Car drivers' road safety performance: A benchmark across 32 countries

The road safety performance of a country and the success of policy measures can be measured and monitored in different ways. In addition to the traditional road safety indicators based on the number of fatalities or injured people in road traffic crashes, complementary road safety performance indicators can be used in relation to vehicles, infrastructure, or road users' behaviour. The last-mentioned can be based on data from roadside surveys or from questionnaire surveys. However, results of such surveys are seldom comparable across countries due to differences in aims, scope, or methodology.This paper is based on the second edition of the E-Survey of Road Users' Attitudes (ESRA), an online survey carried out in 2018, and includes data from more than 35,000 road users across 32 countries. The objective is to present the main results of the ESRA survey regarding the four most important risky driving behaviours in traffic: driving under the influence (alcohol/drugs), speeding, mobile phone use while driving, and fatigued driving. The paper explores several aspects related to these behaviours as car driver, such as the self-declared behaviours, acceptability and risk perception, support for policy measures, and opinions on traffic rules and penalties.Results show that despite the high perception of risk and low acceptability of all the risky driving behaviours analysed, there is still a high percentage of car drivers who engage in risky behaviours in traffic in all the regions analysed. Speeding and the use of a mobile phone while driving were the most frequent self-declared behaviours. On the other hand, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs was the least declared behaviour. Most respondents support policy measures to restrict risky behaviour in traffic and believe that traffic rules are not being checked regularly enough, and should be stricter.The ESRA survey proved to be a valuable source of information to understand the causes underlying road traffic crashes. It offers a unique database and provides policy makers and researchers with valuable insights into public perception of road safety.     

Impact of driving style,behaviour and anger on crash involvement among Iranian intercity bus drivers

In developing countries such as Iran, due to the inadequate infrastructure for rail and air transportation facilities, intercity buses are the most common type of transportation for long distances. Because of the long hours of driving, bus driving is considered a challenging job. Moreover, given the high capacity of these vehicles, a small error from the driver could endanger many passengers' health. So, studying drivers' behaviours can be a key factor in decreasing the risk factors of crash involvement in these drivers. However, few studies have focused on intercity bus drivers' behaviours. This research uses a sample of 254 professional drivers that answered a self-report questionnaire on driving style (MDSI), driving behaviour (DBQ), and driving anger (DAS). A structural equation modelling (SEM) is used to investigate the psychometric properties of these questionnaires. The results show a positive correlation between maladaptive driving styles and driving behaviour, and a negative correlation between adaptive styles and driving behaviour. Significant differences are observed among drivers with and without crash history on their maladaptive driving styles and their driving anger scale. A binary logistic regression model is also developed to predict traffic crashes as a function of driving misbehaviour. The results suggest that factors related to driving anger are the main factors that increase the probability of misbehaviour and traffic crashes. The results also suggest that driving style and driving behaviour significantly predict crash risk among bus drivers. Aggressive driving is associated with an increased probability of crash involvement among intercity bus drivers. The findings can be used to inform the health promotion policies and provide regular interventions designed to improve driving safety among intercity bus drivers.     

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.     

Factors affecting lane change crashes

This study aims to investigate the contributing factors affecting the occurrence of crashes while lane-changing maneuvers of drivers. Two different data sets were used from the same drivers' population. The first data set was collected from the traffic police crash reports and the second data set was collected through a questionnaire survey that was conducted among 429 drivers. Two different logistic regression models were developed by employing the two sets of the collected data. The results of the crash occurrence model showed that the drivers' factors (gender, nationality and years of experience in driving), location and surrounding condition factors (non-junction locations, light and road surface conditions) and roads feature (road type, number of lanes and speed limit value) are the significant variables that affected the occurrence of lane-change crashes. About 57.2% of the survey responders committed that different sources of distractions were the main reason for their sudden or unsafe lane change including 21.2% was due to mobile usage. The drivers' behavior model results showed that drivers who did sudden lane change are more likely to be involved in traffic crashes with 2.53 times than others. The drivers who look towards the side mirrors and who look out the windows before lane-change intention have less probability to be involved in crashes by 4.61 and 3.85 times than others, respectively. Another interesting finding is that drivers who reported that they received enough training about safe lane change maneuvering during issuing the driving licenses are less likely to be involved in crashes by 2.06 times than other drivers.     

