Advances in Human Aspects of Transportation

We describe a research process where fighter pilots’ behaviors were investigated from a teamwork perspective and the findings conveyed to the designers of cockpit interfaces in order to improve the fighter aircraft system. The teamwork perspective was selected because fighter aircraft are complex systems that require an advanced and trained pilot, who also, in addition to managing the aircraft systems needs to be a team player, collaborating with team members during dynamic and fast-paced circumstances to achieve the mission goals. A generic theoretical model for effective teamwork was selected as a starting point and a survey was conducted in order to investigate how fighter pilots collaborate during missions. The teamwork model and the survey results were then presented at workshops with designers of cockpit interfaces participating. The focus on the workshops was pilot teamwork and several design ideas aiming at improving the system for collaboration were generated.

The dynamic wake separation concept proposes to increase runway capacity without modifying existing airport infrastructure. Its approach is to discretize current wake aircraft groups by analyzing characteristics of each individual pair of leader and follower aircraft as well as the environment where the aircraft travels. This approach requires a thorough understanding of wake vortex and the parameters that influence wake behavior as well as technologies for its implementation. Aircraft wake research has identified environmental turbulence and aircraft weight as the parameters with the greatest influence on wake circulation strength. The wind has the greatest influence on wake lateral behavior, and aircraft mass, environmental turbulence, and wind have the greatest influence on wake vertical position. This research presents a framework for the technology to assist controllers in the dynamic decision-making process. Computer modeling is used to simulate air traffic control assigned separations to aircraft operations during arrival as well as the environmental conditions in the aircraft flight path. Due to the complexity of dynamic aircraft separations, it is proposed they rely on computer algorithms to determine and communicate the separation needed between each aircraft in the final approach. Results from this research show that due to dynamic wake separations, single runway airport efficiency increases up to 7.5%. These gains are further translated into reductions of emission, fossil fuel consumption and reduced workload on air traffic controllers.

The Remote Airport Concept of OperatioN (RACOON) is a Large-Scale Demonstration project co-funded by SESAR Joint Undertaking that demonstrated [1], in a live environment, the technical and operational feasibility of delivering Aerodrome Air Traffic Services from a remote location. The main theatre of operations targeted by RACOON was represented by Milan Malpensa and Milan Linate which were the two airports operated remotely through two ad-hoc developed Remote Tower Modules (RTMs). The project mainly addressed single remote TWR operations at Linate but, additionally, preliminary assessed the applicability of multiple airport concept (one local and one remote) on Malpensa airport scenario. RACOON was the first Italian case-study on the Remote TWR concept and the experience gained paves the way to additional developments on its applicability and deployment in Italy. The RACOON experience confirmed that Remote Tower services are a promising solution delivered for deployment by SESAR, the European project for Air Traffic Management modernization.

Pilots’ error mainly resulting from loss of situation awareness (SA) becomes a major threat to aviation safety. However, the relationship between errors and the three levels of situational awareness had been seldom stressed. This paper firstly calculated theoretical values of SA for three typical cognitive processes of information that are imperceptible, perceived, and understood on the basis of the Multi - level information trigger analysis of SA and the quantitative model of MIDAS. And based on the three different SA values were calculated, taxiing experiment was executed. SA had been considered as independent variables and pilots’ visual performance and errors were analyzed as dependent variables. One-way ANOVA was used to analyze if SA has significant effect on pilots’ error and visual performance, and correlative analysis was executed to determine if there is conclusive relationship between errors and visual performance. These results suggest that providing 100% information to a pilot does not mean zero error. In addition, the average saccade duration has a significant correlation with error rate, which can be used to as an error prediction indicator. By monitoring the pilots’ visual performance, the possibility of error can be predicted, and then occurrence of error may be avoided to improve the taxiing safety.

Neck injury because of exposure to increased Gz acceleration is a well-known problem in literature and has been studied by several air forces. Jet pilots reported a high prevalence of neck pain if compared to the general population. Some interventions focused on aircraft design and personal protective equipment, while others were directed toward pilot training. In literature, various primary prevention strategies are reported such as preflight warm-up, in-flight techniques, muscle resistance training, neck-specific training regimens and techniques. However, results from all of these studies showed discordant results. The aim of the study is to investigate muscle fatigue of left and right sternocleidomastoid, upper trapezius and middle trapezius by means of the Joint Analysis of the Spectrum and Amplitude of sEMG which analyzes the temporal changes in the amplitude of the sEMG signal, evaluated using the Root Mean Square and the frequency of the sEMG signal, expressed as Median Frequency. In this study, we investigated a fighter pilot before and soon after a diurnal flight, therefore we did not take into account night vision goggles and counterweight usage. We found that the fatigue indexes calculated from the neck and shoulder muscles are quite sensitive in detecting jet pilots’ fatigue. More in detail, it can be observed that as far as the right side is concerned, soon after the flight all the fatigue events of the JASA plot fall in the fatigue quadrant. The results of this study strengthen the suggestion aimed previously at helicopter pilots, to incorporate neck and shoulder specific training in the list of operational duties. These myoelectric fatigue indicators may be useful to evaluate neck and shoulder muscle engagement, and they may be helpful to define physical exercise limits. In conclusion, this study showed that it is possible to obtain more detailed information about neck stress through sEMG fatigue parameters, and provide an insight for helmet and seat design improvements. The reduction in some of the causative factors for neck pain may help to increase the career longevity of jet pilots, reducing the work compensation cost and the costs associated with training new aircrew.

Pilot homicide-suicides occur very rarely in commercial aviation. Nonetheless, when a crash like Germanwings flight 4U9525 has occurred, the stakeholders take action to improve current standards to help prevent new cases. The EASA-led task-force has proposed several recommendations. The System Theoretic Accident Process Analysis (STPA) of the accident investigates how European countermeasures have been improved the system at different levels. The new minimum cockpit occupancy of two personnel was tied to a safety and risk assessment by the operator whereas the cockpit door design was not changed. On a higher level a psychological health assessment for initial medicals class 1 has been added. Pilot support programs, an improvement of aeromedical services and a random drugs/alcohol screening complement the actions is being undertaken. Conflicts with privacy laws and medical confidentiality could not be solved entirely and are still being debated.

Design enhancements are often aligned with system requirements and human-systems integration user needs. With respect to general aviation (GA), there is limited human-systems integration (HSI) data when considering traffic pattern approach operations. The simplest and most fundamental beginning to the understanding of optimal pilot-aircraft integration is a mapping of pilot observations, decisions, and actions, for all legs of a typical rectangular pattern. The use of understanding these elements related to pilot attention and actions is directly related to the development of a new flight test method to map pilot cognition with aircraft dynamics. The exploratory study described in this paper reports the subjective results of six knowledge elicitation sessions with expert pilots using the critical decision method (CDM) and abstraction decomposition (protocol analysis). For the purposes of this study, expert pilots in general aviation have been identified as certified flight instructors. The results obtained from this exploratory effort provide insight into cognitive patterns that integrate observations, decisions, and actions (ODAs) made by the experts. Illustrations as concept maps are provided to describe various cognitive functions and processes present during the different pattern legs. These maps are compared among knowledge elicitation participants. It has been found in fact, that certain cues are not present, but rather embodied by routine operations within naturalized socio-complex interactions. The paper includes a table will all reported ODAs for future research purposes.

It has become evident in recent decades that many airline accidents have been at least partly caused by cultural factors. The first section of this paper reviews definitions of culture, which within aviation is typically divided into national, organizational and professional culture. The second section summarizes approaches in the study of intercultural communication that are relevant to airline flight operations, including the limitations of each approach. The third section describes eight studies that investigated intercultural communication in airline contexts in a variety of countries. The paper highlights the need for further research into the effects of culture on flight deck interaction in monocultural airlines compared with multicultural airlines. Although this review covers studies in civil aviation, it is relevant to other contexts in which small multicultural teams operate in high-risk environments, such as space missions.

We applied a systems theoretical hazard analysis to the accident of JL350 to reanalyze this unique case of pilot homicide-suicide from a contemporary perspective. It is the only known case in which people had survived the crash. Having collected all information on the accident, we present a comprehensive analysis of the homicide-suicide and its countermeasures established afterwards. This sheds light on how the Japanese system of commercial aviation has responded. An aeromedical research center provides the Japanese aviation society with the latest knowledge on medicine, including mental health, to keep the stakeholders informed which enables them to react to changing requirements. In Europe, similar countermeasures were recommended decades later to address the mental health issues of pilots.

