More than meets the eye: Using cognitive work analysis to identify design requirements for future rail level crossing systems.

An increasing intensity of operations means that the longstanding safety issue of rail level crossings is likely to become worse in the transport systems of the future. It has been suggested that the failure to prevent collisions may be, in part, due to a lack of systems thinking during design, crash analysis, and countermeasure development. This paper presents a systems analysis of current active rail level crossing systems in Victoria, Australia that was undertaken to identify design requirements to improve safety in future rail level crossing environments.

Validating the strategies analysis diagram: assessing the reliability and validity of a formative method.

The Strategies Analysis Diagram (SAD) is a recently developed method to model the range of possible strategies available for activities in complex sociotechnical systems. Previous applications of the new method have shown that it can effectively identify a comprehensive range of strategies available to humans performing activity within a particular system. A recurring criticism of Ergonomics methods is however, that substantive evidence regarding their performance is lacking.

Using cognitive work analysis and the strategies analysis diagram to understand variability in road user behaviour at intersections.

Unlabelled: In this article, an application of cognitive work analysis (CWA), using the strategies analysis diagram (SAD) method, to model performance variability in road transport, is presented. Specifically, the method was used to describe performance variability across four road user groups (drivers, cyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians) when turning right at an urban signalised intersection. The analysis demonstrated that the method was able to identify a comprehensive range of strategies that road users can potentially use while turning right at an intersection, thereby describing a range of performance variability within intersection systems.

Distraction-induced driving error: an on-road examination of the errors made by distracted and undistracted drivers.

This study explored the nature of errors made by drivers when distracted versus not distracted. Participants drove an instrumented vehicle around an urban test route both while distracted (performing a visual detection task) and while not distracted. Two in-vehicle observers recorded the driving errors made, and a range of other data were collected, including driver verbal protocols, forward, cockpit and driver video, and vehicle data (speed, braking, steering wheel angle, etc.