What does a motorcyclist look at while driving at urban arterials?
To design adequate measures for enhancing riders' safety, a necessary first step is to understand the riders' visual scanning strategies under different traffic conditions. This paper presents the preliminary analysis of eye tracking data collected by three riders in the Athens metropolitan area, riding along urban arterial motorways and along an undivided urban road. Apart from the fixation duration and location, the fixated road elements and specific objects were annotated and analysed. The mean duration of fixations was found to be higher on urban roads than on motorways for all traffic densities. Riding in the condition of restricted flow seems to be more demanding for the riders, since the mean duration of fixations was higher in restricted flow than in free or congested flow on motorway and also higher than in free flow on urban road. The riders' fixation locations differed between motorway and urban road, especially in the vertical plane. The analysis of fixated road elements and specific objects indicates the specific points of interest of riders in each case. Although results should be validated with data from more riders, they provide hints on direction of future research efforts to enhance riders' safety in urban environments.
Sector of Industrial Management and Operations Research, School of Mechanical Engineering, Ergonomics Unit, Zografou, National Technical University of Athens, Iroon Politechneiou 9, 15780 Zografou, Greece. dnathan@central.ntua.gr
Dimitris
D
Nathanael
Evangelia
E
Portouli
Kostas
K
Gkikas
Vassilis
V
Papakostopoulos
D000328:Adult; D002947:Cities; D053483:Eye Movement Measurements; D005133:Eye Movements; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009049:Motorcycles; D012449:Safety