David Shinar

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev | bgu · Department of Industrial Engineering and Management

Background Traffic sign design can have a substantial impact on road safety and traffic flow. The current study had three objectives: 1) Cross-validate the importance of ergonomic sign design; 2) Evaluate the ability of ergonomics experts to predict sign comprehension by the average driver; 3) Offer improved sign designs for poorly designed road si...

COVID-19 and motor vehicle crashes (MVC) are both considered epidemics by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), yet their progression, treatment and success in treatment have been very different. In this paper, we propose that the well-established sustainable safety approach to road safety can be applie...

To improve the safety of bicycle users, some countries have enacted, or considered enacting, mandatory helmet legislation. Of course, the enactment of such legislation in a country assumes that its citizens will be well-informed of it, and consequently, will use the helmet more frequently than before. However, in the survey described in this paper...

Light rail (LR) is a popular means of public transportation worldwide, in use in more than 380 cities worldwide. LR drivers must have good hazard awareness: the ability to understand the complexity of the traffic environment and anticipate road events. Yet, no study has examined LR drivers' ability to anticipate hazards, and this is the purpose of...

There are interrelationships between crash causes, countermeasures, and policy implications, but they are not necessarily direct and obvious. Part of the problem is the definition of a cause. The seminal 1979 Indiana University “Study of Accident Causes” has cemented some false assumptions that must be overcome to yield an effective crash counterme...

Traffic sign comprehension is significantly affected by their compliance with ergonomics design principles. Despite the UN Convention, designs vary among countries. The goal of this study was to establish theoretical and methodological bases for evaluating the design of conventional and alternative signs. Thirty-one conventional signs and 1-3 alter...

Women seem to use the helmet when riding a bicycle less frequently than men. Two possible explanations for this behavior are that 1) it is less appalling to them because of lack of comfort or other reasons, or 2) they use bicycles in a more cautious way than men so they feel that they do not need the helmet as much. The present paper explores these...

Road Sign comprehension studies typically focus on differences among signs, demonstrating large variability in comprehension among different signs. Differences in features of sign design can be grouped into their shape, background color, and the symbol/icon in their center. This study demonstrated that specific sign messages can be presented with d...

Driver assist technologies have reached the tipping point and are poised to take control of most, if not all, aspects of the driving task. Proponents of automated driving (AD) are enthusiastic about its promise to transform mobility and realize impressive societal benefits. This paper is an attempt to carefully examine the potential of AD to realiz...

Sign comprehension is critical for road safety as it provides a mean of communicating critical roadway information to motorists. Previous research has demonstrated that sign comprehension varies greatly among countries and among signs (Shinar et al., 2003), and that comprehension can be improved when signs conform to ergonomic design principles of...

Strayer et al.'s article is a significant attempt to scale the cognitive workload of different potentially distracting tasks. It is tempting but not warranted to equate the workload with the relative risk of crash involvement. In this article, I list the reasons why the scaling should not be generalized to safety implications in real driving and ar...

Background New in-vehicle technologies often outpace the scientific support for their value. In lieu of valid and consistent scientific support, common wisdom is used, as in the assumption that enhanced roadway delineation improves driving safety. Objective To evaluate the effects of a Visibility Enhancement System that selectively improves lane m...

A statistically significant interaction between visual noise level and accuracy level was obtained for reaction time data in the Sternberg choice reaction task. This suggests that the speed/accuracy tradeoff is localized in the initial stimulus encoding stage of processing, specifically in a stimulus sampling operation. A slower stimulus sampling r...

We studied whether decisions to engage in cell phone conversation while driving and the consequences of such decisions are related to the driver's age, to the road conditions (demands of the driving task), and to the driver's role in initiating the phone call (i.e. the driver as caller vs. as receiver). Two experiments were performed in a driving s...

Traffic safety has improved greatly over the past few decades, but the progress in the safe mobility of vulnerable road users (VRUs) - especially motorcycle riders - has not been as consistent. The changing trends towards healthier and eco-friendlier lifestyle, coupled with the rising costs of fuel have increased the exposure and injury risk of ped...

Pedestrians are exposed to risks when crossing roads in urban areas. The crossing behaviour of pedestrians was studied as a factor contributing to their exposure to risks on the road and to their involvement in road accidents. This work explores two specific aspects of crossing behaviour: crossing speed and head pitches-the proportion of time pedes...

