Technical Sciences. Traffic
Stepanov О.V., PhD in Technical Sciences,
Kharkiv National Automobile and Highway University, Ukraine
PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL
QUALITIES OF A DRIVER
AND MOTOR
VEHICLE SAFETY
Long and hard work of
driving leads to over-strain of the nervous system of a driver, such work
requires constant discipline and attentiveness that significantly affects the
psycho-physiological reliability of a driver. Often, only the latter
circumstance causes road traffic accidents.
Being in sitting
position for a long time and the related hypokinesia (limited physical
activity) lead to a series of physiological changes in the driver's body, they
cause specific driver's fatigue, reduce his working ability, which facts may
create and development a number of diseases that affect the driver's
psycho-physiological condition. In addition, the development of
psycho-physiological qualities of the driver reveals itself in difficult road
conditions when a defuse of acute traffic situation depends on the rapid
assessment of the situation, on the ability to apply driving skills, on the
speed and accuracy of the reaction, self-control, determination and
perseverance.
The basic
psycho-physiological qualities, according to which the suitability of a person
for driving is determined, are special personal factors, such as: feeling, a
reflection in the mind of certain properties of the objects and phenomena of
the material world that directly affect the senses (there are visual sense,
acoustic, olfactory, cutaneous, motor, vibrational, etc.); perception, a level
of the senses, the accuracy of spatial relations and time intervals, speed of
information processing; psycho-motor reaction, speed and accuracy of the
driver's reaction in critical situations, accurate psycho-motor coordination;
attention, wide volume and attention distribution, his fast switching and
stability, proper organization of attention while performing maneuvers;
emotional and volitional reaction, emotional stability, noise immunity, high
level of volitional qualities (self-control, determination, persistence);
operative thinking, a rapid assessment of road conditions and decision-making,
the ability of fast professional forecasting, good operative memory and its
readiness; personal factors, activity and orientation of the individual, the
tendency to technology, to be initiative, intelligent, disciplined, to have
interest in driver's forecasting work.
From basic driver's
psycho-physiological qualities should be especially marked the attentiveness
and rapid reactions to the corresponding actions for perceived information.
Attentiveness is the
ability to focus on the object of danger, to make it full examination and to
assess the situation. At medium-high speeds the driver can observe dozens of objects, but he can observe in detail only one object. It is
important for the driver to be able to focus on the main object of danger in
time that may require urgent action in order to prevent an accident. While
driving the driver must assess road conditions, which are constantly changing,
he must assess traffic conditions in order to define a new mode of traffic in
time.
The rapidness of
driver's reaction is a natural response of his organism to external stimuli.
The reaction process can be divided into three phases: assessment of the
situation, the decision, the appropriate action. The reaction time of the
driver while driving is measured with short period from the time of the danger
perception and before actions directed to remove it. The response time depends
on the type of reaction, a difficult or a simple one and one in the danger
zone.
While driving a car, in
front of the driver there may appear all sorts of obstacles and dangers. To
avoid danger, the driver must carefully assess it and choose the most effective
action: to stop the car, to drive around the object of danger, to drive past it
with increased speed. This assessment in the whole and a choice of mode of
action are a constituent of the psycho-physiological reaction of the driver. It
should be noted that driving for a long on the highway, where are no crossings
at the same level with other roads, where is no alarm (lights) and one can move
at high speeds, there is a specific kind of fatigue, which is called “road
hypnosis”. It is characterized by drowsiness, confusion, malaise, strangeness,
more or less revealed weakening of reflexes and precisely of the reaction time.
Equilibrium is a
characteristic of human's organs to perceive and respond to changing body
position in space, and the effect on the body accelerations and overloads. In
equilibrium, the important role has the vestibular system, vision, muscle-joint
feeling and skin sensitivity. Maintained balance is the result of complex
interactions occurred from psycho-physiological reflexes. Accelerating
characterizes the rapidness of speed change by a numerical value and the
direction. Human response to acceleration is determined by a number of factors
among which the important role belongs to the action time, rapidness of rise
and of overload vector direction.
Analysis of the
literature showed that the problem of human, psycho-physiological factor in
ensuring the security of motor vehicle and traffic safety is the need to
clarify the mechanisms and quantitative characteristics of driver's perception
and processing of information about road conditions, setting influence on the
productive efficiency and reliability of the driver's activity on the road.
Literature:
1. Мартин Д. Психологические эксперименты: Секреты механизмов психики /
Мартин Д. ― СПб., 2004.― С. 48–51.
2. Утлик В. Э. Психологические
особенности конфликтов в дорожном движении / В. Э. Утлик //
Инновации в образовании. ― 2006. ― № 5. ― С. 120–131.
3. Sporh S. Seele auf Rader
(Psychologie auf der Strasse). Olten, 1972.