Due to their maneuverability and operational flexibility, helicopters have become an important alternative means of transport in great metropolitan areas in Brazil in the last decade. Nonetheless, the number of helicopter accidents has increased in parallel. From 2006 to 2015, 211 accidents occurred and 1030 people died. The main aim of this article is to examine the causal factors that lead to the human error in the helicopter accidents which occurred in Brazil between 2006 and 2015 using HFACS. The most frequent HFACS categories were: decision error (68%), skill-based errors (59%), violations (33%), physical environment (15%), issues with inadequate supervision (46%), and organizational processes (15%). By identifying the higher level human errors leading to helicopter accidents, HFACS is useful a tool for accident investigations and accident prevention strategies. The current study provides practical suggestions for top managers for a better helicopter operational safety environment.

Nearly all airport passengers’ journeys rely on the public address (PA) system through which information is given to provide real-time announcements accessible to all. This information is important and time-sensitive, but easy to miss or misunderstand. In an effort to improve the effectiveness of passenger information dissemination in an International Airport in the Philippines, a study on the airport’s PA announcements was conducted. Specific areas of the airport where PA announcements are vital were identified. A survey of passenger perception of audibility and intelligibility of announcements was conducted. In addition, signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) for different locations was measured and compared to recommended levels. Out of the 405 survey respondents, 42% were able to hear and correctly recall important parts of the most recent announcement, 25% were able to hear that an announcement was aired, but were unable to correctly recall what was announced, and 33% responded that they were not aware that any announcements were aired within the past ten minutes prior to their receiving of the questionnaire. An average SNR of 8.58 dBA as opposed to the recommended minimum of 10 dBA was found. Recommendations include the utilization of Flight Information Display Systems (FIDS) screens along with audible announcement modifications.

Loss of control (LOC) in the aviation realm is continuously studied with regards to its definition, recognition, and mitigation. Problematics exist with the high level of complexity present during LOC situations, especially given the non-linear consequences. The study of LOC requires an almost “philosophical” analysis to understand its origins; a study that this paper investigates through complexity analysis. LOC can involve a socio-technical instability on the flight deck: an instability that can be analyzed in the field of cognitive engineering (for the sociological side) and complexity analysis (for the technological side). This document guides the reader through thoughts involving the cognitive aspects of cockpit management and operation during LOC events and the realization that the mitigation of such events need to be recognized and resolved as naturalized complex systems. These systems require a specific framework for research involving human agents that can be executed via human-systems integrated flight testing.

Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) and Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) are ATM modernisation programs that are striving towards an ATM system that can provide greater capacity and efficiency whilst maintaining current level of safety and security. The current paper describes and compares the changes in flight deck operations that will occur in the envisioned future ATM environment. Subject matter expert views are gathered to evaluate potential human factors flight deck impacts. Both SESAR and NextGen describe flight deck operations defined by stricter separation parameters and greater delegation of flight trajectory conformance for the flight crew. Important human factor issues included ensuring clear communication of responsibility delegation to the flight crew and the impact of increased utilisation of real-time information (e.g. Meteorological (MET), traffic flows) on flight planning behaviour. Further SESAR and NextGen similarities and the associated human factor effects are discussed.

Data Exchange and Integration is necessary for progress towards an Integrated Arrival, Departure, and Surface (IADS) traffic management capability. In collaboration with the FAA, NASA has introduced new data exchange elements to Charlotte-Douglas International Airport air traffic facilities, including the American Airlines ramp, as part of the Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 (ATD2). This paper describes the new tools that deliver these elements, and the human factors impact of the tools as measured by post-bank surveys. Workload was unaffected by ATD2 tool use, and situational awareness was improved in the Tower and with Ramp controllers in the second round of surveys. Respondents described their tools as more helpful if they included ATD2 tools (1) in the Tower for insuring compliance for aircraft under a Traffic Management Initiative, (2) in the TRACON when actively used for many TRACON tasks, and (3) in the Ramp in the second round of surveys.

NASA has been working with the Federal Aviation Administration and aviation industry partners to develop and demonstrate new concepts and technologies that integrate arrival, departure, and surface traffic management capabilities. In the fall of 2017, NASA began deployment of their technologies in a phased manner to assist with the integrated surface and airspace operations at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (Charlotte, NC). Initial technologies included a tactical surface metering tool and data exchange elements between the airline-controlled ramp and Federal Aviation Administration controlled Air Traffic Control Tower. In this paper, we focus on the procedures associated with the tactical surface metering tool used in the ramp control tower. This tool was first calibrated in Human-In-the-Loop simulations and was further developed when it was used in the operational world. This paper describes the collaborative procedures that the users exercised in their respective operational worlds to enable surface metering and how several metrics were used to improve the metering algorithm.

Space is an extreme and hostile environment for human life and launching the man out of the Earth’s gravity, keeping him safe and functional in space, entails a lot of work and money. Human spaceflights represent a techno-logical challenge and the design and implementation of manned space habitats and work environment require knowledge and expertise to create habitats for mission scenarios that, for the future space missions, are not currently well known. The present International Space Station (ISS) is born on the experiences matured on the heritage of past space stations (Salyut, Skylab, Mir). The design solutions implemented on the ISS are therefore based on Human Factors Engineering (HFE) requirements developed from past experiences. From late eighties as of today, Thales Alenia Space in Italy has developed about fifty percent of the pressurized volume of the ISS, providing the permanent modules Node 2, Node 3, Cupola, Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM), Columbus and the logistic Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules (MPLM), Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATV), Cygnus. In all these modules Thales Alenia Space in Italy implemented HFE activities based on a human-centered design approach (driving the design, providing analysis, evaluation and usability verification of crew interfaces for work areas and equipment) aimed to guarantee a safe performance of all the on board crew operations, including displays and controls, workstation systems or evaluation of the entire spacecraft cabin or module habitable volume. The future of space exploration will passes through: (1) the extension of life of the ISS until 2024, exploiting it as test bench for future exploration missions and then as private and commercial orbital infrastructures; (2) the Chinese Space Station, that started its life in 2011 and will reach its full operability around 2022; (3) new commercial and independent stations in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and then from LEO to (4) Cislunar and deep space stations, including planetary outposts (Moon and Mars). This paper describes how the HFE activities have been performed for the ISS manned modules orbiting around the Earth and, thanks to the experience gained on the ISS, how they may be developed to physically and psychologically counteract the effects of a long stay period in space to suit future long duration spaceflights.

In extreme environments, such as Antarctica or Outer Space, stress and performance are key factors for the safety and survival of the team. The Mars Planet Association has been carrying innovative research considering the importance of investigating stress and performance to furthering research and innovation for Space and Earth applications. In particular, focus result investigation will be presented such as the PSI (Performance & Stress in Isolation) experiment leaded by Dr. Alcibiade in different analogue missions.

Long duration space travel (i.e., to Mars) requires that many human factors issues be resolved. The present laboratory experiment, examined the effect of group cohesiveness on conformity to a group norm. The experiment included 92 men and women in a 2 × 2 factorial design crossing High and Low Cohesiveness and Threat of Punishment for Non-Conformity. Stress responses were measured by cardiovascular measures. Deviation from the group increased stress responses; however, conformity did not decrease stress responses. Higher cohesiveness and threat of punishment were associated with greater conformity, but were not associated with stress. Greater systolic blood pressures responses were associated with greater conformity. Conformers showed greater stress response to deviation and attraction to the group compared with non-conformers. These findings are relevant for possible approaches for crew selection for long duration space missions.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been conducting an investigation of human interaction with critical elements of NASA’s Launch Termination System (LTS). This safety-critical system requires quick decision making on the part of highly trained users in order to maintain safe launch operations. A team of NASA evaluators has completed a detailed assessment aimed at improving the Graphical User Interface (GUI) of NASA’s Range Data Display System (RDDS), a key component of the LTS. The RDDS forms the vital man-machine link which ingests high volumes of system data in real-time and displays this data to NASA’s Range Safety personnel to enable them to assess launch vehicle trajectory and performance status. The RDDS displays the real-time state of the launch vehicle and its complex subsystems to users in order to support arm/destruct decisions (made by NASA’s Range Safety personnel) to facilitate safe launch operations. These decisions are highly time-sensitive, and users must act quickly in order to prevent serious injury or death and extensive damage to equipment or property. The NASA assessment team performed a Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) to derive the user informational requirements needed to develop data driven, user information software requirements in support of a new RDDS software upgrade. The CTA was designed to address the unique aspects of this particular system, while focusing on the operational context within which the system is used by highly specialized personnel. This analysis and the resulting requirements form the first step in providing human factors guidance to software developers throughout the design, development, and fielding of the new RDDS software GUI. This paper will focus on the applied human factors methods and techniques employed, how these methods and techniques were used to derive user information design requirements, the lessons learned from this activity, and areas for future work. The authors intend to provide human factors practitioners with an example of how CTA methods and techniques may be adapted to meet the particular needs of a project, with special consideration given to the design of safety-critical systems.