Traffic safety culture of professional drivers in the State of Qatar

Professional drivers play a significant role within the traffic system of the State of Qatar. With developing infrastructure, the need for professional drivers is growing. However, knowledge is lacking about their perception of traffic safety. Therefore, this study investigates the personal acceptance of risky driving and suggested traffic laws among this specific group of drivers, in order to create understanding about their likelihood to commit certain risky driving behaviors and their resistance to the implementation of certain traffic laws. The aim of this study is to establish which personal attributes of professional drivers in Qatar could influence a high likelihood to commit risky driving behaviors, estimating which specific groups of professional drivers impose the highest risk to violate certain traffic laws. Results indicate that transportation mode, origin and years of driving experience are all personal attributes that have a significant impact on the professional driver's risk to commit risky driving behaviors and their opposition to the implementation of related traffic laws. Distressing results have been found for the high likelihood to violate speed in school zones and the high risk to be distracted by any type of phone use while driving, suggesting the need to put emphasize on these safety hazards during the training programs of professional drivers at professional driving schools in the State of Qatar.     

Hazard perception test development for Lithuanian drivers

Hazard perception tests may not be transferable between different countries, due to differences in traffic culture and infrastructure. Therefore, different instruments might be necessary for assessing hazard perception in various countries. The aim of the current study was to develop the Lithuanian hazard perception test based on static traffic images and test its psychometric properties. Thirty-four experienced drivers participated in a pilot study, and 125 drivers with diverse driving experience took part in the main study. The final test contained 27 static traffic scenes and the participants were asked to respond if they saw a hazard or not. Results demonstrated that the test has satisfactory internal consistency and test-retest reliability. It differentiated between inexperienced and experienced drivers, and between those experienced drivers who had less than three or more than three crashes in their driving history. The test has sufficient psychometric properties for research; still further development is needed in order to apply it for individual testing and decisions about licence provision.     

Daily emotional demands on traffic crashes among taxi drivers: Fatigue and safety motivation as mediators

Many studies have validated that emotional demands are one of the main stressors that lead to fatigue, decreasing the safety behaviour in services work-related. However, studies to date have relied on long-term emotional demands rather than on the short-term fluctuation in emotional demands. The main aims of this research was to investigate the influence of individuals, as well as the daily levels of emotional demands on self-reported crashes, mainly through daily acute fatigue and safety motivation. The study was conducted among taxi drivers (N = 96) over a period of six days for both, morning and afternoon sessions in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As expected, it was found that increased levels in an individual's daily emotional demands were related to acute and chronic fatigue, where only acute fatigue had an influence on safety motivation. In addition, safety motivation decreased the rate of self-reported crashes. These results suggest that the increment level of emotional demands has an indirect relationship to traffic crash rates, mainly through fatigue and safety motivation.     

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.     

Socio-cognitive factors in road safety monitoring – Cross-national comparison of driving under the influence of alcohol,drugs or medication

The objective of the study is to assess the relation between socio-cognitive factors and unsafe traffic behaviour in different national settings. The study is based on the results of the second edition of ESRA (E-Survey of Road users' Attitudes), which was conducted in 32 countries in 2018 (ESRA2). The investigation focuses on the topic driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or medication (DUI) and related socio-cognitive constructs, i.e., attitudes, norms, perceived behaviour control, intention, and habits, and risk perception. Cross-national differences are assessed upon the example of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Egypt, Japan, Nigeria, and Slovenia. In the analysis, principal component analysis (PCA) was used to test the dimensions of the underlying socio-cognitive constructs and to define composite scores for further analysis. Linear regression models were fitted to investigate the association between these socio-cognitive factors and self-reported DUI. The same set of variables was used for all the linear regression models, i.e., the cross-national model (32 countries), and the seven national models. In total, 25,459 car drivers (at least a few days a month), were included in this analysis. The results show that: (i) the considered socio-cognitive factors are able to predict self-reported DUI across the different countries; (ii) these socio-cognitive factors are also able to predict DUI on a national level; (iii) the impact of socio-cognitive factors on DUI differs across countries. The strongest predictor in all countries was the construct habits, followed by norms and, to a lesser extent, attitudes and intention. Perceived behaviour control and risk perception only showed a significant effect on reported DUI in a few countries. In conclusion, the ESRA2 data offer a unique opportunity to gain valuable insights into cross-national differences in traffic safety. Future research will focus on a more in- depth analysis of cross-national differences to other road safety topics.     

