The perspectives of older drivers on the impact of feedback on their driving behaviours : a qualitative study

Self-regulation is a coping strategy that allows older drivers to drive safely for longer. Self-regulation depends largely on the ability of drivers to evaluate their own driving. Therefore the success of self-regulation, in terms of driving safety, is influenced by the ability of older drivers to have insight into their declining driving performance. In addition, previous studies suggest that providing feedback to older adults regarding their driving skills may lead them to change their driving behaviour. However, little is currently known about the impact of feedback on older drivers’ self-awareness and their subsequent driving regulatory behaviour. This study explored the process of self-regulation and driving cessation among older drivers using the PAPM as a framework. It also investigated older adults’ perceptions and opinions about receiving feedback in regards to their driving abilities. Qualitative focus groups with 27 participants aged 70 years or more were conducted. Thematic analysis resulted in the development of five main themes; the meaning of driving, changes in driving pattern, feedback, the planning process, and solutions. The analysis also resulted in an initial model of driving self-regulation among older drivers that is informed by the current research and the Precaution Adoption Process Model as the theoretical framework. It identifies a number of social, personal, and environmental factors that can either facilitate or hinder people’s transition between stages of change. The findings from this study suggest that further elaboration of the PAPM is needed to take into account the role of insight and feedback on the process of self-regulation among older drivers.

Pedestrian-cyclist interactions at bus stops along segregated bike paths : a case study of Montreal

Safety is one of the major world health issues, and is even more acute for “vulnerable” road users, pedestrians and cyclists. At the same time, public authorities are promoting the active modes of transportation that involve these very users for their health benefits. It is therefore important to understand the factors and designs that provide the best safety for vulnerable road users and encourage more people to use these modes. Qualitative and quantitative shortcomings of collisions make it necessary to use surrogate measures of safety in studying these modes. Some interactions without a collision such as conflicts can be good surrogates of collisions as they are more frequent and less costly. To overcome subjectivity and reliability challenges, automatic conflict analysis using video cameras and deriving users’ trajectories is a solution to overcome shortcomings of manual conflict analysis. The goal of this paper is to identify and characterize various interactions between cyclists and pedestrians at bus stops along bike paths using a fully automated process. Three conflict severity indicators are calculated and adapted to the situation of interest to capture those interactions. A microscopic analysis of users’ behavior is proposed to explain interactions more precisely. Eventually, the study aims to show the capability of automatically collecting and analyzing data for pedestrian-cyclist interactions at bus stops along segregated bike paths in order to better understand the actual and perceived risks of these facilities.

A description of neck motor performance, neck pain, fatigue, and mental effort while driving in a sample with chronic whiplash-associated disorders

Objective: Individuals with chronic whiplash-associated disorders (WADs) often note driving as a difficult task. This study’s aims were to (1) compare, while driving, neck motor performance, mental effort, and fatigue in individuals with chronic WAD against healthy controls and (2) investigate the relationships of these variables and neck pain to self-reported driving difficulty in the WAD group. Design: This study involved 14 participants in each group (WAD and control). Measures included self-reported driving difficulty and measures of neck pain intensity, overall fatigue, mental effort, and neck motor performance (head rotation and upper trapezius activity) while driving a simulator. Results: The WAD group had greater absolute path of head rotation in a simulated city area and used greater mental effort (P = 0.04), but there were no differences in other measures while driving compared with the controls (all P Q 0.05). Self-reported driving difficulty correlated moderately with neck pain intensity, fatigue level, and maximum velocity of head rotation while driving in the WAD group (all P G 0.05). Conclusions: Individuals with chronic WAD do not seem to have impaired neck motor performance while driving yet use greater mental effort. Neck pain, fatigue, and maximum head rotation velocity could be potential contributors to self-reported driving difficulty in this group.

Driven by distraction: Investigating the effects of anxiety on driving performance using the Attentional Control Theory

This study investigates the effects of trait anxiety on self-reported driving behaviours through its negative impacts on Central Executive functions. Following a self-report study that found trait anxiety to be significantly related to driving behaviours, the present study extended the predictions of Eysenck and Calvo’s Attentional Control Theory, proposing that anxiety affects driving behaviours, in particular driving lapses, through its impact across the Central Executive. Seventy-five Australian drivers participated in the study, completing the Parametric Go/No-Go and n-back tasks, as well as the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Driving Behaviour Questionnaire. While both trait anxiety and processing efficiency of the Central Executive was found to significantly predict driving lapses, trait anxiety remained a strong predictor of driving lapses after processing efficiency was controlled for. It is concluded that while processing efficiency of the central Executive is a key determinant of driving lapses, another Central Executive function that is closer to the driving lapses in the trait anxiety – driving lapses relationship may be needed. Suggestions regarding how to improve future trait anxiety – driving behaviours research are discussed.

Workers' attitude towards bus rapid transit : considering Dhaka, Bangladesh

The Government of Bangladesh is planning to develop and implement Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Dhaka city. This paper presents a stated choice survey conducted to understand workers’ attitudes toward BRT in Dhaka. The survey data are analysed using a multinomial logit (MNL) model to scrutinize social and economic factors’ impact on participant’s mode choices. Analysis results reveal that males, and workers with higher age, education qualification, and income have greater tendency towards choosing BRT.

