HUMAN FACTORS REQUIREMENTS FOR FINGERTIP REACH CONTROLS

This project was instituted to develop human factors recommendations for fingertip reach controls. Interviews were conducted with 405 drivers of cars equipped with fingertip reach controls. A high percentage of finding problems was reported when the horn was mounted on a stalk and also when the turn signal was on a right stalk. Drivers of configurations with two left stalks had a large percentage of operating problems for the turn signal and for the headlight beam selector. A laboratory experiment was conducted to evaluate modes of operation for the wiper on/off, wiper speed, and washer on/off functions when these controls were located on one left stalk. Subjects performed best when wiper on/off and wiper speed were controlled by a rotating hand switch. Performance on stalk mounted control functions was faster and required less direct looks than performance on dash mounted functions. It was recommended that the turn signal, headlight beam selector and flash-to-pass controls be located on one left stalk. It was also recommended that the wiper on/off, wiper speed and washer controls be located to the left of the driver at fingertip reach, and if stalk mounted, on the same stalk. Finally, it was suggested that future research be conducted on assessing the potential benefits of putting additional controls at fingertip reach.

• Corporate Authors:

  Wayne State University

  Department of Industrial Engineering
  Detroit, MI  United States  48202

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Mourant, R R
  • Moussa-Hamouda, E
  • Howard, J M
• Publication Date: 1977-9

Media Info

• Pagination: 123 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automobiles; Control; Control devices; Design; Driver performance; Drivers; Human factors; Human factors engineering; Laboratory tests; Performance tests; Personnel performance; Reaction time
• Uncontrolled Terms: Experimental design
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00175965
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: DOT-HS-803-267 Final Rpt.
• Contract Numbers: DOT-HS-5-01192
• Files: NTIS, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Jun 28 1978 12:00AM