RECOGNITION DISTANCES OF DIFFERENT PAVEMENT ARROW DESIGNS DURING DAYTIME AND NIGHTTIME
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
1999
Subject Area
infrastructure - right of way
Keywords
Visibility distance, Size, Site distance, Night, Field studies, Dimensions, Design, Daylight, Arrows (Road markings)
Abstract
This study was conducted to test the visibility of five designs for pavement marking arrows at both full scale and half scale. Two designs were standard arrows (the Ohio and Federal arrows), and three were elongated arrows (Australian, Swiss, and an experimental arrow). A field study was conducted at an abandoned airport test site for both daytime and nighttime (low-beam headlight) conditions. Ten young subjects with normal vision were tested. The subjects drove a vehicle equipped with a distance-measuring instrument and were asked to indicate what direction the arrow pointed to at the earliest point when they could correctly do so. The elongated full-scale arrows provided significantly longer recognition distances than their standard full-scale counterparts. For the half-scale arrows, recognition distances did not differ as much across designs. Further analysis indicated that successive pairs of half-scale standard arrows provide longer recognition distances than a single application of the full-scale standard arrow, with the added benefits of redundant cueing. It should be noted that the substantial recognition distance gain obtained by applying successive pairs of the half-scale arrows comes with a 50% savings in material cost. It is also quite likely that installation of half-scale arrows is easier and quicker and that they are less prone to wear and tear because of their smaller size.
Recommended Citation
Zwahlen, H, Schnell, T, Miescher, S. (1999). RECOGNITION DISTANCES OF DIFFERENT PAVEMENT ARROW DESIGNS DURING DAYTIME AND NIGHTTIME. Transportation Research Record, Vol. 1692, p. 119-128.
