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EXTERNAL-TO-VEHICLE DRIVER DISTRACTION
CONCLUSIONS
8.1 There is an extremely large body of empirical data concerning distraction. The general consensus of this body of research is that distraction can take place, even when the driver is concentrating on the task ahead of him/her.
8.2 There is also abundant evidence that billboards and signs can function as distractors. Scientific studies of perception have shown that in situations where subjects are attempting to identify objects on a computer screen, their search can be slowed down with the presence of visual distracters. There is statistical and laboratory evidence that this effect occurs in 'real world' situations and that this is most likely to happen at junctions, or other 'cluttered' visual environments.
8.3 There is also evidence of billboards and signs functioning as distractors in 'low information' situations. This is a situation of 'underarousal' where the driver stops paying attention to the road in front of him/her, and is, therefore particularly prone to distraction by extraneous features. There is also statistical evidence that this represents a 'real world' effect. However, this area is under-researched, and further details are lacking in the literature.
8.4 It is likely that external-to-vehicle distraction is under-represented in the standard accident databases (for example, FARS, and NASS in the United States). It is questionable whether drivers would spontaneously volunteer information that may have deleterious legal consequences for them. Moreover, some distraction effects may function 'unconsciously': therefore, their existence could only be demonstrated by statistical methods, or in the laboratory.
8.5 The vast majority of data pertaining to billboards/signs and their relation to driver distraction is either old (much of it over twenty years old) and/or biased towards the United States and Australia. There is little published research available (in English) relating to the European driver environment, less on the UK, and nothing on particularly Scottish issues. Given the increasing complexity of the driving environment, and the increasingly 'eye catching' and 'explicit' nature of contemporary advertising, it is important that research is carried out such that the relevance of this research to a British/Scottish environment can be demonstrated.
8.6 It is suggested that the effect of visual 'clutter' at junctions has been sufficiently well established that specific guidelines relating to this issue could be created to regulate the position and number of advertisements in this context. However, more research is needed to establish what kind of advertisement/sign is most likely to contribute to accidents, and what level of effect specific advertisements are likely to have.
8.7 The issue of distraction by cognitive 'underload' is more controversial. It is suggested, therefore, that research is carried out to demonstrate that such an effect exists and that, if it does, what level of threat it poses to the driving environment. This is particularly important not just because of the increasing number of advertisements in the driving environment, but also because of the placing of large 'public art' monuments by the side of motorways: exactly the place where this kind of object would function most efficiently as a distracter. Of course it may be that 'public art' of this sort functions as a way of adding information to the visual scene such that arousal levels are raised, and drivers are 'kept alert'. Only further research can answer this important question.
8.8 Despite the fact that in its totality the evidence for driver distraction by billboards is compelling, individual studies have been criticised on methodological grounds. It is likely that greater emphasis on experimental 'controls' (and less emphasis on purely correlational studies) would go a long way towards answering these criticisms. Moreover, in terms of laboratory studies, far more realistic electronic representations of the driving experience are possible now than in the 1970s (when most of the laboratory studies took place). Psychological (and statistical) theory has also moved forward, enabling more sophisticated research questions and more complex analysis of data to be performed. Therefore, with both forms of distraction more research using contemporary methods is required.
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