Human Factors
Concepts that have emerged since the 1980s, such as ‘positive guidance’, ‘road readability’ and ‘self-explaining roads’, all raise the question of how the road infrastructure could support drivers’ activity. These different approaches have in common that they recognise that the road environment conveys a wealth of information that guides drivers’ activity and their interactions with others in situ. They also stress the need to structure the road network by adopting homogenous and consistent design principles that take account of the different tasks to be performed by the various road users and the constraints on their execution.
As a consequence, further research is needed to provide the most suitable environment for drivers and their vehicles, not only mitigating the effects of accidents but also reducing the risk that they occur. This objective is being pursued within the RANKERS project through experimental protocols which are revealing the full extent of the influence of “behaviour setting” infrastructure as part of the road traffic system. The analysis is being conducted through field studies in actual driving conditions, making use of an experimental vehicle equipped with different measurement systems for video and data logging. Ultimately, RANKERS will help answer the following questions:
- How does the road surface (e.g. rough roads) and road geometry (e.g. monotonous roads) affect drivers’ state (e.g. fatigue)?
- How are road signalling design and location influencing signals recognition?
- How do the position and features of the various road elements affect driver situation awareness?
