Do drivers have a good understanding of distraction by wrap advertisements? Investigating the impact of wrap advertisement on distraction-related driver’s accidents

Drivers encounter a variety of outdoor advertising including fixed and wrap advertisement and large amounts of information and data in different locations, which can sometimes confuse the audience due to congestion, accumulation, and non-compliance with the standards and diversity of concepts. Fully understanding how small distractions can influence the ability to drive could prevent a serious accident. Despite the enormous amount of effort has been devoted to evaluating the impact of fix advertising on traffic safety, the importance of investing wrap advertisements seems to be disregarded. Therefore, the present study seeks firstly to compare the importance of distraction caused by wrap advertisement with other parameters affecting drivers’ awareness, then to find out which aspects of wrap advertisement may distract drivers while driving. To address this objective, at first, a questionnaire-based accidents database was prepared regarding those occurred because of distraction, and then the weight of distraction caused by wrap advertisement was identified using AHP. Subsequently, accidents that occurred because of this specific issue were modeled using the discrete choice technique. The results showed that in contrast with the prevailing opinion of drivers, the probability of distraction while driving caused by wrap advertisement is relatively high which can be considered as an alarming issue. Moreover, according to the results of discrete choice modeling, drivers with different characteristics, such as age or gender can be affected by wrap advertisement in different ways.