Cognitive organization of roadway scenes, part II : an empirical study of roads inside built-up areas

Two experimental studies are described, which are designed to elucidate road users' cognitive organization of (static) urban roadway scenes. In the first experiment, subjects were asked to sort 94 photographs of different road locations onto 'piles' of photographs, placing 'similar' photographs together, and placing'dissimilar' photographs apart. In the second experiment, other subjects were asked to estimate a safe driving speed and the chance of encountering 'slow' traffic for each of the 94 photographs investigated in the previous study. Traffic safety implications and possibilities for future research are also considered.