Background: Over the years, PTWs' number of accidents have increased dramatically and have accounted for a high percentage of the total traffic fatalities. The majority of those accidents occur in daylight, clear weather, and at light to moderate traffic conditions. The current study included two experiments. The first experiment evaluated the inf...

The aim of this chapter is to provide a brief understanding of the approaches to driver-vehicle modeling and the impact of driver, vehicle, and roadway characteristics on highway traffic safety. Descriptive behavioral models focus on what the drivers do. These models attempt to describe the entire driving task or some components of it in terms of w...

Roadway design is one of the most significant factors that affect driving behavior and perceived safety. The current study tests the combined effects of three roadway design elements - shoulders width, guardrail existence and roadway geometry (curvature) - on objective driving measures (speed and lane position), and subjective measures (perceived s...

There is a perceived tradeoff between the ease of measuring alcohol in the body and the accuracy of the result. Direct tests of blood alcohol concentrations are considered the most accurate, desktop stationary breath testers based on electro-chemical infra-red technology are slightly less accurate, but accepted for evidentiary purposes in most juri...

The different models of driver behaviour can be categorized as ‘Descriptive’ models that focus on what the driver does and ‘Functional’ models that focus on why the driver behaves the way he does and from that to predict drivers’ performance in different situations: demanding situations that elicit peak performance capabilities and routine situatio...

Drivers adopt various strategies in order to cope with fatigue and falling asleep at the wheel. These strategies include a wide range of activities that may invigorate the body and/or the mind. To compare usage patterns and to evaluate the perceived effectiveness of different coping behaviors adopted by professional and nonprofessional drivers in o...

Background In recent years, a variety of driver support and information management systems have been designed and implemented with the objective of improving safety as well as the performance of vehicles. While the crucial issues at a technical level have been mostly solved their consequences on driver activity remains open and needs to be fully ex...

Driver behaviour can be modelled in one of two approaches: ‘Descriptive’ models that describe the driving task in terms of what the driver does, and ‘Functional’ models that attempt to explain why the driver behaves the way he/she does, and how to predict drivers’ performance in demanding and routine situations. Demanding situations elicit peak per...

Driving under the influence of drugs (DUID) is one of the main causes of car accidents. Alcohol and marijuana are the most popular drugs among recreational users. Many classify these drugs as "Light" drugs and therefore allow themselves to drive after consuming them. The study had two main objectives: 1) to investigate the effect of alcohol (BAC=0....

Recently we have developed an innovative hazard perception training methodology, the Act and Anticipate Hazard Perception Training (AAHPT) that exposes young-inexperienced drivers to a large variety of traffic-scene movies. Trainees are asked to act (i.e., respond) each time they perceive a hazard. Trained and untrained young-inexperienced drivers,...

Inter-observer agreement is essential to medical staff members and has a major effect on communication. The goal of the study was to examine the way medical professionals evaluate the potential severity of Almost Adverse Events (AAEs) that were observed in two intensive care units (ICUs). One hundred and fourteen AAEs were observed and recorded in...

This study examined the effects of age and driving experience on the ability to detect hazards while driving; namely, hazard perception. Studies have shown that young-inexperienced drivers are more likely than experienced drivers to suffer from hazard perception deficiencies. However, it remains to be determined if this skill deteriorates with adva...

The present research explored the development and evaluation of an innovative Hazard Perception (HP) training program – the Act and Anticipate Hazard Perception Training (AAHPT). The most important concept of the AAHPT is that young-inexperienced drivers respond to a vast array of actual hazardous situations during training so they can anticipate p...

The present research explored the development and evaluation of an innovative Hazard Perception (HP) training program – the Act and Anticipate Hazard Perception Training (AAHPT). The most important concept of the AAHPT is that young-inexperienced drivers respond to a vast array of actual hazardous situations during training so they can anticipate p...

The first work package (WP1) contains a critical review and synthesis of human behaviour models ofdrivers of road vehicles, trains and maritime vessels (ships). Based on this review a reference modelof Driver–Vehicle–Environment is developed. A variety of approaches to modeling driver behaviourare possible as options. The literature review covers t...

Seat belts and child safety seats are the most sufficient means to protect car occupants from crash injuries and fatalities. Observational surveys have shown that while about 80% of children up to four years old are buckled up in safety seats, only about 45% of children aged four to nine are likely to be properly restrained in a booster seat. This...

Strategies adopted by drivers in order to cope with fatigue and falling asleep at the wheel include a variety of activities that may invigorate the body and/or the mind. The objectives of the current study were to examine the effectiveness of an energy drink and a non-traditional manual-dexterity/mastication activity as fatigue countermeasures. Twe...

