Final report of Working Group 2: Traffic psychology [A COST Action TU1101 / HOPE collaboration]

BACKGROUND The workgroup of Traffic Psychology is concerned with the social, behavioral, and perceptual aspects that are associated with use and non-use of bicycle helmets, in their various forms and under various cycling conditions. OBJECTIVES The objectives of WG2 are to (1) share current knowledge among the people already working in the field, (2) suggest new ideas for research on and evaluation of the design of bicycle helmets, and (3) discuss options for funding of such research within the individual frameworks of the participants. Areas for research include 3.1. The patterns of use of helmets among different users: children, adults, and sports enthusiasts. 3.2. The use of helmets in different environments: rural roads, urban streets, and bike trails. 3.3. Concerns bicyclists have relative to their safety and convenience and the perceived impact of using helmets on comfort and convenience. 3.4. The benefit of helmets for enhancing visibility, and how variations in helmet design and colors affect daytime, nighttime, and dusktime visibility. 3.5. The role of helmets in the acceptance of city-wide pickup-and-drop-off bicycles. 3.6. The impact of helmets on visual search behaviour of bicyclists.

Traffic harmony in China? Investigating driver perceptions of traffic law enforcement and social responsibility for harmonious road use.

Social harmony can manifest in many ways. In rapidly motorizing countries like China, a growing area of potential disharmony is road use. The increased ability to purchase a car for the first time and a subsequent increase in new drivers has seen several Chinese cities take unprecedented measures to manage congestion. There is a corresponding need to ensure effective traffic law enforcement in promoting a safe environment for all road users. This paper reports qualitative research conducted with Beijing car drivers to investigate perceptions of unsafe road use, penalties for traffic violations, and improvements for the current system. Overall, the findings suggest awareness among drivers of many of the key risk factors. A perceived lack of clarity in how penalties are determined was identified and drivers in-dicated a desire to know how revenue from traffic fines is used. Several suggestions for improving the current system included school/community education about road risks and traffic law. The rise of private car ownership in China may contribute to a more harmonious personal life, but at the same time, may contribute to a decrease in societal harmony. A major challenge for authorities in any country is to promote the idea of a collective responsibility for road safety (traffic harmony), especially to those who perceive that traffic rules do not apply to them. This is a potentially greater challenge for China as it strives to balance harmony on the road and harmony in the broader society.

A framework for conceptualising traffic safety culture

Traffic safety culture is a relatively new concept which has recently gained attention in the field of traffic safety. There is currently little known regarding the nature of the concept, nor how it should be defined. Preliminary definitions have tended to focus on specific road safety problems and the anticipated effect of a strong traffic safety culture. The literature to date has tended to emphasise how traffic safety culture might be created or shaped. However, without a better understanding of the nature and structure of traffic safety culture, discussions regarding changes to traffic safety culture are restricted. An examination of different conceptualisations and definitions of organisational safety culture provides a preliminary theoretical framework for traffic safety culture. Two high risk driving behaviours within the Australian context are compared to illustrate how key factors within this framework can be used to understand and improve road safety outcomes.

Screening for drugs in oral fluid : illicit drug use and drug driving in a sample of urban and regional Queensland motorists

Police services in a number of Australian states and overseas jurisdictions have begun to implement or consider random road-side drug testing of drivers. This paper outlines research conducted to provide an estimate of the extent of drug driving in a sample of Queensland drivers in regional, rural and metropolitan areas. Oral fluid samples were collected from 2657 Queensland motorists and screened for illicit substances including cannabis (delta 9 tetrahydrocannibinol [THC]), amphetamines, ecstasy, and cocaine. Overall, 3.8% of the sample (n = 101) screened positive for at least one illicit substance, although multiple drugs were identified in a sample of 23 respondents. The most common drugs detected in oral fluid were ecstasy (n = 53), and cannabis (n = 46) followed by amphetamines (n = 23). A key finding was that cannabis was confirmed as the most common self-reported drug combined with driving and that individuals who tested positive to any drug through oral fluid analysis were also more likely to report the highest frequency of drug driving. Furthermore, a comparison between drug vs. drink driving detection rates for one region of the study, revealed a higher detection rate for drug driving (3.8%) vs. drink driving (0.8%). This research provides evidence that drug driving is relatively prevalent on Queensland roads, and may in fact be more common than drink driving. This paper will further outline the study findings’ and present possible directions for future drug driving research.

