vms challenges: current and foreseeable policy responses · use vms following hygienic norms •...

VMS challenges: current and foreseeable policy responses

Antonio Lucas-Alba

University of Zaragoza /

DGT

Contents

• Current challenges: their origins – Road signs: 1909-1968 – Variable Message Signs: the 1980s

• Issues concerning VMS harmonization – Making the most of hybrid road signs

• Using VMS following hygienic norms – Easyway VMS-DG01 – WP.1 R.E. 2

• Finding elements and structures for hybrid VMS: empirical endeavor

– Back to the future • A “new” display is coming • The visuospatial approach

Joint Belgium-UNECE workshop. Brussels,

November 18th 2014 2

Origins

• On the main, the 1968 Convention is a visual communication system based on shapes and contents whose meaning is not word dependent

• It was developed mixing different European wisdoms concerning visual communication

• British wisdom: let us shape be the framing element

• Continental wisdom: let us inner elements be the ones specifying what’s going on, preferably: – Not words

– Not arbitrary visual signs

– But iconic/symbolic signs

Joint Belgium-UNECE workshop. Brussels, November 18th 2014

3

Origins

Shapes will frame danger, regulatory, informative displays

Inner elements will indicate what is actually going on

• Otto Neurath (1936): “words make divisions, pictures make connections”

• British shapes will frame visual information, not words


4

The 1980s

Electronic aids

• New strategies for fighting accidents and congestion develop in the 1970s and 1980s under the COST umbrella

• New telematics tools, among them VMS, should help optimize road safety and mobility

• But display technologies are then somehow unreliable and expensive

Rotating matrix, bulbs and early LED


5

The 1980s

Electronic aids

• New strategies for fighting accidents and congestion develop in the 1970s and 1980s under the COST umbrella

• New telematics tools, among them VMS, should help optimize road safety and mobility

• But display technologies are then somehow unreliable and expensive

Rotating matrix, bulbs and early LED


6


Picto-word hybrid road signs are born

Melyssa Project, 1995 7

Posted VS VMS

Posted road signs

• Mainly based on visual code

• We read road signs following a holistic interpretation of pictures

• Road signs are international

• Posted signs mainly focus on traffic realities that are visible at glance (a deer, a curve, a bridge…)

• Focused on route perspective

Hybrid VMS

• Mainly based on verbal code

• We read VMS following juxtaposition and adjacency, i.e., as we read text

• Road signs are national at best

• VMS offer realities you may not see at glance (a congestion between two cities, a rerouting scheme, dense traffic in a different road)

• Focused on both route and survey (bird’s eye) perspective


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Issues concerning VMS harmonization: making the most of current hybrid road signs

References: FIVE (2003), WP.1 RE.2 (2009), VMS-DG01 (2012)…

1. Use VMS following “hygienic” norms (i.e., norms that foster both ergonomic and international approach)

2. Improve the code: finding elements and structures for hybrid VMS (empirical endeavor)

Joint Belgium-UNECE workshop. Brussels,


1. Use VMS following “hygienic” norms

• RE.2 (2010): Look at pages 17-18 “rules for message content and message structure for VMS”

• VMS-DG01 (2012): Look at pages 13-24.

… VMS on high speed roads should not display more than 4 information units per message… the meaning of a pictogram should not also be shown in text in a VMS message… alternating messages on VMS should be avoided… blinking and scrolling effects should be avoided on VMS… specific pictograms should have priority over generic ones… and the like


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Empirical search for signing elements and structures


11

Main empirical enquiries: data • 2006-7. 8 countries (ES, FR, IT, NL, PT, SE, RI+UK ).

N= 4,223 drivers.

• 2010. 10 countries (DK, ES, FR, GR, IT, PT, NL, SL, SE, UK).

N = 7,789 drivers

• 2011. 12 countries (CZ, DE, DK, ES, FR, GR, IT, PT, NL, SL, SE, UK)

N =10,308 drivers.

• 2013. 12 countries. In progress (data from NL, SE, ES collected)

3.2. Main empirical enquiries (and design strategies):

• Removing the red triangle

Removing the red triangle: comprehension and “danger”

94.4%

99.1%

99.0%

89.8%

96.8%

93.7%

93.4%

90.2%

32.6% 33.9% 55.7% 56.5%

7.3% 3.2% 14.9% 14.7%

2010

Removing some parts of existing road signs

UNECE

“Danger should be dangerous”


14

3.2. Main empirical enquiries (and design strategies):


• Topographical pictograms

Topographical pictograms: events at exit

The simple ones well above 66% (ISO standard)

Changing some parts of existing road signs

UNECE


16

Topological signs concerning exits


17


18

Topographical pictograms: events at main trunk

Just the regulatory, simple one above 66% (ISO standard)

