The initial billboards also known as static billboards (tarpaulins) have been an effective medium in promoting several kinds of goods and services. With the technology booming in the 20th century, the idea of billboards has transformed into an extreme modern state-of-the-art medium of having it digitalized. The numbers of digital billboards have been increasing evidently through the years, which may cause driver distraction due to the highly conspicuous design of it. Driving requires a constant coordination in between the vision, min and body of a person. Driver distraction pertains to instances when the driver’s fixation gets diverted outside of its primary task of driving, in which it can lead to road accidents. This is observed through the number and duration of glancing at digital billboards. Since studies have only showed the impact of static billboards to driver\u27s distraction, this paper aims to know the significance of characteristics of digital billboards to driver\u27s distraction.
In this research, three characteristics of digital billboards are considered in the experimentation phase including size/location, type of display and transition time. All three characteristics have three factor levels such upperside-superboard, top center-bulletin and lowerside-posters for size, static and non-static for type of display and 3,5,8 and 10, seconds for transition time. The researchers would like to know which of the three characteristics show a significant factor to the visual driving behaviour of drivers. Also, know which of the factor levels show the most significant factor in the visual driving behavior of drivers.
To test the characteristics and its factor level, an experiment has been done to identify if the following are indeed significant and if it does affect the drivers visually. The experiment consists of a driving simulator developed to create a close feel of real driving experience. Participants are required to take pre-test and post-test surveys before and after taking the driving simulation. They are then asked to wear an Eye Tracking device that will enable to capture responses such as number and duration of glances to digital billboards. These responses are analyzed using robust statistical tests.
There are three hypotheses generated in this study. The following hypothesis are (1) Bigger Digital billboard that is positioned in the center of the visual field of the driver is more distracting compared to those small placed on their lateral view (2) Quick changing displays of digital billboards are more distracting than the slow one and (3) Non-static display (Video/Animation) digital billboards cause more distraction to drivers than the static display (Images that change from time to time) digital billboards. Two of them are significant and accepted in this study, however the first hypothesis resulted to be not significant thus, it is rejected.
After analysing all the data gathered in the experiment, it was identified that superboard-upper side billboards are significantly distracting. For the type of display, the non-static display is the most distracting and the 3 second transition time gets longer and more glances from driver compared to 5,8, and 10 second transition time. Also, it was concluded in this study that putting up billboards on curved roads can really give a significant amount of distractions to drivers thus, leading to accidents. To further improve this study it is recommended to consider the daytime/nighttime condition, and the weather conditions. Lastly, for a better and more realistic driving view, a use of dome screen is recommended
