Field trial focus group for recreational off-highway vehicles (ROVs)

USER ACCEPTANCE AND EFFECTIVENESS OF SEAT BELT SPEED LIMITERS ON RECREATIONAL OFF-HIGHWAY VEHICLES

Project Number: 6000.02 Task 1: Field Trial Focus Groups

HANDS-ON FIELD TASK SCRIPT

1. Basic Information & Instructions on ROV Operational Controls

The Can-Am Commander 1000 by BRP is much like a car or Jeep in its features. You have throttle and brake pedals, a steering wheel, ignition, and gear selector for controlling where and how fast you go. The speedometer above the dash will show you how fast you’re going, but for most of our rides today, we’ll be controlling the maximum speed with this computer. Like a car, it has seatbelts and side curtains in place of doors. Both of these use buckles to latch them and a red button to release them. Unlike a car, it includes several keys to allow you to limit the speed available to a given driver. The belts and side curtains are intended to keep you and your arms and legs inside the vehicle in case a rollover occurs, minimizing the likelihood that you or they will be trapped or crushed under the vehicle or rollbars.

The maximum speed of this ROV is over 65 MPH. We will not be going that fast today. In fact, we will be experiencing the operation of the vehicle’s seatbelt activated speed limiter. If the driver does not latch the seatbelt, the system is designed to limit the top speed to 6 MPH. We have devised a means to simulate a limiter with higher speed thresholds that we’d like to have you experience. These thresholds include 10, 15, and 20 MPH that we will allow you to experience without your seatbelt buckled.

The computer you see here will engage the speed limiter when you get close to the maximum speed for a given run around our test course. We only want you to approach these speeds on the straight sections of the course, NOT as you’re turning around on the corners.

For safety purposes, both the person riding with you and the other researcher will have the ability to engage the speed limiter completely and slow your speed to the original 6 MPH max.

2. Specific Task Instructions

While test driving the ROV, there are a series of tasks that we would like for you to perform. Ahead of you are a set of different stations that you will drive to in the ROV. At each station there is a golf ball and we want you to exit the ROV, retrieve the golf ball, return back to the ROV and drive to the next station. You will do this until you have visited each station and retrieved all of the golf balls. We want you to perform this retrieval task for total of 4 different times under different conditions.

1. During the first pass, you will be asked to buckle your seat belt and you can travel at any speed you choose, so long as it is less than 30 mph.

2. During the second pass, you will be asked to unbuckle your seat belt. For this pass, you will travel at the speed set by the Commander’s speed limiter, which is 6 mph.

3. During the third pass, again you will be unbelted and this time you will travel at a speed of 10 mph.

4. During the fourth and final pass, you will be unbelted and this time you will travel at a speed of 15 mph.

3. Conduct Trials / Passes

A. Pass 1

1. Ask participant about their initial reaction to the task and the use of the seat belt.

B. Pass 2

1. Ask participant about their initial reaction to the task and the ROV’s speed of travel.

C. Pass 3

1. Ask participant about their initial reaction to the task and the ROV’s speed of travel.

D. Pass 4

1. Ask participant about their initial reaction to the task and the ROV’s speed of travel.

4. Wrap-up for Hands- On Field Task Portion

Thank you for your participation in the test drive portion of the focus group. I am going to ask that you wait _____ (point to planned destination) while the other participants complete the same tasks that you performed. After everyone has completed this portion, we will return to the meeting room and have a brief discussion regarding your experience today.

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