Transport Safety

The course presents a systematic approach towards safety in different modes of transportation (rail, road, maritime and aviation), integrated in system design and management. The focus is on the role of humans in causing safety related problems and in controlling them.

The course deals with the structure and development of the notions of safety and risk by focusing on:

• Practice, with a focus on the (historical and future) developments, perceptions and acceptance of safety and risk in transport systems;

• Control, focusing on various strategies available in dealing with risk at the level of policy and management, including ethical issues;

• Technology, focusing on the way safety and risk are involved in emerging technological systems and applications;

• A micro systems level, dealing with accident analysis, the complexity of problem modelling, causality and explanatory models for failure at the operator level;

• A meso systems level, in developing scenarios and applications of quantitative risk analysis;

• A macro systems level, focusing on approaches in dealing with and deciding on risk by safety impact assessment procedures.

The course provides students with strengths and weaknesses of methods and techniques in problem analysis and problem solving at various systems levels and from different perspectives based on the notion of ‘safe systems’. It focuses on applying basic skills in accident analysis, quantitative risk assessment and the evaluation of control strategies.

Keywords: Safety (design) principles en approaches, human factors, research methodology.