A new terminal building resulting in the expansion of the road network was built at Toronto Pearson International Airport. A laboratory study was carried out to assess the effectiveness of the proposed guide signs. Participants decision times and accuracy of lane choice selections to reach a provided destination were measured as they responded to a sequence of road signs guiding them into and out of the airport presented on a desktop computer. The key results were as follows: participants showed high response accuracy and fast response times for airport entry, terminal split and arrivals/departures split signs; airport terminal list signs with nine airlinenames per sign were associated with excessive response times; the split to parking at the arrivals/departures/parking decision point was misunderstood by one-third to one-half of drivers, who assumed they could continue to the curbside expecting to find parking there; the current widely used car rental pictogram was poorly understood and a new alternative design was preferred by participants.
Abstract