Drivers' Ratings of Different Components of Their Own Driving Skill: A Greater Illusion of Superiority for Skills That Relate to Accident Involvement1

Different components of driving skill relate to accident involvement in different ways. For instance, while hazard‐perception skill has been found to predict accident involvement, vehicle‐control skill has not. We found that drivers rated themselves superior to both their peers and the average driver on 18 components of driving skill (N= 181 respondents). These biases were greater for hazard‐perception skills than for either vehicle‐control skills or driving skill in general. Also, ratings of hazard‐perception skill related to self‐perceived safety after overall skill was controlled for. We suggest that although drivers appear to appreciate the role of hazard perception in safe driving, any safety benefit to be derived from this appreciation may be undermined by drivers' inflated opinions of their own hazard‐perception skill. We also tested the relationship between illusory beliefs about driving skill and risk taking and looked at ways of manipulating drivers' illusory beliefs.     

驾驶决策的研究现状与展望

驾驶决策是驾驶员对不同交通场景进行判断、选择,并产生驾驶行为的过程。驾驶决策的研究起源于人因工程学,并随着认知心理学的发展而逐渐受到关注。驾驶决策的研究范式主要采用心理测量与实验法;并与年龄、性别、风险感知、情绪以及决策风格相关;为了有效防止交通事故的发生,驾驶决策的改善逐步成为研究的新热点。今后的研究可以从认知与情绪角度综合探讨适合中国国情的驾驶决策的结构与特征,以提高驾驶员的决策能力。     

Further evidence of associations of type a personality scores and driving-related attitudes and behaviors

The present study examined the effects of Type A personality on specific self-reported driving attitudes and behaviors when operating a motor vehicle. 102 undergraduate students completed the student version of the Jenkins Activity Survey (Form T) and several questionnaires asking participants about their driving history, driving attitudes, and driving behaviors. When the full range of Type A scores were examined, Type A personality was significantly related to more traffic accidents, greater frequency of breaking traffic laws, higher impatience when driving, more displays of aggression on the road, and engaging in more risky driving behaviors (rs<.17). When extreme Type A and Type B scores were compared, Type A drivers reported being involved in significantly more motor vehicle accidents and reported displaying more aggression on the road. Further research should examine actual behavioral data using more diverse samples to validate the results.     

The roles of delay and probability discounting in texting while driving: Toward the development of a translational scientific program

A sample of 109 college students completed a survey to assess how frequently they send or read text messages while driving. In a novel discounting task with a hypothetical scenario in which participants receive a text message while driving, they rated the likelihood of replying to a text message immediately versus waiting to reply until arriving at a destination. The scenario presented several delays to a destination and probabilities of a motor vehicle crash. The likelihood of waiting to reply decreased as a function of both the delay until the destination and the probability of a motor vehicle crash. Self‐reported higher frequencies of texting while driving were associated with greater rates of both delay and probability discounting. The degree of delay discounting was altered as a function of the probability of a motor vehicle crash and vice versa. These results suggest that both delay and probability discounting are important underlying mechanisms of drivers' decision to text while driving.     

Positive influence of practical electric vehicle driving experience and range related knowledge on drivers' experienced range stress

The challenge of reducing worldwide greenhouse gas emissions has become increasingly important in recent years. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are a promising alternative having the potential for a CO₂ neutral and sustainable utilization over the whole vehicle lifetime. However, BEVs limited range is still considered as one important usage barrier. Reducing drivers' experience of range stress is discussed as one possibility to overcome this barrier. The objective of the present research was to investigate the influence of range related knowledge, practical driving experience and the encounter of a critical range situation (i.e., experience of a small range buffer) on drivers' range stress. A specific focus lied on the effects of critical range situation encounters on experienced BEV drivers. A field experiment with 63 participants (20 experienced drivers and 43 inexperienced drivers) who drove a BEV in a critical range situation was conducted. Results indicate that range related knowledge and practical driving experience reduced range stress. The experience of the critical range situation is related to lower range stress, even for the experienced BEV drivers. The results can be useful to derive strategies and design recommendations aimed at reducing the experience of BEV drivers' range stress.     

