ABSTRACT
The driver's workspace in a 2015 motor vehicle provides examples of good and bad design. Overall, the driver's workspace is a bad design because it forces the driver to maintain the same body position over long periods in order to keep the feet at the pedals, the hands on the steering wheel, and the eyes focused on the road ahead. Most arrangements of hand controls also belong to the good examples; in contrast, the usual arrangement of the foot-operated controls illustrates just about the worst design thinkable. The work task together with the worker's body size determine the necessary sizes of openings, such as of doors and hatches, that must allow passing through them, with equipment worn that makes the body more bulky. Modern technology has generated many tasks and jobs that require sitting, for example, in airplanes and land vehicles and in conventional offices.
