Citation

Edquist J, Rudin-Brown CM, Lenné MG. Proc. Australas. Road Safety Res. Policing Educ. Conf. 2011; 15.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, copyright holder varies, Publisher Monash University)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Crash risk varies across roads within the same speed zone. There may be environmental factors not currently captured in the speed limit setting process that, if taken into account, would improve the safety of some higher-risk roads. To improve the speed-limit setting process, it is necessary to understand how drivers' travel speeds and other risk-relevant behaviours are affected by features of the road environment. The present study examined the extent to which drivers’ travel speeds and hazard perception ability are affected by on-street parking, a common feature of urban road environments. Twenty-nine participants drove a simulated urban commercial route with no parking bays, empty parking bays, and parking bays occupied by cars, plus a less complex arterial road with no parking bays. While driving they performed a safety relevant peripheral detection task. Each environment also included an unexpected event in which a pedestrian suddenly crossed the road in front of the subject vehicle. Vehicle speeds were slower in the presence of occupied on-street parking bays compared to the other two environments; however, the speed reduction was insufficient to compensate for observed impairments in drivers' hazard perception and slower response to the pedestrian in this condition. Lower speed and longer response times also resulted from increased background visual complexity (in the commercial compared to arterial No Parking condition) in the absence of on-street parking bays or cars. Implications for policy are discussed.