An international comparative study on driving attitudes and behaviors based on questionnaire surveys

Road traffic crashes (RTCs) are influenced by a driver's awareness and attitude toward road safety, as well as the socio-economic status, infrastructure development level, traffic status, social system, and traffic safety culture of the area to which the driver belongs. In this study, based on the results of a questionnaire survey conducted in seven countries, the characteristics of each country concerning tolerance for traffic violations, dangerous driving, and acceptance for road safety measures were studied. It was suggested that a high tolerance for traffic violations and dangerous driving might affect traffic violations and RTCs in each country. Additionally, to reduce the tolerance for traffic violations and dangerous driving, the promotion of road safety education, especially among young and male drivers, and stricter regulations and enforcement were suggested.     

Study on influence of walking experience on traffic safety attitudes and values among foreign residents in Japan

The most vulnerable user in road space is still an ordinary pedestrian even though the top fatalities by traffic mode differ in countries. Thus, prioritizing/protecting vulnerable road users is essential to improve road safety. People's safety perceptions toward vulnerable users are strongly associated with surrounding elements and their own experiences, especially as pedestrians. Therefore the attitude and values toward vulnerable users would vary due to culture and customs related to walking in each country. This study examines how a walking experience change reflects people with diverse backgrounds' traffic safety attitudes by conducting an online questionnaire survey for foreigners living in Japan for five years or less. As a result, 75% of respondents walk more frequently due to increased public transportation usage. For all the respondents, the increase in the walking frequency also drives the shift in the attitude toward vulnerable users and the values regarding travel safety and comfort indirectly intermediated by the shift in attitudes toward walkability, applying structural equation modeling. To focus on the structure of the shift according to nationality, people from Southeast/South Asia, where motorcyclists are the top fatalities in the road space and somehow regarded as vulnerable road users, the increased walking experience contributes significantly to the improvement of awareness of vulnerable road users and to the formation of safety and comfort values. Regarding people from Europe/North America, although their walking frequency increases after coming to Japan, there is a static causal relationship that does not influence their attitude toward walkability or safety and comfort values. Additionally, they already have an attitude of protecting/prioritizing pedestrians and placing more importance on safety and comfort. At the same time, people from Southeast/South lacks the attitude toward pedestrians due to much less frequency of walking in daily life. It suggests that establishing safe and having comfortable pedestrian spaces and public transport in developing countries where traffic infrastructure is at the development stage will encourage people to walk and likely help foster an attitude of placing importance on safety.     

Modeling effects of driver safety attitudes on traffic violations in China using the theory of planned behavior

Traffic violations are recognized as one of the main causes of traffic accidents and have been found to be closely associated with driver attitudes toward traffic safety. In this study, a modified theory of planned behavior (TPB) was used to model the effects of driver safety attitudes on traffic violations, based on a questionnaire survey of 1505 drivers in China. In light of the strong correlations between the observed items, the items of the TPB components were grouped into several parcels, using an item-parceling method. Parcel-based structural equation modeling was then used to operationalize the modified TPB. The results indicate that the proposed model can accurately predict the occurrence of traffic violations based on the observed items related to driver traffic safety attitudes. It was found that driver attitudes, subjective norm, and perceived behavior control significantly affect traffic violations. For predicting traffic violations, driver attitudes toward traffic safety policies had the greatest influence, followed by driver attitudes toward risky driving behaviors and the attitudes of others toward risky driving behaviors. Finally, suggestions on traffic enforcement and education to reduce traffic violations are proposed based on the results.     

Investigating the attitudes of Egyptian drivers toward traffic safety

One of the main pillars for improving road safety in any country is a good understanding of traffic safety culture and the driving behavior of local drivers. The primary aim of this study was to determine whether Egyptian drivers differ in traffic safety attitudes and level of acceptance of risky driving behavior. A questionnaire survey was conducted on the driving cognition of the participants. An exploratory factor analysis was used to assess the number of factors that differentiated the three types of drivers. Then a hierarchical cluster analysis was performed to group the drivers with similar patterns of scores on the factors into clusters. Three driver clusters emerged: The drivers in cluster 1 were “drivers who rigidly followed regulations” (51.7%). The drivers in cluster 2 were “drivers who violated safety precautions” (23.3%). The drivers in cluster 3 were “drivers who had a tendency to violate regulations” (25.0%). A similarity between the social norms and personal attitudes of drivers was found. This can be explained by the high social norm of violating traffic laws, which can lead to more drivers accepting violations. The majority of the older drivers and drivers with no violations or traffic accident on their record in the past 2 years were in cluster 1. Cluster 2 had the highest proportion of young drivers who wore their seat belts and used hands-free phones while driving. Cluster 3 drivers accepted very dangerous violations, such as texting while driving, driving while intoxicated, and driving at very high speeds. They reported significantly more traffic accidents, but no more violations than the other two clusters. The results of this study can be used to improve road safety programs for education and enforcement in Egypt.     

