Lecture 2 Human Factors
Lecture 2 Human Factors
Lecture 2 Human Factors
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Road Traffic Crashes due to Human Factors
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Human Factors
ROAD TRAFFIC SAFETY
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Overview
Human Factors: Overview
Human Factors Guidelines for Road Systems
Driving Task
Driver Expectancy
Reducing Driver Error
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Human Factors: Overview
Human factors is an applied, scientific discipline that tries to enhance the
relationship between devices and systems, and the people who are meant to
use them.
As a discipline, human factors approaches system design with the “user” as its
focal point.
Human factors practitioners bring expert knowledge concerning the capabilities
and limitations of human beings that are important for the design of devices
and systems of many kinds.
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Human Factors @Transportation system
In road safety, the term human factors is typically used to describe how people
respond to the roadway environment. However, people are NOT simply users of
the transportation system
Humans also design, engineer, build and maintain the roadway environment,
the vehicles using it and the laws governing behavior of roadway users and
vehicle manufacturers
In that sense, the entire transportation system is a product of human factors.
The concept of human factors, which refers to how human behaviour affects
transportation safety, is misunderstood.
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Human Factors @Transportation system
Human factors is the application of psychological and physiological principles to
the engineering and design of products, processes, and systems.
The goal of understanding the effects of human factors is to reduce the
probability and consequences of human error, especially the injuries and
fatalities resulting from these errors, by designing systems with respect to
human characteristics and limitations
Within the context of transportation, road users’ capabilities and limitations
are incorporated into the design, operations, and safety.
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Human Behaviour
Motivation
Learning Emotions
Psychological
Factors
Individual
Differences
Human Behaviour
Hearing
Judgement
Vision
Power
Physical
Factors
Reaction
Strength
Time
Human Factors Overview
• Drivers make frequent mistakes because of physical, perceptual, and
cognitive limitations of human
• Errors of judgment concerning approaching speed, gap acceptance, curve negotiation
Perceptual: relating to the ability to interpret or become aware of something through the sense
(cannot judge distances).
Cognitive: connected with the processes of understanding (learning new things, remembering)
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Pedestrian Pelican Sign
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Four groups of drivers' action faults
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Four groups of drivers' action faults: Example
Impact of Signal Countdown Timers (SCTs) on driver behavior:
1. Lapses
◦ You are distracted from the road by SCTs and as a result, it is difficult for you to detect
whether the front vehicle has slowed down and you have to apply brakes or not
2. Errors
◦ You are distracted by seeing the SCT and do not notice the pedestrians crossing the
street
3. Unintentional violations
◦ After observing the SCT and crossing the intersection, look at your speedometer and
realize that your speed was unintentionally exceeded
4. Intentional violations
◦ Observing the last seconds of SCT cause you to overtake the front vehicle in any way
possible (Zigzag movement - unauthorized speed)
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Human Factors Guidelines for Road Systems
• NCHRP Report 600
• Purpose:
• “Provide the best fact-based
information and insight on the
characteristics of road users to
facilitate safe roadway design and
operational decisions”
• “Intended to provide human factors
principles and findings to the
highway designer and traffic
engineer”
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Human Factors Guidelines for Road Systems
• Covers human factors related to
specific elements including:
• Sight distance
• Curves and grades
• Roadside section
• Intersections and interchanges
• Work zones
• Rail-road at-grade crossings
• Urban vs. rural considerations
• Signage, pavement markings and
lighting
• Speed perception/choice/control
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Identify the Human Factors Issues
Identify the Human Factors Issues
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Human Factors Guidelines
• Uses of the HFG:
• Enhance initial roadway planning
and design activities
• Conduct diagnostic assessments of
safety concerns & incidents
• Support road safety audits
• Identify & select safety
countermeasures
• Educate traffic engineers &
designers on user needs,
capabilities, and limitations
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Human Factors Guidelines: Example
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Human Factors in the Highway Safety Manual
(HSM)
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Driving Task - Role of the Driver