Can't drive,I'm drunk – Exploring factors influencing the intention to drink and drive among Indian drivers

The crash risk of drivers increases significantly while driving under the influence of alcohol. However, the drivers' intention to drink and drive has not been explored yet in the context of a developing country like India. The present study applied an extended version of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to investigate the psychosocial predictors of drunk driving intentions of Indian drivers. 252 drivers participated in a self-reported survey designed for the study. Apart from the standard TPB components (attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control), the survey also captured the extension measures such as risk perceptions, moral norms, traffic fatalism, sensation-seeking, conformity tendency, past engagement in drunk driving, crash history and driver demographics. The standard TPB model was successful in explaining 68.6% of the variance in the intention to drink and drive. The attitudes displayed the strongest influence on the intention (β = 0.696, p < 0.001), followed by perceived behavioural control (β = 0.180, p < 0.001); whereas subjective norms showed a moderate significance in influencing the intention (β = 0.062, p < 0.1). Among the extension variables, past behaviour showed the strongest influence on the intention to drink and drive (β = 0.123, p < 0.05), followed by sensation-seeking (β = 0.080, p < 0.05) and traffic fatalism (β = 0.072, p < 0.1). The extended TPB model explained 72% of the variance in the intention to drink and drive. The study findings can assist in the development of strategies/interventions to reduce drunk driving incidences.An earlier version of the paper was presented at the TRB 101st Annual Meeting, Washington, D. C., 2022.     

Traffic safety culture of drivers in Canada: Implications for new traffic law implementation to enhance traffic safety

This study investigates Canada's traffic safety culture (TSC) as part of a global research project. The TSC survey data collected by an online survey is used to predict drivers' perception of changes in traffic problems in the past 3 years, driver's support, opposition towards enforcement of additional traffic laws, and drivers' perceived threat towards risky driving behaviors. A two-step procedure is followed to build models. The first step includes feature selection using the chi-square test of independence. The second step comprises building classification models using the Random Forest technique. Results suggest that drivers' personal attributes like the number of accident records, driving frequency, geographic region of nationality, and religion are top predictor variables for drivers' perception towards changes in traffic problems. In addition, compared to others most drivers perceive distracted driving as a major traffic problem today. There is strong disapproval of drivers against the following driving behaviors and strong support to implement laws against it: speeding in school zones, talking on a hand-held cell phone, tying text messages or e-mails, drowsy driving, driving without wearing their seatbelt, drive with passengers not wearing seatbelts, running through red lights, and impaired driving. In contrast, following risky driving behaviors is less of a perceived threat: speeding over limit on a freeway, on a residential street, and in an urban area and talking on a hands-free cell phone while driving. In addition, a driver's accident record is a significant indicator for a perceived threat towards risky driving behaviors followed by age and accumulated demerit points. The results from this study can be used to guide educational campaigns to transform the traffic safety culture of target groups and make more informed policy decisions.     

Validation of the Driver's Angry Thoughts Questionnaire (DATQ) in a sample of professional drivers in Iran

Aggressive driving has emerged as one of the most studied behaviors in the traffic safety field, due to its association with the odds of motor vehicle crashes and especially fatal crashes. Previous research has investigated the situations which provoke anger while driving, as well as the emotional (anger) and behavioral (aggression) aspects of aggressive driving. However, surprisingly the cognitive aspects of aggressive driving have largely been neglected. This study investigated the psychometric properties of the short-forms of the Driver's Angry Thoughts Questionnaire (DATQ) and the Driving Anger Expression Inventory (DAX) in a sample of professional drivers. Furthermore, the study aimed to investigate the mediation effects of aggressive thoughts, as the cognitive aspect of aggressive driving, on the relationship between traffic congestion and driving aggression. To this end, 613 public transport bus drivers completed the DATQ and DAX and were also asked to report the level of traffic congestion they normally faced in their daily driving, using six pictures. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported the four factor DAX and the five factor DATQ, which largely replicated the original factors. The four forms of maladaptive thoughts on the road were positively associated with aggressive driving, while the positive factor (coping self-instruction) was negatively associated with aggressive driving and traffic violations. Moreover, the results indicated that traffic congestion does not contribute directly to anger expression on the road, but rather through aggressive thoughts. This study suggests that cognitive interventions may help to eliminate aggressive driving and its adverse outcomes on traffic safety.     

