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App Ergs 2017 Breaks Final Paper.pdf (453.79 kB)

Improving long term driving comfort by taking breaks – How break activity affects effectiveness

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journal contribution
posted on 2017-07-24, 10:01 authored by George M. Sammonds, Neil J. Mansfield, Michael FrayMichael Fray
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd During long duration journeys, drivers are encouraged to take regular breaks. The benefits of breaks have been documented for safety; breaks may also be beneficial for comfort. The activity undertaken during a break may influence its effectiveness. Volunteers completed 3 journeys on a driving simulator. Each 130 min journey included a 10 min break after the first hour. During the break volunteers either stayed seated, left the simulator and sat in an adjacent room, or took a walk on a treadmill. The results show a reduction in driver discomfort during the break for all 3 conditions, but the effectiveness of the break was dependent on activity undertaken. Remaining seated in the vehicle provided some improvement in comfort, but more was experienced after leaving the simulator and sitting in an adjacent room. The most effective break occurred when the driver walked for 10 min on a treadmill. The benefits from taking a break continued until the end of the study (after a further hour of driving), such that comfort remained the best after taking a walk and worst for those who remained seated. It is concluded that taking a break and taking a walk is an effective method for relieving driving discomfort.

History

School

  • Design

Published in

Applied Ergonomics

Volume

65

Pages

81 - 89

Citation

SAMMONDS, G.M., MANSFIELD, N.J. and FRAY, M., 2017. Improving long term driving comfort by taking breaks – How break activity affects effectiveness. Applied Ergonomics, 65, pp. 81-89.

Publisher

© Elsevier

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Acceptance date

2017-05-20

Publication date

2017

Notes

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Applied Ergonomics and the definitive published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2017.05.008

ISSN

0003-6870

eISSN

1872-9126

Language

  • en

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