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Title:

Effects of Varying Work Zone Configuration, Distances Between Traffic Signs and Individual Differences on Drivers’ Perceived Workload

Accession Number:

01519695

Record Type:

Component

Availability:

Transportation Research Board Business Office

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Abstract:

This simulation-based study explores the effects of different work zone configurations, varying distances between traffic signs and individual differences on drivers’ perceived workload. Conventional Lane Merge (CLM) and Joint Lane Merge (JLM) were modeled in a driving simulator and thirty participants (seven female and 23 male students), navigated through the two configurations in three different conditions: a) standard sign distance, b) 25% reduction, and c) 25% increase in the distance between traffic signs in the advance warning area. NASA task load index (TLX) was used to measure mental demand; physical demand, temporal demand, performance, effort; frustration and total workload were recorded for. The results of this study indicated that drivers’ self evaluated measure of performance in JLM was 18.8% higher than CLM and driving through JLM required 15.2% less total workload. Moreover, mental demand, temporal demand, effort and frustration were lower in JLM by 16.4%, 23.4%, 13.7% and 28%, respectively. However, increasing or decreasing the distance between traffic signs by 25%, increased the total perceived workload by 4% and 8%, respectively, which suggests that the current distances between traffic signs, prior to work zones, are optimal. Analysis of personal differences indicates that the perceived total workload differs significantly between male (21.2%) and female participants (28.7%), and those who had previous traffic offences experienced 87% less frustration and put 15% less effort to complete the task. Finally, significant correlations were found between driving behavior and perceived workload, indicating that driving behavior is an important predictor of perceived workload.

Supplemental Notes:

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AND10 Vehicle User Characteristics. Alternate title: Effects of Varying Work Zone Configuration, Distance Between Traffic Signs, and Individual Differences on Drivers’ Perceived Workload

Monograph Accession #:

01503729

Report/Paper Numbers:

14-1893

Language:

English

Corporate Authors:

Transportation Research Board

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Authors:

Shakouri, Mahmoud
Punniaraj, Karthy
Aghazadeh, Fereydoun
Ikuma, Laura Hughes
Ishak, Sherif

Pagination:

14p

Publication Date:

2014

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC
Date: 2014-1-12 to 2014-1-16
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

Digital/other

Features:

Figures; References; Tables

Uncontrolled Terms:

Workload (Drivers)

Subject Areas:

Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors; I73: Traffic Control; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2014 Paper #14-1893

Files:

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Created Date:

Jan 27 2014 2:40PM