205,621 research outputs found
Driver attitude and attribution : implications for accident prevention
No full textThis study involved self-completion questionnaire-based surveys in which a total of almost
1800 respondents took part. Attributional bias identified by previous research in relation to
drivers' causal attributions for road accidents (Preston & Harris, 1965; Clay, 1987) was
more fully explored with the aid of both objectively and subjectively culpable driver samples.
Banks et al (1977) demonstrated the utility of distinguishing drivers according to culpability
in relation to accident fatalaties. The current study examined the utility of distinguishing
subjectively culpable, non-culpable, and non-accident driver groups in relation to road
accidents with a variety of consequences, in relation to factors which may predispose drivers
to accident involvement. This study involved a large sample of drivers who were
representative of the general population of licenced drivers in Britain, and specifically
focussed samples which allowed the influence of objective and subjective culpability to be
ascertained, while a relatively small cross-cultural survey allowed a focus on young drivers
(up to 25 years), involving Victorian (Australian) licenced drivers and a sub-sample of young
British drivers drawn from the main British sample.
The main objectives of the current study were to evaluate drivers' awareness of their potential
for active accident avoidance, exploring attribution issues raised by previous research and
examining factors which may contribute to road accidents in relation to self-reported accident
involvement and culpability and their implications for accident prevention.
The main findings were that drivers seemed to have a tendency to attribute more
responsibility to "other drivers" than to themselves for accidents in which they had been
involved, and to consider that such other drivers had more scope for accident avoidance than
they did themselves. Such tendencies, although very considerably reduced, were not
eradicated within the driver group deemed culpable by traffic police investigative teams.
These findings were broadly consistent with those of Clay (1987) and Preston & Harris
(1965), suggesting a lack of awareness of personal influence on accident occurrence, at least
to some degree, with implications for accident prevention, the quality of social interaction in
the driving environment (Knapper & Cropley, 1980), and the driver's potential to learn from
experience.
Perhaps more importantly, the other major finding was that clear distinctions could
nonetheless be made between drivers in accordance with self-reported accident involvement
and culpability in relation to driver affect/state, self-perception, attributions for accident
causation, and attitudinal/behavioural tendencies, in a manner which seemed to be meaningful
in terms of driver susceptibility to accident risk. Ile pattern of response for accident
involvement and culpability effects was then examined in relation to the norms which
emerged for age and sex, while the effects of driving experience duration and intensity were
examined separately. The second point of focus on any distinctive features of younger driver
risk, also allowed assessment of generalizability of findings across cultures, to some degree.
The findings appear to have considerable implications for the development of effective
accident prevention strategies, while suggesting that further exploration of drivers' causal
attribution bias in relation to road accidents and distinctions between drivers according to
subjective culpability may offer considerable safety benefits
Efficacy of the EZ-IO (R) needle driver for out-of-hospital intraosseous access - a preliminary, observational, multicenter study
No full textBackground: Intraosseous (IO) access represents a reliable alternative to intravenous vascular access and is explicitly recommended in the current guidelines of the European Resuscitation Council when intravenous access is difficult or impossible. We therefore aimed to study the efficacy of the intraosseous needle driver EZ-IO(R) in the prehospital setting.
Methods: During a 24-month period, all cases of prehospital IO access using the EZ-IO(R) needle driver within three operational areas of emergency medical services were prospectively recorded by a standardized questionnaire that needed to be filled out by the rescuer immediately after the mission and sent to the primary investigator. We determined the rate of successful insertion of the IO needle, the time required, immediate procedure-related complications, the level of previous experience with IO access, and operator's subjective satisfaction with the device.
Results: 77 IO needle insertions were performed in 69 adults and five infants and children by emergency physicians (n=72 applications) and paramedics (n=5 applications). Needle placement was successful at the first attempt in all but 2 adults (one patient with unrecognized total knee arthroplasty, one case of needle obstruction after placement). The majority of users (92%) were relative novices with less than five previous IO needle placements. Of 22 responsive patients, 18 reported pain upon fluid administration via the needle. The rescuers' subjective rating regarding handling of the device and ease of needle insertion, as described by means of an analogue scale (0 = entirely unsatisfied, 10 = most satisfied), provided a median score of 10 (range 1-10).
