Visual attention and speeds of pedestrians, cyclists, and electric scooter riders when using shared road – a field eye tracker experiment

Abstract

Shared roads for pedestrians and bicycles are common in modern cities. Recently, such roads are frequently utilised also by riders of electric scooters, which, being a novel personal transport means, are not regulated uniformly. Analysis of visual attention of young people who travelled the same shared road as pedestrians, as bicyclists, and as electric scooter riders was done with a mobile eye tracker. The results demonstrate that the numbers of fixations per minute for people using these transport modes were similar, but their distribution was different. The road ahead was observed much more by riders (39–43% of all their fixations) than by pedestrians (25% of all their fixations). Pedestrians frequently looked at the sides (40% of their fixations), while riders did not. Observation of other pedestrian road users by test participants travelling on feet took 26% of their fixations; for riders, the number increased to 35–38%, which indicates visual search for potential hazards while riding. Average speeds of pedestrians were high, 5.9 km/h; bicycle riders travelled at 16.8 km/h and electric scooters were ridden at 16.5 km/h. Thus, based on visual attention of electric scooters riders and their velocity, their vehicles ought to be classified as a special variation of a bicycle for most of regulatory, practical, and road safety purposes.