204

Influence of vertical alignment on horizontal curve

perception: effect of spirals and position of
vertical curve
Moudud Hasan, Tarek Sayed, and Yasser Hassan

Abstract: Several studies have shown that the perception of horizontal curves can be influenced by an overlapping vertical alignment. A previous two-phase study investigated the hypothesis that a horizontal curve appears flatter when
overlapping with a vertical sag curve and sharper when overlapping with a vertical crest curve. The study concluded
that the hypothesis was valid. The study also developed several statistical models to estimate the perceived radius of
horizontal curves in a combined alignment. This study extends the earlier work by investigating the effect of additional
geometric parameters on the perception. The parameters examined include the presence of spiral curves, the length of
the spirals, and the position of the vertical curve midpoint relative to the horizontal curve. It was found that (1) driver
misperception of the horizontal curvature increases as the radius of the horizontal curve increases, (2) the presence of a
spiral curve affects driver perception of the horizontal curvature in the case of crest combination only, (3) the length of
the spiral curve has no effect on the perception whether on crest or sag combinations, and (4) while the effect of the
position of the vertical curve midpoint relative to the horizontal curve is not statistically significant, it seems that the
perception problem appears to diminish as the positive offsets increases.
Key words: highway geometric design, visual perception, combined alignment.
Rsum : Plusieurs tudes on dmontr que la perception des courbes horizontales peut tre influence par un alignement vertical qui les chevauche. Une tude antrieure deux volets a examin lhypothse quune courbe horizontale
semble plus plate lorsquelle chevauche une courbe affaisse et plus prononce lorsquelle chevauche une courbe
crte verticale. Ltude a conclu que lhypothse tait valide. Ltude a aussi dvelopp plusieurs modles statistiques
pour estimer le rayon peru des courbes horizontales dans des alignements combins. La prsente tude poursuit le travail antrieur en examinant leffet de paramtres gomtriques additionnels sur la perception. Les paramtres examins
comprennent la prsence de courbes spirales, la longueur des spirales et la position du point mi-courbure de la
courbe verticale par rapport la courbe horizontale. Il a t trouv que (1) la perception errone de la courbure horizontale de la part des conducteurs saccrot avec laugmentation du rayon de la courbe horizontale, (2) la prsence
dune courbe spirale affecte la perception du conducteur quant la courbure horizontale seulement dans le cas dune
combinaison avec une crte, (3) la longueur de la courbe spirale na aucun effet sur la perception, que ce soit en combinaison de portion affaisse ou de crte et (4) alors que leffet de la position du point milieu de la courbe verticale
par rapport la courbe horizontale na pas de signification statistique, il semble que le problme de la perception diminue au fur et mesure que les dcentrements positifs saccroissent.
Mots cls : conception gomtrique des autoroutes, perception visuelle, alignements combins.
[Traduit par la Rdaction]

Hasan et al.

212

Introduction
An important goal of highway designers is to provide
drivers with clear and concise visual guidance cues to help
them take timely and appropriate decisions. However, even
if these cues are provided, there may exist situations that
cause the driver to experience some sort of optical illusion

that leads to incorrect perception of roadway alignment.

Such inaccurate perceptions could lead to increasing risk of
collision. Of particular importance is the issue of perception
of horizontal curves, since collision occurrence on curves is
relatively high compared with tangent sections.
In comparing data from Canada and the United States, the
average collision rate for horizontal curves was approxi-

Received 26 April 2004. Revision accepted 8 September 2004. Published on the NRC Research Press Web site at http://cjce.nrc.ca
on 16 February 2005.
M. Hasan and T. Sayed.1 Department of Civil Engineering, The University of British Columbia, 2324 Main Mall, Vancouver,
BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.
Y. Hassan. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada.
Written discussion of this article is welcomed and will be received by the Editor until 30 June 2005.
1

Corresponding author (e-mail: tsayed@civil.ubc.ca).

