How do other people influence your driving speed? Exploring the ‘who’ and the ‘how’ of social influences on speeding from a qualitative perspective (original) (raw)
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Personal and social influences of speeding
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Speeding has been widely recognized around the world as a major cause of road accidents and fatalities. However, speeding is also one of the most socially acceptable deviant driving behaviors. Using data collected via a survey, this paper examines the effects of the respondents' personality, perception of enforcement and crash risks, attitudes to speeding and the perceived attitudes of the respondents' significant others on the respondents' self-reported speeding behaviors.
Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 1997
Driving above the permitted speed limit is a common violation on the roads of Great Britain. Moreover, speeding is associated with negative consequences in the form of damage, injury and fatal road traffic accidents. The aim of this study was to assess, by means of self-report, the prevalence of this social problem across five different contexts: a residential road, a busy shopping street, a dual carriageway, a winding country road, and a motorway. The extent to which speeding was perceived to be associated with negative consequences was also assessed. Results suggest that most drivers make judgements about the type of road on which they are driving and the degree of speeding that is acceptable, and that their intentions to speed vary accordingly. Some drivers reported a consistent intention to speed, however, and these people were characterized by greater general deviance on the road (e.g. high violation score), rather than by a stronger tendency to underestimate the negative consequences. In general, however, younger people and those with less regard for negative consequences reported stronger intentions to speed. These results are discussed with reference to strategies for addressing the problem of speeding.
The speed paradox: The misalignment between driver attitudes and speeding behaviour
Journal of the Australasian College of …, 2006
This paper reports on a study investigating preferred driving speeds and frequency of speeding of 320 Queensland drivers. Despite growing community concern about speeding and extensive research linking it to road trauma, speeding remains a pervasive, and arguably, socially acceptable behaviour. This presents an apparent paradox regarding the mismatch between beliefs and behaviours, and highlights the necessity to better understand the factors contributing to speeding. Utilising self-reported behaviour and attitudinal measures, results of this study support the notion of a speed paradox. Two thirds of participants agreed that exceeding the limit is not worth the risks nor is it okay to exceed the posted limit. Despite this, more than half (58.4%) of the participants reported a preference to exceed the 100km/hour speed limit, with one third preferring to do so by 10 to 20 km/hour. Further, mean preferred driving speeds on both urban and open roads suggest a perceived enforcement tolerance of 10%, suggesting that posted limits have limited direct influence on speed choice. Factors that significantly predicted the frequency of speeding included: exposure to role models who speed; favourable attitudes to speeding; experiences of punishment avoidance; and the perceived certainty of punishment for speeding. These findings have important policy implications, particularly relating to the use of enforcement tolerances.
Peer influence on speeding behaviour among male drivers aged 18 and 28
Accident Analysis & Prevention, 2014
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Accident Analysis & Prevention, 2013
Purpose: Young novice drivers continue to be overrepresented in fatalities and injuries arising from crashes even with the introduction of countermeasures such as graduated driver licensing (GDL). Enhancing countermeasures requires a better understanding of the variables influencing risky driving. One of the most common risky behaviours performed by drivers of all ages is speeding, which is particularly risky for young novice drivers who, due to their driving inexperience, have difficulty in identifying and responding appropriately to road hazards. Psychosocial theory can improve our understanding of contributors to speeding, thereby informing countermeasure development and evaluation. This paper reports an application of Akers' social learning theory (SLT), augmented by Gerrard and Gibbons' prototype/willingness model (PWM), in addition to personal characteristics of age, gender, car ownership, and psychological traits/states of anxiety, depression, sensation seeking propensity and reward sensitivity, to examine the influences on self-reported speeding of young novice drivers with a Provisional (intermediate) licence in Queensland, Australia. Method: Young drivers (n = 378) recruited in 2010 for longitudinal research completed two surveys containing the Behaviour of Young Novice Drivers Scale, and reported their attitudes and behaviours as pre-Licence/Learner (Survey 1) and Provisional (Survey 2) drivers and their sociodemographic characteristics. Results: An Akers' measurement model was created. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that (1) personal characteristics (PC) explained 20.3%; (2) the combination of PC and SLT explained 41.1%; and (3) the combination of PC, SLT and PWM explained 53.7%