Analysis of the factors influencing overtaking in two-lane highways: A driving simulator study

BackgroundHuman factors are among the leading causes of frontal collision accidents. Therefore, understanding the factors that affect driver behaviour during overtaking is essential.ObjectiveThis research proposed a methodology to observe passing manoeuvres on two-lane highways in a driving simulator and to investigate the effects of the speed of an impeding vehicle, the type of the vehicle to be overtaken and the passing sight distance on the following gap distance as an indicator of driver behaviour.MethodThe repeated measures experiment allowed for 640 possible overtakings with a sample of 80 participants. The speed of the impeding vehicle, the type of the impeding vehicle and the passing sight distance were used as within-subject factors with eight treatments. The driver’s age, gender, and experience were considered the between-subject factors.ResultsWhen the speed of the impeding vehicle was 60 km/h, the participants adopted a following gap in passing sight distance of 446 m (M = 81.32 m), which was larger than the following gap in passing sight distance of 560 m (M = 70.84 m).ConclusionAmong the factors that were considered, the effect of the speed of an impeding vehicle on the following gap at the beginning of overtaking was higher than the effect of the type of the impeding vehicle or the passing sight distance. Together, these combination values can describe the driver behaviour and help to improve the standards-based design values to increase safety.     

More than “just a driver”: A study of professional women racecar drivers' agency in motorsport

ObjectivesMotorsport is among the largest sports nationally and globally (Ross, Ridinger, & Cuneen, 2009), and racecar driving constitutes a leading motorsport (Pflugfelder, 2009). Missing, however, is empirical work that captures professional female racecar drivers' agentic experiences (Pflugfelder, 2009). In that racecar driving is one of few sports in which women compete alongside men, insight into how women drivers navigate this performance arena can offer a unique perspective on contemporary gender dynamics.DesignQualitative study design informed by a cultural praxis agenda consisted of semi-structured interviews with 8 current or former professional female racecar drivers.MethodThis study adopted an abductive (inductive and deductive) approach (Sparks & Smith, 2014). Inductive analysis allowed researchers to capture women's diverse agentic experiences. Deductive analysis using cultural praxis and gender (poststructural) perspectives offered a more nuanced understanding of women's agentic experiences and their potential (dis)empowering effects.ResultsResults highlights four key themes: (1) entry into racecar driving: family and fatherly influence; (2) marginalizing beliefs, behaviors, and industry barriers; (3) navigating the space: negotiating gender and its (dis)empowering effects; and (4) promoting girls and women in autoracing. Results reveal various dimensions of sexism and sportswomen's agentic experiences.ConclusionResearchers can heed women drivers' call for knowledge translation efforts that attend to their unique needs and strengths, and disseminate empirical findings in accessible ways. Future research that takes up a cultural praxis agenda is vital to contest constraining gender binaries and deficit-based discourses about women athletes for the promotion of gender equity in motorsport.     

Attitudes and behaviors associated with young drivers’ texting and app use

IntroductionDistracted driving is a major risk factor for motor vehicle crashes, especially for young drivers. This study examines factors that contribute to the exposure of young drivers to distracted driving behaviors.MethodsData from the 2015 National Survey on Distracted Driving Attitudes and Behaviors was used to determine the influence that perceived safety, likelihood to do or say something, social norms, and demographic variables have on self-reported cell phone distracted driving. Our population included 16–24-year old drivers. Dependent variables were texting (reading and sending a text/email) and smartphone app use while driving. Rao-Scott chi-squared tests and multivariate logistic regression models were applied. Sampling weights were applied to create nationally representative estimates and all statistical tests accounted for complex survey design.ResultsAmong young drivers who report cell phone use while driving, 42% reported reading a text, 33% reported sending a text, and 23% reported smartphone app use. Multivariate regression results showed that perceived safety had the strongest association with reporting texting and smartphone app use while driving. In addition, social norms and age-education were significantly associated with reporting sending a text/email and reading a text/email while driving, respectively.ConclusionsThe current study found significant relationships between attitudes and behaviors about cell phone use while driving and self-reported engagement in distracted driving.Practical applicationsInterventions with an emphasis on changing perceived safety and social norms for young drivers could be beneficial for reducing engagement in cell phone use while driving.     