Can. J. Civ. Eng. 32: 204212 (2005)

doi: 10.1139/L04-090

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Hasan et al.

mately three times that of tangent sections, and the average

single vehicle run-off-the-road collision rate for curves on
rural roads was about four times that of tangents (OECD
1999). Choueiri et al. (1994) found that the sharper the
curve, the higher the number of run-off-the-road incidents,
where the degree of curve was the most successful parameter in explaining the variability in collision rates. Similar results were found by Ng and Sayed (2004). More recently,
several researchers (Hassan and Easa 2003; Lipar 1997;
Smith and Lamm 1994) have suggested that the risk is even
greater in the situation when a vertical curve is superimposed on a horizontal curve. Combined alignment locations
would be more hazardous because driver perception of the
road curvature is often fuzzy or erroneous in such cases. In
comparison to other road categories, the problem is more
pronounced on two-lane undivided rural highways with
higher operating speeds. Even if horizontal curves are designed to adhere to the design codes, the presence of a vertical grade transition may result in optical illusions prompting
an unsafe operating manoeuvre. With the underlying fact
that driver perception directly influences the selection of appropriate manoeuvres, misperception of horizontal curvature
can lead to increased collision risk.
In an earlier study, Bidulka et al. (2002) examined a hypothesis related to perception of combined horizontal and
vertical curvature. The hypothesis suggested that horizontal
curves appear sharper when overlapped with crest vertical
curves and flatter when overlapped with sag vertical curves.
The study concluded that the hypothesis was valid; however,
the study was limited to simple horizontal curves with coinciding midpoints of both horizontal and vertical curves.
Other conclusions from the study included:
(1) The effect of the combined alignment is more pronounced in the case of sag vertical curves, where a
greater percentage of drivers would experience the erroneous perception, and thus there would be a higher
probability of erroneous perception. It should be noted
that this is the more serious condition, with respect to
safety, as drivers would tend to drive too fast based on
their erroneous perception.
(2) The most important single factor affecting perception
was the available sight distance. This would explain the
greater probability of erroneous perception associated
with sag vertical curves, which generally provide better
sight distance than crest curves. Also, the available sight
distance increases linearly with the increase of horizontal curve radius, thus increasing the probability of erroneous perception.
(3) Some geometric parameters, such as rate of superelevation and turning direction, did not have a significant effect on the perception of horizontal curve radius.
(4) In addition to the type of overlapping horizontal curve,
the perception of horizontal curvature depends on the
vertical curve parameters. Generally, the greater the algebraic difference of vertical grades or the sharper the
vertical curve, the greater the percentage of drivers who
will perceive the curvature erroneously. This trend can
be mainly attributed to the vertical curve becoming
more pronounced, and the alignment becomes more different from the case of horizontal curve overlapping
with flat grade.

205

This study extends the earlier work by investigating the

effect of additional geometric parameters on perception. The
parameters examined include the presence of spiral curves,
the length of the spirals, and the position of the vertical
curve midpoint relative to the horizontal curve.

