Moderate is optimal: A simulated driving experiment reveals freeway landscape matters for driving performance

Abstract

Driving on freeways is a daily activity across the world. Poor driving performance on freeways can cause severe injuries and deaths. However, few studies have examined whether and to what extent different types of freeway landscapes influence driving performance. A simulated driving task was designed to measure the impacts of six types of freeway landscape on 33 participants’ driving performance. Each participant completed a driving experiment with six blocks of 90-minute driving sessions in a random sequence. During the experiment, participants’ driving performance was measured through eight parameters. A set of repeated-measure one-way ANOVA analyses show that landscapes with three-dimensional branch and foliage (shrub & tree) were generally more beneficial for driving performance than barren (concrete-paved ground) or low green landscape conditions (turf). Furthermore, a repeated-measure two-way ANOVA analysis of four conditions with vertical green foliage (two shrub and two tree conditions) showed moderate levels of greenness and complexity are optimal for driving performance.