It’s an easy $500, unless you’re big on privacy.

Either way, it could bring the satisfaction of taking part in what is being touted as the most comprehensive survey of driving habits ever undertaken.

To get the money, participants simply have to consent to having four gizmos installed on their cars to monitor their driving habits for a year, and have the information be used for research afterward.

This would include a camera mounted on the rearview mirror to see where drivers are looking when they’re behind the wheel.

The federal government and Battelle, a Seattle research company, are seeking 3,100 drivers around the Puget Sound region, including Snohomish County, to participate in the study.

This region is one of six areas in the nation selected for the survey, along with Bloomington, Ind.; Buffalo, N.Y.; State College, Penn.; Durham, N.C.; and Tampa, Fla.

The equipment will collect information on driving habits and correlate it with data on weather and traffic congestion, say officials with Battelle, the Seattle company coordinating the survey for the Puget Sound area.

The study will focus on driver safety. It will be different in that it won’t focus simply on what causes accidents, but on many of the small factors involved in staying safe, said John Campbell, a research leader for Battelle.

“It’s to find out, at sort of a fundamental level, what it is drivers do,” Campbell said.

Four main types of devices will be planted on cars, said Christian Richard, a scientist for Battelle.

One is a radar unit mounted on the front of the car to measure distance from other vehicles. Another is a camera mounted on the back of the rearview mirror. It looks ahead to see what the driver sees, including weather, and also has an appendage to look back into the car to see the number of passengers and where the driver’s eyes are focused, Richard said.

The third device is a camera pointing out the back window to collect data from that direction. It’s also connected to a GPS device, Richard said. The fourth device is attached underneath the dashboard and hooked into the car’s computer system to obtain the information available there, Richard said. It won’t be hooked into the car’s event data recorder, which is used primarily for crash data.

When the study is done, some of the information will be widely available while other data will be accessible only to researchers who agree to confidentiality rules, Richard said.

It depends on the level of anonymity, he said.

For instance, general data about accidents in a certain area might be available to the public, but images of drivers’ faces, or data from a particular fatal accident, would require a higher level of confidentiality.

It’s part of a larger federal study focusing on a multitude of traffic-related matters, such as roadwork and congestion, he said.

Participants must be U.S. citizens and pass a battery of basic tests in English covering topics such as driving habits, risk-taking behavior, medical issues, personality tests, and vision, Richard said. Other tests include grip strength and walking, to see how physical condition fits in.

Those who take part will be divided into eight age groups, with the lowest starting at 16 and the highest starting at 76, he said.

The study is the second-ever federal study under the title of Strategic Highway Research Program. The first one, in the 1960s, did not have access to the sophisticated electronics available now and focused on crash data, Richard said.

Still, the data from that study was widely used for 30 years, he said. Now, it’s time for a new one.

“There’s never been a data set like this in the driving world,” Campbell said. “We’ll be creating (information) to look at drivers and driving for 20 to 30 years.”

In Snohomish County, they might find a lot of drivers talking on cell phones and fiddling with other electronics, said Mark Francis, a trooper with the State Patrol.

Following too close and driving in other motorists’ blind spots also are common offenses, in addition to the usual big three of speeding, driving under the influence and not wearing seat belts, Francis said.

On the positive side, the law against talking on cell phones while driving has had some effect, he said. Also, perhaps because of high gas prices or people wanting to avoid paying ticket fines in tough economic times, “people have definitely not been speeding as much.”

Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439; sheets@heraldnet.com.

Learn more

For more information on the Strategic Highway Research Program, visit http://tinyurl.com/3uzcxhf.