Situational awareness in road design

This article places theories of SA into contact with the issue of Self Explaining Roads. Twelve drivers took part in an on-road study and performed a verbal commentary as they drove around a defined test route. The verbal transcripts were partitioned into six road types, and driver SA was modeled using semantic networks. The content and structure of these networks was analyzed and cognitively salient endemic road features were extracted. These were then compared with aspects of driver behavior. The findings show that SA is highly contingent on road type, and that motorways/freeways are the most cognitively compatible with drivers. Cognitive incompatibilities grow rapidly as road types become increasingly minor and less overtly ‘designed’.