver stress: A systematic review

High-intensity driver stress (DS) is not only an important cause of vehicle collision accidents, but also a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and the sudden onset of illness in drivers. This article presented a systematic review to explore the key factors and influencing mechanisms that cause or affect the fluctuation of the DS level in the traffic situation, road conditions, and driving environment. We reviewed the research on DS since 2013 and identified 61 peer-reviewed articles published. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) was used to guide the literature search and quality assessments after categorizing and commenting on the studies, the experimental design methodologies, research scope, and research topics are further reviewed, and suggestions are put forward. The traffic density (n = 6), traffic behavior(n = 6), and traffic control (n = 4) are the main traffic situation factors; the road type (n = 14) and geometric design (n = 6) are the main road condition factors; weather, light, and landscape conditions (n = 6) are the external driving environment factors; and the air quality, in-vehicle devices (n = 7), and trust and takeover problems caused by human–machine interaction (n = 16) are the internal environment factors. These impacts on DS are reflected in the behavior of drivers, as well as their physiological and psychological states. The future experiments must be conducted with multi-dimensional tasks, and multi-modal fusion methods; more abundant research is needed to explore the impacts of the high complexity of urban traffic and landscapes, the interactions between drivers and assisted driving systems, as well as the mixed driving mode of autonomous and manual vehicles on DS. Based on the different generation mechanisms of DS under different conditions, strategies, and suggestions for the alleviation of DS are proposed from the perspectives of driving assistance, traffic control, and landscape construction.