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Mission
The Human Factors Division, established in 1982, was chartered to perform the following activities:
Types of Issues Addressed:
- To analyze and characterize surface vehicle and aircraft operator performance capabilities and behavior under normal, abnormal, and emergency conditions.
- To design, perform, and evaluate simulations and laboratory, field, and statistical studies of operator, crew, equipment, vehicle, and facility characteristics leading to the evaluation of methods and procedures for enhancing productivity and reducing accident frequency.
- To design and conduct studies evaluating the effectiveness of vehicle displays, controls, and other ergonomic considerations which influence safety, comfort, and user acceptance.
- To evaluate, develop, design, and implement user-related aspects of microcomputer systems for the improvement of transportation productivity.
- To evaluate, design, conduct, and perform studies of the impacts of substance use and abuse on transportation safety, and of the effectiveness of countermeasures in reducing these impacts.
- To develop and evaluate guidelines and materials for the selection and training of commercial and noncommercial vehicle operators.
- To develop methods and procedures for modifying and enhancing operator, crew, passenger, and pedestrian attitudes, behavior, and performance through the use of public information training, market incentives, regulatory and legal mechanisms, and vehicle subsystem design.
Databases Available:
- Develops and maintains transportation safety-related databases through the development and application of data collection and analysis methodologies, and through monitoring the quality, content, and dissemination of automated data management techniques.
Analyses Performed:
- Formulates and evaluates mathematical and analytical models representing operator, crew, pedestrian, and passenger characteristics.
- Performs statistical, and econometric analyses on the relationships among accidents, transportation system characteristics, socioeconomic, and other factors for the purposes of system evaluation, safety forecasting, trend projection, and risk analysis.
Users Supported:
- Modal regulatory agencies in the analysis of the safety consequences of vehicle defects, and in the identification of high-risk models and components.
- Designs, conducts, and evaluates national and local assessments of mode-specific safety innovations and regulations.
- Provides technical assistance to federal, state, and local offices in transportation safety-related program design, data collection, database management, training, and equipment evaluation and selection.
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