SELF-EXPLAINING ROADS: SUBJECTIVE CATEGORISATION OF ROAD ENVIRONMENTS

In a 'Self-Explaining' road environment (SER) road users know how to behave simply on the basis of the road design. In order to acquire Self-Explaining Roads it is important that the design of the infrastructure is adjusted to the way road users categorize the road environment. To determine the prototypical representations underlying road categorization, subjects had to categorize pictures of road environments as fast as possible. Their response pattern indicated that road users can catego-rize motorways quickly and accurately indicating a strong prototype for these type of roads. There appeared to be no prototypes for 2 and 4 lane 80 km/h roads.