D. Dewaard et al., EFFECT OF ROAD LAYOUT AND ROAD ENVIRONMENT ON DRIVING PERFORMANCE, DRIVERS PHYSIOLOGY AND ROAD APPRECIATION, Ergonomics, 38(7), 1995, pp. 1395-1407
Infrastructural changes were implemented on rural 80 km/h roads in The
Netherlands in an effort to reduce speeding. The road infrastructure
changes were designed to produce discomfort for the speeding driver by
providing noxious auditory and haptic feedback. On experimental roads
, smooth-surface road width was reduced by using blocks of gravel chip
pings placed along the centre line and at intervals on road edges. It
was predicted that these changes would increase mental load while driv
ing, and thereby decrease speeding. In a field experiment 28 subjects
drove an instrumented vehicle over experimental and control roads. A d
ecrease in driving speed and swerving behaviour was found on the exper
imental roads, and this was coupled with a decrease in heart rate vari
ability, consistent with an increase in mental load. Roads in two diff
erent road-side environments (woodland vs. moorland) were also tested.
There were differences in driver appraisal of the two environments, b
ut no interactions were observed between these appraisals and driving
performance on the experimental roads. It is concluded that the infras
tructural measures have a useful role to play in road safety through a
reduction in driver speeding.