Browsing by Author "Morgan, Justin F."

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    Assessment of a Drowsy Driver Warning System for Heavy Vehicle Drivers: Final Report
    Olson, Rebecca Lynn; Morgan, Justin F.; Hanowski, Richard J.; Daily, Brian; Zimmermann, Richard P.; Blanco, Myra; Bocanegra, Joseph L.; Fitch, Gregory M.; Flintsch, Alejandra Medina (United States. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2008)
    Drowsiness has a globally negative impact on performance, slowing reaction time, decreasing situational awareness, and impairing judgment. A field operational test of an early prototype Drowsy Driver Warning System was conducted as a result of 12 years of field and laboratory studies by the National Highway Traffic Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. This project included Control and Test groups. The final data set for the analysis consisted of 102 drivers from 3 for-hire trucking fleets using 46 instrumented trucks. Fifty-seven drivers were line-haul and 45 were long-haul operators. The data set contained nearly 12.4 terabytes of truck instrumentation data, kinematic data, and video recordings for 2.4 million miles of driving and 48,000 driving-data hours recorded, resulting in the largest data set ever collected by the U.S. Department of Transportation. In this study, 53 research questions were addressed related to safety benefits, acceptance, and deployment. Novel data reduction procedures and data analyses were used. Results showed that drivers in the Test Group were less drowsy. Drivers with favoring opinions of the system tended to have an increase in safety benefits. Results of the assessment revealed that the early prototype device had an overall positive impact on driver safety.
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    CMV Driver Health Outreach
    Trimble, Tammy E.; Morgan, Justin F.; Hanowski, Richard J.; Blanco, Myra (National Surface Transportation Safety Center for Excellence, 2013-10)
    Many commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers struggle to maintain a healthy lifestyle against the demands of their job. While some previous CMV health programs have been developed, these programs have either not been widely implemented or they fail to adequately address the needs of CMV drivers with programs adaptable to their unique lifestyle challenges. Additionally, reaching this highly fragmented and mobile population has proven difficult. This report describes the development of an integrated social networking-based health effort, called Driving Healthy. The main objective of Driving Healthy was to create a unique health and wellness resource for the CMV community that provides trusted information about a variety of health topics in an easy-to-access fashion, as well as timely updates via social networking platforms. Specific objectives included the development and enhancement of the Driving Healthy website and the social networking platforms that complement the website. In doing so, additional driver-focused health information was produced, along with new outreach tools and materials and expanded connectivity options for this outreach effort. This report documents two project phases. Phase I of the project spanned the period of January 1, 2010, through July 31, 2011, with the sites being launched in January 2011. Phase II covers August 1, 2011, through November 15, 2012, and included the development of additional outreach tools.
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    Human Factors Evaluation of Level 2 and Level 3 Automated Driving Concepts: Concepts of Operation
    Marinik, Andrew; Bishop, Richard; Fitchett, Vikki L.; Morgan, Justin F.; Trimble, Tammy E.; Blanco, Myra (United States. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2014-07)
    The Concepts of Operation document evaluates the functional framework of operations for Level 2 and Level 3 automated vehicle systems. This is done by defining the varying levels of automation, the operator vehicle interactions, and system components; and further, by assessing the automation relevant parameters from a scenario-based analysis stand-point. Specific to the “Human Factors Evaluation of Level 2 and Level 3 Automated Driving Concepts" research effort, scenarios and literature are used to identify the range of near- to mid-term production-intent systems such that follow-on research topics with highest impact potential can be identified through commonalities in operational concepts.
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    Human Factors Evaluation of Level 2 and Level 3 Automated Driving Concepts: Past Research, State of Automation Technology, and Emerging System Concepts
    Trimble, Tammy E.; Bishop, Richard; Morgan, Justin F.; Blanco, Myra (United States. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2014-07)
    Within the context of automation Levels 2 and 3, this report documents the proceedings from a literature review of key human factors studies that was performed related to automated vehicle operations. This document expands and updates the results from a prior literature review that was performed for the US DOT. Content within this document reflects the latest research and OEM activity as of June 2013. Studies both directly addressing automated driving, and those relevant to automated driving concepts have been included. Additionally, documents beyond the academic literature, such as articles, summaries, and presentations from original equipment manufacturers and suppliers, have been researched. Information from both United States and international projects and researchers is included. This document also identifies automated-driving relevant databases in support of future research efforts.
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    Human Performance Evaluation of Light Vehicle Brake Assist Systems
    Fitch, Gregory M.; Blanco, Myra; Morgan, Justin F.; Rice, Jeanne C.; Wharton, Amy E.; Wierwille, Walter W.; Hanowski, Richard J. (United States. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2010-04)
    The Brake Assist System (BAS) is a safety feature that supplements drivers' inadequate braking force during panic braking maneuvers upon the detection of a rapid brake pedal application. This report presents an evaluation of drivers' panic braking performance using BAS. Two vehicles with electronic BASs were selected: a 2006 Mercedes-Benz R350 and a 2007 Volvo S80. Sixty-four participants, balanced for age and gender, drove one of the instrumented vehicles at 45 mph and stopped at an unexpected barricade. Following debriefing, drivers performed another braking maneuver at the barricade, were shown how to perform a hard stop, and performed hard-braking maneuvers in which BAS was either enabled or disabled. Twenty-eight percent of drivers activated BAS subsequent to the demonstration. In the most conservative analysis, where the effect of BAS activation was isolated from driver panic-braking variability, it was found that BAS-active stopping distances were on average 1.43 ft (s.e. = 1.19 ft) shorter than BAS-disabled stopping distances. Yet, two drivers, who differed in age, sex, and vehicle driven, exhibited reductions in stopping distance exceeding 10 ft. Overall, the as-tested BAS has potential safety benefit that could be accrued from reduced stopping distance, but were not realized in this evaluation. Moreover, BAS implementations that do not completely rely on the driver may offer greater safety benefits.