Articulating cooperative systems and driver behaviour theories

There has been increased research interest in Co-operative Vehicle Infrastructure Systems (CVIS) from the eld of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). However most of the research have focused on the engineering aspects and overlooked their relevance to the drivers' behaviour. This paper argues that the priority for cooperative systems is the need to improve drivers decision making and reduce drivers' crash risk exposure to improve road safety. Therefore any engineering solutions need to be considered in conjuction with traffic psychology theories on driver behaviour. This paper explores the advantages and limitations of existing systems and emphasizes various theoretical issues that arise in articulating cooperative systems' capabilities and drivers' behaviour.

Understanding the psychosocial factors influencing the risky behaviour of young drivers

Young people aged 17–24 years are at high risk of being killed in road crashes around the world. Road safety interventions consider some influences upon young driver behaviour; for example, imposing passenger restrictions on young novice drivers indirectly minimises the potential negative social influences of peers as passengers. To change young driver risky behaviour, the multitude of psychosocial influences upon its initiation and maintenance must be identified. A study questionnaire was developed to investigate the relationships between risky driving and Akers’ social learning theory, social identity theory, and thrill seeking variables. The questionnaire was completed by 165 participants (105 women,60 men) residing in south-east Queensland, Australia. The sociodemographic variables of age, gender, and exposure explained 19% of the variance in self-reported risky driving behaviour, whilst Akers’ social learning variables explained an additional 42%. Thrill seeking and social identity variables did not explain any significant additional variance. Significant predictors of risky driving included imitation of the driving behaviours of, and anticipated rewards and punishments administered by, parents and peers. Road safety policy that directly considers and incorporates these factors in their design, implementation, and enforcement of young driver road safety interventions should prove more efficacious than current approaches.

How do other people influence your driving speed? Exploring the 'who' and the 'how' of social influences on speeding from a qualitative perspective

Using only legal sanctions to manage the speed at which people drive ignores the potential benefits of harnessing social factors such as the influence of others. Social influences on driver speeds were explored in this qualitative examination of 67 Australian drivers. Focus group interviews with 8 driver types (young, mid-age and older males and females, and self-identified Excessive and Rare speeders) were guided by Akers’ social learning theory (Akers, 1998). Findings revealed two types of influential others: people known to the driver (passengers and parents), and unknown other drivers. Passengers were generally described as having a slowing influence on drivers: responsibility for the safety of people in the car and consideration for passenger comfort were key themes. In contrast, all but the Rare speeders reported increasing their speed when driving alone. Parental role modelling was also described. In relation to other drivers, key themes included speeding to keep up with traffic flow and perceived pressure to drive faster. This ‘pressure’ from others to ‘speed up’ was expressed in all groups and reported strategies for managing this varied. Encouragingly, examples of actual or anticipated social rewards for speeding were less common than examples of social punishments. Three main themes relating to social punishments were embarrassment, breaching the trust of others, and presenting an image of a responsible driver. Impression management and self-presentation are discussed in light of these findings. Overall, our findings indicate scope to exploit the use of social sanctions for speeding and social praise for speed limit compliance to enhance speed management strategies.

Mobile phone use while driving : an investigation of the beliefs influencing drivers’ hands-free and hand-held mobile phone use.

This study explored the psychological influences of hands-free and hand-held mobile phone use while driving. Participants were 796 Australian drivers aged 17 to 76 years who owned mobile phones. A cross-sectional survey assessed frequency of calling and text messaging while driving (overall, hands-free, hand-held) as well as drivers’ behavioural, normative, and control beliefs relating to mobile phone use while driving. Irrespective of handset type, 43% of drivers reported answering calls while driving on a daily basis, followed by making calls (36%), reading text messages (27%), and sending text messages (18%). In total, 63.9% of drivers did not own hands-free kits and, of the drivers that owned hand-free kits, 32% did not use it most or all of the time. Significant differences were found in the behavioural, normative, and control beliefs of frequent and infrequent users of both types of handset while driving. As expected, frequent users reported more advantages of, more approval from others for, and fewer barriers that would prevent them from, using either a hands-free or a hand-held mobile phone while driving than infrequent users. Campaigns to reduce mobile phone use while driving should attempt to minimise the perceived benefits of the behaviour and highlight the risks of this unsafe driving practice.