国外乡村公路交通事故主要致因综述

根据美国、加拿大、英国、澳大利亚等国关于乡村公路交通事故的数据和资料,以人的行为为重点,对乡村公路交通事故的致因进行归纳分析,主要有:第一,乡村公路上男性、年轻人、轻型货车乘员和后座乘员的安全带使用率较低;第二.乡村公路上男性和年轻人倾向于超速行驶,摩托车和小型车超速行驶的比例较高,在周末和夜间超速行驶的比例较高;第三,男性和年轻人是乡村公路上酒后驾驶的主要人群,周末和夜晚因酒后驾驶导致的交通事故较多;第四,乡村公路交通事故中男性疲劳驾驶的比例低于女性,年轻人疲劳驾驶的比例仍较高,周末、夜间和下午的因疲劳驾驶导致的交通事故较多;第五,65岁以上的老年驾驶员容易在乡村公路上发生由于未按规定让行和不遵守交通信号指挥而造成的交通事故;第六,导致乡村公路交通事故的道路环境因素主要有道路环境突变、车道狭窄、弯道半径过小、安全视距不够等;第七,乡村公路的交通事故救援响应慢、质量低、效果差.     

An experimental study on errors regarding the driving behavior of young males caused by temporal urgency on open roads: A Bayesian estimation

Efforts made to prevent road traffic crashes have reduced the number of crashes involving young drivers, however, overall, they are still the most common age group reported in these incidents. In this study, the driving behaviors of ten young male drivers were compared based on lane change—under time pressure and in normal conditions—on open roads where the surroundings constantly change. The study also chronologically analyzed the motions within five seconds from when the driver started steering. The results of the analysis revealed that, compared to normal conditions, drivers under time pressure responded by steering first and viewing their surroundings second. It was also estimated that, regardless of the conditions, the driver tended to use the indicator two to zero seconds before adjusting the steering. This finding indicates that the delay in viewing their surroundings resulted in delayed signaling, and the series of driving behaviors to change lanes may have been overcrowded in time. The findings of this study suggest that it is possible to prevent human error by focusing on the balance and connection between cognition and the behaviors required for a series of driving behaviors.     

基于交通标志信息量的驾驶负荷加载有效性研究

过高的驾驶负荷是导致驾驶绩效受损和交通事故的重要原因,因此驾驶行为和交通安全研究中需要采用适当的负荷加载形式;通过试验分析不同信息量的交通标志对驾驶人认知负荷的影响规律,验证交通标志信息量对负荷加载的有效性。基于不同信息量的交通标志,对驾驶人的驾驶负荷进行试验验证。招募44名被试在静态控制环境下进行交通标志认知试验,采用信息理论对交通标志信息量进行量化计算,用不同信息量的交通标志进行认知负荷加载,采集被试对每个标志的主观负荷评价及反应时间。试验结果表明：主观驾驶负荷与交通标志信息量有高度相关性,反应时间随着信息等级的增加而增加;而驾驶人性别和驾驶经验对交通标志视认反应时间和主观驾驶负荷量化没有显著影响,这说明在驾驶试验中,交通标志信息量可以用于驾驶试验中的认知负荷的加载,而这种负荷的加载对于驾驶人的性别和驾驶经验是无差别的。该研究更多地考虑了驾驶人的认知特性,研究成果可用于驾驶负荷试验的次任务加载,帮助进行交通安全理论研究。     

基于轨迹数据的危险驾驶行为识别方法

连续的跟驰行为和换道行为是驾驶行为的主要构成部分,对交通拥挤和交通事故有着重要影响。通过无人机视频拍摄和图像处理方式,提取了曹安公路沿线的2个交叉路口间正常交通流状态下共600条多车高精度轨迹数据。首先,考虑车辆类型对驾驶行为产生直接的影响,分析了大车和小车的车辆轨迹特征变量分布的差异性,包括速度、加速度、碰撞时间倒数、车头时距等,在标记危险驾驶行为的过程中考虑车辆类型的影响。其次,针对不同的车辆类型,利用修正碰撞裕度对跟驰行为和换道行为进行风险性评估,将其划分为安全型和风险型。根据风险型行为发生的顺序以及持续时间,评估驾驶人的整体驾驶状态是否危险,作为危险驾驶行为识别的样本标记。分别利用离散小波变换和统计方法提取车辆轨迹的关键特征参数,为了提高模型识别效率,将关键特征参数进行排序,从而确定最优判别指标;最后,利用轻量梯度提升机（LGBM）算法对危险驾驶行为进行识别,并与随机森林、多层感知器、支持向量机等算法在精度上进行比较。研究结果表明：在上述研究条件下,LGBM算法对危险驾驶行为的理论识别率最高可达93.62%,可以实现基于机器学习算法的危险驾驶行为的高精度自动识别,该结果对于智能驾驶辅助系统的设计、道路交通安全决策的制定具有显著的意义。     

Investigating fatal and injury crash patterns of teen drivers with unsupervised learning algorithms