Public transportation development and traffic accident prevention in Indonesia

Traffic accidents have long been known as an iceberg for comprehending the discrepancies of traffic management and entire transportation systems. Figures detailing traffic accidents in Indonesia, as is the case in many other countries, show significantly high numbers and severity levels; these types of totals are also evident in Jakarta, the highest-populated city in the country. While the common consensus recognizes that traffic accidents are the results of three different factor types, namely, human factors, vehicle factors, and external factors (including road conditions), human factors have the strongest influence—and figures on a worldwide scale corroborate that assertion. We, however, try to pinpoint the issues of non-human factors in light of increasing traffic accidents in Indonesia, where motorbike accidents account for the majority of incidents. We then consider three important pillars of action: the development of public transportation, improvement of the road ratio, and traffic management measures.     

Factors affecting severity of motorcycle accidents on Thailand's arterial roads: Multiple correspondence analysis and ordered logistics regression approaches

Thailand was classified as a middle-income country and ranked second highest in terms of road traffic fatality rate in the world in 2015. By 2018, this ranking went up to ninth in world which may be because of various earnest safety policies implementation, supporting road safety research and establishing a road safety directing center. However, crash fatality rate has considerably remained high until recent year, indicating a clear need for further related research. Considering severity of the crashes, the majority of fatal crashes involved the motorcycle road user. Therefore, motorcycle crashes are important issues and should be considered to mitigate fatality due to immoderate proportion of motorcycle road user and motorcyclist fatality. This study aims to identify factors that influence the severity of motorcycle accidents on Thailand's arterial roads by employing ordered logistic regression and multiple correspondence analysis. The results demonstrated that although both analyses were relatively different, they provided similar results. Age, road lanes, and helmet wearing were significant factors that influenced the severity of motorcycle accidents. The results could serve as reference for planning strategies or organizing campaigns to reduce and prevent death owing to road traffic accidents, which may enhance the overall image of road traffic safety in Thailand.     

Exclusive motorcycle lanes: A systematic review

Road accidents are the main leading cause of death, and more than half of people killed in road accidents are motorcyclists, pedestrians, and bicyclists. In developing countries, the share of motorcycles is very high in the traffic stream, which results in an increased number of accidents. Nonetheless, a high share of motorcycles and risky riding behavior of motorcyclists raise notable threats to other road users as well as themselves. Segregating motorcycles from the main traffic stream by providing an Exclusive MotorCycle Lane (EMCL) is reported as one of the strategies to improve motorcyclist's safety and overall road safety. Although EMCLs are successfully running in some Asian countries like Malaysia, Taiwan, and Indonesia, and have reported reducing motorcycle accidents, existing literature related to such lanes is limited and lacks combined contemplation of various design factors. Therefore, a systematic review of studies related to EMCL was carried out in the present paper using the PRISMA approach. The review was majorly divided into the following three categories viz., geometric design elements of EMCL, motorcyclist's flow characteristics on EMCL, and traffic control measures for EMCL to highlight the research lacunas in this field. The present study aims to cast light on the need for specific geometric design standards for EMCL and to assess the safety impact of segregating motorcyclists from other mixed traffic. The review highlights that the design standards for EMCL should be based on the motorcycle's characteristics, as it varies from other vehicle categories in terms of riding behavior and the physical properties of the motorcycle.     

What affects pedestrian crossing difficulty at urban intersections in a developing country?

