The Relativity between Driving Behaviors and Decipherment of Road Information with Symbols

Abstract

In Japan in recent years, route information panels indicating graphical symbols have been introduced with an expectation of the improvement of readability. However, it has been pointed out that some graphical symbols among the present ones are not understood correctly by road users. It is possible that these cases cause unsafe driving acts like reducing speed in front of information panels under the driving conditions with limited time for reading panels. First, this research has newly created graphical symbols concerning a fire, accident, and falling object and conducted indoor driving experiments by using driving simulator. Next, this research has comparatively assessed the result of the experiments and confirmed that the readability of information panels was improved when new graphical symbols were indicated. Based on this, it was grasped whether reading information panels causes unsafe driving acts.