Introduction: Driving requires attention, decision-making, and coordination, particularly at intersections where drivers must judge if it is safe to enter the roadway. A key element in this process is the use of communicative cues between road users. Such cues can serve multiple functions at junctions, for example, signalling that another driver is yielding, indicating that one should wait, or expressing frustration. The use of these cues is often governed by unwritten rules and informal communication, however understanding these cues is especially important as misinterpretations can lead to collisions. Thus far, research has mostly explored how cues are used and interpreted in Western countries where driving is relatively safe.


Purpose: This study investigates how drivers from two countries (The UK and Malaysia) interpret communicative cues when deciding whether to cross at a junction.


Method: Participants completed a high-fidelity driving simulator task involving repeated junction crossings. In Phase 1, an adaptive staircasing procedure determined each participant's gap acceptance threshold. In Phase 2, participants encountered vehicles approaching at, below, or above their threshold, accompanied by cues: headlight flash, horn, or deceleration


Results: Results will report participants' likelihood of accepting gaps as a function of cue type. We hypothesise that UK drivers will accept smaller gaps in response to headlight flashes, reflecting their interpretation of this cue as an invitation to cross, whereas Malaysian drivers will interpret flashes as a warning not to cross. For horn cues, we expect both groups to treat this as a deterrent, resulting in larger accepted gaps. Preliminary self-report data are consistent with these expectations.


Conclusions: The study highlights the cultural specificity of road user communication at junctions. Findings have implications for road safety when driving abroad and for the design of autonomous vehicles, which may need to adapt to local communication norms to interact safely and effectively across countries.