Safety, stress and work zone complexity: A field study on police officers performing on-foot traffic control
Workers such as police officers are exposed to many hazardous situations while performing traffic duties, which renders them vulnerable to work accidents. Such a dangerous work context can lead to high stress levels. This is conducive to performance impairment and, consequently, to high-risk situati...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2019-06-01
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| Series: | Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590198219300181 |
| _version_ | 1811224373918433280 |
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| author | Alexandre Marois Marie-Soleil Cloutier Nicolas Saunier Sylvanie Godillon Daniel Lafond François Vachon |
| author_facet | Alexandre Marois Marie-Soleil Cloutier Nicolas Saunier Sylvanie Godillon Daniel Lafond François Vachon |
| author_sort | Alexandre Marois |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Workers such as police officers are exposed to many hazardous situations while performing traffic duties, which renders them vulnerable to work accidents. Such a dangerous work context can lead to high stress levels. This is conducive to performance impairment and, consequently, to high-risk situations in which safety, for both workers and road users, may be jeopardized. It then seems important to better understand the stress experienced by traffic workers to ultimately improve road safety. Hence, the current study aims at investigating whether work context could be associated with the stress levels of police officers doing traffic duties on foot. Nineteen police officers in Quebec City and Montreal, Canada, performed traffic duties on several sites (including constructions ones) while their physiological state was measured by a wearable sensor harness. Change in subjective stress was measured every 15 min. Characteristics of the environment were also noted for every working site, which permitted to perform hierarchical cluster classifications to assess each site's complexity. Results show that stress levels were significantly lower for less complex sites. Interestingly, traffic and safety measures—identified through automated computer vision—differ depending on the site complexity and were generally associated with measures of stress. Taken together, these results suggest that the context in which pedestrian workers perform traffic duties, that is the environment and the higher-risk events to which they are exposed, can lead to higher levels of stress. Implications for road safety are discussed in light of these results. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T08:48:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-77236899a52c45329e36f9b0261aa7f2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2590-1982 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T08:48:27Z |
| publishDate | 2019-06-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives |
| spelling | doaj.art-77236899a52c45329e36f9b0261aa7f22022-12-22T03:39:38ZengElsevierTransportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives2590-19822019-06-011Safety, stress and work zone complexity: A field study on police officers performing on-foot traffic controlAlexandre Marois0Marie-Soleil Cloutier1Nicolas Saunier2Sylvanie Godillon3Daniel Lafond4François Vachon5Université Laval, Québec, Canada; Corresponding author at: École de psychologie, Pavillon Félix-Antoine-Savard, 2325 rue des Bibliothèques, Université Laval, Québec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada.Institut national de la recherche scientifique, Montréal, CanadaÉcole Polytechnique de Montréal, Montréal, CanadaInstitut national de la recherche scientifique, Montréal, CanadaThales Research and Technology Canada, Québec, CanadaUniversité Laval, Québec, CanadaWorkers such as police officers are exposed to many hazardous situations while performing traffic duties, which renders them vulnerable to work accidents. Such a dangerous work context can lead to high stress levels. This is conducive to performance impairment and, consequently, to high-risk situations in which safety, for both workers and road users, may be jeopardized. It then seems important to better understand the stress experienced by traffic workers to ultimately improve road safety. Hence, the current study aims at investigating whether work context could be associated with the stress levels of police officers doing traffic duties on foot. Nineteen police officers in Quebec City and Montreal, Canada, performed traffic duties on several sites (including constructions ones) while their physiological state was measured by a wearable sensor harness. Change in subjective stress was measured every 15 min. Characteristics of the environment were also noted for every working site, which permitted to perform hierarchical cluster classifications to assess each site's complexity. Results show that stress levels were significantly lower for less complex sites. Interestingly, traffic and safety measures—identified through automated computer vision—differ depending on the site complexity and were generally associated with measures of stress. Taken together, these results suggest that the context in which pedestrian workers perform traffic duties, that is the environment and the higher-risk events to which they are exposed, can lead to higher levels of stress. Implications for road safety are discussed in light of these results.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590198219300181Road safetyTraffic workStressful environmentStressPhysiological response |
| spellingShingle | Alexandre Marois Marie-Soleil Cloutier Nicolas Saunier Sylvanie Godillon Daniel Lafond François Vachon Safety, stress and work zone complexity: A field study on police officers performing on-foot traffic control Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives Road safety Traffic work Stressful environment Stress Physiological response |
| title | Safety, stress and work zone complexity: A field study on police officers performing on-foot traffic control |
| title_full | Safety, stress and work zone complexity: A field study on police officers performing on-foot traffic control |
| title_fullStr | Safety, stress and work zone complexity: A field study on police officers performing on-foot traffic control |
| title_full_unstemmed | Safety, stress and work zone complexity: A field study on police officers performing on-foot traffic control |
| title_short | Safety, stress and work zone complexity: A field study on police officers performing on-foot traffic control |
| title_sort | safety stress and work zone complexity a field study on police officers performing on foot traffic control |
| topic | Road safety Traffic work Stressful environment Stress Physiological response |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590198219300181 |
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