Conclusions: The EZ-IO(R) needle driver was an efficient alternative to establish immediate out-of-hospital vascular access. However, significant pain upon intramedullary infusion was observed in the majority of responsive patients
The effects of driver training on simulated driving performance
No full textGiven that the beneficial effects of driver training on accident risk may not be an appropriate criterion measure, this study investigates whether professionally trained and experienced drivers exhibit safer driving behaviour in a simulated driving task compared with drivers without professional driver training. A sample of 54 police trained drivers and a sample of 56 non-police trained drivers were required to complete two tasks. Firstly to overtake a slow-moving bus on a hazardous stretch of single-lane road with bends and hills and secondly to follow a lead vehicle travelling at 55 mph in a built-up section with a speed limit of 30 mph. Results showed that in comparison with non-police trained drivers, police drivers were significantly less likely to cross the central division of the road at unsafe locations during the overtaking task and reduced their speed on approach to pedestrians at the roadside in the following task to a greater extent. Police drivers also adopted a more central lane position compared with non-police trained drivers on urban roads and at traffic lights during the following task. Driver group differences in simulated driving performance are discussed with reference to the implications for driver training assessment and skill development
Development and validation of a self-report measure of bus driver behaviour
No full textThere are likely to be individual differences in bus driver behaviour when
adhering to strict schedules under time pressure. A reliable and valid
assessment of these individual differences would be useful for bus companies
keen to mitigate risk of crash involvement. This paper reports on three studies
to develop and validate a self-report measure of bus driver behaviour. For study
1, two principal components analyses of a pilot questionnaire revealed six
components describing bus driver behaviour and four bus driver coping
components. In study 2, test-retest reliability of the components were tested in
a sub-sample and found to be adequate. Further, the 10 components were used to
predict bus crash involvement at three levels of culpability with consistently
significant associations found for two components. For study 3, avoidance coping
was consistently associated with celeration variables in a bus simulator,
especially for a time-pressured drive. Statement of Relevance:The instrument can
be used by bus companies for driver stress and fatigue management training to
identify at-risk bus driver behaviour. Training to reduce the tendency to engage
in avoidance coping strategies, improve evaluative coping strategies and hazard
monitoring when under stress may improve bus driver safety
Fuzzy Evolutionary Approaches for Bus and Rail Driver Scheduling
No full textBus and train driver scheduling is a process of partitioning blocks of work, each of which is serviced by one vehicle, into a set of legal driver shifts. The main objectives are to minimise the total number of shifts and the total shift cost. Restrictions imposed by logistic, legal and union agreements make the problem more complicated.
The generate-and-select approach is widely used. A large set of feasible shifts is generated first, and then a subset is selected, from the large set, to form a final schedule by the mathematical programming method. In the subset selection phase, computational difficulties exist because of the NP-hard nature of this combinatorial optimisation problem. This thesis presents two evolutionary algorithms, namely a Genetic Algorithm and a Simulated Evolution algorithm, attempting to model and solve the driver scheduling problem in new ways.
At the heart of both algorithms is a function for evaluating potential driver shifts under fuzzified criteria. A Genetic Algorithm is first employed to calibrate the weight distribution among fuzzy membership functions. A Simulated Evolution algorithm then mimics generations of evolution on the single schedule produced by the Genetic Algorithm. In each generation an unfit portion of the working schedule is removed. The broken schedule is then reconstructed by means of a greedy algorithm, using the weight distribution derived by the Genetic Algorithm. The basic Simulated Evolution algorithm is a greedy search strategy that achieves improvement through iterative perturbation and reconstruction. This approach has achieved success in solving driver scheduling problems from different companies, with comparable results to the previously best known solutions.
