Ellen Szubski, M.S., Ph.D.

Ellen Szubski holds graduate degrees at the master's and doctoral level and works in the area of human factors, with a focus on visual perception and road user safety. Her research addresses how drivers and other road users perceive and respond to visibility-related stimuli, including the optical properties of retroreflective materials and the conspicuity of bicyclists in traffic environments.

Her peer-reviewed work has appeared in Human Factors and Accident Analysis and Prevention, two of the primary journals in the human factors and traffic safety fields. One published study examined why road users misjudge the reflective characteristics of retroreflective materials, while another investigated how highlighting biological motion on bicyclists affects how readily they are seen in daylight conditions. Both lines of inquiry bear directly on questions of conspicuity, perception, and driver behavior that arise in motor vehicle and pedestrian or bicyclist collision cases.