Qualitative data collected from International Space Station (ISS) postflight crew debriefs was used to evaluate the performance of a convolutional neural network (ConvNet) model. While the ISS postflight debriefs cover a broad range of spaceflight and on-orbit operations related topics, this model was specifically trained and tested to classify debrief comments as safety related or not, based on a previously coded subset of debrief comments that were manually evaluated by human factors engineers to determine if a comment had safety implications. This evaluation revealed that a ConvNet can adequately determine whether textual debrief comments contain safety data. These methods can potentially save large amounts of manual effort on the part of human factors engineers and improve the ability to identify and act on crew knowledge that informs or identifies risk to spaceflight crew.

Rapid development in artificial intelligence and big data analytic applications have had a significant impact on knowledge mobilisation across industries including the shipping domain. This paper uses the practice of energy efficiency onboard ships as a case study to discuss how knowledge mobilisation should address this context change and uncovers how existing knowledge networks in the shipping industry would evolve in this emerging data-driven ecology. From a systems perspective, it suggests hallmarks associated with the knowledge mobilisation processes in the new technology landscape. This paper shapes a discussion to derive design and management implications of the system infrastructure contributing to a safe, efficient and sustainable shipping business model and provide insights on knowledge adaption in the emerging human-machine collaboration context.

Previous work revealed bottlenecks in information transition between submarine command team members, which may be detrimental to overall performance. To date, the potential impact of such bottlenecks in terms of time to pass critical information has not been investigated. An understanding of the temporal impact is critical, given the time critical nature of tactical picture generation. Four teams of eight participants (32 participants total) were recruited and trained at one of the operator stations in a bespoke built submarine control room simulator. Participants completed high and low demand Return to Periscope Depth scenarios. The timings of technology-human and human-human interactions were calculated. Preliminary results indicated that the largest temporal lag was the transition of human-human information. Furthermore, loss of information occurred with every stage of information transition. As demand increased, the efficiency of information transition was negatively impacted by increased communications between operators. Initial results are discussed along with future analysis plans.

The mega-yacht demand has had an exponential growth in the international market in recent years. Consequently, the tender boats demand is growing. At the same time, the introduction of new materials and new process technologies have allowed the production system reorganization and optimization. So the designers have the opportunity to propose innovative design solutions characterized by a high level of flexibility and customization. This paper presents the results of a research on “just in time” products, conducted by the Departement of Architecture of the “G. d’Annunzio” University of Pescara (Italy). In particular we propose a chase boat concept adaptable to different contexts and conditions of use, to illustrate the advantages given by: the use of flexible and customizable products (through the reconfiguration of the living space) according to the specific needs of the users; the correct sizing of the elements that make up the system; connection management; the “visual pleasantness” obtained with natural and artificial lighting of internal environments.

Future maritime command teams will process more data, a trend driven by continued technological advances and new sensors. Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) are contributing to this, as their usage is steadily growing in civilian and military contexts. A key challenge is effective integration of growing volumes of data into the command team, ensuring optimal performance for completing the variety of missions and tasks that may be required. In particular, operator cognitive capacity should not be exceeded, as this may negatively impact global team performance. A review of ROV usage revealed that they are predominately deployed to understand and interact with their environment. Ecological Interface Design (EID) aims to make system constraints apparent and reduce operator workload. As the aims of EID are synergistic with ROV operation, it is hypothesised that operator workload may be reduced if interfaces are implemented that adhere to these design principles. In the current work EID is proposed as a design paradigm for ROV UIs, to facilitate optimal future performance.

In the Philippines, the bangka or outrigger canoe was used daily by fisherfolk to transport and stow their catch. As the tourism industry flourished in the country, these bangkas were used to ferry tourists to islands to explore the country. The bangkas’ abrupt conversion to a tourist ferry has led to difficulties, especially for the driver, brought about by the traditional design giving value to practicality, not comfort. A tourist boat that properly accommodates the optimal seating position of the passengers is imperative to sustain the development of the tourism industry in the country. This study aims to design an ergonomic bangka using anthropometric data and other ergonomic design. The tourist boat would allow the bangkeros to have better posture and reduce the possible occurrence or development of work related musculoskeletal disorders, with materials that are cheap, durable, and easily attainable to best suit the business.

Conditionally Automated Driving could be the next step towards fully automated driving. In this level of automation, the human driver represents the fallback instance and has to be able to regain control of the vehicle if requested. This transition process is currently in focus of human factors research. In previous studies, take-over performance was rated by using data concerning reaction times and quantitative data measuring the quality of the drivers’ input. One disadvantage of this method is that all aspects of the take-over process are considered separately and not the take-over as a whole event. In the current study, a new method for rating of take-over performance was used. The expert rating system TOC [1] was used to rate take-over performance of N = 66 subjects in a driving simulator study. Two different non-driving related tasks (NDRTs) were used to affect fatigue. Results suggest, that take-over performance was poor, independent of NDRTs.

Automated vehicles that require human intervention will inevitably require the transition of control and responsibility between driver and automation. These ‘handovers’ represent a vulnerability in the driving system due to factors such as reduced situation awareness. As a solution, handover assistants have been proposed to alleviate these drawbacks and facilitate better communication between vehicle and driver. We present findings from a vocal-handover task between two drivers, conducted in a driving simulator, to explore how visually scanning the environment can be encouraged using different vocal interactions. The data revealed trends such as how mentioning location may encourage more efficient visual gaze. Conversely, no vocal interaction may result in little-to-no visual gaze towards certain areas of the driving environment. Further study could explore how vocal interaction can work in conjunction with visual displays to guide visual attention during the handover task.

Public policy makers have high expectations from automation in driving. The autonomous vehicle is expected to perform as a minimum the driving tasks of an alert non-aggressive driver. To go beyond these requirements, automation functions are to be designed to extend human driver capability in the form of processing large volume of data on driving environment in support of decision-making. This paper defines the role of Bayesian artificial intelligence (AI) in the development of car-following and lane change models for assisted and autonomous driving. Variables and model forms are covered. Driving simulator data in association with models enable illustrations on how new Bayesian AI-based models in driving assistance and automation system design can overcome safety problems caused by deficient perception-reaction performance. Finally, conclusions are presented on the roles of the Bayesian AI in adding cognitive capability to car-following and lane change models to be used for automation in driving.

Currently there is a strong worldwide debate about the viability and recognition of autonomous vehicles. A survey of scientific literature is conducted using recent sources published until 2017 in the fields of public opinion, user acceptance, challenges and future opportunities associated with autonomous driving cars across the globe. A comprehensive review of the relevant literature explores a broad spectrum of opportunities and inevitable challenges associated with the development of autonomous vehicles. The paper summarizes the efforts engaged thus far in the development of the gamut of enabling technologies for autonomous driving and delves into issues associated with inertia to change, environmental impact, and the myriad technical difficulties that arise with the development of autonomous vehicles.The aim is to use a narrative qualitative approach to provide the reader with a broader understanding of the extent to which individuals are ready to use fully autonomous vehicles, and to which society is prepared to accept a transport system incorporating fully automated vehicles.

Conditional autonomous driving requires the description of sufficient time reserves for drivers in take-over situations. The definition of this time reserve has not been addressed for the truck context thus far. Through the observation of physiological measures, the possibility of estimating reaction times is considered. Driver data is collected with a remote eye-tracker and body posture camera. Empirical data from a simulator study is utilized to train and compare four machine learning algorithms and generate driver features. The estimation of take-over times is defined as a classification problem with four reaction time classes, leading to a misclassification rate of a linear support vector machine (SVM) of 38.7%. Utility of driver features for reaction time estimation are discussed.