Investigation approach
Similar to the study by Bidulka et al. (2002), the experimental design in this study involved the creation of threedimensional (3-D) computer-generated road models that
would ensure control over the perspective view of the road,
thus neutralizing all factors but those to be studied. The
study involved interviewing a group of randomly selected
drivers. For each alignment combination, the interviewed
driver was shown at the same instance two road still images
on a computer screen. The horizontal curves in the two images had the same radius and similar features but the horizontal curve in the top image overlapped with a vertical
curve and in the bottom image it overlapped with a flat
grade (Fig. 1). The driver was then asked to state whether
the bottom curve appeared to be same sharp as, less
sharp than, or more sharp than the top curve. The experiment involved three main stages: (1) experimental design
and identification of geometric parameters of each road
model, (2) creation of 3-D models, and (3) presentation and
data collection.
Experimental design
The geometric parameters studied in this investigation include the type of overlapping vertical curve (crest versus
sag), horizontal curve radius (R), presence of spiral curves,
spiral length (LS), and vertical curve offset (VCO) defined as
the offset of the midpoint of the vertical curve relative to the
midpoint of the horizontal curve. To cope with the large
number of road models necessary for all the parameters
studied, a limited experiment was designed as shown in Table 1. As shown in the table, the experiment involved a total
of 36 horizontal curves overlapping with vertical curves,
which are referred to as test curves. The drivers perception
of these curves was evaluated relative to a horizontal curve
with the same radius and deflection angle but overlapping
with a flat grade, and these curves are referred to as reference curves. Based on the information in Table1, a total of
five reference curves were used with radii of 300, 400, 500,
600, and 700 m and length of curve LC of 200 m. To simplify the task of road simulation and focus primarily on the
parameters under study and similar to the study by Bidulka
et al. (2002), the other geometric parameters and features
were set as follows:
The highway is a two-lane facility.
Horizontal curve length (LC) is 200 m except when spiral
curves are used. In this case, LC ranges from 110 to 150 m
and LS ranges from 90 to 50 m. As shown in Table 1, all
combinations of LC and LS in the experiment would have
the same total deflection angle for the same radius.
Vertical curves are symmetrical, with equal rate of vertical
curvature along the curve.
Vertical grades are symmetrical (g1 = g2).
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Can. J. Civ. Eng. Vol. 32, 2005

Fig. 1. Screenshot of static presentation.

Vertical curve parameters are vertical curve length (LV) of

400 m, algebraic difference of vertical grades (A) of 4%,
and length per 1% change of grade (K) at 100 m.
Conditions correspond to daytime driving with unlimited
sight distance.
All horizontal curves have a right turning direction.
The cross-sectional elements were designed according to
British Columbias Ministry of Transportation (MoTH
1994a) standards for a rural, undivided collector road classification with a 90 km/h design speed as follows: lane width
of 3.6 m, shoulder width of 1.5 m, normal crown slope of
2%, superelevation rate of 6%, length of superelevation runoff of 30 m, and fill slope of 4:1.
In all road models, the same background with mountains
and sky was used, and sight distance was not restricted by
any obstruction other than the alignment itself. Finally, a
100-mm pavement delineation width was used in accordance
with the MoTH (1994b) pavement marking manual.
Creation of three-dimensional highway visual models
Several computer software programs were used to create
the 3-D road models. First, the geometric design for the test
and reference alignments was undertaken. In addition, the
drivers view of the road was simulated by placing and
maintaining a camera at a height of 1.05 m above the pavement surface, according to the height of the drivers eye in
the design guide (MoTH 1994a). The lateral position of the

camera was 1.45 m right of the road centerline (Zwahlen

and Schnell 1999). The design outputs were fed into customized programs to generate script files for the element net of
the road surface, side-slopes, delineation, and camera path.
Each of the modeled road sections was 1000 m long and was
composed of two tangents connected by a horizontal curve
with or without transition spiral curves.
The script files were subsequently imported into
AutoCAD, where the element nets representing different
features were drawn and placed on the appropriate
AutoCAD drawing layers. The completed AutoCAD
drawing files were then imported into 3-D Studio MAX R4
for the final stages of the creation process, including inserting the model background, lighting, element textures and
colors, and camera movement. A realistic background of
mountains and sky was created using a scanned photo and
was used as the main background for all road models. Images were rendered using 3-D Studio MAX, and the simulated road models were saved as audio video interleaved
(AVI) animations and Joint Photographic Experts Group
(JPEG) images.
Presentation and data collection
Two types of 3-D presentations were considered to carry
out the perception experiment: static (using still images) and
dynamic (using animations). However, results from the earlier studies by Bidulka et al. (2002) and Hassan et al. (2002)
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207

Table 1. Test curve design parameters.

Fig. 2. Summary of curvature perception: (a) all curves in crest

and sag combinations, (b) individual curves in crest combinations, and (c) individual curves in sag combinations.

