Driver Expectations When Navigating Complex Interchanges

Appendix D. Task 7 Moderator Guide

This appendix shows the moderator guide used to lead the task 7 data collection sessions.

• 1) Introduce Researchers
  1. Moderator leading today's session.
  2. Researcher helping check in.
  3. Work for Battelle, a company that provides research results to clients on a wide variety of subjects. Our particular group does research to find ways to make roadways safer and easier to use.
• 2) Purpose
  1. Doing a series of groups gathering information about freeway interchanges and the signs that mark them.
  2. Part of a larger project investigating what drivers expect at interchanges.
  3. A summary of your response data today will be reported back to our client, the Federal Highway Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation; totally anonymous and aggregate, not associated with any identifying information such as your name or phone number.
  4. Today we will be going through a slide presentation with interchange images, and you will be recording your responses to some questions in the response booklets.
• 3) Review the Sample Slide Set
  1. Hand out the booklets.
  2. Each question will be presented in the same way-first the driving goal, then the image, then a question.
  3. Introduction slide
     1. Provides a driving goal.
     2. Gives you additional context for the scenario in which you'll be answering questions. I will read the slide aloud to you while it is displayed on the screen. Just like when you're actually driving, when you view these images, we want you to have a goal in mind of where you are going. This slide will give you that goal.
  4. Preparation slide
     1. Three dots for 2 s total to let you know that the image is coming.
  5. Test slide
     1. Image of parts of an interchange with one or more navigational signs on the image.
     2. Signs use some real place names, but are not from real places, so you would not find these combinations of destinations in the real world.
     3. When you see the image, it will be a driver's perspective view from a particular lane. Pretend like you are really driving on that particular road, in that particular lane (some have an arrow).
     4. The image will be shown for a limited amount of time-only 4 s.
  6. Question slide
     1. Then, a question will cover up the sign and you will have a short amount of time to circle an answer in your response booklet.
     2. The question on the slide will be numbered with a set of responses in your booklet.
     3. If you do not remember, please select your best guess.
     4. Limited amount of time to answer-I will give a you a 5-s warning before moving on.
  7. We will view pictures in this sequence for the duration of the session
     1. 78 questions (85 questions for order 2) in total included in three slide sets.
• 4) Ground Rules
  1. Please don't discuss the slides with others in the room-we want to know what each of you thinks individually, so we ask you to record your own response.
  2. We will not be taking an official break since the session is only 1 h.
• 5) Questions?
• 6) Part 1 Introduction
  1. For this set of questions, I would like you to imagine that you are driving on a freeway, trying to get to a certain destination. As you approach an interchange, a sign ahead gives you information about where to go. Using the information on the sign, I want you to choose which lane you want to take to continue on to your destination. For all of the questions in this first set, you will be asked which lane you would choose to get to your destination.
  2. When you see the question, all of the lanes on the road will be numbered. Simply circle the number in your booklet that matches the lane you would take.
  3. We are interested in finding out about your preferred lane in each situation. Try to base your selection on how you normally drive and assume that there is only light traffic on the road. There will be an arrow on each slide to show you which lane you are in. Pretend that you are actually driving in that lane, so if you are going to choose another lane to get to your destination, you would have to make one or more lane changes.
  4. Please only circle one lane choice.
• 7) Part 2 Introduction
  1. For this next set of questions, the driving scenarios are very similar-you'll see more signs that you have to read. The main difference is that the questions in this section ask about your understanding of where the lanes go. For the slides in this set, all of the lanes will be numbered, and the lane that you are currently driving in will be highlighted in blue. Please answer the questions as though you were driving in that lane.
• 8) Part 3 Introduction
  1. For the last set of questions, you will be asked to identify all of the lanes that go to a specific destination. You will also get to see the name of the destination before the sign appears.
  2. Please circle all of the lanes that you think will take you to the indicated destination. More than one lane may lead to the destination.
• 9) End of Session
  1. Thanks for coming today!
  2. Please fill out the demographic information sheet in the back of your booklet.
  3. When you are finished, give your booklet to the researcher, and she will have you sign for your payment.