In this paper, the user requirements for future autonomous mobility services, i.e. autonomous ridesharing and the potential influence of gender are investigated following a two-tiered procedure. Subsequently to interviews, a questionnaire study including 893 participants was conducted, in which attitudes and requirements were evaluated. It turned out that users are generally open to the new mobility service. Factors of the journey itself, such as the determination of routes and co-passengers were perceived as important, whereas the vehicle equipment and the entertainment facilities were rather unimportant. In general, almost no willingness to pay surcharges for an additional individualization of the service was determined. While men and women differ in terms of readiness to use and evaluation of the service, no differences were found in the requirements for booking options and the willingness to pay.

Electric and hybrid vehicles are submitted to the same passive and active safety standards as fossil fuel engine vehicles and so they have to pass crash tests defined by type approval regulations (EU, Japan, etc.), self-certification requirements (US), or other consumer standards such as Euro NCAP, USNCAP or GlobalNCAP. Crashing an electric or hybrid vehicle represents a challenge, not only for OEM’s but also for test developers. OEM’s must guarantee the safety of their vehicles’ occupants while having a crash on the road, and test laboratories must ensure a strict safety procedure to take special care when testing HEV/EV’s. However, there is a potential danger after severe crashes due to the risk of electric shock or spillage from the battery. This paper presents an overview of the safety requirements for electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles, both for, European regulations and American FMVSS standards. Furthermore, since hybrid and electric vehicle crashes imply a hazardous situation for test laboratories; the protocol applied for HEV/EV crash tests IDIADA’s crash test laboratory is described and related with the principal risks of testing electric vehicles to standardize the safety of these tests; before, during and after tests amendments are established.

Autonomous vehicle (AV) technology is developing rapidly. Level 3 automation assumes the user might need to respond to requests to retake control. Levels 4 (high automation) and 5 (full automation) do not require human monitoring of the driving task or systems [1]: the AV handles driving functions and makes decisions based on continuously updated information. A gradual switch in the role of the human within the vehicle from active controller to passive passenger comes with uncertainty in terms of trust, which will likely be a key barrier to acceptability, adoption and continued use [2]. Few studies have investigated trust in AVs and these have tended to use driving simulators with Level 3 automation [3, 4]. The current study used both a driving simulator and autonomous road vehicle. Both were operating at Level 3 autonomy although did not require intervention from the user; much like Level 4 systems. Forty-six participants completed road circuits (UK-based) with both platforms. Trust was measured immediately after different types of turns at a priority T-junction, increasing in complexity: e.g., driving left or right out of a T-junction; turning right into a T-junction; presence of oncoming/crossing vehicles. Trust was high across platforms: higher in the simulator for some events and higher in the road AV for others. Generally, and often irrespective of platform, trust was higher for turns involving an oncoming/crossing vehicle(s) than without traffic, possibly because the turn felt more controlled as the simulator and road AVs always yielded, resulting in a delayed maneuver. We also found multiple positive relationships between trust in automation and technology, and trust ratings for most T-junction turn events across platforms. The assessment of trust was successful and the novel findings are important to those designing, developing and testing AVs with users in mind. Undertaking a trial of this scale is complex and caution should be exercised about over-generalizing the findings.

The role of man-made emissions in climate change has been a large focus of academic research and political discussion. One considerable source of emissions is everyday driving, and finding ways to reduce driving emissions is a great challenge. This paper presents the use of Cognitive Work Analysis as a potential tool in helping address this problem. Focusing on Control Task Analysis and Social Organization and Cooperation Analysis, this paper discusses the indirect role governmental organizations can play in reducing driving-related emissions. It is proposed that the use of Cognitive Work Analysis can provide insights not typically garnered from traditional academic literature surrounding eco-driving, including the role governmental organizations can play in reducing everyday emissions.

A broad market penetration of electric vehicles could counteract emissions of greenhouse gases and high particulate matter pollution in cities. However, this is currently prevented by numerous perceived barriers. Government support measures designed to counteract these impediments do not have the desired effect. The present study uses a two-stage approach (focus group discussions and questionnaires with discrete choice experiments) to explore the influence of various support measures and other parameters on the decision to buy an electric vehicle. The results indicate that although financial support, like other support measures, is perceived as motivating, it cannot compensate for the other perceived disadvantages of electric vehicles. State subsidies even have the smallest impact on purchasing decisions. In addition to the electricity generation from renewable energy sources, the range of vehicles and the state of the charging infrastructure are decisive and cannot be compensated for by subsidy programs.

It is envisioned that the development of fully autonomous driving technology would allow future drivers to participate/engage in secondary activities other than the driving task. To undertake these non-driving secondary activities, the driver would need to be seated in a position that is different to the conventional driving position. In this study, a survey of scientific literature in the field of the relevant secondary activities, the associated seating positions, seating and body angles are being conducted by referring to 18 different sources published up to 2017. The aim of this study is to find out commonly used seat angles for different secondary activities and their seating positions. There is a current lack of literature specifically for seating positions of non-driving secondary activities, hence the research field was extended to consider a range of similar seating including office chairs, passenger seats in trains and aircraft, massage chairs, and lounge chairs among others.

For the appropriate design of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Automated Driving (AD) systems, it is important to understand the process of driver-automation interaction and the factors affecting this interaction. In order to develop a part of this understanding, an exploratory driving simulator study with fifteen participants was conducted. The study design divided the participants into two groups: low capability automated system and high capability automated system. The study showed that providing knowledge about the capability of the automated system to the participants increased their overall trust in the automated system. However, it also increased their workload during the driving task. Increase in workload with knowledge was lower for high capability automated systems as compared to low capability automated systems. Therefore, while there is a need to inform the driver about the true capabilities of the system, there is a need to increase the capability of the systems to avoid increasing drivers’ workload too much.

In automated driving, there is the risk that users must take over the vehicle guidance despite a potential lack of involvement in the driving task. This publication presents an initial model of control distribution between users and the automated system. In this model, the elements of the control distribution in automated driving are addressed together with possible and safe transitions between different driving modes. Furthermore, the approach is initially empirically validated. In a driving study, in which participants operated both driving and a non-driving related task, objective driving data as well as eye-tracking parameters are used to estimate the model’s accuracy. Such an explanatory model can serve as a first approach to describe potential concepts of cooperation between users and automated vehicles. In this way, prospective road traffic concepts could be improved by preventing safety critical transitions between the driver and the vehicle.

The paper introduces a comprehensive digital mock-up-based development method for ergonomics conception of automotive passenger compartments. The integrated approach enables consideration of different influencing parameters even during early layout and design phases, e.g. vehicle packaging, seating position, ergonomics evaluation, view- and safety-relevant aspects. A vehicle reference model is combined with human manikins and supports the generation of movement-induced envelop geometry to analyze ergonomics-related issues, as they occur in complex interior development of future car concepts.

To ensure transferability of driving simulator-based user trials (where motion sickness onset is likely) it is important to understand if motion sickness affects human performance and therefore user trial data validity. 51 participants had their task performance ability measured in six defined categories (including physical, cognitive, visual and the intersections of each) both before and after a driving simulator exposure. Their motion sickness state was compared to their change in task completion scores across the six areas. Findings revealed that motion sickness had a significant effect on cognitive performance, physical performance, physical-visual performance and physical-cognitive performance. There was no gender effect on motion sickness severity, but it did affect participant dropout, where female nausea was a significant effector. Age had no effect on motion sickness onset and other findings are also discussed. Conclusions from this research aid in the understanding of simulator-based user trial data validity.

The most critical concern with respect to the development of driverless vehicle technology is its safety and reliability. Inadequate technological advancements may lead to serious implications especially in terms of loss of human life. Moreover, technological advancements bring socio-technical complexities where the role of human, being the key element of a system, becomes highly important. Benefits of advanced technologies in driverless vehicles cannot be realized properly if safety related concerns have not been appropriately addressed in the design process. One possible way forward is to get feedback from the users of technology and incorporate design requirements accordingly. For acquiring the necessary information on various safety related issues that might be faced by the drivers, this public opinion based survey study has been conducted in China and Pakistan which mainly aims at capturing the public reliance level, perceptions and expectations on driverless vehicle system, more specifically on safety related issues. A web-based survey, containing some general questions about safety especially under some given driving scenarios, was launched in both the countries. The survey findings provide a useful insight for stakeholders towards user’s expectations, their safety perceptions and differences in the level of trust on modern vehicle technologies between the people of an emerging economy (China) and low-income country (Pakistan). The results also direct towards the need for further exploration of safety related concerns so that the issues could be addressed pragmatically during the design process.