The View from the Driver's Seat: What Good Is Salience?

A set of experiments gauged the value of salient and non‐salient visual information to drivers' decision making. Stimuli were images of traffic scenes viewed from a drivers' approximate perspective, and the subjects' task was to make stop‐or‐go driving judgments. Under some experimental conditions (Experiment 1), subjects viewed only the salient information from within each scene. Under other conditions (Experiments 2–3), they viewed only the non‐salient information. A signal detection measure of sensitivity served as the primary dependent measure. Data indicated that an above‐chance amount of the information needed for accurate judgments was contained within salient image regions and that some information was available only from the salient regions. Other critical information, however, was contained exclusively within non‐salient regions. Results suggest that an attentional bias toward visual salience would serve as an economical information‐seeking strategy for drivers but by itself would overlook many task‐critical cues. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Affect Is Greater Than,Not Equal to,Condition: Condition and Person Effects in Affective Priming Paradigms

Affective primes may impact ensuing behavior through condition and person effects. However, previous research has not experimentally disentangled these two sources of influence in affective priming paradigms. In the current research, we simultaneously examine the influence of condition factors, in terms of prime valence, and person factors, in terms of affect reactivity and personality. In both studies, undergraduate participants (total N = 174) were primed with either positive or negative affective stimuli (words, Study 1; pictures, Study 2) prior to judging the likability of a neutral target (Arabic characters, Study 1; inkblots, Study 2). Although we did observe between‐condition differences for positive and negative primes, person‐level effects were more consistent predictors of target ratings. Affect reactivity (affect Time 2, controlling Time 1) to the primes predicted evaluative judgments, even in the absence of condition effects. In addition, the personality traits of Neuroticism (Study 1) and behavioral inhibition system sensitivity (Study 2) predicted evaluative judgments of neutral targets following negative affective primes. With effects for condition, affect reactivity, and personality, our results suggest that affective primes influence ensuing behaviors through both informational and affective means. Research using affective priming methodologies should take into account both condition and person‐level effects.     

Changes in seatbelt use after licensing: a developmental hypothesis for novice drivers

This study tested the hypothesis that seatbelt use reflects a person's driving style or attitude towards safety, and that novice drivers' attitudes become inappropriate temporarily after licensing, and go back to being appropriate when more experience has been gained. We examined seatbelt use by university students (N=387) at a university parking lot for 19 days between April and November. Personal information about the participants was obtained from parking stickers and supplementary questionnaires asking about their driving history and attitudinal variables, such as self-assessed skill and safety. A longitudinal study indicated that seatbelt use decreased among novice drivers, but remained the same for more experienced drivers. Cross-sectional studies revealed a U curve change in seatbelt use after licensing. Regression analysis showed that overconfidence about driving skills accounted for the novice drivers' tendency to avoid using seatbelts. These results supported the hypothesis, especially for male novice drivers. The reason and implications of the changing attitude of novice drivers towards safety are discussed in terms of driver development.     

Exploring multi-homing behavior of ride-sourcing drivers via real-world multiple platforms data

Multi-homing behavior refers to the behavior that ride-sourcing drivers simultaneously register and sequentially provide services on multiple ride-sourcing platforms. The multi-homing behavior of ride-sourcing drivers significantly impacts the competition among multiple ride-sourcing platforms in a competitive market. To better understand the multi-homing behavior, we present exploratory evidence on the factors that influence drivers' platform switching behavior. The RF-MNL (random forest multinomial logistic regression) framework is applied to analyze multi-homing driver behavior in a competitive ride-sourcing market. Multinomial logistic regression (MLR) is adopted to model the platform switching behavior of multi-homing drivers. The random forest is employed to seek the best combination of variables for the MLR model, which is calibrated by using the one-month multi-platform ride-sourcing data in Hangzhou, China. A variety of explanatory variables that influence ride-sourcing drivers' multi-homing behavior are estimated. The results show that the driver's socio-demographic characteristics, income level, bonus income (e.g., long-distance price rise), and work time related factors (e.g., the time gap of order dispatching, and wait time) play an essential role in determining the platform switching decision. This study corroborates the evidence of significant factors that impact drivers' switching from one ride-sourcing platform to another, which can support decision-making for ride-sourcing platforms to attract drivers serving the platform exclusively. We also examine how heterogeneity in drivers' multi-homing tendencies affects the platform's policy. To our best knowledge, this paper is one of the first quantitative studies that empirically reveal the commonly observed multi-homing behavior of ride-sourcing drivers by exploring real-world city-wide data collected on multiple platforms.     

