The effects of visual clutter on driving performance

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The effects of visual clutter on driving performance

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Edquist, Jessica. Monash University Accident Research Centre; 2009. The effects of visual clutter on driving performance.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/64951

Title: The effects of visual clutter on driving performance
Creator: Edquist, Jessica
Contributor: Principal Supervisor: Johnston, Ian
Subject: Road safety
Subject: Driving simulator
Subject: Cognitive workload
Subject: Roadside advertising
Subject: Billboard
Subject: Road signs
Subject: Novice drivers
Subject: Older drivers
Subject: Change detection
Subject: Visual perception
Subject: Information processing
Date: 2009
Publisher: Monash University Accident Research Centre
Description: Driving a motor vehicle is a complex activity, and errors in performing the driving task can result in crashes which cause property damage, injuries, and sometimes death. It is important that the road environment supports drivers in safe performance of the driving task. At present, increasing amounts of visual information from sources such as roadside advertising create visual clutter in the road environment. There has been little research on the effect of this visual clutter on driving performance, particularly for vulnerable groups such as novice and older drivers. The present work aims to fill this gap. Literature from a variety of relevant disciplines was surveyed and integrated, and a model of the mechanisms by which visual clutter could affect performance of the driving task was developed. To determine potential sources of clutter, focus groups with drivers were held and two studies involving subjective ratings of visual clutter in photographs and video clips of road environments were carried out. This resulted in a taxonomy of visual clutter in the road environment: ‘situational clutter’, including vehicles and other road users with whom drivers interact; ‘designed clutter’, including road signs, signals, and markings used by traffic authorities to communicate with users; and ‘built clutter’, including roadside development and any signage not originating from a road authority. The taxonomy of visual clutter was tested using the change detection paradigm. Drivers were slower to detect changes in photographs of road scenes with high levels of visual clutter than with low levels, and slower for road scenes including advertising billboards than road scenes without billboards. Finally, the effects of billboard presence and lead vehicles on vehicle control, eye movements and responses to traffic signs and signals were tested using a driving simulator. The number of vehicles included appeared to be insufficient to create situational clutter. However billboards had significant effects on driver speed (slower), ability to follow directions on road signs (slower with more errors), and eye movements (increased amount of time fixating on roadsides at the expense of scanning the road ahead). Older drivers were particularly affected by visual clutter in both the change detection and simulated driving tasks. Results are discussed in terms of implications for future research and for road safety practitioners. Visual clutter can affect driver workload as well as purely visual aspects of the driving task (such as hazard perception and search for road signs). When driver workload is increased past a certain point other driving tasks will also be performed less well (such as speed maintenance). Advertising billboards in particular cause visual distraction, and should be considered at a similar level of potential danger as visual distraction from in-vehicle devices. The consequences of roadside visual clutter are more severe for the growing demographic of older drivers. Currently, road environments do not support drivers (particularly older drivers) as well as they could. Based on the results, guidance is given for road authorities to improve this status when designing and location road signage and approving roadside advertising.

Identifier: http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/64951
Identifier: ethesis-20090417-121216
Identifier: monash:7883
RM Identifier: $rmid
Publication Category: $pubCat
Language: eng
Rights: Open access: open access to thesis full text.
Rights: This thesis is protected by copyright. Copyright in the thesis remains with the author. The Monash University Arrow Repository has a non-exclusive licence to publish and communicate this thesis online.
Type: thesis
Type: PhdDoctorate

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