Misunderstandings between automated vehicles and surrounding traffic sometimes occur in interactions because AV do not always act human-like. Knowledge on AV is likely to influence expectations of vehicle behavior in interaction situations and drivers might change their behavior accordingly when interacting with AV. It might thus be important to understand how human drivers expect AV to interact in traffic and whether human driving behavior changes in interaction with AV. In a video-based approach, the expectations of non-automated road users towards AV were compared to the expectations towards human drivers in the same situation. Results show that drivers expect AV to show a less aggressive, more safety-oriented driving style. However, drivers showed a similar frequency of cooperation towards AV and human drivers. Although a clear difference in behavior expectations was identified, no negative consequences for interactions were found.

With different cognitive abilities and driving style preferences, car-following behaviors can vary significantly among human drivers. To facilitate the replications of human driving behaviors on chassis dynamometer using a robot driver, this paper proposes a novel fuzzy logic driver model that attempts to perform humanized driving behaviors in the car-following regimes. An adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system was developed to tune the fuzzy model using real driving data collected from an instrumented vehicle. Driver’s cognition parameters, such as headway distance, vehicle speed and pedal positions, were modelled as system inputs. Meanwhile, driver’s action parameters, such as pedal movements and gear selection, were selected as system outputs. Three models that possess different driving styles were calibrated using the system. Afterwards, in order to evaluate its performance of emulating human behaviors, the established fuzzy models were examined in a simulation scenario that is anchored to standard WLTC drive cycle tests.

Drawing together the strengths of Ecological Interface Design (EID) and inclusive User Centred Design (UCD), UCEID is a novel Human Factors (HF) method for complex sociotechnical systems. This method ensures user needs are appropriately represented in the constraints based models provided by the Cognitive Work Analysis (CWA) framework. The range of methodological approaches adopted, the advantages, disadvantages, tools and training times of UCEID are described. Examples of how to apply the method to the domain of automated driving to produce design concepts are provided, focusing on interactions between drivers and semi autonomous vehicles for a planned BASt level 3 vehicle to driver handover.

The ongoing digitalization of our world also offers an increasing amount of information to the human. To present this data to a driver, visualization strategies are necessary going beyond traditional displays. In this paper we investigate the effect of stereoscopic 3D (S3D) visualization and the influence of the S3D contents’ locations on the dashboard. In a driving simulator study, 61 participants were required to perform a car following task. Using a large-scale S3D dashboard, the experimental group was exposed to a stereoscopic 3D visualization, whereas the control group experienced traditional 2D. While driving, they had to perform two simplified tasks: first a change detection task and after that a list selection task. Analysis indicates that the presentation of S3D content has no statistically significant influence on secondary task performance and driving performance. This applies for the entire dashboard as well as for its individual subareas. There was no effect with respect to simulator sickness.

The racing driver’s environment constitutes a unique set of challenges in terms of usability. Cockpits in the upper echelons of motorsport, such as Formula One and the World Endurance Championship are known for their high levels of complexity due to the need to optimize vehicle performance. The cars’ capabilities and the nature of motorsport subject the drivers to a range of stresses. This paper explores five stresses, as identified by Bertrand et al.; Emotion, temperature, g-force, vibration and muscular effort, examining their potential influences on cockpit interface design from physical, psychological and psychophysiological perspectives.

Crash prevention systems will only be effective if drivers keep the features turned on. Drivers were surveyed about keeping front crash prevention (FCP), lane departure prevention (LDP), or blind spot monitoring (BSM) systems on all the time following personal use of 5 production vehicles. The desire to keep FCP and LDP on all the time varied across vehicles. Overall, 94% of drivers agreed or strongly agreed they would leave BSM on, 79% reported they would leave FCP on, while 54% would leave LDP on. Drivers were more likely to agree to keeping FCP on that provided warnings they understood and warned infrequently. LDP systems judged to be more useful, less annoying, and that consistently detect lane markings significantly predicted whether drivers would leave them turned on. Designers of advanced driver assistance systems should focus on these attributes of FCP and LDP systems to encourage use.

Vehicular full-windshield head-up display has the characteristics of high information capacity and diversity of display modes. Reasonable information presented by head-up display will help drivers enhance situation awareness level and improve driving safety, otherwise it would lead to distraction, high cognitive load and high safety risk. Full-windshield head-up display simulation platform is needed for supporting data collection of physiological and psychological parameters of drivers in the process of the simulated driving of ergonomic experiment to analysis the effects information and display mode of full-windshield head-up display on drivers. In this work, full-windshield head-up display simulator for ergonomics design is developed based on virtual reality and driving simulation technologies. The full-windshield head-up display simulation module, driving operation module, virtual driving environment module, data collection and analysis module are designed and integrated, which achieved display simulation and rapid interface reconfiguration in different driving scenarios and provided important supports on the analysis of the effect of full-windshield head-up display on the cognition and behaviors of drivers.

The aim of present study was to improve the safety and the effectiveness of the in-vehicle display for camera monitor systems (CMS). The experimental factors were the size of the display and the location of the display. The participants were required to simultaneously carry out a tracking task and a rearward monitoring task. The evaluation measures were: the reaction time and the percentage correct reactions to the rearward stimuli, the tracking error, the car distance between own and the preceding car, and the horizontal neck movement. As a result, the reaction time, the percentage of correct reaction, the neck movement of CMS were better than the traditional side mirrors. It suggests CMS is safer and more effective than the side mirrors. Particularly, more than 5-in. display which was located at smaller visual angle had faster and more accurate reaction. This condition would be one of the design requirements for CMS.

The use of a navigation device is essential to the work of Transportation Network Vehicle Services (TNVS) drivers. The Anti-Distracted Driving Act in the Philippines prohibits distracted driving on any public thoroughfare, highway, or street. However, it only considers the driver’s horizontal line of sight and does not specify the ideal location of the navigation device. This study involves ‘Uber’ drivers, which were asked to test three different locations for the navigation device: left side of the steering wheel, speedometer area, and right side of the steering wheel. The driver’s distraction level was measured using a Peripheral Detection Test with four light-switch mechanisms. Based on the results of the randomized complete block design and Fisher’s least significant difference method, the location of navigation device significantly affects the driver’s distraction level with the right side of the steering wheel being the ideal or least distracting location among the three.

A user’s prior experience with digital technologies predicts their success with a novel digital interface. Consequently, low technology prior experience can cause a potential user to be excluded from successfully navigating a user journey with a digital interface. The Engineering Design Centre’s exclusion calculator can predict the percentage of a population who will be unable to complete a task step in a user journey, but it does not explicitly take into account user exclusion due to insufficient technology prior experience. This paper develops the rationale for a proposed method for assessing the digital inclusivity of a digital interface user journey through evaluation of explicitness and digital interaction pattern familiarity.

Designing movement into automotive seating is a means of countering the detrimental effects of fixed sitting postures. Twelve participants (six males and six females) were recruited to perform two simulated drives of 30 min under two seat movement conditions, single blind and in a balanced order. Interviews were conducted to understand in detail participants’ views regarding the seat movement itself and the new seat concept. A discomfort questionnaire and a seat experience scale were completed at minute 0 (baseline) and after 30 min of each drive. Discomfort scores were collected for body parts - neck, shoulders, upper back, lower back, buttock area, knees and ankles - and overall body. A five-point Likert scale was used to rate responses to the six descriptors on a seat experience scale. The data from interviews indicated positive effects such as feeling refreshed and improved concentration. Although all participants were aware of the seat movement they got used to it quickly - it generally did not affect their driving. The discomfort and seat experience ratings showed a trend for lower discomfort with the fore-aft seat movement condition. Driver seat movement should be as least disruptive as possible to the driver, very small, slow, smooth and slightly perceptible.

