A Field Study of the Impact of Human Characteristics on the Use of Signs

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Civil Engineering, Islamic Azad University, North Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Parand Branch, Iran

Abstract

Traffic signs are one of the essentials of roads around the world. While drivers are using them appropriately and take carefully concentrate on them, it’s reduces significant road accidents, which it's would depend on human characters. Therefore, in this research, a statistical population of 768 drivers in various categories had been investigated. All kinds of traffic signs such as informative, disciplinary, & route guidance signs were discussed in their corresponding categories. Questions about understanding, recognition and familiarity with signs were asked from 768 participants. The current problems with traffic signs were identified according to answered questions. This procedure was helpful for understanding and getting more familiar with different groups of traffic signs, so the most understandable type of traffic signs was identified. We evaluated drivers’ ability to recognize traffic signs by means of a special questionnaire, so different types of traffic signs were investigated according to their understandability. In order to perform our analysis, various groups of drivers were classified based on their age, education level, driving experience, gender. The collected answers were analyzed by statistical methods in SPSS software. According to the acquired results, it was proved that there is a direct relationship between education level and the ability to recognize traffic signs. On the other hand, there is an inverse relationship between driving experience and recognition of various traffic signs. The estimated Pearson correlation coefficient for respondents’ right-wrong answers with respect to education level is 0.56. It means that the higher the education level, the higher the percentage of right answers.

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