In the context of growing interest in road safety, the evaluation of traffic calming measures is a crucial issue. The complexity of contemporary road environments has raised the need for effective strategies to mitigate risks and improve the safety of drivers and pedestrians. This study analyses the impact of traffic-calming countermeasures using driving simulators, offering a detailed and quantitative perspective. State-of-the-art reveals a series of previous research that have addressed the topic, highlighting the relevance of implementing countermeasures to reduce accidents and improve driver behaviour. This study selected a representative sample of 60 drivers to participate in experiments with four countermeasures implemented in a driving simulator. These countermeasures were "dragon teeth", red median, broken edge lines and green longitudinal marks. The case study were a section of a Spanish road with a history of accidents, near a school. Various analyses were conducted to evaluate the countermeasure effectiveness of the alternatives with traffic-calming countermeasures compared to implementing no countermeasures. These included analysis of differences in average speed, 15th and 85th percentile at critical points, overall driver behaviour along the section (evaluated by the root mean square of the differences), and analysis of variance (ANOVA) with post hoc comparisons. The results highlight that all the alternatives achieved reductions in the average speed, with the broken line being the most effective, with a decrease of 9 km/h at the critical point corresponding to a pedestrian crossing.

Driving simulator; traffic-calming; perceptual countermeasures; road markings; speed perception; road safety; transition zones; optical treatments; driver behaviour