This study aims to identify preliminary acceptance and usability goals of a Driver State Monitoring (DSM) system. To demonstrate willingness within a user group to employ DSM technology for the task it is designed to support, the acceptance of the system was investigated using Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. Furthermore, a list of ten usability goals was composed and ranked by participants. In total, 95 responses were recorded. The sample consisted of participants of mixed gender and age (M = 34.81, SD = 9.32 years). The measurement and structure model of acceptance was appraised using Structural Equation Modelling. Overall, the model accounted for 22% of the variance in intention to use DSM technology. It was found that the Social Influence factor is the only significant predictor of Behaviour Intention to use a DSM system. To conclude, several implications for researchers and developers of DSM systems are suggested.

Users of Level 4–5 connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) should not need to intervene with the dynamic driving task or monitor the driving environment, as the system will handle all driving functions. CAV human-machine interface (HMI) dashboards for such CAVs should therefore offer features to support user situation awareness (SA) and provide additional functionality that would not be practical within non-autonomous vehicles. Though, the exact features and functions, as well as their usability, might differ depending on factors such as user needs and context of use. The current paper presents findings from a simulator trial conducted to test the usability of a prototype CAV HMI designed for older adults and/or individuals with sensory and/or physical impairments: populations that will benefit enormously from the mobility afforded by CAVs. The HMI was developed to suit needs and requirements of this demographic based upon an extensive review of HMI and HCI principles focused on accessibility, usability and functionality [1, 2], as well as studies with target users. Thirty-one 50-88-year-olds (M 67.52, three 50–59) participated in the study. They experienced four seven-minute simulated journeys, involving inner and outer urban settings with mixed speed-limits and were encouraged to explore the HMI during journeys and interact with features, including a real-time map display, vehicle status, emergency stop, and arrival time. Measures were taken pre-, during- and post- journeys. Key was the System Usability Scale [3] and measures of SA, task load, and trust in computers and automation. As predicted, SA decreased with journey experience and although cognitive load did not, there were consistent negative correlations. System usability was also related to trust in technology but not trust in automation or attitudes towards computers. Overall, the findings are important for those designing, developing and testing CAV HMIs for older adults and individuals with sensory and/or physical impairments.

Traffic statistics show that compared to four-wheeled vehicles, two-wheeled vehicles have twice the rate of fatal accidents. Yet, research in Human-Machine Interface (HMI) for motorcycle riders has not progressed in comparison. This study describes and evaluates an experimental HMI collision avoidance system using a riding simulator with 15 participants in dangerous road conditions. Results showed that information from the system helped participants safely stop their vehicle due to reduced brake reaction time and deceleration. We quantified the probability of collision based on Monte-Carlo simulation and used an integrated error model to evaluate the overall reliability of the human-machine system. Final results clearly showed that the system reduced traffic accidents, despite potential malfunction.

There are individual differences in the degree of disorder and impairment of low-vision people, but in many cases discrimination of light and darkness is possible. Therefore, it is effective to use flashing light to support amblyopic vision. To support these low-vision people, in previous research, we conducted research on the introduction and adaptation of LEDs as support for low-vision people. Also, we are doing research to install LED blocks at the entrances to pedestrian crossings. In this research, we evaluated LED blocks laid out delineating the crosswalk entrance. The subjects evaluated the flickering stimulus intensity of the presented flickering light and the enhancement of visibility by sensory evaluation. Based on the experiment results, we consider the blinking method most suitable for amblyopia support.

The railroad industry faces the inevitable task of avoiding catastrophic events while performing dynamic tasks under very strict time constraints and operating technology that poses large-scale physical hazards. This paper proposes a risk assessment framework by integrating the 10 traits of a positive safety culture, initially introduced by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with an accident investigation framework called AcciMap, originally proposed by Rasmussen, to proactively address and analyze risks of failures and accidents in the railroad industry.In the first phase, the AcciMap framework is developed to analyze different involved socio-technical and human factors that contributed to the 2008 Chatsworth train collision. The AcciMap, like other accident investigation frameworks, however provides retrospective analyses. Therefore, in the next phase, the 10 traits of a positive safety culture are integrated with each of the layers of the developed AcciMap framework to better understand the consequences of a weak safety culture in railroad accidents.

The road network in Emirate of Abu Dhabi (UAE) features dedicated truck roads. These roads were designed to reduce traffic conflict between light vehicles and trucks and therefore reduce the number of traffic crashes between them, which usually leads to a large number of fatalities and severe injuries. Abu Dhabi-Al Ain Truck Road (E30) is one of the most vital routes in the Emirate; it links Abu Dhabi city with the rest of other Emirate’s cities. Moreover, it is a vital arterial road for accessing a number of important economic facilities and border crossings between the UAE and Oman. Although the road is dedicated to trucks only, it’s been observed that a large number of light vehicles are using it as their preferred route option. This paper aims to identify the current status of traffic safety on E-30 truck road by investigating the contributing factors that affect the occurrence and severity of its crashes.

Drivers have to take the safety of driving into account when they are interacting with the in-vehicle or personal devices. As a result, the micro-gestures performed on a steering wheel have potential benefits for drivers, as they can reduce mental workload and motor resources to a large extent. Without self-piloting system, a bicyclist can only observe the surroundings by naked eyes, thus it is important to measure how much the gesturing will distract users’ attention from riding. In addition, the design of micro-gestures should enable the variations of grasping posture of user in this context. With designers’ help, we devised a set of finger gestures for controlling music applications while cycling. In a lab experiment where the driving situation and field of vision are simulated, we asked 18 participants to perform the gestures in a dual-task test in response to voice triggers. The present study examined the effect of micro-gestures on cyclists’ performance of visual search, as well as the user satisfaction of this input technology.

Car accidents are one of the significant causes of death and injuries across the world. In Saudi Arabia, the traffic accidents have increased in the past few years resulting in massive fatalities and economic losses. As a possible solution to reduce the increased number of accidents, the Saudi traffic agency came up with a new traffic system consists of cameras installed on certain roads and highways. The goal of this study is to investigate the human behaviors in interaction with the speed camera enforcement’s system in Saudi Arabia. In this study, we surveyed a sample size of 251 Saudi citizen to investigate the effectiveness of SAHER system. The results showed that the significant factors couldn’t be affected by the new system and SAHER would not change people’s driving behavior and increase the road safety.

Qatar is one of the fastest growing countries around the world, resulting in substantially high private vehicle usage as well as heavy traffic congestion. It is currently estimated that the private car usage is about 85% of total traffic, and the remaining 15% includes public buses, taxis, and company buses. In this study, a survey was conducted to identify the potential users’ demographics of the of the upcoming metro service. The study revealed that 77.8% of the population is planning to use the upcoming metro service. More male, young, and expatriates are willing to use the service. The results indicate the need for programs to attract more users, especially female, elderly, and local Qataris.

Rail industry in South Africa is facing a dilemma in connection with trains overcrowding causing injuries and fatalities. This paper emphasized this topic analysis to reach the understanding of the problem to an eventual solution that will benefit both the train user and the operator. One of the priority insights look was at the annual train planned schedule versus the actual state of trains given to run. The overall objective of the paper’s study was to analyze the existing train schedule that is currently in use and whether addressing the needs of the commuter. The paper highlighted that the found-out train planned schedule are not always met due to technical issues. The paper also investigated the number of healthy trains versus the commuter demand per peak, because operationally fit trains are required to avoid service distraction that can lead to overcrowding of trains.

In Qatar, it is perceived that the country’s street system should be improved. Traffic crashes and congestion are seen as a threat to the safety of the community in Qatar and a negative element that detracts from the attractiveness of its main streets and the comfort of its users. Promoting a strategy such as the complete streets policy in Qatar could help enhance its streets livability, safety, and walkability. In order to understand where is Qatar from the complete streets policy, a ten-point tool was used to evaluate three local neighborhoods, including one old/traditional, one recently developed, and an upcoming future neighborhood. The results of this study imply that the future/upcoming development performs well against the evaluation criteria of the complete streets policy compared to the old neighborhoods. This shows Qatar’s commitment and significant progress towards developing complete streets for its citizens to achieve active lifestyle and sustainability.

Station indicators help passengers navigate their way to their desired station. Consistent, concise, and correct information provided by the station indicators is vital for passengers to be able to navigate their way. However, no evaluation has been done on the three identified visual and auditory station indicators used in a rapid transit system in the Philippines, namely the route maps found inside the trains, the station name signs found on station platforms, and the announcement of the station names by the driver. A survey of 323 passengers of the rapid transit was conducted, showing that 24.15% of which had experienced alighting at wrong stations, leading to lost time and money, and unnecessary stress. To evaluate the effectiveness of the station indicators, a simulation for new passengers was conducted. Nine participants who have never ridden the rapid transit, and were unfamiliar with the landmarks found along the route were asked to ride and alight on a specific station of the rapid transit. A modified system usability scale was used as a post-test questionnaire to measure the usability of the station indicators. Among the three, only the station name sign was found to be an effective station indicator.

