Study of how the dimensions of speed limit signs affects driver's perception via Eye Tracking System device

• Grant number: 18/12762-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2018
• End date: January 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Transportation Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Ana Paula Camargo Larocca
• Grantee: Alex Taima Costa
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The present research proposal deals with the use of the eye tracking system – Smart Eye - aiming to study how the diameter of the speed limit signs affects the attention of drivers within a driving simulator environment. Nowadays driving simulators are a useful tool for studying and analyzing the geometric design of roads and vertical signaling, and the behavior of drivers facing situations of interest etc. Some advantages of virtual scenarios over field tests is the fact that the driving simulator is a cheaper and more secure mean of simulating critical events and situations that are rarely experienced in reality and difficult to reproduce in field studies. In this project a 5 km section of the Régis Bittencourt highway will be used. Volunteer will drive through this section where the diameter of the speed limit signs will be changed following the dimensions used in Brazil and those regulated by the American Standard on Uniform Traffic Control Devices For Streets and Highways (MUTCD). The results yielded by the eye tracking system will then allow analyze the efficiency of vertical signaling according to the diameter of the speed limit signs.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

COSTA, ALEX TAIMA; FIGUEIRA, AURENICE C.; LAROCCA, ANA PAULA C.. An eye-tracking study of the effects of dimensions of speed limit traffic signs on a mountain highway on drivers' perception. TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH PART F-TRAFFIC PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOUR, v. 87, p. 12-pg., 2022-04-04. (18/12762-6, 21/10727-1)