EFFECT OF ROAD LAYOUT AND ROAD ENVIRONMENT ON DRIVING PERFORMANCE, DRIVERS PHYSIOLOGY AND ROAD APPRECIATION

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.