Road Signs: Geosemiotics and Human Mobility

When you are driving a car, do you refer to road signs as your guide? Or perhaps when you are walking in an unfamiliar urban environment, how do you navigate yourself from one place to another in that environment? How do you make sense of signs in your everyday life? These questions relate to the th...

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Main Author: Salmiah, Abdul Hamid
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Aalborg University Press 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/21082/7/ROAD%20SIGNS%20%2824pgs%29.pdf
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/21082/
http://vbn.aau.dk/en/publications/road-signs-geosemiotics-and-human-mobility(4dd62b03-a817-48ce-b72f-7d07ea55d46d).html
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spelling my.unimas.ir.210822018-08-03T00:36:47Z http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/21082/ Road Signs: Geosemiotics and Human Mobility Salmiah, Abdul Hamid H Social Sciences (General) When you are driving a car, do you refer to road signs as your guide? Or perhaps when you are walking in an unfamiliar urban environment, how do you navigate yourself from one place to another in that environment? How do you make sense of signs in your everyday life? These questions relate to the theoretical and empirical evidence of road signs as traffic guides as well as to how a person moves around in an environment. Different types of road signs exist in this world. Most road signs are uniform signs that are standard for worldwide application, based on the Vienna Convention (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, 1968). Many research studies in the urban environment and traffic engineering fields focus on human behaviour and traffic sign system recognition. In order to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art developments, this thesis presents a theoretical lens that is used to anchor the subjects of the studies of ‘urban environment’, ‘human behaviour’ and ‘road signs’ through the theories of geosemiotics and mobility. The fields of geosemiotics and mobility are important aspects of this research; they provide another theoretical challenge in the form of merging these two disciplines in the analysis in order to enhance a dialogue between the fields of urban design and visual communication. Thus, the interrelation between the two theories will help to answer the question of whether road signs have significant impact on human behaviour when moving in an urban environment. Selected cities in Denmark and Scotland were used as study areas in this research project. In order to understand the importance of visual understanding among people, field observations and focus group interviews were conducted during the research process. The methods were conducted within urban settings as well as controlled settings that emphasised the interaction between the participants and the visual representations of road signs. The key contribution of the findings in this research project is the methodological triangulations of qualitative data used in the field observations as well as focus group interviews which were inspired by geosemiotics and mobility practices. This thesis aims to be used as a guideline for the urban planning of a Malaysian road traffic sign system in the future. Aalborg University Press 2016 Book NonPeerReviewed text en http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/21082/7/ROAD%20SIGNS%20%2824pgs%29.pdf Salmiah, Abdul Hamid (2016) Road Signs: Geosemiotics and Human Mobility. Aalborg University Press, Aalborg University. ISBN 2246-1248 http://vbn.aau.dk/en/publications/road-signs-geosemiotics-and-human-mobility(4dd62b03-a817-48ce-b72f-7d07ea55d46d).html
institution Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
building Centre for Academic Information Services (CAIS)
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
content_source UNIMAS Institutional Repository
url_provider http://ir.unimas.my/
language English
topic H Social Sciences (General)
spellingShingle H Social Sciences (General)
Salmiah, Abdul Hamid
Road Signs: Geosemiotics and Human Mobility
description When you are driving a car, do you refer to road signs as your guide? Or perhaps when you are walking in an unfamiliar urban environment, how do you navigate yourself from one place to another in that environment? How do you make sense of signs in your everyday life? These questions relate to the theoretical and empirical evidence of road signs as traffic guides as well as to how a person moves around in an environment. Different types of road signs exist in this world. Most road signs are uniform signs that are standard for worldwide application, based on the Vienna Convention (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, 1968). Many research studies in the urban environment and traffic engineering fields focus on human behaviour and traffic sign system recognition. In order to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art developments, this thesis presents a theoretical lens that is used to anchor the subjects of the studies of ‘urban environment’, ‘human behaviour’ and ‘road signs’ through the theories of geosemiotics and mobility. The fields of geosemiotics and mobility are important aspects of this research; they provide another theoretical challenge in the form of merging these two disciplines in the analysis in order to enhance a dialogue between the fields of urban design and visual communication. Thus, the interrelation between the two theories will help to answer the question of whether road signs have significant impact on human behaviour when moving in an urban environment. Selected cities in Denmark and Scotland were used as study areas in this research project. In order to understand the importance of visual understanding among people, field observations and focus group interviews were conducted during the research process. The methods were conducted within urban settings as well as controlled settings that emphasised the interaction between the participants and the visual representations of road signs. The key contribution of the findings in this research project is the methodological triangulations of qualitative data used in the field observations as well as focus group interviews which were inspired by geosemiotics and mobility practices. This thesis aims to be used as a guideline for the urban planning of a Malaysian road traffic sign system in the future.
format Book
author Salmiah, Abdul Hamid
author_facet Salmiah, Abdul Hamid
author_sort Salmiah, Abdul Hamid
title Road Signs: Geosemiotics and Human Mobility
title_short Road Signs: Geosemiotics and Human Mobility
title_full Road Signs: Geosemiotics and Human Mobility
title_fullStr Road Signs: Geosemiotics and Human Mobility
title_full_unstemmed Road Signs: Geosemiotics and Human Mobility
title_sort road signs: geosemiotics and human mobility
publisher Aalborg University Press
publishDate 2016
url http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/21082/7/ROAD%20SIGNS%20%2824pgs%29.pdf
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/21082/
http://vbn.aau.dk/en/publications/road-signs-geosemiotics-and-human-mobility(4dd62b03-a817-48ce-b72f-7d07ea55d46d).html
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score 13.211869