Self- and peer-assessments of ambulance drivers' driving performance

The aim of the present study was to develop and examine the quality of the Ambulance Driver Self-assessment Questionnaire (ADSQ) and the Ambulance Driver Peer-assessment Questionnaire (ADPQ) measuring aspects of, driving performance, driving style and driving competence. In addition the ADSQ measures self-reflection and safety-attitudes. The aim of the study was also to examine ambulance drivers' self- and peer-assessments as well as to examine the accuracy of self-assessments by comparing self-assessed and peer-assessed driving performance, driving style and competence. 76 ambulance drivers employed at two ambulance stations in northern Sweden completed ADSQ and ADPQ. Item analyses were conducted to examine the psychometric properties of the items, and based on the results some revisions were made to improve the questionnaires. The revised questionnaires were functioning rather well, although some subscale demonstrated low internal consistency. Subscale inter-correlations provided support for construct validity. Self- and peer-assessments indicated safe driving performance and good driver competence, which is positive from a traffic safety perspective. A comparison of mean self- and peer-assessment ratings, controlling for age, gender and driving experience showed no significant differences, except for the subscale overtaking. This indicates that ambulance drivers' self-assessments are realistic in most areas.     

Tracking daily travel; Assessing discrepancies between GPS-derived and self-reported travel patterns

Global Positioning Systems (GPS) technologies have been used in conjunction with traditional one- or two-day travel diaries to audit respondent reporting patterns, but we used GPS-based monitoring to conduct the first assessment to our knowledge of travel reporting patterns using a seven-day travel log instrument, which could reduce response burden and provide multiple-day, policy-relevant information for evaluation studies. We found substantial agreement between participant-reported daily travel patterns and GPS-derived patterns among 116 adult residents of a largely low-income and non-white transportation corridor in urbanized Los Angeles in 2011–2013. For all modes, the average difference between daily GPS- and log-derived trip counts was only about 0.39 trips and the average difference between daily GPS- and log-derived walking duration was about −11.8 min. We found that the probability that a day would be associated with agreement or discrepancies between these measurement tools varied by travel mode and participant socio-demographic characteristics. Future research is needed to investigate the potential and limitations of this and other self-report instruments for a larger sample and a wider range of population groups and travel patterns.