Finally, the Simulated Evolution algorithm for driver scheduling has been generalized for the set covering problem, without using any special domain knowledge. This shows that this research is valuable to many applications that can be formulated as set covering models. Furthermore, Taguchi's orthogonal experimental design method has been used for the parameter settings. Computational results have shown that for large-scale problems, in general the proposed approach can produce superior solutions much faster than some existing approaches. This approach is particularly suitable for situations where quick and high-quality solutions are desirable
Driver Social Desirability Scales
No full textDie deutsche Version der DSDS erfasst die Tendenz zur sozialen Erwünschtheit speziell im Hinblick auf das Fahrverhalten von Autofahrern. Sie besteht aus den beiden Subskalen (1) Driver Impression Management (k = 7) und (2) Driver Self-deceptive Enhancement (k = 5). Reliabilität: Die interne Konsistenz bewegt sich im mittleren bis hohen Bereich (Cronbachs Alpha = .75-.87). Validität: Die Subskaleninterkorrelation liegt im mäßigen Bereich (r = .23-.27). Die Zweifaktorenstruktur konnte in konfirmatorischen Faktorenanalysen nachgewiesen werden. Es konnten positive Zusammenhänge mit ähnlichen Konstrukten und negative Zusammenhänge mit divergierenden Konstrukten ermittelt werden.The German version of the DSDS records the tendency towards social desirability, especially with regard to the driving behaviour of motorists. It consists of the two subscales (1) Driver Impression Management (k = 7) and (2) Driver Self-deceptive Enhancement (k = 5). Reliability: The internal consistency is in the medium to high range (Cronbach's Alpha = .75-.87). Validity: The sub-scale intercorrelation is in the moderate range (r = .23-.27). The two-factor structure could be proven in confirmatory factor analyses. Positive correlations with similar constructs and negative correlations with diverging constructs could be determined.reviewedpublishedVersio
Smart driving aids and their effects on driving performance and driver distraction
No full textIn-vehicle information systems have been shown to increase driver workload and cause distraction; both of which are causal factors for accidents. This simulator study evaluates the impact that two designs for a smart driving aid, and scenario complexity have on workload, distraction and driving performance. Results showed that real-time delivery of smart driving information did not increase driver workload or adversely effect driver distraction, while having the effect of decreasing mean driving speed in both the simple and complex driving scenarios. Subjective workload was shown to increase with task difficulty, as well as revealing important differences between the two interface designs
Cognitive social simulation and collective sensemaking: An approach using the ACT-R cognitive architecture
No full textCognitive social simulation is a computer simulation technique that aims to improve our understanding of the dynamics of socially-situated and socially-distributed cognition. Cognitive architectures are typically used to support cognitive social simulation; however, the most widely used cognitive architecture - ACT-R - has, to date, been the focus of relatively few cognitive social simulation studies. The current paper reports on the results of an ongoing effort to develop an experimental simulation capability that can be used to undertake studies into socially-distributed cognition using the ACT-R cognitive architecture. An ACT-R cognitive model is first presented that demonstrates one approach to solving a task previously used to investigate sensemaking performance within teams of human subjects. An approach to the implementation of an ACT-R cognitive social simulation capability is then described. The approach relies on the use of a variety of custom ACT-R modules and memory-resident Lisp databases. The custom modules enable ACT-R agents to exchange information with each other during the course of their sensemaking activities. The Lisp databases, in contrast, are used to store information about communicative transactions, the experimental setup and the structure of the communication network. The proposed solution provides the basic elements required to run cognitive social simulation experiments into collective sensemaking using the ACT-R architecture; however, further work needs to be undertaken in order to address a number of limitations associated with agent communication capabilities and the ability of agents to interact with the task environment
Studying the effects of in-vehicle information systems on driver visual behaviour – implications for design
No full textIn-vehicle information systems (IVIS) are a common feature in modern vehicles. The interaction of drivers with IVIS when driving must be considered to minimise distraction whilst maintaining the benefits provided. This research investigates the glance behaviours of drivers, assessed from video data, when using two functions – a personal navigation device (study 1) and a green driving advisory device (study 2). The main focus was to establish the number of glances of 2 seconds or more to the IVIS and relate this to driver safety (as stipulated in new guidelines for use of IVIS proposed by NHTSA). In study 1, the percentage of eyes- off-road time for drivers was much greater in the experimental (with device) condition compared to the baseline condition (14.3% compared to 6.7%) but, whilst glances to the personal navigation device accounted for the majority of the increase, there were very few which exceeded 2 seconds. Drivers in study 2 spent on average 4.3% of their time looking at the system, at an average of 0.43 seconds per glance; no glances exceeded 2 seconds. The research showed that ordinary use of IVIS (excluding manual interaction) does not lead to driver visual distraction and therefore the impact on safety is minimal. The results of the study have important design implications for future in-vehicle information systems
An investigation on the effect of driver style and driving events on energy demand of a PHEV
No full textEnvironmental concerns, security of fuel supply and CO2 regulations are driving innovation in the automotive industry towards electric and hybrid electric vehicles. The fuel economy and emission performance of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) strongly depends on the energy management system (EMS). Prior knowledge of driving information could be used to enhance the performance of a HEV. However, how the necessary information can be obtained to use in EMS optimisation still remains a challenge. In this paper the effect of driver style and driving events like city and highway driving on plug in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) energy demand is studied.
Using real world driving data from three drivers of very different driver style, a simulation has been exercised for a given route having city and highway driving. Driver style and driving events both affect vehicle energy demand. In both driving events considered, vehicle energy demand is different due to driver styles. The major part of city driving is reactive driving influenced by external factors and driver leading to variation in vehicle speed and hence energy demand. In free highway driving, the driver choice of cruise speed is the only factor affecting vehicle energy demand
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