In developing countries, road traffic crashes involving pedestrians have become a foremost concern. At present, road safety assessment plans and selection of interventions are primarily restricted to traditional approaches that depend on the investigations of historical crash data. However, in developing countries such as India, the availability, consistency, and accuracy of crash data are major concerns. In contrast, proactive approaches such as studying road users' risk perception have emerged as a substitute method of examining potential risk factors. An individual's risk perception offers vital information on probable crash risk, which may be beneficial in detecting high-risk locations and major causes of crashes. Since the pedestrian fatality risk is not uniform across the urban road network level, it may be expected that pedestrians' perceived risk measured in terms of “crossing difficulty” would also vary across the sites. In this perspective, the present paper establishes a mathematical association between the pedestrians' perceived “crossing difficulty” and actual crashes. The model outcome confirms that pedestrians' perceived crossing difficulty is a good surrogate of fatal pedestrian crashes at the intersection level in Kolkata City, India. Subsequently, to examine the impact of traffic exposures, road infrastructure, land use, spatial factors, and pedestrian-level attributes on pedestrians' “crossing difficulty”; a set of Ordered Logit models are developed. The model outcomes show that high vehicle and pedestrian volume, vehicular speed, absence of designated bus stop, the presence of inaccessible pedestrian crosswalk, on-street parking, lack of signalized control (for both vehicle and pedestrian), inadequate sight distance, land use pattern, slum population, pedestrian-vehicular post encroachment time, waiting time before crossing, road width, and absence of police enforcement at an intersection significantly and positively increase pedestrian's crossing difficulty at urban intersections. To end, the model findings are advantageously utilized to develop a set of countermeasures across 3E's of road safety.     

高速公路车辆典型交通违法行为危险度分级预警方法

高速公路不文明驾驶行为及交通违法行为的频发严重影响了高速公路交通流运行的安全与效率.基于采集的高速公路交通安全相关数据,对高速公路典型交通违法行为的危险度的分级预警方法进行了研究.针对高速公路的交通事故数据,以从恶劣天气、道路线形、违法类型的角度分析了道路交通事故与各类因素的相关性,在此基础上确定进行分级预警的影响因素.综合考虑在气象条件、交通状况、道路线形及各类违法行为,提出了层次分析与模糊评价相结合的方法,建立了针对高速公路违法行为危险性的分级预警模型,并用实际案例数据对模型的适用性进行了验证.结果显示,模型具有良好的适用性,所建立的分级预警模型可以为高速公路的主动交通预警及管理提供参考与支撑.      

Education influence in traffic safety: A case study in Vietnam

It is well known that traffic accidents are of high importance to the public health spectrum around the world. Moreover, in developing countries such as Vietnam, the mortality rate from road traffic accidents is rather high in comparison with other Southeast Asian countries. Not only do the majority of the people killed and seriously injured significantly affect the quality of life of the citizens, but traffic accidents also negatively impact a nation's economic and social development. Statistics show that far more people are injured or die in traffic accidents than are afflicted by any of the most serious diseases. The very high occurrence of traffic accidents in Vietnam has become one of the country's major social issues. The importance of human factors in transport policy discussion is growing. There is a realization that policy options that appear beneficial in principle have to be checked for their feasibility of implementation. Understanding and describing driver behavior become a challenge when one tries to identify driver errors in determining accident/conflict causal factors and countermeasures.In recent years, having understood the serious effects of traffic accidents on society at large, scientific researchers, traffic engineers and policy makers in Vietnam have developed many projects and conducted research in the field of traffic safety. The human factor is also considered to be the central element in the whole system. The final goal is to organize a traffic environment that is convenient and safe for road users.This article explains the application of the risk analysis approach in evaluating influences of education and enforcement in traffic safety.     

Education influence in traffic safety: A case study in Vietnam

It is well known that traffic accidents are of high importance to the public health spectrum around the world. Moreover, in developing countries such as Vietnam, the mortality rate from road traffic accidents is rather high in comparison with other Southeast Asian countries. Not only do the majority of the people killed and seriously injured significantly affect the quality of life of the citizens, but traffic accidents also negatively impact a nation's economic and social development. Statistics show that far more people are injured or die in traffic accidents than are afflicted by any of the most serious diseases. The very high occurrence of traffic accidents in Vietnam has become one of the country's major social issues. The importance of human factors in transport policy discussion is growing. There is a realization that policy options that appear beneficial in principle have to be checked for their feasibility of implementation. Understanding and describing driver behavior become a challenge when one tries to identify driver errors in determining accident/conflict causal factors and countermeasures.In recent years, having understood the serious effects of traffic accidents on society at large, scientific researchers, traffic engineers and policy makers in Vietnam have developed many projects and conducted research in the field of traffic safety. The human factor is also considered to be the central element in the whole system. The final goal is to organize a traffic environment that is convenient and safe for road users.This article explains the application of the risk analysis approach in evaluating influences of education and enforcement in traffic safety.     