Advances in technology applied to tractor-trailers and the trucking infrastructure are delivering bottom line advantages and improved human factors. The U.S. long-haul trucking industry is a highly-competitive, multi-billion dollar industry which supports both national productivity and international trade. Within the industry, the intense competition results in cost and schedule pressures that push long-haul drivers to their limits resulting in physical and mental health problems and a life expectancy that is 23 years below that of the average American. This paper begins with a high-level look at health statistics for long haul drivers. This paper then provides several case studies where technologies such as improved transmissions, tire designs, cabin ergonomics, and vibration cancelling seats are delivering business cost advantages while improving driver health and performance. Finally, this paper looks forward at future technologies with the potential to improve driver awareness, safety, and health, such as Augmented Reality and Augmented Cognition.

This paper reports on part of the French MEDOC Project that was supported by Foundation MAIF, Paris, France [grant number RP4-F14140]. The main goal of this project was to understand near miss situations using both objective and subjective methods for data collection: the vehicle dynamics and registered driver’s actions; and the self-reported conditions that led to the occurrence and self-reported road users’ actions to avoid an accident. The collected data allowed for comparing reported ones. The project involved a total of 154 drivers. However, this paper just addresses the group of 27 older drivers. Although older drivers are generally considered safe and cautious drivers, age-related perceptual and cognitive declines might have an impact on self-perception of their own abilities and behavior leading some of them to be under or over-estimators, which will influence their perception of any sudden event. Thus, this study is important to compare their self-reports with the collected data from sensors.

The Federal Roads System in Malaysia mainly consist of rural two-lane highways in which a single lane is provided for each direction of travel. This kind of roadway does not have any road barriers and hence, will cause higher levels of interaction between vehicles travelling in the same and opposing directions. The amount of overtaking opportunities available is dependent on headway and speed distributions for a given traffic volume. Drivers that are travelling at less than their desired speed due to lack of passing opportunities will cause formation of platoons and platooning is an important phenomenon at two-lane highways. As platooning is related to headway and speed of vehicles, analysis on platooning headway and speed were conducted in this study. In addition, due to the mixed traffic composition in Malaysia, further analyses were conducted to investigate the effect of heavy vehicles and motorcycles on platooning behavior.

This study was conducted to find out exactly how experts are driving a car from objective data during driving operation, focusing on improving driving skills. Experiments were conducted using a sports sedan type experimental vehicle that can change the assist amount of the steering wheel, using a circumferential circuit having multiple curves in an automobile company. For the analysis, steering angle data obtained from the vehicle and electromyogram data obtained from an electromyograph are used. From the analysis of the steering angle, the skilled turn curves with less turning the steering compared to the unskilled. From the analysis of the steering angular velocity data and the steering angular acceleration data, it became possible to classify them into skilled and unskilled in the steering handle operation rhythm during driving. From the analysis of the electromyogram data, focusing on the triangular muscle on the push side during the curve, it became possible to classify into skilled and unskilled.

The prospective safety impact assessment is an important method for evaluating traffic safety effects of Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS). Different approaches are known to determine a technology’s impact on traffic safety, e.g. driving simulator studies, driving studies on the test track, Field Operational Tests and virtual simulation. For the virtual simulation, it is essential to have a detailed representation of the interactive processes between the driver, the vehicle with the system under assessment and the environment in traffic. The modeling of the driver led to the development of the Stochastic Cognitive Model (SCM) at the BMW Group that bases on stochastic processes and considers human cognitive behavior. This paper focuses on driver behavior modeling. For this purpose, the paper investigates in detail the influence of driver characteristics and personality on driver behavior in a virtual multi-agent simulation based on a driving simulator study. Therefore, correlations between driver characteristics and relevant aspects of driver behavior have been investigated and results will be reported in the present paper.

Dubai (UAE) has experienced phenomenal transformation and rapid development recently. Despite high quality roads and transportation infrastructure, improving road safety is a major challenge due to extremely diverse socio-cultural background of Dubai’s population. Smooth urban mobility is very critical to Dubai’s continued economic growth and future development. Safer roads will not only boost investment and business activity but also improve quality of life for residents and visitors. In this regard, the vision of “zero fatality by 2020” is an ambitious government initiative. This research sought to understand the behavior of professional drivers influenced by unique socio-cultural, economic and religious factors and its impact on road safety in fast growing city of Dubai. The study adopted qualitative method involving in-depth interviews with 25 professional drivers of various backgrounds using thematic analysis. The findings show positive correlation between socio-cultural, economic factors and aberrant driver behavior but religious fatalism needs further research.

Collision warning systems reduce crashes. They may improve habits, if individuals avoid behaviors that trigger alerts. When paired with telematics, individuals may change behavior over concern about monitoring. Mobileye-630 aftermarket systems with multiple crash avoidance warnings were installed in 21 privately-owned vehicles and telematics were installed in 15 of the 21. Warning rates were generated during 4-week baseline and 8-week treatment periods. Rates for three warning systems (forward collision warning, lane departure warning, headway monitoring) decreased by 30 to 70%. Rates were significantly lower for rural compared with urban drivers. Speeding behavior during treatment was similar to baseline. In a survey of participants, 62% agreed that Mobileye helped improve their safety while driving. Many drivers stated preferences for less conservative warning thresholds.

For automobile comfort engineering, lateral support is one of the most important factors. To analyze lateral support of a vehicle seat, it is essential to understand a driver’s upper body motion when various contexts. The purpose of this study is that developing the measurement method of driver’s lateral motion when in-vehicle condition. A verification study which the accuracy of an evaluating lateral support motion by using the IMU sensor system was conducted through compare with optical motion system. Lateral motion evaluation conducted with each one of BIC and WIC on luxury sedan segment. As results, occupant’s upper body lateral bending motion on WIC vehicle was larger than BIC vehicle’s. This paper describes an measurement method for evaluating the lateral support when cornering from the perspective of actual vehicle driving test.

By studying subjects’ skin conductance (SC), EMG, pulse and heart rates under the condition that vehicle braking system is of partial failure, complete failure, single circuit failure, or normal condition, this study examines whether there are significant changes of the physiological and psychological behavior of the drivers under the condition of vehicle braking system failure and normal driving. With the method of repeat measurement of variance analysis, 6 subjects are tested, including experienced drivers and inexperienced drivers, who are equipped with apparatus testing SC, EMG, pulse and heart rates before the experiment, and subjects’ parameters under the condition of vehicle braking system failure and normal driving are both recorded. Experimental results show that the braking distance, braking time, average braking deceleration and ECG index can reflect the risk of vehicle braking performance and the level of driver’s risk perception. The results of this study provide experimental data supports for defect determination of automobile braking system failure.

The aim of this study was to analyze the driver behavior during the interaction with a pedestrian crossing into and outside the zebra crossing. 42 participants experienced different conditions of driver-pedestrian interactions (no pedestrian, legal and illegal crossings). The drivers’ behavior variables were collected from the drivers’ speed profiles, which were plotted in the last 150 m in advance of the collision point. Based on the vehicle dynamics, more critical driver’s speed behaviors were revealed for illegal pedestrian crossings, for which the driver adopted abrupt yielding maneuver compared to the legal crossing condition. Moreover, higher accident rates were recorded when drivers interacted with jaywalkers. The results confirm that adequate pedestrian paths should be planned in order to avoid jaywalker conditions and pedestrian detection systems could significantly help the driver in the condition of illegal pedestrian crossing behavior.

The current study was aimed to study the driver’s behavior while approaching zebra crossings under different types of roads. A driving simulator experiment was carried out to collect drivers’ behavior in response to a pedestrian crossing in different road environments (urban, suburban and rural road). The speed profile of each driver was plotted 150 m in advance of each one of the crossroads and the variables of the driving behavior were analyzed by a set of ANOVAs. Results showed that the driver had similar behavior in the urban and suburban road, while in the rural environment the driver compensates the higher risks due to the higher speeds by advancing the yielding maneuver. Such findings should be considered for the development of driving assistance systems for pedestrian detection in the different types of road environments.

