Human factors engineers working in the area of road safety have argued that analysis of the transport system must include the entire system: vehicle, road, and driver factors. Driver error does not occur in a vacuum. An integrated approach to road safety is required to achieve greater levels of road safety. Engineering a safer transportation system requires testing the components of the system in concert, examining a full complement of road, vehicle, and driver factors that occasion driver errors, crashes, and injuries. This chapter will describe some of the human factors testing methodologies being applied to the road transport system in New Zealand with that aim. The authors describe these methods and the results they have produced to date in three interrelated areas: the design of rural-urban thresholds, driver fatigue testing, and modeling driver-vehicle-road interactions. (A)
Abstract