Ana Hernando

• University of Zaragoza

Background This article addresses how to combine three elements (a pictogram, an arrow, a city) in a variable message sign (VMS) to locate temporary events (e.g., “congestion before Milan”). We adopted the G1c stack model as a design template, an Advanced Directional Sign (ADS) recommended by the 1968 Convention to locate cities, which can be easil...

General Audience Summary A controversial aspect that arises from the use of different traffic signaling devices is that drivers often have to understand messages they are seeing for the very first time. This article analyzes the results of a series of empirical studies carried out with the aim of internationalizing variable message signs (VMS) by s...

Current road signs confront a fundamental issue: are signs displayed in different devices (posted, on-board, painted or electronic) making the most of the same design rationale? Convergent design principles help drivers enjoy an easier coding, learning and retrieval of the schemes enhancing comprehension. This paper focuses on posted road signs (pa...

This paper presents some experimental evidence that the systematic adoption of a safety distance is not the best car-following strategy, in particular under dense traffic flows (e.g., stopping-and-going cars). Driving to keep Distance (DD) promotes higher speed variability. Driving to keep Inertia (DI) requires greater car-following distance. Howev...

Eating Disorders (ED) have been associated with dysfunctional coping strategies, such as rumination. Promoting alternative ways of experiencing mental events, based on a mindfulness approach, might be the clue for learning more effective coping and regulatory strategies among young women with ED. This study examined the comparison between patients...

Traffic flows are managed worldwide assuming a car-following axiom: drivers must keep a safety distance when following other drivers. This paper connects this very axiom with another well-known empirical fact: traffic congestions are an international plague. We propose that the so-called 'rational driver' should not just keep safety distance, but m...

This presentation challenges the idea of safety distance as the main parameter defining a unique (or natural) NDB. Instead, it states drivers can adapt to reactive and proactive car following. Drawing on recent CF models close to the Nagoya paradigm and on other phenomena (e.g., wave movement in Nature), we conceived car following by Driving to kee...

How should complex electronic signs be designed? We surely have to take into account the official templates available (e.g., 1968 Convention). But, how many factors influence comprehension? Embodied mechanisms (e.g., parsing or scanning text panels) are surely important. However, complex e-signs are short and must be understood and deduced on the f...

Keeping correct distance between vehicles is a fundamental tenet in road traffic. New road signs and markings appearing on motorways aid drivers in determining this distance. However, the ‘Nagoya experiment’ (Sugiyama et al., 2008) revealed correct distance made following safe while also eventually destabilizing traffic flow. When traffic becomes d...

What design rationale is appropriate for the coming electronic signs? Two studies check the 1968 Convention’s G,1c template (Fig. 1). G,1c locate places or events in advance by stacking them on the panel top to bottom (what I read first, up, comes first). This is confronted with two designs following the opposite rationale (what is placed above, co...

In our days we face a fundamental issue concerning road signs. We may display contents in vertical and horizontal format (static signs, variable message signs, road markings), either on a post, a gantry or a dashboard. And we foresee a coming age where the excellent matrix resolution of painted signs will be truly approached by the resolution of fu...

Road signs constitute a complex and growing communication system where different elements (pictograms, shapes, texts, etc.) are combined following different strategies. In this paper we have confronted drivers with a number of messages (congestion or road works, before, between, after location/s) developed as an adaptation of Advance Location Signs...

Nowadays, Eating Disorders are still a social fact and a reflection of certain characteristics of our current way of life. Recent research supports a positive contribution of Mindfulness-based techniques related to different clinical issues of these disorders. We must take into account that Mindfulness is a philosophy of life, for its consequent ap...