The paper is a review of work in the field of environmental effects on human performance with special reference to problems of driving efficiency. It is concerned principally with the effects of low and high environmental temperatures, and of air pollution by carbon monoxide, on sensori-motor performance at tasks related to driving. There are many papers and reviews dealing with the general problem of environment and occupational efficiency but relatively few concerned directly with motor vehicle driving. This is probably due to difficulties and dangers of experiments on the roads which might lead to reduction of driving efficiency and to the intrinsic difficulty of measuring driver performance. This review must be regarded therefore as a guide to the possible effects which environmental conditions have on motor vehicle driver performance and a pointer to the need for further research.
Samenvatting