The master’s thesis examined the perception level of roadside advertising billboards in less complex and more complex traffic environments. The aim of the research was to determine how traffic complexity affected drivers’ visual attention to billboards and how objectively measured attention was related to subjective memory or perceived billboard visibility.
The research was conducted in a real traffic environment using the Pupil Labs Neon eye-tracking system. The main sample included drivers, while passengers were included as a supplementary comparison group. The research drive was divided into a less complex and a more complex traffic section. In the data analysis, the number of glances at billboards, the proportion of glances relative to potentially exposed billboards, the total fixation time and the proportion of driving time devoted to billboards were analysed. After the drive, subjective data on perceived driving difficulty, billboard visibility and memory of billboard content were collected using a questionnaire. Spearman’s correlation was used to examine the relationship between objective and subjective data.
The results showed that drivers did not notice a larger proportion of billboards in the less complex traffic environment than in the more complex environment. The proportion of glances relative to potentially exposed billboards was almost the same in both sections, while time-based indicators were higher in the more complex section. Passengers devoted more visual attention to billboards than drivers, although greater visual exposure did not always lead to better content recall. The results also showed a distinction between merely looking at a billboard and later remembering its content. The first three hypotheses were not confirmed, while the fourth was partially confirmed. It was found that the perception of roadside billboards could not be explained solely by traffic complexity, but rather as an interplay of the traffic environment, visual clutter, billboard characteristics, traffic flow, exposure duration and individual differences between participants. This further confirmed that the physical presence of a billboard along the road does not necessarily imply its perception or memorisation. The research therefore highlighted the importance of actual visual exposure in evaluating roadside advertising in real traffic environments.
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