How to minimise distraction from roadside advertising?

The CEDR-funded ADVERTS project just published its recommendations for minimising distraction from roadside advertising. Since roadside advertising is explicitly meant to attract the attention of passers-by, it is by definition a source of distraction. However, some features are more distracting than other. 

In its recommendations ADVERTS summarizes the ten most important and evidence-based do’s and don’ts for minimising distraction by roadside billboards. The recommendations are based on targeted research and general psychological principles, and take account of current practices in legislation and guidelines for roadside advertising. ADVERTS also identified nine promising actions for road authorities to address the issue of driver distraction from roadside advertising.  

Interested in the recommendations?  

  • For background and a scientific justification, there is a report 
  • For a quick glance, there is an infographic summary 
  • For just listening to the main findings, there is a pre-recorded webinar (duration 15 minutes)   

All of this is available at cedr-adverts.eu. Here you can also find other relevant documents, including a literature review, an inventory of current practices of roadside advertising, and an overview of the main research gaps.

The ADVERTS project was carried out by SWOV (NL), TRL (UK) and Vias institute (B). It was funded under the CEDR Transnational Road Research Programme – Call Safety 2016 by Belgium-Flanders, Ireland, Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden and United Kingdom.