Enhancing Safety and Operations at Complex Interchanges With Improved Signing, Markings, and Integrated Geometry

Appendix C. Instructions to Participants (Supplement to Chapter 6)

INSTRUCTIONS

Practice Drive

First, we’ll do a brief practice drive, about 3-min long, so that you can get a feel for the simulator. During this drive, there won’t be any roadway signs; I’ll just ask you to do some accelerating and lane changing so that you get a feel for the simulator and how it handles.

The sign that you see here is what we call the “starting lane” sign. (Experimenter to point to Starting Lane sign at beginning of practice drive, before participant begins driving). This sign will be shown periodically throughout the two main drives. As you can see, the sign has an arrow above each lane, and an asterisk above one of the lanes. In the main drives, we’ll ask that whenever you see one of these signs that you get into the lane with the asterisk above it. Once you are in that lane, you will proceed with the driving task, but I’ll explain that in a bit more detail before those drives. (Experimenter to show participants the Starting Lane sign in practice drive so they know what to look for in the main drives [i.e. so they are not seeing the sign for the first time in the main drive]).

At first, driving in a simulator feels a little different than driving in your own car, but do your best to drive as you normally would on the real road. The steering wheel is a bit touchy; you don’t need to move it much for the vehicle to react. Don’t worry if it takes a while for you to get used to driving in the simulator, that’s why we are doing this practice!

So, if you’re ready, please go ahead and put the car into drive, and begin slowly accelerating to 65 mi/hr.

(Once the participant has accelerated to around 65 mi/hr AND is able to keep the vehicle steady in the lane, ask them to make a lane change. Have the participant make a few lane changes to the left and the right, and have them take the exit to the right. Once they have taken the exit, ask them to come to a gradual stop and place the car into park. At this point, if they really struggled to control the vehicle, start another practice drive. If you felt they had a good handle on it, then ask them if they would like to do another practice drive or if they would like to proceed to the main drives.)

Experimental Drives

Now that you are familiar with the simulator, you will do the first of the two main drives. Each will last about 20 min, with a break in between. Your task for both drives is to follow the signs to continue toward Greenville. So, Greenville will always be the destination that you want to drive toward. During this drive, please do your best to maintain the posted speed limit, drive as you normally would, and determine what to do to reach your destination most efficiently.

You will see the Starting Lane signs (that I showed you earlier) throughout each of the drives. Whenever you see one and can tell which lane the asterisk is over, please go ahead and get into that lane. Once you are in the appropriate Starting Lane, you can make any lane changes that you need to make to reach your destination. We would, however, like you to avoid making any unnecessary lane changes throughout the drives. In other words, only make the lane changes that you need to make to complete the task of driving toward Greenville. For example, if the Starting Lane is the left lane, and you don’t typically drive in the left lane, don’t make a lane change just to get into another lane out of habit. However, if you see something that makes you think that you need to change lanes to get to Greenville, go ahead and do that. In other words, try to make the fewest number of lane changes necessary to reach your destination.

Also, if we feel that you’ve done your best to follow these instructions, you’ll earn an additional 10-dollar bonus.

Do you have any questions?