Citation

Pain RF, Knapp BG. Transp. Res. Rec. 1980; 782: 36-40.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1980, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

RESULTS of a laboratory evaluation of 18 buffer-zone treatments designed to delineate special-use lanes on highways and arterials are reported. A slide presentation using a paired-comparison technique and a questionnaire were administered to 40 drivers to determine whether various delineation designs had any inherent permissive or prohibitive meaning and effect for driver entry into a given lane. The impact of several design parameters on the prohibitiveness and permissiveness of the various designs was evident: Any design that had repeated openings was clearly more permissive than treatments that included a continuous line, the stroke width of lines appeared to be relatively ineffectual, and colored treatments were somewhat more prohibitive than white ones, though by relatively small amounts. Questionnaire data were collected to supplement the paired-comparison data, and a Spearman rank correlation coefficient of r sub s = 0.93 indicated that the results of the two methods were highly complementary. Several design characteristics, including delineation width, effect of spacing or density of design symbols, and driver perception of where the vehicle can be stopped relative to the delineated special-use lane, require further definition and study.