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    The Impact of Driving, Non-driving Work, and Rest Breaks on Driving Performance in Commercial Vehicle Operations
    Blanco, Myra; Hanowski, Richard J.; Olson, Rebecca Lynn; Morgan, Justin F.; Soccolich, Susan A.; Wu, Shih-Ching (United States. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, 2011-05)
    Current hours-of-service (HOS) regulations prescribe limits to commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers' operating hours. Besides assessing activities performed in the 14-hour workday, the relationship between safety-critical events (SCEs) and driving hours, work hours, and breaks was investigated. The data used in the analyses were collected in the Naturalistic Truck Driving Study and included 97 drivers and about 735,000 miles of continuous driving data. The assessment of the drivers' workday determined that, on average, drivers spent 66 percent of their shift driving, 23 percent in non-driving work, and 11 percent resting. Analyses on driving hours (i.e., driving only) and SCE risk found a time-on-task effect across hours. Analyses on work hours (i.e., driving in addition to non-driving work) found that risk of being involved in an SCE increased as work hours increased. This suggests that time-on-task effects may not be related to driving hours alone, but implies an interaction between driving hours and work hours: if a driver begins the day with several hours of non-driving work, followed by driving that goes deep into the 14- hour workday, SCE risk was found to increase. The finding from the workday characterization that drivers spent approximately 23 percent of their workday performing non-driving work provides a possible explanation for this time-on-task effect across work hours. Breaks from driving were found to be beneficial in reducing SCEs (during 1- hour window after a break) and were effective to counteract the negative effects of time-on-task.
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    Supporting CMV Driver Distraction Outreach Efforts: Letter Report Summary
    Morgan, Justin F.; Flintsch, Alejandra Medina; Blanco, Myra; Hanowski, Richard J.; Fitchett, Vikki L.; Fitzgerald, Hollie E.; Radlbeck, Joshua (National Surface Transportation Safety Center for Excellence, 2015-04-08)
    The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) CMV Driving Tips website (https://cms.fmcsa.dot.gov/safety/driver-safety/cmv-driving-tips-overview) is a source for information on safety and practical driving tips for CMV drivers and safety managers. The purpose of this project was to review the driver distraction content on the CMV Driving Tips site and identify recently published research that may be included in a potential site update. The content was made more accessible to a broad audience of CMV drivers by simplifying the text, providing a Spanish-language translation, and creating English and Spanish versions of a one-page tip sheet on how to reduce distracted driving.
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    Synthesis of Literature and Operating Safety Practices Related to Cell Phone/Personal Data Assistant Use in Commercial Truck and Bus Operations (Technical Report)
    Morgan, Justin F.; Trimble, Tammy E.; Bowman, Darrell Scott; Baker, Stephanie Ann; Pickett, Raquel; Murray, Dan; Bergoffen, Gene (United States. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, 2011-04)
    There is an increasing awareness of the role of driver distraction in commercial motor vehicle crashes. This study presents the results of efforts to expand current knowledge of truck and motorcoach industry practices regarding commercial driver distraction. The project involved a thorough literature review on driver distraction. Little research specifically addressed commercial driver distraction; those studies that did examine commercial driving typically found significant degradations in driver performance due to visually demanding device use. However, the findings of automotive driver distraction research vary based on the type of examination (i.e., simulator, test-track, or naturalistic data collection methods) and the aspect of phone use. These findings, in light of the importance and potential safety risks posed by driver distraction, may help guide further research into the nature and magnitude of distraction faced by CMV drivers as part of their normal job functions.
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    Synthesis Study of Light Vehicle Non-planar Mirror Research
    Morgan, Justin F.; Blanco, Myra (United States. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2010-05)
    Due to the requirement for a planar rearview mirror on the driver side of light vehicles, and drivers' typical aiming of rearview mirrors, a large blind spot is adjacent to the car. This blind spot can conceal a vehicle, which may increase the risk of lane-change collisions. Non-planar rearview mirrors present the driver with a greater field of view; however, they also provide a minified image. Laboratory and stationary-driver testing have consistently shown that non-planar mirrors are associated with overestimations in distance and speed. However, there is less consistency in findings for on-road testing, as the magnitude and practical effect of overestimation varies. Likewise, lane-change crash rates in Europe do not appear to be affected by non-planar mirror use. The ability of drivers to detect and react to an object is aided by nonplanar mirrors. This, and the interior planar rearview mirror, may offset overestimation and the effect of smaller accepted gaps. Additional research is needed to determine the effect of non-planar rearview mirrors on crash rates and driver acceptance, as well as the possibility of different configurations, of non-planar mirrors within the United States.