Curve No.
Crest

Sag

R (m)

VCOa (m)

LC (m)

LS (m)

Effect of horizontal curve radius

1
19
300b
0
2
20
400
0
3
21
500
0
4
22
600
0
5
23
700
0

200
200
200
200
200

0
0
0
0
0

Interaction between spiral curve and radius

6
24
300
0
7
25
400
0
8
26
500
0
9
27
600
0
10
28
700
0

110
130
140
150
150

90
70
60
50
50

Effect of spiral curve

11
29
500
12
30
500
13
31
500
14
32
500

0
0
0
0

140
130
120
110

60
70
80
90

Effect of vertical curve offset

15
33
500
100
16
34
500
50
17
35
500
+50
18
36
500
+100

200
200
200
200

0
0
0
0

a
VCO is the offset between midpoints of the vertical and horizontal
curves; a positive value implies that a vertical curve follows a horizontal
curve and a negative value implies that a vertical curve precedes a horizontal curve.
b
The 300-m radius is smaller than the British Columbia Ministry of
Transportation and Highways minimum horizontal curve for 90 km/h design speed.

showed that the presentation method (3-D static versus 3-D

dynamic) does not affect the experiment results, suggesting
that either presentation method can provide a realistic simulation of the road environment. Therefore, the experiment
was limited to the static presentation only. As shown in
Fig. 1, a number of Web pages were created, where each
page contained two still images. The curve in the top image
was always the test curve (overlapping with a vertical
curve), while the curve at the bottom of the figure was the
reference curve (overlapping with flat grade). A random
sample of drivers was then interviewed, and each driver was
asked if the reference curve appeared same sharp as, less
sharp than, or more sharp than the test curve. Thus, the responses provided a qualitative means of assessing the validity of the hypothesis. Each driver viewed all curves in a
randomized sequence in terms of curve number. The responses were manually recorded on the questionnaire response form. The sample interviewed in this experiment
included 80 drivers.

Results and analysis

General observations
The summary of the perception responses by the drivers is
illustrated in Fig. 2. It should be noted that based on the
question asked, the answer that would support the perception

hypothesis for the crest curves is less sharp and for the sag
curves is more sharp. Either response will be referred to as
the favourable response. The frequency of each response
should also represent the probability of a specific perception
in the general driver population, with the frequency of the
favourable response representing the probability of erroneous perception. Figure 2 shows that the favourable response
to the hypothesis had significantly higher frequencies than
the other two probable responses, especially on sag curves
where the frequency of the favourable response was as high
as 78%. The erroneous perception in the case of overlapping
crest vertical curves, as manifested in the frequency of the
favourable response, was generally less apparent than the
case of overlapping sag vertical curves.
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Table 2. Summary of 2 test: perception hypothesis.
Overlapping crest curves

Overlapping sag curves

Curve
No.

p-value

H0 test

Curve
No.

p-value

H0 test

All crest
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18

179.929
5.200
1.225
25.825
25.900
23.425
12.475
28.300
20.275
11.725
25.675
14.725
18.325
13.825
16.900
18.775
21.325
3.700
12.100

0.000
0.074
0.542
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.002
0.000
0.000
0.003
0.000
0.001
0.000
0.001
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.157
0.002

Reject
Accept
Accept
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Accept
Reject

All sag
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36

513.317
19.900
44.425
18.775
28.225
42.100
19.675
42.175
14.425
71.425
63.175
39.175
24.775
36.700
37.525
18.025
24.325
28.300
13.900

0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.001
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.001

Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject

Note: The null hypothesis, H0; frequencies of three responses are equal.