In-vehicle technology functional requirements for older drivers

Older drivers represent the fastest growing segment of the road user population. Cognitive and physiological capabilities diminishes with ages. The design of future in-vehicle interfaces have to take into account older drivers' needs and capabilities. Older drivers have different capabilities which impact on their driving patterns and subsequently on road crash patterns. New in-vehicle technology could improve safety, comfort and maintain elderly people's mobility for longer. Existing research has focused on the ergonomic and Human Machine Interface (HMI) aspects of in-vehicle technology to assist the elderly. However there is a lack of comprehensive research on identifying the most relevant technology and associated functionalities that could improve older drivers' road safety. To identify future research priorities for older drivers, this paper presents: (i) a review of age related functional impairments, (ii) a brief description of some key characteristics of older driver crashes and (iii) a conceptualisation of the most relevant technology interventions based on traffic psychology theory and crash data.

An examination of the factors that influence drivers’ willingness to use hand-held mobile phones

Hand-held mobile phone use while driving is illegal throughout Australia yet many drivers persist with this behaviour. This study aims to understand the internal, driver-related and external, situational-related factors influencing drivers’ willingness to use a hand-held mobile phone while driving. Sampling 160 university students, this study utilised the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to examine a range of belief-based constructs. Additionally, drivers’ personality traits of neuroticism and extroversion were measured with the Neuroticism Extroversion Openness-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). In relation to the external, situational-related factors, four different driving-related scenarios, which were intended to evoke differing levels of drivers’ reported stress, were devised for the study and manipulated drivers’ time urgency (low versus high) and passenger presence (alone versus with friends). In these scenarios, drivers’ willingness to use a mobile phone in general was measured. Hierarchical regression analyses across the four different driving scenarios found that, overall, the TPB components significantly accounted for drivers’ willingness to use a mobile phone above and beyond the demographic variables. Subjective norms, however, was only a significant predictor of drivers’ willingness in situations where the drivers were driving alone. Generally, neuroticism and extroversion did not significantly predict drivers’ willingness above and beyond the TPB and demographic variables. Overall, the findings broaden our understanding of the internal and external factors influencing drivers’ willingness to use a hand-held mobile phone while driving despite the illegality of this behaviour. The findings may have important practical implications in terms of better informing road safety campaigns targeting drivers’ mobile phone use which, in turn, may contribute to a reduction in the extent that mobile phone use contributes to road crashes.

‘You’re a bad driver but I just made a mistake’ : attribution differences between the ‘victims’ and ‘perpetrators’ of scenario-based aggressive driving incidents

Driver aggression is an increasing concern for motorists, with some research suggesting that drivers who behave aggressively perceive their actions as justified by the poor driving of others. Thus attributions may play an important role in understanding driver aggression. A convenience sample of 193 drivers (aged 17-36) randomly assigned to two separate roles (‘perpetrators’ and ‘victims’) responded to eight scenarios of driver aggression. Drivers also completed the Aggression Questionnaire and Driving Anger Scale. Consistent with the actor-observer bias, ‘victims’ (or recipients) in this study were significantly more likely than ‘perpetrators’ (or instigators) to endorse inadequacies in the instigator’s driving skills as the cause of driver aggression. Instigators were significantly more likely attribute the depicted behaviours to external but temporary causes (lapses in judgement or errors) rather than stable causes. This suggests that instigators recognised drivers as responsible for driving aggressively but downplayed this somewhat in comparison to ‘victims’/recipients. Recipients and instigators agreed that the behaviours were examples of aggressive driving but instigators appeared to focus on the degree of intentionality of the driver in making their assessments while recipients appeared to focus on the safety implications. Contrary to expectations, instigators gave mean ratings of the emotional impact of driving aggression on recipients that were higher in all cases than the mean ratings given by the recipients. Drivers appear to perceive aggressive behaviours as modifiable, with the implication that interventions could appeal to drivers’ sense of self-efficacy to suggest strategies for overcoming plausible and modifiable attributions (e.g. lapses in judgement; errors) underpinning behaviours perceived as aggressive.

