An experiment has been carried out to test a formalised method for investigating road users¦ mental representation of the traffic system and to determine whether this mental representation differs depending on road users¦ different experience of car driving. Two methods - "Matching of road sections" and "Assessment of the valid speed limit on different road sections" - have been used on three groups of car drivers¦ with different experience of car driving. Slides showing various road sections were used as stimulus material. While the method has performed satisfactorily, the results indicate that it could be developed further in certain respects. A factor analysis using data from the matching shows that the test subjects assess the demands set on them as car drivers by different road sections in a way that makes it possible to distinguish four road environments which are clearly different from each other. The four road environments are clearly separated and can be described with a limited number of variables. The fact that internal models and related informal traffic zones may be considered to have a striking degree of correspondence is shown by the results from the qualitative analysis. This shows that the test subjects throughout appear to use similar criteria for the respective type of road when assessing the valid speed limit as 30, 50, 70, 90 or 110 km/h for a certain road section. An elegant illustration of this is a road in a residential area where the speed limit was judged to be 30 km/h on stretches without sidewalk, but 50 km/h where there was a sidewalk. (Author/publisher)
Abstract