Gaps between rules and uses of the road

Regarding the high rate of transgressions of the Highway Code, the paper is about how do road users agree to be exposed to such risks? We consider that this issue must be addressed within an “ergonomic” point of view: there is a gap between prescribed and effective task and the non-respect of the road safety laws has to be analyzed in those terms. Data show for instance that the more people drive, the less people are able to recall the meaning of road signs. We hypothesize that acquiring expertise in driving means taking the whole driving situation into account. As a consequence, the context of the task at hand then becomes more important than the formal meaning of a road sign. We propose the use of contextual graphs to represent the different possible actions regarding the different contexts in which the driver is involved. It appears then that the driving task can be assimilated to a contextualization of the Highway Code prescribed procedures.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: CONTEXT
• Authors: Mary Bazire, Patrick Brézillon, Brigitte Cambon de Lavalette, Charles Tijus
• Keywords: CONTEXT 2005, Road Safety Laws, Road Sign, Road Users