BackgroundProlonged drive on inter-urban, monotonous roads has the potential of causing a decrease in the general level of arousal leading to a state of underload and fatigue. This study examines the effectiveness of an interactive cognitive task (ICT) in delaying fatigue symptoms induced by underload conditions. The ICT is an auditory-motor task w...

BackgroundAccording to police reports, failure to heed signs is one of the most frequent causes of accidents. We examined situations in which experience might paradoxically impair detection and timely identification of traffic signs: when they are located in unexpected places.HypothesisExperienced drivers have a well-learned schema for scanning the...

To describe the impact of Rockwell's early eye movements research. The advent of a new technology enabling measurements of eye movements in natural environments launched the seminal research of a Human Factors pioneer, Tom Rockwell, into how drivers process visual information. In two seminal Human Factors articles -"Mapping Eye-Movement Pattern to...

We evaluated the effectiveness of alertness maintaining tasks (AMTs) on driver performance, subjective feelings, and psychophysiological state in monotonous simulated driving in two experiments. In the first experiment, 12 professional truck drivers participated in five sessions of simulated driving: driving only, driving with one of three AMTs (co...

The effects of marijuana or THC on driving has been tested in several studies, but usually not in conjunction with physiological and subjective responses and not in comparison to alcohol effects on all three types of measures. To assess the effects of two dosages of THC relative to alcohol on driving performance, physiological strain, and subjectiv...

Examine how driving experience and expectations affect the ability of experienced drivers to identify traffic signs--specifically, no right turn (NRT) and no left turn (NLT) at intersections. Failure to heed signs is a frequent cause of accidents, and the authors focused on the contributions of experience and expectancy to sign identification. Inex...

We observed more than 8,800 cases of people passing by an obstacle that was placed at different heights at the entrance to a university cafeteria. Of those cases, 491 were of pedestrians speaking on a cell phone. Overall, 2,422 bumping cases were recorded. Using a cell phone while walking did not increase the risk of bumping into protruding obstacl...

The primary goal of this study was to examine the nature and causes of medical errors known as almost adverse events (AAEs) and potential adverse events (PAEs) in intensive care units. Observations were conducted in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit in a large hospital in Israel. The AAEs and PAEs were classi...

IntroductionIn-vehicle information systems can improve safety, improve driver’s situational awareness and reduce anxiety, but they may also increase mental workload and distraction. This issue is particularly important in road tunnels because they create extremely dangerous driving conditions.GoalsTo evaluate the effect of in-vehicle displays on dr...

Objective: validate the simulator for speed. Method: A study was conducted in which 16 24-30 years old drivers drove on an actual 40 km desert route between two cities, and in a simulator in which the road geometry was replicated exactly and the sparse scenery was approximately reproduced. Actual speed ranged from 40 to 100 km/h. Half of the driver...

Relatively little driver behavior research was conducted prior to the founding of HFES and it only really began to accelerate in the 1960's. Some highway safety pioneers remain active in HFES and their careers illustrate the trajectory of the field itself, from emergence to maturation as a human factors domain. These early leaders mentored a subseq...

This research directly tests the relationship between comprehension probability of highway signs and the extent to which they comply with three ergonomic principles of design: sign-content compatibility, familiarity, and standardization. A recent study that evaluated comprehension of traffic signs in four different countries showed that comprehensi...

The purpose of this study was to assess the speed differential threshold—if there is one—at which drivers decide to pass a lead vehicle. Drivers in a simulator encountered vehicles in front that were programmed to travel at speeds that were similar, slightly below, or even slightly above the driversÕ own speed. The study involved a total of 152 suc...

In this study, we propose formal models and algorithms to detect drug impairment and identify the impairing drug type, on the basis of data obtained by a Drug Evaluation and Classification (DEC) investigation. The DEC program relies on measurements of vital signs and observable signs and symptoms. A formal model, based on data collected by police o...

A double blind study was performed to evaluate the ability of trained police officers to detect drug impairments and to identify the type of drug responsible for the impairment, on the basis of observed symptoms and psychophysical measurements of performance alone. The officers were not allowed to interview the subjects, and their conclusions were...

In 2001, production technicians at Intel's facility for manufacturing semiconductors in Kiryat-Gat began complaining of wrist discomfort and pain while using trackball work stations, the primary equipment for inputting data to their production environment. The complaints were received with considerable seriousness, indicating that the Incident Free...

