DRIVER FACTORS AFFECTING TRAFFIC SIGN DETECTION AND RECALL

Warning and regulatory traffic signs used in Saudi Arabia were evaluated. All of these signs are compatible with those of the 1968 U.N. Vienna Conference on Road Signs and Signals. The project was sponsored by the Saudi Arabian National Traffic Safety Committee and involved a large sample of subjects (10,137 drivers). Twenty-two regulatory and warning signs were used to test drivers for detection and recall. With the help of a police officer the vehicles were directed into a lane, where drivers were interviewed in a systematic way to evaluate the effect of age, experience, profession, education, language, sign type, and road condition on the detection and recall of signs. It was concluded that older drivers have poorer rates of detection and recall of traffic signs than younger drivers. The uneducated drivers have problems in recalling traffic signs. Retired people (>60 years of age) have trouble detecting traffic signs. Native language speakers detect signs more often and commit fewer errors in recall than nonnative language speakers.

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