Anthropometric profile of the British car occupant : Haslegrave, C.M., and Hardy, R.N. Motor Industry Research Association, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, Research Report No 2, 1979, 74 pp

Abstract

An anthropometric survey of British car drivers and front seat passengers measured seventeen dimensions required in the design of cars. The distributions of dimensions were obtained for the male and female driving populations, showing the variations with age, stature and weight. The survey data has been transferred to computer file for use in design studies, especially in mathematical models requiring parameters of drivers representative of the whole user population. In considering the effect on seating layout of the statistics of drivers and front seat passengers, no significant difference was found between female occupants of either front seat, but male drivers were found to be significantly older and heavier than male passengers, although there was little difference in stature. Comparison with the dimensions of the U.S. civilian population, which have been used up to now in European car design and legislation, showed that where male dimensions have been based on American statistics, they are adequate for the present British driving population, but British female drivers are significantly taller than U.S. civilian women. A factor analysis was used to explore the relationships between dimensions relevant to vehicle design. After normalisation to remove the influence of stature and weight on the other dimensions, three factors were extracted and used to construct a set of body indices which are suggested as shape parameters in the definition of a range of anthropometric dummies and models.