Figure 2c shows that the results for curves 19 and 24 are

an exception to the common perception where the response
same sharp was relatively high. Both curves correspond to a
sharp horizontal curve (R = 300 m) with and without spirals
and overlapping with a sag vertical curve.
Similarly, curves 1 and 2, which are sharp horizontal
curves overlapping with a crest vertical curve, also experienced highest response frequency corresponding to same
sharp. Another exception is curve 18 (overlapping with a
crest vertical curve) where the frequency of the favourable
response less sharp was equal to that of same sharp. For this
curve, the midpoint of the vertical curve, which is also the
highest point of the road surface, was positioned 100 m following the midpoint of the horizontal curve.
Statistical examinations of the perception hypothesis and
of the effect of geometric parameters are explained in the
following sections. It should be pointed out here that owing
to the qualitative nature of the experiment, only categorical
and nonparametric tests were applied in the statistical analysis, where a 95% confidence level (or a 5% level of significance, ) was used throughout unless otherwise mentioned.
Examining the perception hypothesis
The three possible responses to the present perception experiment were same sharp, less sharp, or more sharp. If the
overlapping vertical curve had no effect on the perception of
horizontal curvature, one would expect that the same sharp
response would have the highest frequency or all responses
would have equal frequencies. However, Fig. 2 shows that
the favourable response had the highest frequency of responses on nearly all curves. To examine the statistical significance of the difference among the three responses, the
chi-square (2) test was carried out with the null hypothesis,

H0. All responses had equal frequencies, and the observed

difference was due to random sampling only. The rejection
of Ho would mean accepting the perception hypothesis. The
test was carried out for all crest curves combined, all sag
curves combined, and on each individual curve separately.
As shown in Table 2, when all crest or sag curves are considered together, the null hypothesis (H0) should be rejected
even for a very low level of significance. The probability of
Type I error of rejecting a valid null hypothesis is almost
equal to zero. Therefore, it can be concluded that the frequencies of the three responses were not equal and the differences were not due to random variations. When the
individual curves were considered separately with = 5%,
the results suggest that H0 should be rejected for all 18 sag
curves and for 15 crest curves (out of 18). It is interesting to
note that as the test of null hypothesis examines whether all
three responses have equal frequencies, H0 was rejected for
curve 19 (R = 300 m, sag), although the favourable response
had lower frequency than same sharp response. The three
crest curves (1, 2, and 17) where H0 was not rejected deserve some more attention. For curves 1 (R = 300 m) and 2
(R = 400 m), the results show that same sharp response had
the highest frequencies but the frequencies of all three responses were close enough to be considered equal. The perception results for curves 17 (R = 500 m) and 18 (R =
500 m, crest) are also worth noticing. Observing the higher
frequencies of less sharp response for curve 17 and higher
same sharp response for curve 18, one might expect H0 to be
rejected for curve 17 but not for curve 18. However, the 2
test result is just the opposite because the differences in the
three responses are not significant for curve 17, whereas for
curve 18 same sharp and less sharp responses are significantly higher than the third response.
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209

Table 3. Summary of two-way 2 test: effect of geometric parameters.

Crest curves

Sag curves

Geometric parameter

Curve No.

p-value

H0 test

Curve No.

p-value

H0 test

R, no spiral
Spiral curve (R = 300
Spiral curve (R = 400
Spiral curve (R = 500
Spiral curve (R = 600
Spiral curve (R = 700
LS (including LS = 0)
LS (excluding LS = 0)
VCO

1 to 5
1, 6
2, 7
3, 8
4, 9
5, 10
3, 11 to 14
11 to 14
3, 15 to 18

39.311
12.3478
19.8922
23.0483
5.5530
3.9739
26.438
2.695
13.455

0.000
0.0021
0.0000
0.0000
0.0623
0.1371
0.001
0.846
0.097

Reject
Reject
Reject
Reject
Accept
Accept
Reject
Accept
Accept

19 to 23
19, 24
20, 25
21, 26
22, 27
23, 28
21, 29 to 32
29 to 32
21, 33 to 36

30.852
0.2500
0.4286
0.1894
8.1050
1.6686
7.601
5.893
4.088

0.000
0.8825
0.8071
0.9097
0.0174
0.4342
0.473
0.435
0.849

Reject
Accept
Accept
Accept
Reject
Accept
Accept
Accept
Accept

m)
m)
m)
m)
m)

Note: The null hypothesis, H0; frequencies of responses corresponding to different curves are equal.