The driver plays an important role in design
◦ Must be able to identify indication in sufficient time to respond appropriately
Safe driving is function of drivers’ ability to
Receiving necessary information
Using this information correctly
Driver error is a factor in more than 90% of crashes and a primary cause in 45% to
75% of all crashes
◦ Distractions
◦ Impairment (DUI/DWI)
◦ Following too closely
◦ Failure to yield
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Three Driving Tasks
Control
◦ Basic driving tasks
• Driver’s interaction with the vehicle
◦ Includes steering, speed control
Guidance
◦ Mid-level driving tasks
• Drivers’ maintenance of a safe speed and path
◦ Includes road/path following and responding to changes in the road, weather, and traffic
conditions
Navigation
◦ Highest-level driving tasks
◦ Planning and Executing a trip from the origin and destination
◦ Includes trip planning and route following (e.g., map navigation, verbal direction, guide signs,
landmarks)
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Three Driving Tasks
Control, Guidance, and Navigation
◦ form a hierarchy of information handling complexity
Information handling
◦ Control level
• relatively simple and so completely overlearned by most drivers that it is performed almost by rote
◦ Guidance and navigation levels
• increasingly complex, and drivers need more processing time to make decisions and respond to
information inputs
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Three Driving Tasks
Control, Guidance, and Navigation
◦ form a hierarchy in terms of the importance of safe driving
Primacy
◦ Control and Guidance level
• errors often result in crashes, these levels assume a higher primacy
◦ Navigation levels
• consequences of error are likely to be lost or confused drivers
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Cognitive Information Processing
Most adults can store between 5 and 9 items in their short-term memory –
Miller’s Law
◦ 7±2 bits of info
◦ e.g., phone number is short term storage capacity for average human
Demands of tasks change based on conditions
◦ Traffic volumes
◦ Distractions
◦ Weather
◦ Impairment driving under influence, driving while intoxicated
Humans process information in serial
◦ Very rapid processing makes it seem like we are processing inputs in parallel
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The Driving Task
Driving task - complex and demanding
often occurs at high speeds (expressway), congested road, under
time pressure, in unfamiliar locations, and under adverse OLA/UBER/Rented
environmental conditions vehicle driver
Roadway designers need to consider the guidance component of the driving task
so that their designs can aid driver performance
- highway design and traffic operations have a great effect on guidance
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Situational Demands
Drivers commit errors when task overloading or underloading occurs
• Overloading examples?
• Underloading examples?
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Task Overload Example
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Task Overload Example
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Task Underload Example
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Task Underload Example
https://www.dangerousroads.org/around-the-world/our-lists/3759-the-10-
longest-straight-roads-in-the-world.html
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Roadway Guidance
PRIMARY DRIVER GUIDANCE ACTIVITIES
◦ Lane placement
◦ Road following
• Drivers use feedback process to follow road alignment, integrates obstacle/collision–avoidance
decisions
◦ Car following
• more complex than road-following decisions, involves speed-control modifications
• Requires constant modification of speed to maintain safe gaps between vehicles
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Roadway Guidance
◦ Passing manoeuvres
• decisions require modifications in road and car-following and speed control;
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Elements of Passing Sight Distance on 2-lane Highways
(AASHTO, 2001)
Dpassing = d1 + d2 + d3 + d4
Providing Roadway Guidance Info
Drivers rely on both info from the current environment and previous experience
✔ Traffic control devices - Formal sources of information
▪ Signs (regulatory, warning, informatory)
▪ Pavement markings and delineators
▪ Traffic signals
▪ Variable Message Signs
✔ Roadway environment
▪ Roadway alignment
▪ Sight distances
▪ Placement of signs and other obstacles (guardrail, and
median barriers)
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Ad Hoc Information
Drivers rely on “ad hoc” information gained immediately before a guidance
activity
▪ Information that pertains to the current or upcoming driving task
▪ Signs, markings, signals, VMS are all important sources of “ad hoc” information
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A Priori Expectancy
Improving the expectancy of a situation is key to reducing driver errors and subsequent crashes
• Expectancy affects how drivers perceive and handle information and modify the speed and nature of their
responses
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Driver Expectancy
Drivers develop “a priori” expectancy based on past experience.