Visual and haptic perception of postural affordances in children and adults

The present study compared how children and adults perceived affordances for upright stance when information was available either visually or haptically. 12 adults (mean age=26.5 years) and 13 children (mean age=4.5 years) examined an adjustable wooden platform that was randomly set at five different degrees of inclination (17, 22, 27, 33, 39). In the haptic condition, a masking curtain excluded vision of the platform and the surface was explored with a hand-held, wooden dowel. Results showed that for both children and adults there was closer agreement between perceptual judgments and action capabilities in the visual condition. Children overestimated their ability to stand on the steeper slopes, took equal amounts of time to make their judgments across all slopes, and were equally confident in their judgments across all slopes. In contrast, adults were more accurate than children at judging the affordances for upright stance, took longer to respond close to the actual action boundary, and were less confident close to the action boundary. Furthermore, adults took longer to respond and were less confident in the haptic condition whereas children had similar response times and were equally confident in both conditions. These important differences between adults and children in the perception of a basic affordance are discussed with reference to the coupling between perception and action at different phases of the lifespan and to the factors that might influence the organization of this coupling. Finally, implications are drawn for the prevention of accidents and the promotion of basic motor competence in children.     

The effects of adaptive cruise control (ACC) headway time on young-experienced drivers' overtaking tendency in a driving simulator

The preference to maintain a certain desired speed is perhaps the most prevalent explanation for why a driver of a manually driven car decides to overtake a lead vehicle. Still, the motivation for overtaking is also affected by other factors such as aggressiveness, competitiveness, or sensation-seeking caused by following another vehicle. Whether such motivational factors for overtaking play a role in partially automated driving is yet to be determined. This study had three goals: (i) to investigate whether and how a driver's tendency to overtake a lead vehicle changes when driving a vehicle equipped with an adaptive cruise control (ACC) system. (ii) To study how such tendencies change when the headway time configuration of the ACC system varies. (iii) To examine how the manipulation of the speed and speed variance of the lead vehicle affect drivers' tendencies to overtake a lead vehicle. We conducted two different experiments, where the second experiment followed the first experiment's results. In each experiment, participants drove three 10–12 min simulated drives under light traffic conditions in a driving simulator under manual and level one (L1) automation driving conditions. The automation condition included an ACC with two headway time configurations. In the first experiment, it was 1 sec and 3 secs, and in the second, it was 1 sec and 2 secs. Each drive included six passing opportunities representing three different speeds of the lead vehicle (−3 km/h, +3 km/h, +6 km/h relative to the participant), with or without speed variance. Results show that drivers tended to overtake a lead vehicle more often in manual mode than in automated driving modes. In the first experiment, ACC with a headway time of 1 sec led to more overtaking events than ACC with 3 secs headway time. In addition, the relative speed of the lead vehicle and its speed variability affected overtaking tendencies. In the second experiment, the relative speed of the lead vehicle and its speed variability affected overtaking tendencies only when interacting with each other and with driving configuration. When the speed of the lead vehicle was +3 km/h and included variability, more overtaking events occurred in manual mode than both automation modes. This work has shown that driving with ACC might help reduce overtaking frequencies and more considerable when the headway time is set to 3 secs.     

Validation of the F-DBQ: A short (and accurate) risky driving behavior questionnaire for long-haul professional drivers

