A Task-Analytic Approach for Estimating Driver Task Demands on Specific Roadway Sections

Abstract

Incorporating driver capabilities and information needs into roadway designs can be challenging because there is limited information available about the driving task in typical engineering design references. Task analyses of driving are one way to assist design and help consider driver needs. This article presents a new task-analytic method for estimating driver task demands along existing or planned roadway sections. A topdown approach was used to decompose driving maneuvers on a particular roadway section into segments, driving tasks, and information processing subtasks. Milestones were used to constrain task placement in space and time. Overlap between tasks over the same roadway section was used to identify regions of potentially heightened workload. Overall, this approach outlines a simple and structured method for accommodating driver tasks and information needs into the roadway design decision-making process.

Some On-Road Glances are More Equal Than Others: Measuring Engagement in the Driving Task

“…Step 2 implements the task analysis outlined in Lichty and Richard (2012), a dynamic version of the McKnight and Adams (1970) method. This type of task analysis breaks generalized driving tasks-a list of possible actions done by a driver along the road segment in a realistic driving situationout into information processing tasks containing visual, cognitive, and psychomotor components.…”