Attitudes of Metro Drivers Towards Design of Immediate Physical Environment and System Layout

Abstract

In this study, the authors examined attitudes of the Tyne & Wear (T&W) Metro drivers towards system design-related factors and their influence on the propagation of driver-related incidents. The system design features assessed include the position of running signals, visibility of different signal types, and platform location in relation to the travelling direction. The methodology based on data gathering through a self-administered questionnaire distributed among the drivers has been used. These data have been evaluated using multivariate analysis techniques against historic data on incidents to uncover potential relationships between drivers’ perceptions and incident occurrence. The results show that the participants do not tend to consider system design factors as influential towards incident propagation. However, the analysis shows correlation between the driver responses and historical incident data such as corroboration of the increased incident propagation risks during the engineering works and the possessions.

Keywords

Urban railways / Metro / Human–system interface / Human factors / Safety / PSF

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