Although the Driving Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ) remains the most known tool for assessing risky road behaviors among motor vehicle drivers, recent studies have raised several concerns on the specificity of both driving task conditions and behavioral repertory of certain segments of the driving population. Among them, long-haul (cargo) professional drivers constitute one of the “intensive driving” groups for which the existing adapted behavioral research tools are still very scarce.PurposeThe aim of the present study was to test and validate the F-DBQ (or “Freight Driving Behavior Questionnaire”), a short version of the DBQ adapted to the occupational driving conditions and typical road risk behaviors of freight drivers.MethodFor this cross-sectional study, a sample of n = 982 Spanish long-haul drivers with a mean age of 48.5 years was used, responding to a questionnaire composed of measures on road risk behaviors (DBQ), fatigue (Checklist Individual Strength – CIS and Need for Recovery Scale – NFR) and job stress (Effort–Reward Imbalance questionnaire – ERI).ResultsThrough competitive Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) with structural equation models, it was found that the F-DBQ has a clear dimensional structure, a fair goodness-of-fit, high factorial weights, internal consistency, convergent and discriminant validity and an improved fit to long haul drivers’ working conditions. Also, both (general and work-related) fatigue and job stress have shown to have a significant role in explaining risky road behaviors of long-haul drivers.ConclusionThe findings of this study support that an abbreviated version of the Driving Behavior Questionnaire (the F-DBQ) can be used to assess traffic violations and errors among long-haul drivers, in consideration of their specific task-related conditions (that qualitatively differ from other groups of drivers), with potential implications on the enforcement of occupational and road safety research.     

Senseless Messaging: Advertising Images of Illegal Driving and Deviant Behavior

We review messaging within automobile advertisements that normalizes and glamorizes reckless driving behavior. Our content analysis of video advertisements illustrates the use of the automobile in ways that are both illegal and dangerous. Advertisements with hazardous driving images occur more often in our sample than all other types of marketing strategies. Messages include deviance from distributional norms (atypical vehicle use); illegal or immoral driving behaviors that put others at risk; and questionable judgments on the part of manufacturers that use advertisement imagery to increase sales while assuming little of the public costs associated with accidents, injuries, and preventable fatalities on roadways.     

Perceptually Equivalent Judgments Made Visually and via Haptic Sensory-Substitution Devices

ABSTRACT

According to the ecological theory of perception–action, perception is primarily of affordances, which are directly perceivable opportunities for behavior. The current study evaluated participants’ ability to use vision and haptic sensory-substitution devices to support perceptual judgments of affordances involving the task of passing through apertures. Sighted participants made perceptual judgments about whether they could walk through apertures of various widths and their level of confidence in each judgment, using unrestricted vision and, when blindfolded, using two haptic sensory-substitution instruments: a cane-like wooden rod and the Enactive Torch, a device that converts distance information into vibrotactile stimuli. The boundary between aperture widths that were judged as pass-through-able versus non-pass-through-able was statistically equivalent across sensory modalities. However, participants were not as confident in their judgments using the rod or Enactive Torch as they were using vision. Additionally, participants’ judgments with the haptic instruments were significantly more accurate than with vision. The results underscore the need to assess sensory-substitution devices in the context of functional behaviors.     

The nudging effect of social norms on drivers’ yielding behaviour when turning corners

Drivers who do not give way to pedestrians are among the main causes of traffic crashes of motor vehicles and pedestrians in China. There is an urgent need to explore effective methods for improving drivers' yielding behaviour. This study used eight kinds of social norm slogans to nudge drivers’ yielding behaviour and explored the influence of pedestrian characteristics and situational factors on drivers’ decision-making regarding giving way when turning right. By analysing 254 valid questionnaires, it was found that compared with static norms, injunctive norms and dynamic + static norms, positively worded dynamic norms have a better nudging effect on drivers' yielding behaviour. The results of the conjoint analysis showed that social norms have the greatest impact on drivers' decisions to yield (32.28%), followed by whether pedestrians comply with traffic rules (23.33%) and the age of pedestrians (18.40%). This study expands the application of social norms and provides a new perspective to promote positive behaviour among drivers.     

Comparing the Accuracy of Personality Judgments by the Self and Knowledgeable Others

ABSTRACT In this article we compare the accuracy of personality judgments by the self and by knowledgeable others. Self- and acquaintance judgments of general personality attributes were used to predict general, videotaped behavioral criteria. Results slightly favored the predictive validity of personality judgments made by single acquaintances over self-judgments, and significantly favored the aggregated personality judgments of two acquaintances over self-judgments. These findings imply that the most valid source for personality judgments that are relevant to patterns of overt behavior may not be self-reports but the consensus of the judgment of the community of one's peers.