RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ROAD SURFACE DESIGN AND DRIVERS' ATTENTION: DESIGN PROPOSALS FOR MAKING SHARED SPACE SAFER

Abstract

This study examined how pavement design affects the visual attention of drivers to pedestrians by simulating eye tracking in driving. Twenty-one road-surface designs were compared using six factors: line width, with/without colored lines, colored/uncolored lines, line angle, luminance contrast, and density. The road-surface design with the lowest number of fixations was the one with uncolored and direction-of-travel lines, with 11 fixations. The road-surface design with the highest number of fixations was the one with colored lines and a 45-degree angle, with 23 fixations. These findings suggest that visually salient designs can influence the visual attention of drivers, while uncolored, direction-of-travel lines designs may reduce their visual attention.