Factors affecting driver distraction through roadside advertisements in the Philippines

Billboards are mediums that are popularly used for advertising different kinds of products and services. They can be seen almost everywhere in different arrays of sizes and shapes. Using billboards as form of advertisement is a very effective and powerful tool in advertising and marketing a product service. This paper will focus mainly on billboards that are strategically placed along major roadways in the Philippines. Such billboards have been strategically placed so drivers along roadways would notice them. However, these billboards can cause distraction to drivers that can lead to vehicular accidents. By lessening driver distraction while driving, roads can be safer for everyone in the society. In this research, two characteristics of billboards have been identified by the group that will be used as factors in the experimentation phase. These factors are positioning and height. The group would like to know if such factors are significant as a distracting characteristic of billboards to drivers along major roadways. To test these factors, an experiment has been done to actually determine if such factors are significant and how it affects the driving behavior of drivers. In the experiment, a simulated driving experience using an actual road video footage was used. Participants in the experiment were asked to wear a Mobile Eye Tracking device that would record and measure their responses with what they are actually seeing on the video. These responses have been tabularized and quantitatively analyzed using different statistical tests. Conclusions and recommendations regarding the outcome of the experiment will also be discussed in this paper. Specific contributions of this research paper to each sector of the society will be presented