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This paper (1) summarizes previous human factors/safety research on parking (8 studies, mostly over 20 years old), (2) provides statistics for 10,400 parking-related crashes in Michigan from 2000-2002, and (3) summarizes interviews with 6 insurance agents concerning parking crashes. These sources indicate: 1 About 1/2 to 3/4 of parking crashes involve backing, often into another moving vehicle while emerging from a parking stall. 2 Eight-and-a-half foot-wide stalls had higher crash rates than wider stalls. 3 Most parallel parking crashes occur on major streets, not minor streets. 4 Lighting and driver impairment were minor factors in parking crashes.

Driving workload managers continually assess the difficulty of driving and regulate the flow of information to drivers that could interfere with driving, such as automatically diverting an incoming phone call to an answering machine when a driver is turning at an intersection. This paper summarizes the pertinent crash and human performance literature, identifies the unique nature of telematics tasks, and describes likely workload manager architectures, applicable regulations, and current industry efforts. In addition to promoting telematics system safety and enhancing warning systems, research on workload managers is likely to advance the science of driving and provide many other safety benefits.

This paper provides background and suggestions for safety research for the Army's 21st Century Truck program (21T). The goal of that program is to reduce large truck related fatalities by 50 percent by the year 2010. As background for the proposed research program, this paper contrasts military and civilian trucks and their drivers. Based on that information and considerations of new technology, human factors research needs are identified in the areas of: 1. driver workload measures and assessment 2. collision avoidance and warning systems 3. night vision 4. interface integration 5. baseline studies of driving 6. in-vehicle interfaces 7. alertness monitoring

Future in-vehicle information systems may overload drivers, compromising driving safety and product usability. Suggestions of overload appear in (1) statistics from Japan, the United States, and Kuwait for mobile phone-related crashes, (2) statistics from Japan for navigation system-related crashes, and (3) human performance data. From most to least frequent, tasks associated with crashes were receiving a call, dialing, talking (on a phone), looking at a (navigation) display and operating an interface (for navigation). To optimize driver performance for future interfaces, developers should comply with design guidelines (JAMA, SAE J2364), work more closely with human factors experts, expand usability testing, and implement workload managers.

The Lane Change Task (LCT) provides a simple, scorable simulation of driving, and serves as a primary task in studies of driver distraction. It is widely accepted, but somewhat limited in functionality, a problem this project partially overcomes. In the Lane Change Task, subjects drive along a road with 3 lanes in the same direction. Periodically, signs appear, indicating in which of the 3 lanes the subject should drive, which changes from sign to sign. The software is plug-and-play for a current Windows computer with a Logitech steering/pedal assembly, even though the software was written 18 years ago. For each timestamp in a trial, the software records the steering wheel angle, speed, and x and y coordinates of the subject. A limitation of the LCT is that few characteristics of this useful software can be readily modified as only the executable code is available (on the ISO 26022 website), not the source code.