Driver Visual Search of Objects in and Near the Roadway

Highway systems require roads, traffic control, and users. To assure safety each of these components must function as a combined unit. Too often highway designers and traffic engineers develop road systems that fail to recognize the needs and limitations of users. Highway designers must know the impact of their design decisions on how they will affect traffic control required by traffic engineers, and the resulting impact on the users to perform efficiently and safely. Traffic engineers cannot be expected to solve design problems with traffic engineering fixes. Safe roads are self-explaining where road users know how to behave based on the design and control deployed. The objective of this report is to illustrate a simple, inexpensive procedure that highway designers, traffic engineers, and researchers can use to identify the most meaningful information roadway users incorporate in their driving task decisions. With the procedure, it is readily apparent when traffic control and geometric features compete for road user attention, i.e., when speed limit signs are too close to short vertical sight distance curves. Such user information can then be used jointly by highway designers and traffic engineers to jointly develop guidelines for road features and traffic control systems appropriate for road safety.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Tignor, Samuel C
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 85th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2006-1-22 to 2006-1-26
• Date: 2006

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: CD-ROM
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 21p
• Monograph Title: TRB 85th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers CD-ROM

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Decision making; Drivers; Geometric design; Human factors; Human information processing; Traffic conflicts; Visual perception
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I20: Design and Planning of Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01024840
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 06-2155
• Files: BTRIS, TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: May 31 2006 7:55AM