Development of a Human Factors Evaluation Procedure for Network-wide Road Safety Assessments

Abstract

This work aimed at the definition of a Network-wide Road Safety Assessment procedure for two-lane two-way rural roads, namely Human Factors Evaluation procedure, which accounts for the influence of Human Factors in accidents triggering factors. The purpose of such a procedure is to provide an instrument to evaluate the risk of accidents occurrence because of wrong perceptions and expectations caused by the road. This often translates in operational errors, which may become driving errors that finally results in accidents, if uncorrected. The need of a Network-wide Road Safety Assessment procedure which accounts for Human Factors, together with an overview of considered methodologies, is discussed with a focus on Road Safety Inspection procedures. Indeed, visual site inspections and surveys allow to identify specific critical issue that may otherwise be missed while using big data analysis. Moreover, it has been decided that the Human Factors Evaluation procedure must follows the requirements of the updated 2008/96/EU directive (European Parliament and the Council, 2019). This will let it be a usable instrument for road agencies