The document describes a design process for improving road safety signs related to children. It examines requirements for safety-critical visual information, including long viewing distances, minimum sign element sizes, and comprehension. An international review found diverse school bus and child warning signs. The process resulted in a proposed standardized international school bus stop sign designed according to safety guidelines.

1. From optometry to road safety-
A design process to enhance visual information
for safety critial situations
Exemplified by the development process
employed in “Safeway2school”
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2. Safe Way 2 School
2009–2012
Integrated system for safe transportation of
children to school.
Project 233967. Coordinator: VTI, Sweden
The research leading to these results has received funding from the European
Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant
agreement n° 233967.
Goal: Improving road safety
of (school-) children on the road
Österreichischer
Verkehrssicherheitsfonds
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3. IIID’s Activity A5.5
Surrounding traffic information and warning
Goal:
to research and design visual and audio information
(signs/signals) to effectively warn road users on the
fact that childen are on the road.
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4. Outset
To create signs which improve the road safety
situation of school children,
A design must fulfill the requirements for the
safety critical situation given in a road environment,
to establish long distance discrimination (visibility) of
the created sign.
These requirements are:
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5. Design for safety critical situations
Requirements to be taken into account
Long distance discrimination (visibility) of visual
information, depending on:
• Viewing distance, governed by:
- Driving speed,
- Required viewing time (t)
- Point-of-Disappearance (POD)
- Number of information elements
- A driver‘s eyesight (Minute of Arc [MoA])
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6. Design for safety critical situations, requirements
Viewing distance (D) =
Minimum required viewing time (t)
1 Information element– 2.33 seconds or
2 Information elements– 2.66 seconds
+
Distance (a) from Point-of-Disappearance (POD)
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7. Design for safety critical situations, requirements
Viewing distance (D) =
Minimum required viewing time (t)
+
Distance (a) from Point-of-Disappearance (POD)
(when information passes out of sight)
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8. Design for safety critical situations, requirements
Viewing distance (D)
The higher the driving speed,
the longer the viewing distance (D)
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9. Design for safety critical situations, requirements
Minute of Arc (MoA)
Minimum size of any detail of the provided visual
information (eg. road sign),
• depending on a driver‘s eyesight (visual acuity):
The lower the eyesight,
- the larger the needed size of 1 MoA
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10. Design for safety critical situations, requirements
Minute of Arc (MoA)
1 MoA
Optotype “Landolt ring” is used by optometrists to
evaluate visual acuity.
It also defines the minimum size of any detail of the
provided visual information (eg. road sign)
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11. Design for safety critical situations, requirements
Minute of Arc (MoA)
1 MoA =
Using the average visual acuity of 0.73,
the dimension of 1 MoA,
at a driving speed of e.g. 100 km/h = 31,85 mm.
Required viewing distance: 76, 45 meters
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12. Design for safety critical situations, requirements
Minimum size (1 MoA) of any detail of the developed
School Bus (Stop) Sign.
Long distance visibility
of every detail of the
sign is secured.
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13. Design for safety critical situations, requirements
Further important issues not expained in this
presentation:
• Colour and contrast
• Degree of understanding (comprehension) of
meaning of the designed information, see ISO
9186 “Procedures for the development and
testing of graphical symbols”
• Conspicuity (Conspicuity index) of the design in the
physical environment
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14. Design for safety critical situations, other examples
More examples of enhanced visual information for
safety critical situations to be found on
http://www.iiid.net/SOMS/Project%20Report.aspx
(Traffic signs and Typeface „Tern“ for the Trans-
European Road Network, developed in
SOMS/InSafety, EU FP6 Research Projekt
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15. Final School Bus (Stop) Sign
Proposal to worldwide substitute all current examples
of School Bus Signs and School Bus Stop Signs.
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16. Final School Bus (Stop) Sign - harmonisation
Children pictogram of the sign
to be used wherever else
required to support the
immediate comprehension of
the children pictogram.
Example: Danger warning sign
„Children“ (European example
with triangular shape,
diamond shape to be used in
countries where mandatory.
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17. Following pages:
Current examples of signs in use, identified
during research, proposed to be substituted
by:
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18. Current practice examples
1 Austria 2 Austria 3 Austria 4 Belgium
No Symbol
5 Bulgaria 6 Czech Rep. Denmark 7 Estonia 8 Finland
No Symbol
9 France 10 Germany 11 Great Britain Greece 12 Hungary
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19. Current practice examples No Symbol
9 France 10 Germany 11 Great Britain Greece 12 Hungary
13 India 14 Israel 15 Italy 16 Japan 17 Latvia
No Symbol No Symbol
The Netherlands Norway 18 Poland 19 Portugal 20 Romania
21 Slovakia 22 Slovenia 23 Spain 24 Sweden 25 Sweden LED
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20. Current practice examples
PicassemblySW2S-1_2010 Public SAFEWA2SCHOOL, Contract No 233967
6. Sign collection
6.3 Danger warning sign “children”
38 Vienna Conv. 39 Australia 40 Austria
41 Belgium 42 Bulgaria 43 Canada 44 Chile 45 Czech Rep.
46 Denmark 47 Estonia 48 Finland 49 France 50 Germany old
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21. Current practice examples
46 Denmark 47 Estonia 48 Finland 49 France 50 Germany old
51 Germany 52 Great Britain 53 Greece 54 Hungary 55 India
56 Ireland 57 Italy old 58 Italy 59 Japan 60 Latvia
61 The Netherlands 62 New Zealand 63 Norway 64 Poland 65 Portugal
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22. Current practice examples
61 The Netherlands 62 New Zealand 63 Norway 64 Poland 65 Portugal
66 Romania 67 Slovakia 68 Spain 69 Sweden 70 Switzerland
Sign used on LED
displays requested
71 USA 72 TomTom SwarcoFuturit 73 Googlemaps
2010-04-21 7 of 9 International Institute for Information Design (IIID)
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23. Deliverable D5.5 “Surounding traffic info and
warning visual and audio signs” available on:
http://www.iiid.net/Safeway2SchoolReport.a
spx
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