Changing some parts of existing road signs

UNECE


19

Topological signs concerning main road


20


21

Main empirical enquiries (and design strategies):



• Exit

Exit

76.6%

65.7%

65.4%


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• Exit

• Miscellanea

Miscellanea

94.6% 94.7% 51.9% 70.7%

5.1% 66.0%

76.5%

71.0% 68.6% 45.8%

83.7% 86.4% 51.5%

Creating new road signs

UNECE

UNECE Joint Belgium-UNECE workshop. Brussels,





• Exit

• Miscellanea

• Coupling pictograms: truck-parking, rain-speed limit, fog-speed limit

Coupling pictograms

94.6%

88.1% 85.4%

82.5%


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• Exit

• Miscellanea

• Coupling pictograms: truck-parking, rain-speed limit, fog-speed limit

• Events location: between A and B, up to A, after B

Combining informative elements – the location issue

• Constrains: pictogram on the left, 3 lines and 15 characters per line

• Assumptions:

– People reading from left to right and top-bottom

– Following patterns already present in fixed traffic panels


29

Combining informative elements – the location issue


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Event location: between A and B

65.1%

68.5%

59.9%

(56.9%)

79.8%

(65.8%)

Integrating road signs


31

Comprehension Test 2006-2007 (7 countries)

65.1% (N=678) 57.9% (N=1548) 57.6% (N=692) 55.4% (N=1213)

Comprehension Test 2010 (10 countries)

48.9% (N=1175) 68,5% (N=1175) 60.4% (N=1175) 61.5% (N=1175)


56.3% (N=1676) 79.8% (N=1747) 69.4% (N=1642) 71.7% (N=1532)

Issues on VMS design: combining informative elements – from A to B

45.6% (N=1722) 24.6% (N=1260) Joint Belgium-UNECE workshop. Brussels,



33

Event location: up to A

68.5%

56.5%

(39.1%)

80.8%

(66.9%)

Integrating road signs


34


56.5% (N=1591)


37.4% (N=1238) 21.2% (1132) 38.6% (N=1238) 41.1% (N=1238)


68.9% (N=1702) 80.8% (N=1584) 73.1% (N=1532) 58.7% (N=1702)

Issues on VMS design: combining informative elements – up to B


35


36

Event location: after B

53.3%

68.5%

(48.0%)

(25.5%)

(6.5%)

Integrating road signs Joint Belgium-UNECE workshop. Brussels,



20.4% (N=705) 23.4% (N=714)


40.2% (N=1232) 53.3% (N=1232) 51.3% (N=1232) 52.4% (N=1232)


6.2% (N=1620) 35.6% (N=1520) 28.4% (N=1702) 23.3% (N=1520)

Issues on VMS design: combining informative elements – after B

18.4% (N=1620) 24.1% (N=1649) Joint Belgium-UNECE workshop. Brussels,



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Main VMS types nowadays (Europe)


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Way forward…


41

Way forward…


42

Way forward…


43

Back to the future


44

Complex road signs and iconic communication: lost in the middle 1980s

–the mixed picto-words road sign


45

Iconic part Text, verbal part

“official” “complement”

“international” “national”

Haitz, R., Tsao, J.Y. (2011). Solid-state lighting: ‘The case’ 10 years after and future prospects. Phys. Status Solid A 208, No. 1, 17–29

“COMPLEMENT”

BUT ROAD SIGNS ARE

CONTENT ELEMENTS X DISPLAY POSSIBILITIES

• PICTOGRAMS (SYMBOLS)

• ABSTRACT ALPHANUMERIC

• NUMBERS

• TEXT INSCRIPTIONS

x

• KEEPING AN INTEGRATED, “READABLE” ORDER BETWEEN THEM

• PAINT COAT

• FULL MATRIX LED

• COMBINED HIGH (symbol) AND LOW RESOLUTION (text, inscriptions) LED

• LOW RESOLUTION LED (text only)


X

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In 6 years now LED are expected to be optimally cost-effective:

shouldn’t we plan a careful migration to full matrix VMS (at least for international road nodes)?


47

Recover a full visuospatial approach for international displays


48

CONGESTION

ENTRE

TORREN

MADRID

CONGESTION BETWEEN

TORREJON AND MADRID

reality beyond language (world)

Verbal language (arbitrary text)

We should build road signs following structural analogies as much as possible (as we did in 1968)

MADRID

TORREJON


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CONGESTION BETWEEN TORREJON AND MADRID

MADRID

TORREJON

verbal language: juxtaposition and adjacency

MADRID

TORREJON ↑

MADRID

TORREJON

MADRID

TORREJON

visual language: holistic analogues

From…

…to…

50

Thanks a lot for your attention

[email protected]

vms challenges: current and foreseeable policy responses · use vms following hygienic norms •...

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