Browsing by Subject "Mobile applications"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Development of a Mobile App for Reporting Work Zone Intrusions
    (Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2024-01) Davis, Brian; Morris, Nichole L.; Craig, Curtis; Schumacher, John; Khoday, Annaika
    Work zone intrusions represent a significant safety risk to workers. To help better understand these situations, the Minnesota Department of Transportation partnered with the University of Minnesota to create a method to document intrusion events. This information provides a deeper understanding of the circumstances under which these events occur and enables data-driven decision making when considering ways to reduce or mitigate work zone intrusions. This work focuses on the development of a mobile smartphone app that allows workers to report intrusions from the field immediately after they occur, allowing for timely and accurate intrusion reporting. The work zone intrusion mobile app is developed using an iterative, user-centered design process that solicits feedback from work zone personnel, supervisors, and work zone safety stakeholders at every step in the process. The app uploads completed report data to the existing eSAFE system, allowing for a single repository of collected intrusion report data. To support deployment of the system, training workshops and supporting training and communications materials are created for distribution among users. Throughout the development and deployment of the app, user feedback shows that the app is easy to use and well liked.
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    Older Driver Support System (ODSS) Usability and Design Investigation
    (Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2018-01) Morris, Nichole L.; Craig, Curtis M.; Libby, David A.; Cooper, Jennifer
    Older drivers represent a high-risk population on the road, due to age-related declines in cognition and perception. The present research investigated whether an Older Driver Support System (ODSS) smartphone application would be useful. The research presented here was comprised of (1) focus groups, surveys, and interviews, (2) simulated driving with video playback, and (3) on-the-road field-testing. The methodology centered on iterative re-design of the ODSS interface based on feedback and behavior of older drivers. This iterative re-design approach was successful at making the ODSS interface more usable when considering System Usability Scale (SUS) scores. Furthermore, older drivers during the field test reported minimal mental effort expended when using the smartphone application and many significantly positive statements about the application. The field test resulted in several final recommendations for the ODSS application. A promising final takeaway was a universal design approach preferred by the older drivers, as they did not want to be singled out for special attention.
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    Older Driver Support System Field Operational Test
    (Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2019-05) Libby, David A.; Morris, Nichole L.; Craig, Curtis M.
    Older drivers represent the highest injury and fatality rate per 100 million miles driven. The disproportionate fatality risk is linked to several known factors, ranging from failure to yield to cognitive and visual limitations to seatbelt use abstention to fragility. Through a series of focus groups, usability tests, and a controlled field test, a universally designed smartphone app (called RoadCoach) designed to reduce risky driving behaviors, such as speeding and hard braking, was previously found to have high usability among older drivers. The current research consisted of a field operational test of the app, which examined the baseline driving behavior (3 weeks) of 28 older drivers in Minnesota and Kansas, their driving behavior with RoadCoach feedback (6 weeks), and their driving behavior during a follow-up, no-feedback period (3 weeks). The results demonstrated marginal reductions in speeding behaviors while the app was functioning, but speed behaviors significantly increased after the feedback was discontinued compared to when it was active. Hard braking and stop sign violations were significantly reduced during feedback and post feedback. Finally, satisfaction and trust were high among users, with drivers reporting that the app helped improve their attention and focus on the task of driving.
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    Teen Driver Support System Technology Transfer
    (Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2019-07) Davis, Brian
    The Teen Driver Support System (TDSS) is a smartphone application designed to provide real-time, in-vehicle feedback to novice drivers about their driving behavior to help them make safer driving decisions. The app provides warnings to the driver using in-phone sensors and maps to determine when the driver engages in in risky behavior. TDSS was evaluated in a field operational test that showed the system successfully helps reduce certain risky behaviors among teens using the system. The project documented in this report seeks to extend prior work on the system to make it suitable for future applications. This work included adding features, fixing bugs, and rebranding the system as Road Coach. It also included identifying and pursuing possible future applications of the technology. These efforts enabled the app’s use in a new application focused on providing in-vehicle feedback to older drivers. This application was evaluated as part of two separate projects. These usability and field operational test projects had positive results, notably high user acceptance and system efficacy in reducing certain risky driving behaviors. Future work in this area will continue to pursue this application of the technology as well as others.
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    Test and Evaluate a Bluetooth Based In-Vehicle Message System to Alert Motorists in Work Zones
    (Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2019-05) Liao, Chen-Fu
    Safe and efficient traffic flow in a work zone is a major concern for transportation agencies. To reduce risky behavior around work zones, we have developed a prototype system to investigate the feasibility of using in-vehicle messages to increase drivers’ awareness of safety-critical and pertinent work zone information. Our previous effort focused on an inexpensive technology based on Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacons that can be deployed in or ahead of the work zone. A smartphone app, called WorkzoneAlert, was developed to trigger non-distracting, auditory messages in a smartphone mounted in a vehicle within range of the BLE beacons. Messages associated with BLE beacons around the work zone can be updated remotely in real time and thus could provide significantly improved situational awareness about dynamic conditions in work zones, such as awareness of workers on site, changing traffic conditions, or hazards in the environment. We incorporated the recommended in-vehicle message elements and user interface from a human factors study previously conducted by the HumanFirst lab and deployed the in-vehicle work zone information system at three construction sites (CSAH 53, CSAH 112, and MN-65) in the Twin Cities metropolitan area (TCMA). Our field test results indicated that the WorkzoneAlert app is able to reliably detect the BLE beacon placed an average of 127 m away on traffic signs or portable radar speed signs and successfully announce the corresponding message associated with each BLE beacon.