COMBINED ACCELERATOR-BRAKE PEDAL, A PROMISING SOLUTION

The traditional arrangement of foot pedals in cars has two main drawbacks: movement time, about 0.2 s, adds to brake reaction time and there is risk for misapplications. A combined accelerator-brake pedal may eliminate these drawbacks. The driver accelerates by pressing the fore-foot and brakes by reaching out with the leg without having to release the throttle. To ensure safety, an extra brake-pedal is mounted at the position of a conventional brake pedal. A behavioural evaluation with 18 test drivers shows that drivers can, irrespective of experience and age, acquire high performance after a short period of training making very few mistakes. Drivers were observed in manoeuvring tests and then used the test vehicle in their daily driving for about ten days while filling in a diary. Finally, they were observed when changing back to conventional pedals. Changing between pedal systems seems surprisingly easy and raises questions concerning the automatic level of control in driving. For the covering abstract see ITRD E113725.

• Corporate Authors:

  Swiss Council For Accident Prevention BFU

  P.O. Box 8236
  Berne,   Switzerland  CH-3001
• Authors:
  • Nilsson, R
• Conference:
  • INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORT PSYCHOLOGY - ICTTP 2000, HELD 4-7 SEPTEMBER 2000, BERNE, SWITZERLAND - KEYNOTES, SYMPOSIA, THEMATIC SESSIONS, WORKSHOPS, POSTERS, LIST OF PARTICIPANTS AND WORD VIEWER - CD ROM
• Publication Date: 2001

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: 10 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accelerators (Devices); Brakes; Conferences; Design; Development; Driver performance; Driver training; Evaluation and assessment; Performance; Safety; Travelers; Vehicles
• ITRD Terms: 1363: Accelerator (veh); 1361: Brake; 8525: Conference; 9011: Design (overall design); 9013: Development; 1571: Driver training; 9020: Evaluation (assessment); 1665: Safety; 2205: Skill (road user); 1255: Vehicle
• Subject Areas: Design; Safety and Human Factors; Society; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00927215
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD
• Created Date: Jul 8 2002 12:00AM