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

[en] 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.

Disciplines :

Social & behavioral sciences, psychology: Multidisciplinary, general & others

Author, co-author :

Pires, Carlos; Portuguese Road Safety Association (PRP), Estrada da Luz, 90 - 1°, Lisbon, Portugal

Torfs, Katrien; Vias institute, Haachtsesteenweg 1405, B-1130 Brussels, Belgium

Areal, Alean; Portuguese Road Safety Association (PRP), Estrada da Luz, 90 - 1°, Lisbon, Portugal

Charles, Goldenberd; SWOV, Bezuidenhoutseweg 62, 2594, AW, The Hague, the Netherlands

Vanlaar, Ward; Traffic Injury Research Foundation, 171 Nepean Street, Suite 200, Ottawa, Ontario K2P 0B4, Canada

Granie, Marie-Axelle; TS2-LESCOT, Univ. Gustave Eiffel, IFSTTAR, Univ. Lyon, Campus Lyon, 25 Avenue François Mitterrand, 69675 Bron, Franc

Achermann-Stuermer, Yvonne; BFU (Swiss Council for Accident Prevention), Hodlerstrasse 5a, CH-3011 Bern, Switzerland

Shingo Usami, Davide; Research Centre for Transport and Logistics, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Eudossiana, 18, 00184 Rome, Italy

Kaiser, Susanne; KFV (Austrian Road Safety Board), Schleiergasse 18, 1160 Vienna, Austria

Jankowska-Karpa, Dagmara; Motor Transport Institute, Jagiellonska 80, 03-301 Warsaw, Poland

More authors (6 more)

Language :

English

Title :

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

Publication date :

October 2020

Journal title :

IATSS Research

ISSN :

0386-1112

Publisher :

Elsevier

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

166-179

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iatssr.2020.08.002

Available on ORBi :

since 15 June 2021

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