A multi-country survey for collecting and analyzing facts related to road traffic safety: Legislation,enforcement, and education for safer drivers

Road traffic safety is a crucial global objective. It is important for every country to review and improve road safety policies and strategies, based on an objective understanding of its own road traffic safety situation in the world. With the aim of contributing to such a review and understanding, this study conducted a multi-country survey to gather information about various facts related to legislation, enforcement, and education, which are designed to achieve safer drivers in nine countries, by using a common format. This paper introduces the results of the survey with a particular focus on legislation and enforcement regarding speed limit violations and red-light-running as well as on education within the driving licensing systems. It highlights variations, in terms of penalty settings and enforcement levels, in different countries; it also examines the training durations necessary for acquiring a driving license and license renewal procedures. In this way, it demonstrates the potential and significance of understanding the relative position of each country in terms of road traffic safety through an international comparison despite its limited information.     

面向道路交通违法行为的事理图谱构建技术

我国道路交通安全法律法规体系不断完善,要求交警部门针对具体的交通违法行为给予不同程度的处罚,为了响应国家以智慧化推动治理现代化的号召,可利用事理图谱技术构建道路交通领域知识库,揭示道路交通违法行为事件之间的逻辑关系,能快速且有效辅助处理交通违章事件.以开源数据为基础,面向道路交通违法行为构建事件语料库,通过事件抽取、关...     

我国中小学生交通安全教育状况分析

随着汽车数量的迅猛增长,在给人们带来出行便利的同时,道路交通事故也居高不下。中小学生是道路交通事故的主要受害者之一,而中小学生生理机能限制和交通安全意识淡薄是交通事故频发的主要原因。本文针对我国中小学生交通安全教育形式、内容、覆盖范围、时间和通道进行了分析,在对比研究国外儿童道路交通安全教育特点的基础上,提出了加强我国中小学生交通安全教育的建议。     

基于交通安全的乡村道路设计技术研究

随着乡村道路交通网络通达顺畅水平的稳步提升，其交通安全形式依然严峻。为进一步提升乡村道路的行车安全水平，现首先分析乡村道路的交通事故特征，从“人-车-路-环境”角度系统分析事故诱因，然后基于事故分析结果，从道路本身属性角度出发，提出乡村道路系统设计要求，最后以桂林市某山区乡村道路为例，结合事故数据分析其交通安全影响因素并提出针对性的改善措施，以适应新时代下四好农村路的建设要求。     

A new approach to cross-sector cooperation in road safety through a comparison of policies in selected countries

Statistics from the databases of various countries and international organizations show that road accident rates and fatalities have fallen since the 1970s. With demographic changes taking place in many developed countries, however, accident and accident-risk patterns have changed in the last two decades. This study aims to introduce a new approach to cross-sector cooperation with the hope of making road safety more holistic and sustainable. The authors compare the road safety policies of three selected countries based on various categories, using a simple quantitative method. The results show some fragmentation within the policies, illustrating the need for a new road safety approach. The effort to reduce road traffic accidents by 50% by the year 2020 has also increased the pressure on stakeholders to meet this goal. This paper's contribution toward the 2020 goal lies in its recommendation of a new approach to road safety that will enlighten stakeholders on probable missing links in road safety.     

公交车驾驶人组织认同感和工作倦怠对不良驾驶行为的影响

公共交通是城市道路交通运输系统中的重要组成部分，公交车驾驶人存在的不良驾驶行为已经成为影响交通安全的最大制约因素之一，由其引发的道路交通事故给个人和社会都造成了严重损失，探索更为安全的公共交通环境显得极为重要。以公交车驾驶人为对象，探究影响公交车驾驶人驾驶行为特征的个人心理因素和组织环境因素，及其对不良驾驶行为的内在影响机制。选用工作倦怠量表（MBI-GS）、组织认同感问卷（OIQ）及驾驶行为问卷（DBQ）对844名城市公交车驾驶人展开问卷调查研究，并使用回归分析和中介检验来探究工作倦怠和组织认同感对驾驶行为的影响机制。结果表明：①32.8%的公交车驾驶人存在不良驾驶行为，错误驾驶行为显著高于违法驾驶行为。其中，在违法维度中，侵略性违法显著高于普通违法。②公交车驾驶人存在较高的组织认同感，组织认同感对不良驾驶行为具有显著的负向预测作用，对工作倦怠程度具有显著的负向预测作用；工作倦怠程度对不良驾驶行为具有显著的正向预测作用。③公交车驾驶人的工作倦怠水平在组织认同感对不良驾驶行为的影响中起到部分中介作用。该结果厘清了公交车驾驶人的工作倦怠和组织认同感对不良驾驶行为的影响机制，为进一步探究不良驾驶行为的心理干预方法提供了思路，从而达到改善城市道路公共交通安全环境的目标。     

Evaluation of risk factors for road accidents under mixed traffic: Case study on Indian highways

