title: Driver distraction and performance effects of highway logo sign design.
abstract: Driver distraction and safety concerns have been identified for new highway logo sign configurations. This study assessed driver perception of logo signs and distraction under nine-panel, overflow-combination, or standard six-panel formats. A nine-panel sign has nine business panels within a single sign; a six-panel sign has six panels within a sign; an overflow-combination consists of a standard six-panel sign and a six-panel sign displaying two different services (e.g., food and gas). In this study, twenty-four participants searched for target food business logos while driving in a high-fidelity driving simulation under each signage condition. Gas and lodging signs were also displayed along the road in conventional six-panel formats. Dependent variables included signal detection, visual attention allocation, and vehicle control measures. Experiment results showed nine-panel signs drew greater visual attention and produced lower average speed than overflow-combination signs, and produced a lower speeding percentage compared to six-panel signs. However, there was no evidence the new configurations (nine-panel and overflow) caused substantive performance changes with safety implications. This study suggested the use of nine-panel and overflow-combination logo signs may be suitable for interchanges where there are more than six qualifying businesses in a category in terms of driver performance and safety.
authors.affiliation: Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7906, USA.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.forename: Meghan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rogers
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kaber
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hummer
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Rasdorf
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000523:psychology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005133:Eye Movements; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008123:Location Directories and Signs / Q000592:standards*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time; D012449:Safety; D055815:Young Adult