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Toward Safe Systems: Traffic Safety, Cognition, and the Built Environment

2020; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 44; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/0739456x20931915

1552-6577

Eric Dumbaugh, Dibakar Saha, Louis A. Merlin,

Safety Warnings and Signage

Conventional transportation practice attributes traffic crashes to human error, leading to the prevailing assumption that crash prevention is principally an outcome of driver education and law enforcement programs. But what if planning and urban design decisions induce human errors? In this study, we examine the literature in organizational systems safety, cognitive psychology, and behavioral economics to detail how cognitive interpretations of the built environment may produce the errors that result in traffic crashes. We proceed to examine crash incidence in Charlotte-Mecklenberg County in light of this cognitive framework and discuss its implications for research and practice.