This paper presents an evaluation of risk factors for highway crashes under mixed traffic conditions. The basis of selecting study sites was abutting land use, roadway, and traffic characteristics. Accordingly, the study selected thirteen segments on the existing highway network in the state of West Bengal of India, covering a wide spectrum of such road attributes. A systematic investigation based on site-specific accident data to capture the highway sections' safety features revealed that the crash rate has steadily increased for years with traffic regardless of roadway category and conditions. A number of risk factors that affect road accidents were identified; they are mid-block access, pavement and shoulder conditions, vehicle involvement, time of day, and road configuration, i.e., two and multi-lane. The empirical observation indicates that the crash rate is relatively lower on multi-lane highways; however, the severity of any crash on such a road is relatively high. Notably, the crash frequencies on such roads are less during daylight hours due to the lane-based unidirectional traffic movement. This is quite the opposite during nighttime when drivers exhibit an inability to meet traffic contingencies, thereby increasing crash risk. The majority of crashes on two-lane highways are, on the other hand, due to unsafe driving manoeuvers. The study also observed that frequent mid-block accesses and poor shoulder conditions reduce scopes to rectify driving errors and increase crash risk as a consequence. The paper subsequently suggests proactive approaches to identify safety deficits at the time of planning and designing.     

Traffic problems in Southeast Asia featuring the case of Cambodia's traffic accidents involving motorcycles

This article provides the background to the special issue by reviewing the status of traffic problems in South East Asian countries, and in particular, the case of Cambodia. The “Make Roads Safe” report by the Commission for Global Road Safety (2011) confirms traffic accidents as the primary cause of youth mortality worldwide. Thus, the United Nations declared the decade from 2011 to 2020 as the “UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020”, promoting road safety and to reduce the number of deaths in road accidents by 2020. Furthermore, the “Sustainable Development Goals” adopted in 2015 highlight the important role of sustainable transport in tackling the exclusion of vulnerable groups. On the other hand, the World Health Organization in 2015 indicate an increase in the death rate due to traffic accidents in low-income countries since 2000. Traffic accidents were already recognized as a social problem before the 2000s in countries such as Thailand and the Philippines. At the same time, other ASEAN member states such as Vietnam and Cambodia which have experienced rapid economic growth since the 2000s are now experiencing the seriousness of traffic problems. It is said that 70% of road accidents in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos involve motorcycles and three-wheelers, but despite this situation, the regulatory framework for motorcycles remains undeveloped. In the case of Cambodia, speeding by young people remains the major cause of road deaths and this can be explained by the fact that people can now travel at a higher speed because of road developments but remaining challenges related to underdeveloped traffic legislation, and limited public awareness and knowledge of road safety are overlooked. In 2010, the Cambodian National Road Safety Action Plan 2010–2020 was drafted, aiming to halve the number of deaths in traffic accidents in 2020. However, in reality, the number of road deaths did not decrease to the level anticipated in the action plan until 2016. In this article, the authors emphasize the importance of implementing the “three Es” namely Engineering, Enforcement and Education in developing countries such as Cambodia. In particular, the authors claim that the role of education to increase people's road safety awareness is neglected compared to the other two dimensions and thus, it is highly important to raise people's road safety awareness through education among the young people.     

Effectiveness evaluation on cross-sector collaborative education programs for traffic safety toward sustainable motorcycle culture in Vietnam

Motorcycle injuries have caused serious implications for public health and national economies in many ASEAN countries. Drivers' lack of road safety awareness and low level of voluntary compliance hinder the promotion of traffic safety. Against this background, the Vietnamese government cooperated with motorcycle manufacturers in a wide range of educational activities. This study evaluates the effectiveness of cross-sector collaborative education programs implemented in Vietnam through a series of statistical analyses. Utilizing a sample of 600 respondents, we focus on the educational effects on riders' attitudes, behaviors, accident prevention, and riders' psychological changes after participating in safety activities. The results show that the effectiveness of rider training differed depending on riders' experience. Motorcyclists' improvement in risk awareness mainly results from the enhancement of safety awareness. The structural model revealed that safety activities have positive effects on motorcyclists' riding confidence, safety awareness, joy and comfort while riding, independence and freedom in daily life, and perspective-taking abilities. Altruistic motivation is suggested as the key factor to encourage motorcyclists' safe riding, highlighting the importance of building up traffic moral and expanding traffic safety culture across the country. With an attempt to find out the insufficient and missing content from the present training programs, this study seeks to inform policy decisions on accident prevention as well as promote motorcyclists' well-being based on the sustainable motorcycle culture in ASEAN countries.