Predicting safe driving behavior of professional bus drivers: validation of psychometric tests using real driving performance

Human factors models of driving behavior often include psychomotor abilities, cognitive abilities and personality dimensions as key human attributes associated with safe driving. The present study evaluates the effectiveness of psychometric tests of these human attributes in predicting safe and effective driving performance by experienced bus drivers. A test battery consisting of safety critical ability and personality tests was administered to 125 professional bus drivers during routine driver training. Participants drove a passenger bus under three real time driving scenarios: 1) typical road driving (without critical incidents), 2) a “dangerous situations” hazard course (involving traffic incidents), and 3) manoeuvring buses in confined spaces. Expert driving assessors scored the performance of drivers using objective and subjective criteria for each scenario (e.g. errors, speed, traffic cones moved and situational based grading). Regression analyses of results indicate that the full psychometric test battery could predict driver performance (R=.62, p<.05), and that different combinations of ability and personality dimensions are relevant for different safe driving scenarios. For typical road driving situations, concentration, reaction time and safety relevant aspects of personality were significantly predictive of safe driving performance. For dangerous driving situations involving traffic hazards, measures of stress tolerance and visual situation awareness were most significant. For bus driving in confined spaces, logical reasoning skills which allow the planning and execution of complex driving manoeuvres were most significant. Overall, the results demonstrate the validity and utility of targeted psychometric testing in the recruitment and training of professional drivers.

• Record URL:
  http://acrs.org.au/publications/acrs-conference-papers/acrs-database/
• Authors:
  • Schünemann, A L
  • Gatscha, M
  • Herle, M
  • Mandler, G
  • Tuulia, M O
  • Vetter, M
• Conference:
  • Australasian Road Safety Conference, 1st, 2015, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
• Publication Date: 2015-10

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 5p
• Monograph Title: Taking action together: 1st Australasian Road Safety Conference (ARSC2015), 14-16 October, Gold Coast, Queensland

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bus drivers; Driver licenses; Driver licensing; Driver performance; Driver training; Drivers; Driving tests; Human characteristics; Stress (Psychology); Vision; Vision tests
• Uncontrolled Terms: Safe systems (road users)
• Geographic Terms: Germany; Vienna, Austria
• ATRI Terms: Bus driver; Driver characteristics; Driver performance; Driver testing and licensing; Human stress; Visual acuity
• ITRD Terms: 1272: Bus; 2234: Stress (psychol)
• Subject Areas: Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01591454
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB
• Files: ITRD, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 26 2016 9:25AM