Teenagers have been emphasized as a critical driver population class because of their overrepresentation in fatal and injury crashes. The conventional parametric approaches rest on few predefined assumptions, which might not always be valid considering the complicated nature of teen drivers' crash characteristics that are reflected by multidimensional crash datasets. Also, individual attributes may be more speculative when combined with other factors. This research employed joint correspondence analysis (JCA) and association rule mining (ARM) to investigate the fatal and injury crash patterns of at-fault teen drivers (aged 15 to 19 years) in Louisiana. The unsupervised learning algorithms can explore meaningful associations among crash categories without restricting the nature of variables. The analyses discover intriguing associations to understand the potential causes and effects of crashes. For example, alcohol impairment results in fatal crashes with passengers, daytimes severe collisions occur to unrestrained drivers who have exceeded the posted speed limits, and adverse weather conditions are associated with moderate injury crashes. The findings also reveal how the behavior patterns connected with teen driver crashes, such as distracted driving in the morning hours, alcohol intoxication or using cellphone in pickup trucks, and so on. The research results can lead to effectively targeted teen driver education programs to mitigate risky driving maneuvers. Also, prioritizing crash attributes of key interconnections can help to develop practical safety countermeasures. Strategy that covers multiple interventions could be more effective in curtailing teenagers' crash risk.     

Age and road safety performance: Focusing on elderly and young drivers

The existing literature on young and elderly drivers indicates that they have the highest crash risks compared to other age groups of drivers. This study improves our understanding of the risk factors contributing to young and elderly drivers' elevated crash risk by examining self-report data from the E-Survey of Road User's Safety Attitudes (ESRA). The primary objective of this study is to compare the attitudes and behaviours of young, elderly, and middle-age drivers in Canada, the United States, and Europe. The main focus is on the practice of driving while distracted by mobile phones and driving while fatigued, as these are two dangerous behaviours that demonstrate the impact age may have. The analyses consistently showed that there are differences in the responses attributable to age. In all regions, drivers aged 18–21 years consistently reported higher rates of distracted and fatigued driving and higher rates of perceived social and personal acceptability of these behaviours than drivers aged 35–54 years. Elderly drivers aged 65+ years reported even lower rates of these behaviours and acceptability. Young drivers were also the least likely to believe that distraction and fatigue are frequent causes of road crashes, while elderly drivers were the most likely to believe this. This pattern with respect to age repeats in the support for policy measures as well; young drivers are least likely to support zero tolerance policies for mobile phone use when driving, while elderly drivers are the most likely to support this measure. Multivariate logistic regression modeling confirmed that elderly drivers were the least likely to engage in the use of mobile phones while driving or driving while fatigued. Statistically significant results showed that the middle-age group was less likely than young drivers to read a text message/email or check social media while driving and driving while fatigued.     

Vehicle dynamics testing in motion based driving simulators

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the potential of a motion-based driving simulator in the field of vehicle dynamics testing, specifically for heavy vehicles. For this purpose, a case study was prepared embodying the nature of a truck dynamics test setup. The goal was to investigate if the drivers in the simulator could identify the handling differences owed to changes in vehicle parameters, while driving the simulated trucks. Results show that the drivers could clearly identify the differences in vehicle behaviour for most of the performed tests, which motivates further investigative work in this area and exposes the feasibility of heavy vehicle dynamics testing in simulators.     

A meta-analysis of the impacts of operating in-vehicle information systems on road safety

This study aims to estimate the overall impact of distraction due to operating in-vehicle information systems (IVIS) and similar devices while driving on road crashes. While similar research has been undertaken investigating the issue, varying results have been reported so far. Therefore a two-step approach was adopted: initially a review of the literature was conducted to identify key high quality studies and the parameters that they examined. Afterwards, meta-analyses were applied in order to estimate the overall effects of operating IVIS while driving on the absolute proportion of crashes (i.e. the proportion of total crashes due to IVIS). After applying a random effects meta-analysis to the findings of existing studies, it was found that 1.66% of crashes occur due to operating devices in total. In addition, it is indicated that about 0.6% of safety-critical incidents for professional drivers are due to in-vehicle device operation. The odds of crashes influenced by IVIS operation were also estimated and were found to be very low. From the findings of the present review and the meta-analysis, it is suggested that device operation as a risk factor while driving is a less researched aspect of driver distraction than others, and more studies would improve result estimates and transferability, especially for professional drivers. This study summarizes concisely the current effect of driver interaction with in-vehicle information systems on crashes, which might become considerably pertinent in view of the increasing deployment of vehicles with increasing levels of automation.