This paper suggests a framework that collects real-time public big data and reproduces them useful information such as crash likelihood to provide to drivers for their awareness of hazardous road under rainy weather conditions. A binary logistic regression model is applied to estimate driving environmental impact on freeway crashes. The driving environments are categorized as weather condition, traffic condition and road geometry. Eleven factors from the environment information are chosen for independent variables of the logistic regression analysis. The model proves that speed, cumulative precipitation and road geometry characteristics are correlated to the crash likelihood. Drivers would use the crash likelihood information for avoiding hazardous road, and vehicle navigation systems would add the information in their routing problem.

Conventional statistical methods have utilized a coarse aggregation of information crosswise over subjects that may not be illustrative of any single person. Despite the fact that Generalized Estimating Equations system stretches out summed up direct model to take into account examination of repeated estimations or other similar observations, the non-linear connection between dependent and independent variables that could hinder model performance. In this study, we propose Generalized Estimating Equation based tree model that combines the benefits of both models by separating the data set recursively into subsets with different parameter estimates. For the best use of the proposed model, distracted driving on the intersection is examined. Past examinations have concentrated on evaluating the singular effect of individual geometry and human characteristic variables on driving behaviors. Interactions between factors related with red-light running (e.g., cell phone use, cell phone interface, and driver age) introduce diverse levels of distraction on red-light running. We recognize interactions that are sensitive to red-light running and different as a function of the level of the speed and yellow interval duration. Drivers are more vulnerable to cell phone distractions when their location is close the stop line of the intersection at the beginning of yellow interval.

Traffic accidents in the Middle East are a primary concern for governments and local communities owing to the large numbers of fatalities, injuries and economic losses. Many analytical methods have been used in the literature to analyze the accidents database. One of the recent methods in this domain is the data-mining techniques. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of a well-known data mining technique called Random Forests (RF) in predicting the severity of road accidents based on 5973 accidents occurred in Abu Dhabi over a period of 6 years (2008–2013). The factors studied in this paper include: five accident-related attributes (year, day, time, reason of accident, and accident type), six driver-related attributes (gender, nationality, age, seat belt use, casualty status, degree of injury), and five road-related attributes (lighting, road surface, speed limit, lane numbers, and weather). The severity of the accident was classified into one of four classes (Minor, Moderate, Severe, and Death). RF was then used to build a prediction model using 10-fold cross validation method. The overall model predication performance was 68.5%. The generated model was found to perform poorly on the underrepresented classes (Death and Severe). As a result, the original data was transformed into a balanced data set using Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE). The performance of RF on the balanced data was 78.19% with 14% improvement. In order to validate the performance of the RF model, an ordered probit model was also used as a comparative benchmark. The accuracy of the ordered probit model was 59.5%, and 34% for the original and balanced data sets respectively. It was obvious that RF technique outperforms the ordered probit method in predicting the severity or road traffic accidents.

Individual differences in morningness-eveningness preference may influence susceptibility and response to sleepiness. These differences could influence driving performance, but the influence of morningness-eveningness preference on driving behavior and accident risk has not been comprehensively studied. This study explored the difference between Morning-type and evening type drivers in cognitive ability and driving behaviors. The results showed that evening type drivers reported more dangerous driving behavior, as measured by the Dula Dangerous Driving Index, especially with risky driving and negative emotional driving behaviour. For cognitive abilities, the results showed that there was a main effect of chronotype on the accuracy and reaction time of visual search, and the accuracy of visual-spatial working memory. More specifically, the evening type persons demonstrated better visual search and spatial working memory ability than morning type persons. These results implied the influence of chronotype on driving behavior and the implications of these results are also discussed.

We have studied the evaluation of human discomfort with the seat fidgets and movements (SFMs). In our previous studies, we video-recorded the participants’ movements during all experiment and checked all video off-line to derive the SFMs frequencies of participants. In this methodology, our workloads were too heavy to obtain SFMs of participants. In addition, we sometimes missed SFMs of participants due to the occlusion problem like as right leg overlapped the left leg when we video-recorded the participant from right side with the single camera. Thus, we have studied a simple detection method of SFMs to evaluate personal discomfort in a vehicle seat. In this article, we described a new methodology with flex sensors and showed a possibility of SFMs extraction by observing the outputs of six flex sensors attached to participant body.

This paper provides an assessment on to what level of whole-body vibration (WBV) jeepney drivers are exposed to, specifically those perceived as new type of jeepneys, or Sarao jeepneys. The assessment was solely based on the exposure limits set by the European Union, since no standards have been established yet in the Philippines. It has also discussed the possible health risks of overexposure to WBV, and reduced this kind of vibration through practical vibration dampeners such as styrofoam, pillow, and rags. It has been found that rags incur a 7% reduction in WBV with a 70% accuracy in reducing the vibration.

The number of registered private vehicles in the Philippines increases by 300 to 400 thousand per year, with around 9.2 million vehicles registered and 5.8 million licenses and permits issued in 2016. One of the factors that plays an important role in the comfort of the driver is the car seat. Previous studies have shown that driving for more than 4 h may induce body pains such as lower back, neck, and foot pain. This study investigates the possible mismatch between the driver seat specifications and anthropometric measurement of Filipinos. Five of the most common car models sold in the Philippines were chosen. Specification of the driver seats were measured and compared to Filipino anthropometric measurements. In addition, driver discomfort was also examined by performing surveys to drivers of the selected car models using the Nordic Questionnaire and likert scale comfortability rating. Common problematic parts for all car models are the seat length, headrest height, and legroom (also represented as distance from seat to pedals for anthropometric analysis) which were consistent for all evaluation tools used: anthropometric assessment, Nordic Questionnaire, and Comfortability rating.

In South Korea, drivers may have lower awareness about roundabouts which have been provided for just a decade. This may call for affecting the compliance rates with traffic rules. Given in this mind, this study explored the relationship between the awareness and the compliance with traffic rules at roundabouts using a multivariate statistical method, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The research hypotheses were that driver experience and awareness are the factors affecting compliance with traffic rules. As the result, the higher the awareness of roundabouts, the higher compliance rates with traffic rules. It is recommended that transportation jurisdictions need to educate drivers in Korea for raising the awareness at a roundabout. The authors expect that the result may play a role in reduction in traffic crashes at the roundabouts in South Korea.

Many traffic accidents are caused by distraction of the driver. While head-up displays (HUDs) offer great advantages, these devices are still dependent on the line of sight of the driver. This paper looks at low-budget options to determine the drivers current line of sight and use the entire windshield to display warning messages accordingly within the field of view of the driver. The implemented tracking systems were tested in a static driving simulator. In a study, the gaze-dependent warning systems were compared to a standard HUD. Reaction times of the driver were measured in controlled situations of distraction and non-distraction. Results show that the reaction times decrease in distraction cases when using warning messages displayed within line of sight of the driver compared to an HUD. Furthermore, the paper provides feedback by the subjects, e.g., concerning the practicability of the different tracking systems.

The Puerto Rico Dynamic Toll Lane (DTL) is a reversible managed lane facility located in the median of a segment of freeway PR-22. Safety and operational concerns have emerged with vehicles traveling with higher speed profiles than the posted speed limit. The objective of this paper is focused on the application of a Random Forest Model to perform a safety and operational analysis based on driving simulator data of the virtual environment of PR-22 DTL using the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM) of the simulation. This model ranks the importance of independent variables for each performance measure (i.e. operating speed and acceleration noise). Research results indicate that the most important variable for the performance measure operating speed is the posted speed limit, resulting with the highest increase in variation of the mean square error (MSE).

Situation awareness (SA) is of utmost importance for the signaler as part of the infrastructure management in railway operations. However, in previous studies assessing signaler SA, a good performance was accompanied by mediocre results for SA. This unexpected result can be explained using the theory of situated SA, which posits that operators store knowledge important for situation awareness internally as well as externally in the work environment. To further investigate whether the theory of situated SA can be applied in rail signaling, an assessment tool for signaler SA was developed. Furthermore, by applying the developed assessment tool, it can be investigated which factors determine if information is stored externally or internally. Knowing which information signalers store where will help to develop more precise measures to assess and support signaler SA, ensuring a better performance of these crucial operators in the safety and efficiency of the railway system.