The Safety Effects of (digital) Roadside Advertising: an Overview of the Literature

Roadside advertising is intended to capture the attention of road users. Most of the time these advertisements are billboards that road users can see while they drive, ride, or walk on public roads, and that promote a product, event or activity. It could be that due to particular features of these billboards (e.g. size, moving images, luminance, content, et cetera) they capture so much attention of road users that they impede the safe execution of the traffic task. If so, they can contribute to the occurrence of road crashes. Assessing Distraction of Vehicle drivers in Europe from Roadside Technology-based Signage (ADVERTS) is a research project that aims to compile recommendations for minimising distraction from roadside billboards - with a special focus on static digital billboards and video billboard - so that they do not interrupt the safe execution of the driving task. The current report forms the theoretical basis of these recommendations. It describes what has been reported in the scientific literature about the distraction of road side advertising devices and their effects on road safety. The parallel analysis of existing guidelines or regulations in European countries and the future trends in roadside advertising (Boets, Vandemeulebroek & Daniels, 2018) ensures that the recommendations are optimally aligned to current practices, while taking account of likely developments in roadside advertising techniques. The current report starts with a brief introduction about the concepts of attention and distraction in relation to the traffic task (Chapter 2). After this introduction, the Salience, Effort, Expectancy, Value (SEEV)-model (Horrey et al., 2006) of visual attention in relation to the driving task is presented (Chapter 3). This model distinguishes several features that help to determine to what extent a roadside billboard is likely to attract attention and, hence, the extent to which it is distracting from the driving task. It functions as a framework for the discussion of the studies about particular features of roadside advertising devices and their effects on road safety (Chapter 4). Subsequently, the main findings from the literature are summarised and structured in the theoretical SEEV-model (Chapter 5). Finally, the report presents the overall conclusions about the effect of roadside advertising on road safety (Chapter 6).

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Edition: Deliverable No: D1.1a
  • Features: Figures; Glossary; Photos; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 40p

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01714325
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: Aug 21 2019 9:37AM