Agenda - Council - 11/13/2012 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Accident Research Unit, School of Psychology, University of Nottingham Attraction and distraction of attention with roadside advertisements (Crundall et al., 2005) 7 This research used eye movement tracking to measure the difference between street -level advertisements and raised advertisements in terms of how they held drivers' attention at times when attention should have been devoted to driving tasks. The study found that street -level advertising signs are more distracting than raised signs. 3.3 "Dynamic" Billboards: an Additional Source of Distraction? Signage owners or leasers want to incorporate dynamic features into their signage for a number of reasons: to enhance the sign's ability to attract attention, to facilitate display of larger amounts of information within the same sign area, to conveniently change message content, and to enhance profitability. As mentioned earlier, this report uses the term "dynamic" signs to refer to non -static signs capable of displaying multiple messages. Several studies documented the ability of a sign to accomplish the first of these goals. University of Toronto Observed Driver Glance Behavior at Roadside Advertising Signs (Beijer & Smiley, 2004) 8 Research done at the University of Toronto compared driver behavior subject to passive (static) and active (dynamic) signs. The study found that about twice as many glances were made toward the active signs than passive signs. A disproportionately larger number of long glances (greater than 0.75 seconds) taken were toward the active signs. The duration of 0.75 seconds is important because it is close to the minimum perception - reaction time required for a driver to react to a slowing vehicle. For vehicles with close following distances, or under unusually complex driving conditions, a perception delay of this length could increase the chance of a crash. The following findings were reported in this study: • 88% of the subjects made long glances (greater than 0.75 seconds). • 22% of all glances made at all signs were long glances (greater than 0.75 seconds). • 20% of all the subjects made long glances of over two seconds. • As compared to static and scrolling text signs, video and tri-vision signs attracted more long glances. • Video and scrolling text signs received the longest average maximum glance duration. • All three of the moving sign types (video, scrolling text and tri-vision) attracted more than twice as many glances as static signs. 6