Looking behavior for vertical road signs

• Visual fixations to vertical road signs are very poor (25.06%).
• Visual fixations to vertical road signs were very short (154 ms).
• Vision of vertical signs is not influenced by age, gender, or average speed.
• Recall of vertical signs encountered along a road is minimal (6.66%).

Visual fixations at vertical road signs and their recall was tested in 22 participants who drove a route of 8.34 km. Gaze was assessed by mobile eye tracking glasses. Recall was assessed at the end of the route by asking each participant to write in a route map all vertical sign that were remembered. The route was the same for all participants and included a total of 75 road signs. The results shown that only 25.06% of vertical signs were looked, and only 6.66% were recalled by the driver at the end of the route. The results are explained in terms of inattentional blindness, automaticity in driving behavior, and the angular offset of the vertical signs to the driver sight line.