Effect of geometric parameters

Further statistical analysis was conducted to examine the
influence of geometric parameters on the perception response using a two-way 2 test. Here, the null hypothesis
was set as H0: the frequencies of driver responses do not depend on the parameter being examined; the frequency of any
drivers perception responses is not affected by the variations
in the geometric parameters. The resulting 2 values are
listed in Table 3 for both crest and sag curves. It should be
noted that with the null hypothesis set to test the relative
sharpness of the reference and test curves, only a conclusion
on whether the geometric parameter affects the probability
of misperception can be deduced. On the other hand, the extent of this misperception cannot be addressed. For example,
if changing a specific parameter will not change the response frequencies, this parameter would be said to have no
significant effect even if the perceived radius would have
changed.
First, the effect of horizontal curve radius (R) on driver
perception was studied using two subsets, each consisting of
five crest curves and five sag vertical curves R varied from
300 to 700 m)The results are shown in Fig. 3. The 2 test
confirmed the difference in response to be significant and,
therefore, suggested rejection of the null hypothesis with a
5% level of significance; the differences between the responses for different R may not be due to random variations
alone, and R has a significant effect on the driver perception.
As shown in Fig. 3, as R increases the probability of the favourable response, and hence driver misperception of the
curve radius increases. Although this trend is more pronounced for crest combinations, it is also valid for sag combinations. Despite this general trend, it appears that there is
a specific value of R beyond which the perception response
is almost independent of R.
In the design of highways, spirals are commonly added at
both ends of horizontal curves to ensure a safe and smooth
transition from straight segments to curves. In this study, the
effect of using spirals on the perception of combined alignment was also examined. First, the response frequencies corresponding to each simple curve with a specific radius were
compared with those corresponding to a curve with the same
radius but with spiral. The response frequencies were isolated in Fig. 4 for easy reference, and the results of the twoway 2 test for each curve radius are shown in Table 3. From
Fig. 4a, it can be noted that the presence of the spiral curve

Fig. 3. Effect of horizontal curve radius: (a) crest curves and

(b) sag curves.

caused an increase in the favourable response less sharp for

the sharpest two curves in crest combinations R of 300 and
400 m) at the expense of same sharp, with this increase not
likely to be a result of random variations (see Table 3); the
spiral curve caused the test curve to appear sharper than
what it actually is. Although this result might have not been
expected, since spiral curves generally improve the appearance of the horizontal curve, it can be explained by noting
that the effect of crest combination is more pronounced for
larger radii. As the presence of the spiral curve helps flatten
the appearance of the horizontal curve, the effect of the crest
combination will become more evident. Therefore, this adverse effect of spiral curves diminishes gradually as the
curve radius increases (see Fig. 4a and Table 3). As for sag
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Fig. 4. Effect of presence of spiral curve (S after radius indicates

a curve with spiral): (a) crest curves and (b) sag curves.

Fig. 5. Effect of spiral curve length: (a) crest curves and (b) sag
curves.

combinations, Fig. 4b indicates that the presence of a spiral

curve had generally not affected the response frequency or
had caused a slight increase in the favourable response. This
is reinforced by the results of the 2 test in Table 3, where
all comparisons yielded insignificant differences except for
R = 600 m.
Furthermore, the effect of spiral length was examined
through comparing the responses to curves that have the
same radius but different spiral length (curves 11 through 14
and 29 through 32 for crest and sag combinations, respectively). It should be noted that all these curves have a 500-m
radius, where the presence of spiral curve should have a significant effect on driver perception, as explained in the previous paragraph. To confirm this effect, the curves with
different spiral lengths were first compared with the simple
horizontal curve (LS = 0) with the same 500-m radius. As
shown in Table 3, the low p-value corresponding to crest
combinations indicates that the null hypothesis should be rejected, indicating significantly different response frequencies
depending on the length of spiral curve. As shown in Fig. 5,
this difference would have resulted from the difference between curves with spirals (regardless of LS) and the simple
curve without a spiral (LS = 0). Therefore, the two-way 2
test was repeated for only the curves that have a spiral but
with different lengths (curves 11 through 14). As shown in
Table 3, LS in this case has no statistically significant effect
on the response frequency. This was the case for sag combinations whether or not the simple curve was included in the
comparison. Therefore, the results here indicate that the

