Introducing readers to the behavior of drivers, this title covers a wide variety of perspectives on human factors, ranging from the design of roads, vehicles, and traffic control devices to emotional and motivational determinants of driver behavior. This new edition has been extensively revised and contains new chapters on driver education and driver distraction.

This comprehensive 2nd edition covers the key issues that relate human behavior to traffic safety. In particular it covers the increasing roles that pedestrians and cyclists have in the traffic system; the role of infotainment in driver distraction; and the increasing role of driver assistance systems in changing the driver-vehicle interaction.

The UR:BAN MV project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy BMWi focused specifically on the user of future vehicle assistance and information systems. In the case of advanced driver assistance systems for urban areas, the primary emphasis is safety in combination with efficiency and comfort. Research institutes and automotive industry have investigated human-vehicle interaction and behaviour of different traffic participants.This book gives a unique and comprehensive insight into the results. Driver assistance and information systems were optimized for use in urban settings. Furthermore, innovative test regimes for controllability testing and new evaluation techniques like networked simulators and virtual reality test-beds are described including statistical methodologies.

Many books focus on individual differences and how those relate to traffic safety such as accident proneness, gender differences, age, alcohol, and the effects of drugs. Others focus on the safety effects regarding the vehicle such as airbags, anti-lock brakes, navigation systems, intelligent cruise control and other new gadgets coming to the vehicle. Even though these topics are undoubtedly important for traffic safety, this book takes a unique approach as it focuses solely on the road environment. Designing Safe Road Systems provides the background for those who want to know more about the effects of road design on driving behaviour. It uses a systems approach to allow a better understanding of why and in what circumstances drivers may commit errors. This understanding will ultimately lead to road systems that prevent (fatal) errors from occurring. The book contains an overview of the current models and theories about human performance and human behaviour in traffic that are relevant for all those involved in designing safe road systems. The central theme of this book is how design principles can reduce the probability of an error while driving. The authors demonstrate how knowledge of human factors helps a road authority to better understand how road users behave. They argue that in many cases the design of the environment can be further adjusted to human capabilities, and that safety should be considered a system property to be built into the road system.

"This book's title has two parts, "Roadway Human Factors" and "From Science To Application." The first describes its major goal: to analyze driver behavior, especially the causes and avoidance of collisions. In most general terms, the goal is largely to answer a single question: "Why didn't the driver respond sooner?" The cause of most collisions lies in the answer. The book's perspective is psychological. It views roadway events through the eyes of the driver. This contrasts with the third-party god's eye view that appears in accident reconstruction diagrams and other analyses which are primarily based in physics and cookbook science. Physics cannot be ignored, but roadway events can only be explained by examining driver psychology. Drivers act based on their perceived reality which differs from the physical reality of the accident reconstruction diagram. The second part announces its method: the application of scientific research. Specifically, the science in question is experimental psychology. Much of this book reads like an introductory text on experimental psychology, albeit with a distinctly applied slant. This is necessary. There are frequent misunderstandings about the definition of human factors. It is best described as a branch of experimental psychology. Human factors applies experimental psychology data to guide the design of objects and environments so that they that fit human abilities and are easy and safe to use. This book's underlying thesis is that knowledge of the science is a necessary but not sufficient condition for understanding roadway human factors. The key word in the title is "From" because there is a catch-22. Controlled research has inherent characteristics which differ from real-world conditions. Scientific research is generally conducted in highly simplified and artificial situations with unrepresentative subjects and drivers. Scientific research data cannot then be directly applied to the real-world. The step from science to application is far greater than many imagine, probably because there are so few who are well versed in both. The book also introduces areas of science that are unfamiliar to most who investigate collisions. "Ecological optics" is a discipline of perceptual psychology that is key in understanding vehicle guidance and collision avoidance. "Visual psychophysics" is the psychological science that underlies visibility and all other sensory judgments. "Operant learning" is the psychological science of adaptability and behavior change based on the consequences of action. The book also introduces more specific concepts that are important but seldom figured into collision analysis. These include notions such as affordances and action boundaries, system tolerances, crowding, and response conflicts"--

Despite the strong safety record of the national airspace system, serious disruptions occasionally occur, often as a result of outdated or failed equipment. Under these circumstances, safety relies on the skills of the controllers and pilots and on reducing the number of aircraft in the air. The current and growing pressures to increase the capacity to handle a greater number of flights has led to a call for faster and more powerful equipment and for equipment that can take over some of the tasks now being performed by humans. Increasing the role of automation in air traffic control may provide a more efficient system, but will human controllers be able to effectively take over when problems occur? This comprehensive volume provides a baseline of knowledge about the capabilities and limitations of humans relative to the variety of functions performed in air traffic control. It focuses on balancing safety with the expeditious flow of air traffic, identifying lessons from past air accidents. The book discusses: The function of the national airspace system and the procedures for hiring, training, and evaluating controllers. Decisionmaking, memory, alertness, vigilance, sleep patterns during shift work, communication, and other factors in controllers' performance. Research on automation and human factors in air traffic control and incorporation of findings into the system. The Federal Aviation Administration's management of the air traffic control system and its dual mandate to promote safety and the development of air commerce. This book also offers recommendations for evaluation the human role in automated air traffic control systems and for managing the introduction of automation into current facilities and operations. It will be of interest to anyone concerned about air safetyâ€"policymakers, regulators, air traffic managers and controllers, airline officials, and passenger advocates.

This book discusses the latest advances in research and development, design, operation and analysis of transportation systems and their complementary infrastructures. It reports on both theories and case studies on road and rail, aviation and maritime transportation. Further, it covers a wealth of topics, from accident analysis, vehicle intelligent control, and human-error and safety issues to next-generation transportation systems, model-based design methods, simulation and training techniques, and many more. A special emphasis is placed on smart technologies and automation in transport, and on the user-centered, ergonomic and sustainable design of transport systems. The book, which is based on the AHFE 2019 International Conference on Human Factors in Transportation, held on July 24-28, 2019, in Washington D.C., USA, mainly addresses the needs of transportation system designers, industrial designers, human–computer interaction researchers, civil and control engineers, as well as vehicle system engineers. Moreover, it represents a timely source of information for transportation policy-makers and social scientists whose work involves traffic safety, management, and sustainability issues in transport.

Traffic psychology is a rapidly expanding and broad field within applied psychology with a considerable volume of research activities and a growing network of academic strands of enquiry. The discipline primarily focuses on the behaviour of road users and the psychological processes underlying these behaviours, looking at issues such as cognition, distraction, fatigue, personality and social aspects, often delivering practical applications and educational interventions. Traffic psychology has been the focus of research for almost as long as the motor car has been in existence and was first recognised as a discipline in 1990 when the International Association of Applied Psychology formed Division 13: Traffic and Transportation Psychology. The benefits of understanding traffic psychology are being increasingly recognised by a whole host of organisations keen to improve road safety or minimise health and safety risks when travelling in vehicles. The objective of this volume is to describe and discuss recent advances in the study of traffic psychology, with a major focus on how the field contributes to the understanding of at-risk road-user behaviour. The intended readerships include road-safety researchers from a variety of different academic backgrounds, senior practitioners in the field including regulatory authorities, the private and public sector personnel, and vehicle manufacturers concerned with improving road safety.