Experimental research on the effects of cellular phone conversations on driving indicates that the phone task interferes with many driving-related functions, especially with older drivers. Unfortunately in past research (1) the dual task conditions were not repeated in order to test for learning, (2) the 'phone tasks' were not representative of rea...

Neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), like other intensive care units, are intended to provide immediate responses to any change in the patient’s condition. Patient-monitoring alarms and alarms from other medical equipment are very common in these units, and most alarms have no clinical significance. This study addresses the question of how alarms...

Over 2000 aggressive driving behaviors were observed over a total of 72 h at six different sites. The behaviors selected for observation were those that are commonly included in "aggressive driving" lists, and they consisted of honking, cutting across one or more lanes in front of other vehicles, and passing on the shoulders. In addition, an exposu...

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of an in-vehicle collision avoidance warning system (IVCAWS) on driver performance. A driving simulator was driven by 135 licensed drivers. Of these, 120 received alerts from the IVCAWS when their headway to a lead car was less than 2 s, and the other 15 (the control group) received no alerts. Dr...

The goal of this study was to determine if traffic signals that are synchronized along a route are associated with fewer red-light violations than traffic signals that are not synchronized. A total 3600 cycles of traffic signals at 12 intersections along 2 major urban arteries were observed. Synchronized intersections were effective in reducing the...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a type of in-vehicle collision avoidance warning system (IVCAWS) under conditions of driver distraction. Forty-three participants responded to an imperfect warning system while simultaneously driving a simulator and performing a visual/cognitive task. The major concerns were whether drivers...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the comprehension levels of highway traffic sign symbols used in different countries, to identify underlying rules that affect comprehension levels, and recommend approaches to deal with the problem. The need for such an evaluation was based on today's travel culture where people are often licensed in one...

A workstation ergonomic study was conducted in Intel's manufacturing plant in Qiryat-Gat, Israel in response to an increasing trend of technicians' complaints regarding wrist discomfort and pain. The study was performed with a sample of 62 technicians, and a comparison was made of the use of the trackball at its current position of 15° (control gro...

Target acquisition tasks in natural environments are often augmented by cuing systems that advise human observers during the decision process. With present technological limitations, cuing systems are imperfect, so the question arises whether cuing aids should be implemented under all conditions. We examined target acquisition performance under dif...

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to evaluate a new technology to maintaining headway while driving in tunnels. With this system a beam of light is projected on the wall of the tunnel at a fixed distance behind each vehicle. The role of each driver, then, is to simply stay behind the moving Point-Of-Light (POL) that is projected for the veh...

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness of different alertness maintaining tasks on driver performance. Twelve professional truck drivers participated in five sessions of simulated driving. The first session consisted of driving without any alertness-maintaining tasks. In the following three sessions, three different aler...

Braking time (BT) is a critical component in safe driving, and various approaches have been applied to minimize it. This study analyzed the components of BT in order to assess the effects of age, gender, vehicle transmission type, and event uncertainty, on its two primary components, perception-reaction time and brake-movement time. Perception-reac...

Many new in-vehicle systems focus on accident prevention by facilitating the driving task. One such driving aid is an in-vehicle collision avoidance warning system (IVCAWS), used to alert the driver to an impending collision. Our study evaluated the effects of an imperfect IVCAWS both on driver headway maintenance and on driver behavior in response...

The effectiveness of a headway measuring and recording device was evaluated in terms of its ability to increase drivers' car-following distance. Forty-three drivers first drove for approximately 3 weeks without headway feedback and then for approximately 3 more weeks with immediate time headway (THW) feedback. Whenever the THW decreased to 1.2 s or...

A field study was conducted to evaluate drivers' actual headways in car-following situations, their relationship to the drivers' brake reaction times, and their relationship to the drivers' ability to estimate those headways using different metrics. Drivers were asked to maintain "minimum safe distance" and "comfortable, normal distance with no int...

This study analyzed the data of a health and safety survey conducted on a representative sample of the adult driving population. The analysis focused on the relationships between self-reported safe driving behaviors (including belt use, observing speed limits, and abstaining from drinking and driving), and demographic characteristics (including sex...

The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) Transport Center is the largest and the most diverse transportation organization in Israel: three times as large as the largest commercial fleet in Israel, and military bases are spread all over the country. It also has the ability to regulate the drivers better: enforcing diet, hours of sleep, and working hours. The...

Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) have enhanced the way we can deal with road safety issues. Unlike in-vehicle safety systems such as air bags and safety belts that focus on injury reduction, many new in-vehicle systems are now focused on accident prevention by providing assistance to the driver during the driving task. One such driving aid...

