ROAD-SIGN UTILITY AS JUDGED BY DRIVERS WITH DIFFERENT AMOUNTS OF DRIVING EXPERIENCE

This study starts from the hypothesis that sign perception depends on the motivational valences of signs. Two groups of drivers with differe nt amounts of driving experience rated Swedish road signs on dimension s assumed to indicate perceived sign utility. The ratings were perform ed against a scenario that included traffic officials' intentions to s implify the sign system. One dimension was amount of reduction in freq uency of occurrence; subjects indicated percentages of reduction they believed to be reasonable. A second dimension was appropriateness of c omplete elimination of a sign from the traffic environment; subjects r ated the degree to which elimination was reasonable. Subjective freque ncy of sign occurrence was rated last. Construct validation procedures showed strong correlations between reduction and elimination ratings only for the higher-experience group. Contrary to expectation, both gr oups showed the same high level of positive attitudes toward all signs . As expected, frequency was a judgmental base for utility, though wea kly, except for permissive signs. It was more extensively related to u tility for the higher-experience group. particularly for percentage ra tings. Curvilinear relationships obtained between frequency and utilit y for permissive and road guidance signs.