Passion Project from an Interaction Designer using Design Thinking to tackle a Wicked Problem

Gregory Fitzgerald Phillips

9 min read· Originally Published on Medium on Apr 10, 2019

On February 14th, 2019 at 10:30 pm, my love and myself were involved in a traffic accident.

We had just finished eating a meal with our two teenage and one adult daughter. And we wanted to go out for just a bit and treat ourselves to a Boba Tea and spend personal time together. We didn’t even make it a half mile from our little home when crossing a traffic intersection.This intersection and the road leading into our downtown city of Roswell, Georgia will be the topic of this article regarding UX at this intersection and a significant portion of this road. Moreover, this article is a passion project that I would like to share with you all to discuss distracted drivers. And how cars and the technology we are creating cannot solve the issues of cognitive load, the ease of understanding information, and ease of use our roads offer to us drivers.

R.I.P. Little Blue you were a fantastic car for 7 years

When this wreck happened, it shook me up and scared the S#!t out of me, and I had thoughts of my love not surviving for about three weeks. So much so that I am still not driving that much two months later. When I am in a motor vehicle, my stress and anxiety rise. I and the others that were involved are fortunate we all walked away from this accident alive. However, this article is not to blame the other driver who unfortunately passed through the red light and hit my vehicle crossing the intersection. It is to help provide more context to the surrounding environment and the UX of this road and intersection that is causing this accident and many more over the time this intersection has existed.

Wicked Problem

This street intersection, if you ask a local, is unsafe for a variety of reasons and I would consider it a Wicked Problem to solve.

Source: Google Maps

1. It is located where the National Chattahoochee Forest and River meet with Georgia’s State Park and private property. There is a lot of pedestrian traffic as folks enjoy walking, running, and bicycle rides on the roads and the “paths” the state has created. All but the private property is either National Forest or Historical areas and the River.

2. Major artery for local traffic to funnel over to primary roads leading to the major highway 400 and other significant areas where businesses have developed. Traffic is heavy in the mornings and early to late afternoons as folks head to work and school. High Way 9 is an older state highway that connects the city of Roswell to Atlanta, the capital of Georgia. At this intersection, when heading north, it becomes three lanes. The crossroad on the city line of Roswell there is a two-lane road that follows the Chattahoochee River. This road also changes names at this intersection. Heading west, it is Azalea Drive; heading east, it is Riverside Road.

I am not an expert in road construction, planning, and zoning; I am an Interaction Designer. I study the behaviors and effects of products and the environments humans interact with and use daily. I spend a significant amount of time researching how humans understand the world around them, which is also part of how I approach Design Discovery and Design Thinking to gain empathy for what is termed the “User” in the field of User Experience.

So back to the Wicked Problem, I am proposing needs to be addressed the use of signage, directional markings, information; which I will refer to as guideposts, for individuals in automobiles, and the pedestrians. I would say all this information that is available to the “user” of a motor vehicle is information and cognitive overload. The level of a hierarchy of needs is not being met and among other things, the time it takes a motorist to react is hindered by the direction of travel, speed, and distance to view these information guideposts is very complicated. This complication is aided by the amount of distractions drivers have while operating these motor vehicles.

Design Thinking: “How Might We”

Let dive into this article with some “How Might We” questions to look at this wicked problem.

How Might We design easy-to-understand guideposts for motorists and not distract them from operating a motor vehicle?

How Might We create a safe road to travel while informing the operator of a motor vehicle to proceed through this intersection?

How Might We create autonomous cars to navigate intersections to keep motorists safe through this intersection? (And do the motor vehicle manufacturers consider this when improving the “Smart” or AI-assisted technologies?)

How Might We create non-distracting guideposts to help provide safety for operators of motor vehicles while traveling on and through complicated intersections?

The following picture I took standing in the area and at the moment a motorist can see most of the guideposts when approaching this intersection heading south, down a hill, with a blind curve assuming they are only going 35 mph. Most motorists are not going 35 mph, it’s Metro-Atlanta, and most folks drive 45–55 mph on most of the roads around here.

Hypothesis: Too much information, cognitive overload, short-term memory, multi-tasking is causing drivers to be distracted.

Let's look at the following photos I took to start pulling out the information provided for the motorists. The following image shows the other motorist's direction only that they were traveling at 10:30 pm.

Ask yourself looking at this image: Which is the Traffic Light? What lanes are reversed? Is the light green? What day is it? What time is it? Can I turn left? Where is the road work?