presence of a spiral curve would affect the driver perception

in the case of crest combination only. However, the length
of the spiral curve would not affect the perception whether
on crest or sag combinations.
The final two sets of five curves each were used to examine the influence of relative position of the point of vertical
intersection (PVI) with respect to the midpoint of the horizontal curve (LC = 200 m) on the perception hypothesis. For
simplicity we can name the distance between the midpoints
of the two curves as the offset or VCO. A negative offset
would mean that the vertical curve midpoint precedes the
horizontal curve midpoint and vice versa. Five different positions of the symmetrical vertical curve (LV = 400 m) with
respect to the horizontal curve were studied. It may be mentioned that vertical curves are not recommended to precede
horizontal curves in design guides and here it is only for the
purpose of investigation that two preceding positions of vertical curve are included. As shown in Fig. 6, the perception
response variation for the sag vertical curves was different
from that of crest curves and showed predominant favourable response for all the positions. For the crest vertical
curve negative offset values, the frequency of the favourable
response (less sharp >55%) clearly supports the perception
hypothesis that the test curve appears sharper than the reference curve on flat grade. However, even though the 2 test
suggests that there is no significant effect for VCO, Fig. 6a
suggests that the perception problem appears to diminish as
the positive offsets increases. For example, the same sharp
response reached its peak frequency at a vertical curve mid 2005 NRC Canada

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211

Fig. 6. Effect of relative positioning of horizontal and vertical

curves: (a) crest curves and (b) sag curves.

(2)

(3)
(4)

(5)
(6)
(7)

bination appears to be flatter when viewed by a driver

approaching the point of curve.
The perception problem persists for almost all possible
combinations of road geometric parameters although the
level and type of error appeared to change depending on
the overlapping vertical curve or variations in horizontal
curve features.
The erroneous perception is more apparent in the case
of horizontal curves overlapping with sag vertical
curves.
The radius of the horizontal curve (R) has a significant
effect on the driver perception. Drivers misperception of
the horizontal curve radius increases as R increases.
This trend is more pronounced for crest combinations,
but it is also valid for sag combinations.
The presence of a spiral curve affects the driver perception of the horizontal curvature in the case of crest combination only.
The length of the spiral curve has no effect on the perception whether on crest or sag combinations.
Although the statistical analysis suggests that the relative position of the PVI with respect to the midpoint of
the horizontal curve does not affect the perception, it
seems that the perception problem appears to diminish
as the positive offsets increases.

Acknowledgements
Financial support for this study was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
and by Transport Canada.
point offset of +100 m (station of PVI following HC midpoint).

Conclusions and recommendations

Previous research indicated that the perception of horizontal curvature is affected by the overlapping vertical alignment. More specifically, a horizontal curve overlapped with
a sag vertical curve would appear flatter, whereas the same
curve might appear sharper when overlapped with a crest
vertical curve. This erroneous perception can lead to an increased collision risk, especially in the case of sag vertical
curves, as drivers would tend to increase their speed based
on their erroneous perception. This paper investigates the
impact of several geometric parameters on this erroneous
perception. The parameters examined include the presence
of spiral curves, the length of the spirals, and the position of
the vertical curve midpoint relative to the horizontal curve.
Computer-generated images of highway curves were used to
conduct the experiment on a randomly selected sample of 80
drivers. The perception response was generated from the
comparison of curvatures of a pair of curves of equal radius
but with and without the overlap of a vertical curve. The following conclusions represent the main findings of the study:
(1) Drivers experience an erroneous perception of horizontal curvature when the horizontal curve is overlapped
with a vertical curve on the same alignment. A horizontal curve in a crest combination appears to be sharper
than its actual curvature, whereas a curve in a sag com-

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