Cognitive organization of roadway scenes. Part II: an empirical study of roads inside built-up areas. On behalf of the Directorate-General of Public Works and Water Management, Transport Research Centre AVV.

This report describes two experimental studies designed to elucidate road users' cognitive organization of urban roadway scenes. A sample of urban road locations was stratified by seven road categories, three urbanization levels, and by the presence or absence of a intersection nearby. These locations were photographed from the driver viewpoint, and roadside characteristics were registered. A selection of 94 photographs was presented to approximately 25 volunteers per experimental task. In the first experiment, subjects were asked to sort these photographs into `piles' of photographs , placing `similar' photographs together and `dissimilar' photographs apart. These piles were intended to be `meaningful' and `useful' to the subjects in their role as automobile drivers. In the second experiment, other subjects were asked to estimate a safe driving speed and the chance of encountering `slow' traffic for each of the 94 photographs investigated in the first experiment. In contrast, to the findings of the 1994 investigation of rural roads (see IRRD 874814), the presence or absence of intersections played only a rather negligible role in the subjects' judgement. Traffic safety implications and possibilities for future research are also considered. It is tentatively indicated that there should be essentially three urban road types. (The title of the Dutch version of this report is: 'Cognitieve organisatie van wegbeelden, deel II: een empirisch onderzoek naar wegen binnen de bebouwde kom', see C 5989).