The `Drive Time' system, which commenced operation on Melbourne's South Eastern Arterial during July 1995, provides drivers with information about traffic conditions and incidents on the South Eastern Arterial. This information is intended to assist drivers to make informed decisions about route choice and the timing of trips on the South Eastern Arterial. The success of the Drive Time system depends critically on drivers being able to understand and use the information presented. Interviews with individual drivers and group discussion sessions were conducted in order to test driver comprehension and collect driver responses to a variety of test formats for the travel time signs. The results showed that qualitative labels describing traffic on the Arterial as `Heavy', `Medium' or `Light', whilst the most readily understood in the short term, would in the longer term probably be the least useful to drivers who have become familiar with the system. Signs showing the travel time from the sign location to various exits from the Arterial, whilst requiring a longer learning period than the qualitative labels, provide the information which in the longer term would probably be of most use to drivers. There was overwhelming support among drivers for the use of colour on the signs to attract attention and to speed comprehension of the information presented.
Abstract