ABSTRACT
This chapter describes some cognitive and perceptual characteristics of drivers that may influence the success of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). It examines driver cognitive characteristics to identify driver information requirements and the form that this information should take. This review does not attempt to completely specify driver information requirements and ITS design parameters, but simply draws upon the human factors and experimental psychology literature to identify and describe cognitive constraints that may be particularly important in the design of ITS. The chapter contains three examples of how each class of cognitive characteristics might influence ITS design. It describes how driver characteristics might be used to specify the design of an in-vehicle signing system. It discusses how parameters of a collision avoidance system could be tuned to augment driver's decision making capabilities. It explains how navigation knowledge and attitudes toward technology may influence driver's use of routing and navigation systems.