Operators of complex systems must perform routine actions while attending to and responding to unexpected events. The current study extends previous laboratory experiments on the performance of such complex tasks to the analysis of the medical staff’s actions in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Observations showed that the attendants usually...

Target acquisition in military and industrial settings is often augmented by a cueing system, whereby a computer gives advice that can be accepted or rejected by the human observer. Two human factors issues involved with the use of such cuers are: 1) how to present the cue to the observer, and 2) to what degree will the observer use or rely upon th...

The advance brake warning system (ABWS) is a mechanism that activates the brake lights in response to a rapid disengagement of the gas pedal, before the driver's foot reaches the brake pedal. Two previous studies showed that (a) such rapid releases of the gas pedal are typically followed by brake activation, and (b) the ABWS can prevent a high perc...

The importance of highway traffic safety has increased significantly in the 90 ’s. This has been reflected in changes in driver behavior, governmental action, and utilization of new research and advance technology in the vehicles and road system. The interaction between these areas is complex, but it appears that the changes are initiated not by th...

Specific health and safe driving behaviors of the American adult population during the period 1985-1995, were examined for trends and for consistencies in observing them. The data base consisted of the results of annual surveys conducted on representative samples of 1250 people of the US adult population. Two indices were developed: a Health Index...

Operators of complex systems respond to external signals and events that guide their actions, but they also initiate and schedule the performance of various acts. An experiment was conducted in which the interdependence of scheduling and responding was studied. Participants had to monitor three stations that required different rates of intervention...

This 2-part study focuses on eye movements to explain driving-related visual performance in younger and older persons. In the first task, participants' eye movements were monitored as they viewed a traffic scene image with a numeric overlay and visually located the numbers in their sequential order. The results showed that older participants had si...

The purpose of this project was to assess the relationship between reported drinking habits and three driving behaviors: drinking and driving, using safety belts, and observing the speed limits. The data base consisted of the results of annual surveys of a representative sample of the American adult population, conducted over an 11-year period from...

Manual gear shifting is often used as an example of an automated (vs. controlled) process in driving. The present study provided an empirical evaluation of this assumption by evaluating sign detection and recall performance of novice and experienced drivers driving manual shift and automatic transmission cars in a downtown area requiring frequent g...

Aggressive driving is defined in terms of the frustration–aggression model. In that context aggressive driving is a syndrome of frustration-driven behaviors, enabled by the driver's environment. These behaviors can either take the form of instrumental aggression—that allows the frustrated driver to move ahead at the cost of infringing on other road...

Aggressive driving is defined in terms of the frustration–aggression model. In that context aggressive driving is a syndrome of frustration-driven behaviors, enabled by the driver's environment. These behaviors can either take the form of instrumental aggression—that allows the frustrated driver to move ahead at the cost of infringing on other road...

Objectives: To explore the relationship between the status of daily visual functions, as measured by Mangione et al.'s (1992) ADVS, and: (a) visual functions that are related to driving; (b) the tendency of elderly people to drive in different visual conditions; and (c) the reasons older people give for limiting their driving under different condi...

Two experiments assessed the relative efficiency of line graphs, bar graphs, and tables, applying a multiple-factors approach to study the effects of the type of the required information, the complexity of the data, and the user's familiarity with the display. information extraction tasks included reading exact values, comparing values, identifying...

A digital Monte Carlo-type simulation was used to evaluate the effectiveness of an advance brake warning system (ABWS) in reducing rear-end collisions. The ABWS we evaluated activates the brake lights in response to rapid release of the gas pedal, which is characteristic of emergency braking. This reduces the lag in the onset of the brake light by...

Two experiments assessed the effect of various static and dynamic computer 'wait' message displays on (1) subjective estimates of the duration of intervals during which a subject had to wait for the computer's response, and (2) subjective preferences among the different displays. All the static displays led to identical duration estimates. For dyna...

A field study was conducted to evaluate an advance brake warning (ABW) light activation system. The ABW system detects very rapid accelerator pedal releases (assumed to characterize contingent braking responses) and activates the brake light. If the driver brakes within 1.0 s, then continuation of the brake light is governed by the brake pedal. Oth...

Two experiments assessed the effect of displaying a boundary on duration estimates and preference ratings for dynamic displays that were shown while users waited for the system's response. Displays were either symbolic (changing numbers) or graphic (increasing rectangles) and could contain a boundary that indicated when the interval was expected to...