Attention allocation of primary school children and international visitors in different traffic environments. In the project ‘Spatial approach to road safety’ the influence of the environment on the behaviour of road users is examined using attention allocation analysis, measured by eye tracking. The report presents the results of two case studies: the first concerning the perception of traffic environments by children between 6 and 12 years old; the second is an analysis of the way-finding strategies of international visitors in cultural historic cities. Autonomous travel habits influence the children’s experience and their perception of traffic environments. Unlike adults, children evaluate traffic environments more based on observing adult behaviour than by looking at the infrastructure. Adults influence the children and support their perception and evaluation of traffic environments. Infrastructure, although second to adult behaviour, is also important. ‘Understanding of traffic’ and ‘road crossing decisions' evolve with age, and reflect both the curriculum of primary schools and traffic experience. In the visual perception strategies on the other hand, the age and experience differences are not reflected; there adults and other cyclists and pedestrians remain predominant until the age of 12. Other children not participating in traffic distract the children's attention from the traffic. Key recommendations from this analysis of children are: * awareness raising of adults about the importance of their behaviour as an example for children in traffic; * more and safer walking and bicycle paths, because of the self-reinforcing effect: parents allow more autonomous travel, children gain more traffic experience, and more pedestrians and cyclists behaving safely are a powerful example for children. In the virtual exploration (via Google Street View) of a historic city, the route choice of a tourist is influenced by several factors: physical, psychological and mental route qualities. The chosen way-finding strategy and route choice are highly individual. Apparent cultural differences are not statistically significant. However, many visitors without prior knowledge of the area seem to prefer specific roads. This results in larger numbers of people unfamiliar with the area, an attention point for eventual (re) design. Traffic signs, information and navigation tools require a lot of attention (long fixations) of the tourist, at the expense of the traffic. Also fixations on (groups of) road users are long, so the attention is distracted from the traffic. Key recommendations from this analysis of foreign visitors in Flemish historical cities are: * in planning and (re) development of cultural historic cities, take into account the large number of visitors unfamiliar with the environment, i.e. in the signalization; * user friendly navigation tools need to be stimulated for visitors because they give them more opportunity to look at the (traffic ) environment. In both cases eye tracking was used to analyse the attention allocation in Flemish traffic environments; of children in the first case, and of international tourists in the other. The results clearly indicate that the design of the traffic environment, and the behaviour of other road users have an influence on the attention allocation. The more self-explanatory infrastructure and the environment and the less distractions by other road users, the more attention for traffic, which certainly improves safety. These findings confirm the value of attention allocation measurements in real traffic conditions to understand the behaviour of road users. The attention allocation is not only explained by the infrastructure and the road users themselves, but also by the context: such as the presence and behaviour of other road users. (Author/publisher)
Abstract