Workers' attitude towards bus rapid transit in Dhaka, Bangladesh

This study investigates: –how travel and socio-demographic attributes act on workers’ mode choice decisions in Dhaka –whether Dhaka’s commuters would choose BRT for their work trip once implemented •Very limited research exists on users’ perceptions of BRT in developing countries’ megacities •We adopted a discrete choice modelling approach •As BRT has not yet been implemented in Dhaka, we collected Stated Choice (SC) survey data including a hypothetical BRT mode to understand factors important to workers’ mode choice decisions •We compare the impact of travel factors between Dhaka and cities of developed countries

Traffic safety at road-rail level crossings using a driving simulator and traffic simulation

A number of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) were used with an advanced driving simulator to assess its influence on driving behavior. Three types of ITS interventions namely, Video in-vehicle (ITS1), Audio in-vehicle (ITS2), and On-road flashing marker (ITS3) were tested. Then, the results from the driving simulator were used as inputs for a developed model using a traffic micro-simulation (Vissim 5.4) in order to assess the safety interventions. Using a driving simulator, 58 participants were required to drive through a number of active and passive crossings with and without an ITS device and in the presence or absence of an approaching train. The effect of driver behavior changing in terms of speed and compliance rate was greater at passive crossings than at active crossings. The difference in speed of drivers approaching ITS devices was very small which indicates that ITS helps drivers encounter the crossings in a safer way. Since the current traffic simulation was not able to replicate a dynamic speed change or a probability of stopping that varies based on different ITS safety devices, some modifications of the current traffic simulation were conducted. The results showed that exposure to ITS devices at active crossings did not influence the drivers’ behavior significantly according to the traffic performance indicators used, such as delay time, number of stops, speed, and stopped delay. On the other hand, the results of traffic simulation for passive crossings, where low traffic volumes and low train headway normally occur, showed that ITS devices improved overall traffic performance.

Effects of transit quality of service characteristics on daily bus ridership

This study explores how explicit transit quality of services (TQoS) measures including service frequency, service span, and travel time ratio, along with implicit environmental predictors such as topographic grade factor influence bus ridership using a case study city of Brisbane, Australia. The primary hypothesis tested was that bus ridership is higher within suburbs with high transit quality of service than suburbs that have limited service quality. Using Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) this study identifies a strong positive relationship between route intensity (bus-km/h-km2) and bus ridership, indicating that increasing both service frequency and spatial route density correspond to higher bus ridership. Additionally, travel time ratio (in-vehicle transit travel time to in-vehicle auto travel time) is also found to have significant negative association with ridership within a suburb, reflecting a decline in transit use with increased travel time ratio. Conversely, topographic grade and service span are not found to exert any significant impact on bus ridership in a suburb. Our study findings enhance the fundamental understanding of traveller behaviour which is informative to urban transportation policy, planning and provision.

Effects of transit quality of service characteristics on daily bus ridership

This study investigates whether an Australian city’s suburbs having high transit Quality of Service (QoS) are associated with higher transit ridership than those having low transit QoS •We explore how QoS measures including service frequency, service span, service coverage, and travel time ratio, along with implicit environmental predictors such as topographic grade factor influence bus ridership •We applied Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) to examine the relationship between QoS and ridership •Its outcomes enhance our understanding of transit user behavior, which is informative to urban transportation policy, planning, and provision

What’s driving the uptake of prefabricated housing in Australia?

Prefabrication has been promoted as a means to improve the efficiency of the Australian house building industry. Issues affecting the uptake of prefabrication were identified through interviews with small and medium sized building companies. Prefabrication’s specific impact on housing construction and smaller organisations has not been frequently investigated. Similar past research has been conducted without the use of a clear theoretical grounding guiding the identification of relevant issues. The current study is guided by a combination of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). This allowed the identification of a broad range of issues across attitudinal, normative, behavioural control and technology adaptation domains. Results revealed improved quality was often offset against practical cost implications. While a high quality of prefabricated products was reported, key technical challenges included coordinating the transporting of modules, and balancing standardisation and product flexibility. Resistance from traditional industry stakeholders regarding build methods, financing, and openness to encouraging prefabrication was commonly reported. The key role of government decision making in facilitating greater demand and competitiveness of prefabricated businesses in the consumer marketplace was also highlighted. Further research is currently being undertaken by the authors, which builds on the exploratory results of the current study through confirmatory, quantitative surveying.

Effect of mobile phone use and aggression on speed selection by young drivers : a driving simulator study

Aggressive driving has been associated with engagement in other risky driving behaviours, such as speeding; while drivers using their mobile phones have an increased crash risk, despite the tendency to reduce their speed. Research has amassed separately for mobile phone use and aggressive driving among younger drivers, however little is known about the extent to which these behaviours may function independently and in combination to influence speed selection behaviour. The main aim of the current study was to investigate the effect of driver aggression (measured by the Driving Anger Expression Inventory) and mobile phone use on speed selection by young drivers. The CARRS-Q advanced driving simulator was used to test the speed selection of drivers aged 18 to 26 years (N = 32) in a suburban (60kph zone) driving context. A 2 (level of driving anger expression: low, high) X 3 (mobile phone use condition: baseline, hands-free, hand-held) mixed factorial ANOVA was conducted with speed selection as the dependent variable. Results revealed a significant main effect for mobile phone use condition such that speed selection was lowest for the hand-held condition and highest for the baseline condition. Speed selection, however, was not significantly different across the levels of driving anger expression; nor was there a significant interaction effect between the mobile phone use and driving anger expression. As young drivers are over-represented in road crash statistics, future research should further investigate the combined impact of driver aggression and mobile phone use on speed selection.