The illegal passing of stopped school buses continues to be a serious safety threat as student transporters get students to and from school. An upcoming session at STN EXPO West features an expert-led interactive discussion on the scientific data behind why this safety issue is so widespread.
Dr. Michael Hout will be appearing in Reno, Nevada for his educational session “A Scientific Approach to Studying Illegal Stop Arm Passing” on July 12. As a professor of psychology kinesiology at New Mexico State University, Hout plans to bring a unique perspective to the conference with an illegal passing discussion on the tools of visual cognition and attention science as well as human visual processing.
During the session Hout will seek to answer the question, “How do we actually know what we think we know about illegal passing?” by drawing on his extensive research the same perception failures studied in airport security screening and radiology, known as “look-but-fail-to-see” errors, to explain why a motorist looks directly at a stopped bus but doesn’t register it. Hout will use the science of attention and perception as well as explaining the “serial stop arm runners” mindset, breaking down different types of distractions or misinformation that contribute to continued infractions.
Hout will also discuss current industry-used counting methods of illegal passing incidents, the requirements for future investigations, and reveal the nuances that shows that measuring the scope of this pressing safety issue is a bigger project than most people realize. Attendees are encouraged to ask questions and contribute to this safety discussion with their own professional insights.
Hout’s experience includes serving as a program director at the National Science Foundation, where he co-leads the Perception, Action, and Cognition program, and the Cognitive Neuroscience program. He is also and editor-in-chief of the journal Attention, Perception & Psychophysics.
He also has focused research on eye-movement behavior, visual search, memory and student success. His work in research includes directing the Vision Sciences and Memory Laboratory and the Addison Care Virtual and Augmented Reality Laboratory, which he also co-founded.
STN EXPO West will be held July 9-15 at the Peppermill Resort in Reno, Nevada. Attendees will have access to a week of educational sessions based on the challenges facing the industry, training classes to improve operations, networking events to bring peers together for problem-solving and innovative experiences such as the Ride and Drive/Live Product Demo, the STN EXPO Trade Show and the Transportation Director Summit. Register at stnexpo.com/west.
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