The southbound direction image just above shows there is a series of signs that have a level of importance. These are not in order of the hierarchy listed below:

1. No Left Turn during morning hours MON — FRI from 6:00–9:00 AM
2. Reversible Lanes, also called Reversible facilities — No indication of the time for the direction of Traffic to Change. (4 Hanging Informational Symbols Lighted and they change from an “X” to a Down Arrow )
   
3. Traffic LightsAs we approach the light.
   
4. No Left Turn during morning hours MON — FRI from 6:00–9:00 AM (Repeated at the traffic light)
   
5. Road Construction Sign
   
6. Road Name Signs (3 of them)
   

Northbound on Atlanta Street/Roswell Road/HWY 9

Heading North (image above), we have more guideposts:

8 — 9 — 10 — 11 — 12 — 

1. Left Turn Lane Turn ONLY
2. Lane Ends in 250 FT
   
3. Left Turn only on Arrow
   
4. Traffic Lights
   
5. Road Name Signs (3 of them)
   
6. Share Road with Bicycles
   
7. Truck Route over 18 Tons (G. V. W.) or 30 FT IN LENGTH
   
8. MARTA (Metro transportation) Bus Stop**Across intersection
   
9. Reversible Lanes, also called Reversible facilities — No indication of the time for the direction of Traffic to Change. (4 Hanging Informational Symbols Lighted and they change from an “X” to a Down Arrow )
   
10. Georgia State Park signage (3 of them stacked)
    
11. Curve Directional Arrows (3 of them)
    
12. Speed Limit sign
13. Road Construction Sign (I do not know why this is there, and I have not ever seen the speed being enforced on this stretch of road, but I can understand why it might not be implemented.)
    

Visible in both directions: are the pedestrian crosswalks and crossing signals.

Brainstorming and Information gathering

It would be incorrect for me to make assumptions that other motorists have difficulty with understanding all of this information. However, this intersection is one that I know very well. I walk the trails here quite often, and I have lived in this area for about ten years now and grew up in this area so give or take 30+ years of seeing and experiencing this intersection first hand I will allow myself a few liberties for the sake of this article.

The reversible lanes are a huge issue, and because the reversible lane begins at this intersection, it makes the issue that more of a severe problem to solve. The guideposts for the lanes and also traffic lights are conflicting levels of hierarchy. And because they are set almost at the same viewing level. To tell the difference can be challenging to say the least. Shape, Color, and Size of the designs create visual clarity issues. Optical illusions of what is the indication to do something vs. not do something. Does the driver continue moving, stay in the same lane, stop, go, merge? Processing this information is a challenge when there are all these “advertising” directions.It’s not as crazy as (https://www.lingscars.com/) where everything is in your face and all important. What works for Ling should not work for keeping us safe on the road. The road signposts need to have a clear hierarchy of information. Stagger the information in an easy to interpret, process, understand and take action process for the motorist.

Technology cannot at this point solve for the issues of when this reversible lane changes nor predict when the light will turn from “you may go” to “you must stop/switch lanes.”

The design for symbols and also content for what the signpost are attempting to relate to the motorist if they are paying attention if they can interpret what the symbol means if they can read as “some designated distance.” I have tried to research the appropriation for designing for intersections like this one discussed in this article. I have not been able to find any information on the following websites:

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/

Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highwayshttps://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/

Dead End pageshttps://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/resources/state_info/georgia/ga.htm

Discussion group https://collaboration.fhwa.dot.gov/dot/fhwa/ops/default.aspx

I cannot afford this following book published by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officialshttps://aashtojournal.org/2018/09/28/aashto-releases-7th-edition-of-its-highway-street-design-green-book/. And the Library for GDOT (Georgia Department of Transportation) has the 6th edition that is now to be not used when planning/designing intersections. http://g92018.eos-intl.net/G92018/OPAC/Index.aspx

I have looked into the standards for highway marking signs:2004: https://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/ser-shs_millennium_eng.htm2012 https://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/ser-shs_millennium.htm

A few Adobe Acrobat documents with no information on reversible lanes/reversible facilities:United States Road Symbol Signs: https://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/services/publications/fhwaop02084/us_road_symbol_signs.pdfPavement Marking templates for use:https://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/SHSe/Pavement.pdfThe big book: https://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/SHSe/shs_2004_2012_sup.pdf (390 pages)

I did find this document and would like to quote the following passage:about Reversible Lanes:

The terminus treatment requires particular care and attention — common treatments extend across an intersection, requiring complex signals and signal timing strategies. If poorly executed, these intersections may become expensive and confusing. Locating a safe mid-block left turn across the favored travel direction can also be problematic.

https://mobility.tamu.edu/mip/strategies-pdfs/traffic-management/technical-summary/Reversible-Traffic-Lanes-4-Pg.pdf

and the following from GDOT:

“A disadvantage of reversible flow lanes involves general lack of public awareness. There are less than one hundred reversible facilities in operation across the United States. Of these facilities, only a handful can be found on highways, with the vast majority functioning as reversible lanes on surface streets. http://www.dot.ga.gov/gdotsearch/Pages/results.aspx?k=Reversible Lanes

Ideation and Conclusion

So I will conclude with the following: Make it easy for users to use, understand, and operate. Do not confuse users with the hierarchy of information. Clear, concise, readable content that is accessible to everyone that is appropriately licensed to operate a motorized vehicle. Not every driver is distracting themselves; the environment around them can also lead to causing distracting motorists. And if it is the government departments and agencies, 3rd party vendors and contractors creating these issues, they must also be held accountable.

If someone that is reading this wants to talk, well, reach out and contact me. I’d be happy to have an excellent ol’ Design conversation with you.