Vehicle-induced vibration is important to consider in assessing the structural safety of bridges. This issue has been widely investigated in recent years in the open literature. The current research studies mainly emphasize the effects of bridge span and vehicle; however, the driving effects, such as the driving speed, vehicle model parameters, and driving conditions, have rarely been investigated. In this study, researches on the driving effects of vehicle-induced vibration on long-span suspension bridges were conducted. First, a typical three-dimensional vehicle model with multi-axils was proposed, and three different road roughness models rated as excellent, good, and normal were generated with a power spectral density, and a random traffic flow with 16 vehicle types was simulated using the proposed random traffic flows model generation program. Next, an effective finite element model with Ishikawa beams stiffening girder was established to investigate the driving effects of the vehicle-induced vibration. The calculations of the effects on the vehicle body parameters, road roughness, driving direction, and speed were performed. Possible reasons for the driving effects of vehicle-induced vibration on long-span suspension bridges were also discussed. In addition, conclusions and recommendations for future bridge analysis and design were provided based on the results of the study. Copyright (C) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.