Highway Safety - Recent human factors research in the area of highway safety has focused on the relationship between operational traffic characteristics (in particular, system turbulence in terms of abrupt and unexpected changes in traffic speeds during congested conditions) and the likelihood of crashes. This work has been conducted in the context of HSRC's support of the FHWA Highway Safety Information System (HSIS). Other work, conducted for the Rail Division of the NCDOT, has focused on drivers whose behavior at railroad grade crossings is not reliably controlled by current generation traffic control measures. This section also includes a review of safety in North Carolina construction zones for the period 1998-1999.

Truck Safety in North Carolina - HSRC is providing analytic and program development support to the NC Governor's Highway Safety Program (GHSP) and the Enforcement Section of the NC Division of Motor Vehicles in joint efforts to reduce truck-involved crashes in the State. Work being conducted for the DMV addresses the development of improved performance monitoring approaches as well as the use of GIS methods to develop a better understanding of the spatial relationships between DMV roadside inspection efforts, traffic enforcement actions, and truck-involved crashes. Through a special FHWA grant, HSRC is also addressing data quality and timeliness issues associated with current crash reporting requirements.

Virtual Environments - HSRC has been actively involved in research addressing the effectiveness of 3D/4D visualization methods as applied to the public hearing and preliminary design phases of transportation system development projects. Largely through efforts supported by the Florida and North Carolina Departments of Transportation, HSRC has conducted research that has led to a more precise understanding of the potential for visualization and the specific issues involved in its effective application. The Key West PD&E study and the NCDOT Visualization Guidelines report are benchmarks in the field.

Pedestrian Research - HSRC human factors interests in the pedestrian area lie principally in the area of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) concepts and technologies. Two HSRC papers have now appeared in the ITS Quarterly, one describing the general concept of ITS as applied to the support of pedestrian mobility requirements; the other, documenting an effective application of ITS principles to the automated detection of pedestrians desiring to cross at signalized intersections. In other non-ITS work, HSRC has sought to gain a better understanding of the reasons for pedestrian walking-in-roadway crashes and the types of lateral separation treatments (e.g, sidewalks, walkable shoulders, paved shoulders, etc.) that might be 'warranted' based upon a careful analysis of these types of crashes.



Comments, suggestions, or for further information, contact: The University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center CB# 3430 Chapel Hill, NC 27599 919-962-2202 or (in NC) 800-672-4527 or Contact: Dr. Ronald Hughes