ABSTRACT

Road safety audits are more and more frequent procedure in order to assess the quality of a pathway, principally roads. Most of the current protocols and standardized procedures consider just technical topics, especially from de viewpoint of the road design (structural and functional aspects). However, it is not common to consider the psychology of users; it is the psychological variables (psychophysics, cognitive and emotional variables) that underlay to the correct driving exercise. In this article a compendium of the main psychological aspects to consider when a road is designed, as a complement to the merely technical knowledge that is used currently. Finally, multidisciplinarity is required, joining the efforts from both technical (civil engineers) and psychological knowledge.