The impact of rural expressway environments: drivers’ attention allocation to variable message signs

Figures & data

Figure 1. Equipment used in the experiment.

Figure 2. Control expressway scenario with the real and simulated driving environment.

Figure 3. VMS with a general safety message.

Table 1. Overview of VMS test scenarios (without control condition) and the surrounding features.

Attention allocation	Roadside features (left/right)				Far-central feature	Traffic conditions
VMS, speedometer, left and right mirrors	Buildings	Palm tree farm	Ikea landmark	Exit road & sign	Bridge	Extra trucks	Extra cars
Scenario 1	X		X before VMS
Scenario 2				X behind VMS	X
Scenario 3	X		X behind VMS
Scenario 4		X		X before VMS	X
Scenario 5			X before VMS			X
Scenario 6			X before VMS	X behind VMS			X
Examples of attentional allocation in VMS scenarios:

Table 2. Overview of the gaze parameters.

Research variables
Average number of eye fixations	higher eye fixation count = more noticeable in the environment,	Andrychowicz-Trojanowska and Uniwersytet Warszawski (2018)
Time to first fixation	The time to the first fixation on an area of interest (AOI) measured from the farthest distance of visibility.	Costa et al. (2018)
First fixation duration	First fixation duration to an AOI reflects the time taken for initial recognition and identification	Andrychowicz-Trojanowska and Uniwersytet Warszawski (2018)
Average eye fixation duration [ms]	Long eye fixation durations indicate difficulties in extracting information, while shorter mean durations indicate that the information can be extracted easily.	Andrychowicz-Trojanowska and Uniwersytet Warszawski (2018)

TABLE 3. Demographics of sample (n = 79).

Gender:
Male:	80.0%
Female:	20.0%
Age
Range	18 − 65 years
Mean	30.9 years
SD	10.9 years
Education
High school diploma…..	..36%
Higher degree diploma	…64%
Profession:
Employed full time	47.5%
Employed part-time	5.0%
Businessman/woman	2.5%
Unemployed	1.3%
University Student	41.3 %
Housewife/househusband	2.5%
Driving experience with Qatar license
> 2 years	73.8 %
< 2 years	26.2 %
Average driven km/ year
< 10,000 km	33.8%
10,000 to 19,999 km	27.5%
> 20,000 km	38.8%
Drivers wearing prescription glasses /lenses
yes	47.5%
no	52.5%

Figure 4. Time to first fixation on VMS (median and interquartile range).

Figure 5. VMS fixation count (median and interquartile range).

Figure 6. First fixation duration: average vs. first exposure.

Figure 7. Fixation duration on VMS (median and interquartile range).

Figure 8. Fixation duration on areas of interest.

Costa, M., Simone, A., Vignali, V., Lantieri, C., & Palena, N. (2018). Fixation distance and fixation duration to vertical road signs. Applied Ergonomics, 69, 48–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2017.12.017

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