The prevalence and characteristics of self-reported dangerous driving behaviours among a young cohort

Background: Young motorists engaging in anti-social and often dangerous driving manoeuvres (which is often referred to as “hooning” within Australia) is an increasing road safety problem. While anecdotal evidence suggests that such behaviour is positively linked with crash involvement, researchers have yet to examine whether younger drivers who deliberately break road rules and drive in an erratic manner (usually with peers) are in fact over represented in crash statistics. This paper outlines research that aimed to identify the characteristics of individuals most likely to engaging in hooning behaviours, as well as examine the frequency of such driving behaviours and if such activity is linked with self-reported crash involvement.---------- Methods: A total of 717 young drivers in Queensland voluntarily completed a questionnaire to investigate their driving behaviour and crash history.---------- Results: Quantitative analysis of the data revealed that almost half the sample reported engaging in some form of “hooning” behaviour at least once in their lifetime, although only 4% indicated heavy participation in the behaviour e.g., >50 times. Street racing was the most common activity reported by participants followed by “drifting” and then “burnouts”. Logistic regression analysis indicated that being younger and a male was predictive of reporting such anti-social driving behaviours, and importantly, a trend was identified between such behaviour and self-reported crash involvement.---------- Conclusions: This research provides preliminary evidence that younger male drivers are more likely to engage in dangerous driving behaviours, which ultimately may prove to increase their overall risk of becoming involved in a crash. This paper will further outline the study findings in regards to current enforcement efforts to deter such driving activity as well as provide direction for future research efforts in this area.---------- Research highlights: ► The self-reported driving behaviours of 717 younger Queensland drivers were examined to investigate the relationship between deliberately breaking road rules and self-reported crash involvement. ► Younger male drivers were most likely to engage in such aberrant driving behaviours and a trend was identified between such behaviour and self-reported crash involvement.

Characteristics of Impaired Drivers Who Enter Substance Abuse Treatment

Driving under the influence (DUI) remains a serious concern. Most of the data on characteristics of DUI offenders come from driving records, with little data on the levels of impairment of DUI arrestees. This paper examines data on 103,181DUI offenders admitted to Texas treatment programs between 1988 and 2008. They reported past-year DUI arrests or came to treatment on DUI probation. The changes in the characteristics of DUI offenders over time are examined, along with the factors associated with treatment completion and abstinence 90 days after program discharge. Incorporation of substance abuse treatment with effective DUI education and intervention can improve road safety and reduce the burden of substance-related illness.

Exploring the theoretical underpinnings of driving whilst influenced by illicit substances

An increasing number of studies are highlighting the alarming proportion of motorists that drive after having consumed illicit drugs. However presently, little attention has focused on the factors that may facilitate drug driving from a criminogenic paradigm. This study evaluated the contribution of deterrence, defiance, and deviance theories on intentions to drug drive to determine factors that might facilitate or reduce this behaviour. A total of 922 individuals completed a questionnaire that assessed frequency of drug use and a variety of perceptions on deterrence, defiance, and deviance constructs. The analysis showed that the defiance constructs (i.e., experiencing feelings of shame and believing in the legitimacy of sanctioning authority) and the deviance constructs (i.e., moral attachment to the norm and having a criminal conviction) were predictive of drug driving intentions. The facets of deterrence theory were not found to be significant predictors. Ultimately, this study illustrates that a range of behavioural and perceptual factors have the capacity to influence decisions to drug drive. As a result, there appears the need to extend the focus of research endeavours beyond legal sanctions to examine other factors that may be utilised to both understand the aetiology of drug driving as well as increase the possibility of compliance with the corresponding legislation.

Age and gender comparisons of driving while sleepy : behaviours and risk perceptions

To assist road safety professionals in developing effective strategies to combat the risk associated with driving while fatigued, a survey was administered to 1000 Australian drivers. Participants reported their past behaviours in regards to driving while sleepy and their perceptions of risk associated with driving fatigued as compared to speeding and driving under the influence of alcohol. Although participants appeared to be aware of the substantial risk associated with driving while sleepy, many drivers reported that they frequently drive when sleepy. Age and gender comparisons, revealed that risk taking behaviour in regards to driving while sleepy is occurring across all age groups and in both male and female drivers. Overall young to middle age drivers and male drivers reported the highest frequency of driving while sleepy and reported the lowest perceived personal risk in regards to driving while sleepy.