Park & Ride

Synonyms / Other Terms Used

Park & Rail, Parking for Public Transport

Category

Transportation, Transport Facilities, Road Signs

Message / Function

To indicate the location of park and ride facilities (parking facilities for changing from private to public transportation)

	Source	Description
	DB 1994	P+R in sans serif capital letters, bars above and below
e)	ÖNORM A 3011	P+R in sans serif capital letters, bars above and below
	UIC 413	P+R in sans serif capital letters, bars above and below
	Tern	P+R in sans serif capital letters, inverted V above
	IN-SAFETY Testdesign	P+R in sans serif capital letters, inverted V above
	IN-SAFETY Testdesign	P+R in sans serif capital letters, inverted V above
	ÖBB H	P+R in sans serif capital letters, inverted V above
	DB 1994	Sans serif capital letter "P", front view of locomotive, inverted V above
	UIC	Sans serif capital letter "P", front view of train on tracks, inverted V above
	UIC 413	Sans serif capital letter "P", perspective view of train, inverted V above
a)	IN-SAFETY Testdesign	P on dark background, plus sign and perspective view of train below
b)	IN-SAFETY Testdesign	P on dark background, plus sign, frontal view of subway below
	IN-SAFETY Testdesign	Sans serif capital letter "P", plus sign and side view of tram below
	UN 1968	Sans serif capital letter "P", plus sign and side view of tram below
	W-RSFI	Sans serif capital letter "P", plus sign and side view of old steam locomotive below
	Zou 2015	Sans serif capital letter "P", front view of car below, arrow pointing towards train in front view on the right
c)	IN-SAFETY Testdesign	Human figure between back view of car and arrow pointing towards subway below
	Søndergaard	Human figure between back view of car and arrow pointing towards bus below
	Søndergaard	Human figure between back view of car and arrow pointing towards steam locomotive below
	Søndergaard	Human figure between back view of car and front of bus, P+R in sans serif capital letters below
	IN-SAFETY Testdesign	Sans serif capital letter P on dark background, P+R below
d)	UN 1968	Sans serif capital letter P, text '+ METRO' below
2)	ON Testdesign	Sans serif capital letter P and bus with pantograph below, separated by horizontal line
4)	ON Testdesign	Arrow between letters P and R, horizontal line below, and bus with pantograph
1)	ON Testdesign	Sans serif capital letter "P", horizontal line, front view of bus, subway, and tram below
	ON Testdesign	Sans serif capital letters "P" and "R", arrow pointing to "R" between
3)	ON Testdesign	P on dark background, horizontal line, U inside circle and frame below
	ON Testdesign	Text P - R, vertical line crossing dash
	TAC	Front view of bus, text PARK & RIDE below
	MUTCD	Front view of car with five passengers, text PARK - RIDE below

Discussion

The examples shown above are only a small selection from the wide range of pictograms and symbols used to indicate location of park and ride facilities. This set of symbols already indicates that no single visual stereotype exists concerning the message Park & Ride. Therefore some organizations just use the text 'PARK & RIDE'.

In the studies listed below a total of more than twenty variants were examined to identify possible candidates for standardization:

Starting out with an Appropriateness Ranking Test of eight designs (Brugger, 1992 a), the variants labeled 1) to 4) performed best. The numbers used for labeling represent the final rank order of these symbols in this test. In the following four studies reported by Brugger (1992 b, 1995, 1999, and 2006) none of the variants examined passed the minimum requirements of ISO valid at that time. Results showed surprising differences between countries, especially for the letter based variants like the symbol used by DB: While this version scored well in Austria and Hungary, it reached only poor results in the Czech Republic and Spain.

In two later Comprehension Test (Siebenhandl et.al., 2006 a, b) focused on traffic environments only persons holding a driving license participated. In the first test the four variants labeled a) to d) were examined: of these, variants a) and d) performed best with overall comprehension scores of 78.3 and 83.7, while graphic symbol c) reached a score of 57.5 only. Variant d) with the text METRO worked well especially in Hungary and the Czech Republic, as the subways of Budapest and Prague are called Metro, while the subway in Vienna has a different name. While both variants of the second test - labeled e) and a) in the table above - performed well in Austria with correct comprehension among 89 % and 95 % of the respondents, the letter based ÖNorm variant labeled e) was correctly understood by only 23 % of the Czech participants. Wrong responses for this variant were among others: Parking place including restaurant and Parking place with repair service. Wrong responses for the pictogram with an image of a train were for example: Train depot, Railway crossing, and Train stop. Overall scores across both countries were 56 for variant e) and 79.5 for variant a).

The Finnish road sign Parking for Public Transport, labeled W-RSFI above, was included in research among licensed drivers Canada, Finland, Israel, and Poland, reported by Shinar et al. (2003). About 30 % of the responses were classified as perfectly correct, but adding partial identifications reported would yield a score around 60 % correct applying lenient scoring.

In a paper on influencing factors concerning the comprehensibility of graphical symbols conducted in China (Zou et al., 2015) also a pictogram for the referent Park & Ride, labeled Zou 2015 in the table above, was examined. While no data on the level of comprehensibility for this variant is presented in this paper, the authors report that - in contrast to many other pictograms examined - no significant relationship between education level and comprehensibility was found.

Recommendations

We follow the proposal of the Group of Experts on Road Signs and Signals of the Global Forum for Road Traffic Safety and also suggest using the symbol “P + R” with one horizontal line placed below and one above “P + R” to notify of places where parking is authorized with an option to change to other transport means. This variant can be used for changes to any other transport means, while the range of applications for pictograms showing a train or bus or some other kind of public transportation would be limited.

Tests of pictograms of referent Park & Ride

Brugger, Ch. (1992 a): Reihungstest 1992. Report to the Austrian Standards Institute (ON) FNA 133 dated August 1992, Vienna.

Brugger, Ch. (1992 b): Verständnistest 1992. Report to the Austrian Standards Institute (ON) dated October 1992, Vienna.

Brugger, Ch. (1995): ÖBB / ON Testserie 1995, Teil 1 Verständnisschätzungen nach ISO 9186. Report to ÖBB GD 02 (Austrian Railways) dated January 1995, Vienna.

Brugger, Ch. (1999): Public information symbols: a comparison of ISO testing procedures. In: Zwaga, H., Boersema, T. & Hoonhout, H. (Eds.): Visual information for everyday use. London: Taylor & Francis Ltd.

Brugger, Ch. (2006): Comprehensibility Judgement Test. Report In-Safety, 506716.

Shinar, D., Dewar, R., Summala, H. & Zakowska, L. (2003): Traffic sign symbol comprehension: A cross-cultural study. Ergonomics, 46, 1549-1565.

Siebenhandl, K., Brugger, Ch., Simlinger, P., Egger, S., Hollo, P., Weinberger, J., Vasek, J. (2007 a): Results of the Comprehension Tests on pictograms conducted in Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary; Report In-Safety, 506716.

Siebenhandl, K., Brugger, Ch., Simlinger, P., Egger, S., Hollo, P., Weinberger, J., Vasek, J. (2007 b): Results of the 2^nd Comprehension Tests on pictograms conducted in Austria and the Czech Republic; Report In-Safety, 506716.

Zou, CY., Zhang, F., & Hu, H. (2015): Analysis on the Influencing Factors of the Comprehensibility of Graphical Symbols. In: Stephanidis, C. (eds) HCI International 2015 - Posters’ Extended Abstracts. HCI 2015. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 529. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21383-5_121.