Motorist Direction Finding Aids: Recovery From Freeway Exiting Errors

Mast, Truman M.; Lareau, William Jr. · 1984 · ROSA P / Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center

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Summary

This 1984 study by the Federal Highway Administration investigates the efficiency of motorist direction-finding aids in recovering from freeway exiting errors. The research was motivated by the significant economic, safety, and energy conservation implications of driver navigation failures. Previous data indicated that lost motorists contribute to fuel waste, traffic congestion, highway wear, and accidents caused by erratic driving or dangerous map-reading behaviors. The study aimed to quantify these inefficiencies and evaluate potential solutions, specifically focusing on recovery performance after a missed exit. The researchers conducted two controlled field experiments involving 118 male and female volunteer drivers. Subjects were instructed to navigate to a predetermined destination but were forced to miss a critical freeway exit, inducing a navigational error. Experiment I compared a control group with no assistance against a group provided with a standard road map. Experiment II expanded the scope to include four groups: a control group, a road map group, a group using a simulated interactive telephone information center, and a group using a simulated computerized roadside information center that generated schematic strip maps. Data were collected using an instrumented vehicle equipped with distance measurement devices and slide projection systems to simulate signage. Performance metrics included choice point errors, excess mileage traveled, and time required to reach the destination. The results demonstrated that unaided drivers faced considerable difficulty recovering from the error. In Experiment I, map users committed significantly fewer choice point errors (4.1 vs. 14.5), drove fewer excess miles (6.4 vs. 19.3), and took less time (11 vs. 28 minutes) than the control group. However, 35–40% of drivers could not or would not use the maps, and those who did still traveled twice the optimum recovery distance. Experiment II confirmed that navigational aids improved performance, with effectiveness increasing in the order of control, map, phone, and computer-generated maps. The computer map group performed best, averaging only 0.8 miles of excess travel compared to 7 miles for the control group. The study concludes that a severe motorist direction-finding problem exists, resulting in substantial fuel waste and safety hazards. While traditional road maps offer some improvement, they are insufficient for a significant portion of drivers. More sophisticated aids, particularly computer-generated schematic maps, significantly enhance navigation efficiency. The authors suggest that improving direction-finding systems could yield billions of gallons in annual fuel savings and reduce highway maintenance costs. They recommend further research to identify practical, large-scale implementations of these advanced navigational aids.

Key finding

Subjects using a computerized schematic map from a roadside information center performed the best in recovering from missed exits, significantly outperforming those using road maps, telephone assistance, or no navigational aid.

Methodology

field_study

Sample size: 118

Provenance

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

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• nav systems