List three examples of:
◦ Consistency used in roadway design
◦ Uncommon design characteristics that may violate driver
expectancy
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Examples of expectancy violations in design…
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SHOULDER RUMBLE STRIP
SHOULDER RUMBLE STRIP
CENTERLINE RUMBLE STRIP
CENTERLINE RUMBLE STRIP
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Ways Engineers Can Reduce Driver Error
oUnderstand your driver population and design accordingly
oProvide design consistency throughout the country as well as between
jurisdiction
oReduce situational demands such as info. overload
oDo not provide unnecessary information
oEnforce against voluntary distractions (e.g., texting, mobile use during driving)
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Ways Engineers Can Reduce Driver Error
The Design Driver
Driver Characteristics and Design
Age and Driving
Vision and Driving
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Design Driver
Design Criteria must be
based on the
capabilities and limitations of
MOST drivers and pedestrians
So first of all you need to know exactly who you are designing for. The group of people you are designing for is
called the user population
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Who Do We Care For?
Cost trade-off:
◦ Designing for a greater % of population increases costs
What range of drivers use the system?
▪ Driving age: 18 years to __ years
Average Driver?
◦ Doesn’t capture enough people (~50% left behind)
Everyone?
◦ Often too broad a range (too expensive)
Diverse, but not quite everyone?
◦ Standard design practice: 85th – 95th percentile
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age
Age
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Sources of Driver Information
Visual reception
❑ Seeing the environment is the most important human element of driving – roadway
alignment, sign, marking, interactions
Hearing perception
Others
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Driving and Characteristics of Vision
Highway Safety Manual (USA) discusses five aspects of vision:
◦ Visual Acuity – Ability to see details at a distance (static and dynamic). Itself may not be a good
predictor of driving safety
◦ Contrast Sensitivity – The ability to detect slight differences in luminance (brightness of light) between an
object and its background;
◦ Peripheral Vision – The ability to detect objects that are outside of the area of most accurate vision within
the eye;
◦ Movement in Depth – The ability to estimate the speed of another vehicle by the rate of change of visual
angle of the vehicle created at the eye ; and,
◦ Visual Search – The ability to search the rapidly changing road scene to collect road information
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Luminance (Brightness) Example
Be sure to
check
brightness
both day
and night!
Snellen chart
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Visual acuity
Measure of the ability of the eye to distinguish shapes and the details of objects
at a given distance
20/20 Vision
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• Driver’s ability to clearly detect relatively moving objects (dynamic
visual acuity
• Most people have clear vision within a conical angle of 3 to 5 degrees
• Fairly clear vision within a conical angle of 10 to 12 degrees
• Vision beyond this range is usually blurred
Drivers will see clearly those devices that are within the 12 degree cone,
but objects outside this cone will be blurred
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In India, driving license is issued by the Regional Transport Offices of each state and the procedure is regulated by the
Motor Vehicle Act (MVA) 1988, amended in 2017.
• As per MVA, a self-declaration (form 1) to drive a non transport vehicle and
• a medical certificate from a registered medical practitioner (form 1A) to drive a transport vehicle is the only formal
requirements.
• Self-declaration form 1 carries three questions related to visual function – 1. Is the applicant able to distinguish a
motor car number plate from 25 meters,
• 2. Is the applicant able to distinguish pigmentary colors red and green, and
• 3. Does the applicant have night blindness?
Medical examination form carries the same questions to be answered by a registered medical practitioner but does not
mandate any specific test or assessment criteria. If the number plate letter size is standard 65 mm, ability to see it from
25 meters approximately translates to a visual acuity of 20/40 and is rather subjective.