Accident Analysis & Prevention, 2012
- The beliefs which motivate young male and female drivers to speed : a comparison of low and high intenders. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 45, This file was downloaded from: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/45567/ Abstract In Australia, young drivers aged 17 to 24 years, and particularly males, have the highest risk of being involved in a fatal crash. Investigation of young drivers' beliefs allows for a greater understanding of their involvement in risky behaviours, such as speeding, as beliefs are associated with intentions, the antecedent to behaviour. The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was used to conceptualise beliefs using a scenario based questionnaire distributed to licenced drivers (N = 398). The questionnaire measured individual's beliefs and intentions to speed in a particular situation. Consistent with a TPB-based approach, the beliefs of those with low intentions to speed ('low intenders') were compared with the beliefs of those with high intentions ('high intenders') with such comparisons conducted separately for males and females. Overall, significant differences in the beliefs held by low and high intenders and for both females and males were found. Specifically, for females, it was found that high intenders were significantly more likely to perceive advantages of speeding, less likely to perceive disadvantages, and more likely to be encouraged to speed on familiar and inappropriately signed roads than female low intenders. Females, however, did not differ in their perceptions of support from friends, with all females reporting some level of disapproval from most friends and all females (i.e., low and high intenders) reporting approval to speed from their male friends. The results for males revealed that high intenders were significantly more likely to speed on familiar and inappropriately signed roads as well as having greater perceptions of support from all friends, except from those friends with whom they worked.
Understanding the Effect of Feedback on Young Drivers’ Speeding Behavior
Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ... Annual Meeting, 2016
The aim of the present study was to empirically investigate the effect of various types of feedback on young novice drivers' speed management behavior. One hundred young drivers, randomly allocated to five groups, completed three test drives using a computer-based driving simulator. For four groups, feedback was provided after an 11km drive and focused on speeding behavior, the safety implications of speeding or the financial penalties if caught speeding or all three. The fifth group was a no-feedback control. Driver speed management performance was examined in two 11km drives immediately following the receipt of feedback and one week post feedback. The results showed that all types of Feedback were effective in improving young drivers' speed management behavior compared to the control group. Providing feedback about financial implications of speeding was found to be the best in improving young drivers' speed management behavior across all tested conditions. These findings have important implications for the development of a new approach to improve young drivers' speed management behavior.
Quantitative study of attitudes, motivations and beliefs related to speeding and speed enforcement
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Speed has been identified as the most significant behavioural road safety issue in NSW. Accordingly, the NSW Government has introduced a range of initiatives to address the involvement of speed in the road toll. These initiatives include police enforcement, fixed digital speed cameras, speed limit reviews, public education campaigns, 40 km/h speed limits in both school zones and areas of high pedestrian activity and a 50 km/h general urban speed limit and increased speeding penalties. These initiatives have been successful in reducing speeding related road trauma in NSW, resulting in significant reductions in the road toll, especially from 2002 to 2008. Despite these successes, speeding continues to be a significant issue in NSW and preliminary data from 2009 indicates that it may be contributing to an increase in the road toll this year. Speed surveys conducted annually by the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority also show that despite overall reductions in travel speeds across NSW, a large proportion of drivers continue to speed. A quantitative telephone survey of 1,500 NSW drivers examined a range of speeding issues including circumstances under which drivers most commonly speed, the social acceptability of speeding, motivators for speeding, enforcement methods and the acceptability of speeding in different contexts, for example school zones. The results indicate that despite understanding that speeding is the main contributor to the road toll, speeding is common and is not yet seen as socially unacceptable by many NSW drivers. The study also found high approval for speed enforcement and an understanding and agreement with how speed limits are currently set. The key modifiers of drivers speeding behaviour were found to be enforcement and when driving with family in the car.