Eyes front! Are roadside billboards bad for driver attention?

Abstract

There is growing concern that roadside advertising presents a real risk to driving safety, with conservative estimates putting external distractors responsible for up to 10% of all accidents. Until now, though, there have been few empirical studies examining the problem. In this article, we present a simulator study quantifying the effects of billboards on driver attention, mental workload and performance in Urban, Motorway and Rural environments. The results demonstrate that roadside advertising has a clear detrimental effect on lateral control, increases mental workload and eye fixations, and on some roads can even draw attention away from more relevant road signage. Detailed analysis of the data suggests that billboards may in fact have more impact on roads which are monotonous or of lower workload. Nevertheless, the overriding conclusion is that prudence should be exercised when authorising or placing roadside advertising.