Unfortunately, the MVA amendment of 2017 did not include general vision-specific criteria for driving license that
includes visual acuity, colour vision, phoria or depth perception
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6/12 or better for monocular
vision
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On spot
vision
testing and
provision
of glasses
to drivers
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According to a World Bank study, road crashes are
estimated to cost the Indian economy between 5 to 7
percent of GDP a year
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Contrast Sensitivity
The ability to detect slight differences between an object and its background in
◦ Luminance (brightness of light) and/or
◦ Chromatic (color)
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Luminance (Brightness) Contrast
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Luminance (Brightness) Contrast
Daytime (Diffuse reflection) vs. Nighttime (Retro-reflection)
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Luminance (Brightness) Contrast
Daytime (Diffuse reflection) vs. Nighttime (Retro-reflection)
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Chromatic (color) Contrast
Compare the
vests. Which is
better?
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Improved Font Legibility
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Peripheral Vision
The ability to detect objects that are outside of the area of most accurate vision
within the eye
• Details are not clear but motion can be detected
• Vision cone can be up to 160º horizontally
- decreases with speed, and age around (60-70 yrs)
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Peripheral vision
It’s what allows you to see objects all around you without turning
your head or moving your eyes. It helps you to sense motion and do
activity without crashing into things. It’s what you use to see
something out of the corner of your eye.
◦ Drive
◦ Walk
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Movement in Depth
The ability to estimate the speed of another vehicle by the rate of change of
visual angle of the vehicle created at the eye ;
When is this important?
• Passing on two-lane roads
• Judging gaps
- Very young and old have trouble judging gap
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Movement in Depth
The human eye is not very good at estimating absolute values of speed,
distance, size, and acceleration.
◦ This is why traffic control devices are standard in size, shape, and color. (overtaking zone)
Color Vision?
◦ Ability to differentiate one color from another
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Characteristics of Vision
Combinations to which the eye is the most sensitive
Key in determining
traffic signs colors
Compare the
vests. Which is
better?
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Color Vision Test
Lack of ability = color blindness
Can you see the numbers in each circle?
Compare the
vests. Which is
better?
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Characteristics of Vision
How do engineers design around color blindness?
• Sign shapes
◦ Octagonal: Stop
◦ Triangular: Yield
◦ Rectangular: Information
Compare the
• Placement of traffic signal heads
◦ Green at bottom or right ??
vests. Which is
◦ Red on top or left ?? better?
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Types of Glare
Direct glare : bright light appears in the individual’s field of vision
◦ Sun shines in your eyes
◦ Bright headlights from an oncoming vehicle
Reflected (specular) glare: image reflected by relatively bright light appears in
the field of vision
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Glare
Specular
glare
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Hearing Perception
The ear receives sound stimuli, which is important to drivers only when warning
sounds by emergency vehicles
Other instances?
Important for ANY other road user?
Pedestrian – Longitudinal vs. crossing
movements (distracted)
New Risk Situations Related to Low Noise from Electric Vehicles: Perception
of Workers as Pedestrians and Other Vehicle Drivers
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7558663/
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Example..
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Population Pyramid
Baby boom in USA
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Driving Simulator Lab
Key Features
•Simulates realistic motion, driving conditions and sounds
•Facilitates instructor to control multiple Driver Stations simultaneously
•Contains a driver cabin fitted with real controls, steering, brakes and
accelerator
•Sets up gear sequence as per the original vehicle
•Provides motion feel to the trainees through Motion Platform
•Offers training under various environmental conditions
•Records trainee's errors and illustrates trainee's actions such as time taken to
shift the foot from accelerator to brake; right gear vs. right speed; accidents,
speeding; lane violation, dangerous turns and switching on ignition with gear
engaged
https://www.zentechnologies.com/zen_driving
_training_simulator.html
Research using Driving Simulator in India & Abroad
1. Modelling driver distraction effects due to mobile phone use on reaction
time
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0968090X17300475
2. Effects of driver work-rest patterns, lifestyle and payment incentives on long-
haul truck driver sleepiness
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369847818301931
3. Driver behaviour at the onset of yellow signal: A comparative study of distraction
caused by use of a phone and a music player
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369847818305151