ESTABLISHING A HUMAN FACTORS FOCUS AND APPROACH FOR NORTH CAROLINA'S IVHS EFFORTS

The paper discusses the behavioral and human factors issues associated with the development and operation of North Carolina's CARAT program ( Congestion Avoidance and Reduction for Autos and Trucks). The goal of CARAT is to produce measurable improvements in incident detection/ recognition and congestion management along a 15 mile freeway corridor in a mid-sized, urban, metropolitan environment. NCDOT's approach to the human factors component of CARAT is modeled in concept after a Department of Defense initiative called MANPRINT, a program which calls for the integration of manpower, personnel, training, system safety, and human engineering across the life cycle of a program. The paper highlights MANPRINT issues in the areas of CARAT system operations and maintenance as well as those pertinent to the vehicle operator.