The long arm of time pressure at work: Cognitive failure and commuting near-accidents

This study tests whether cognitive failures mediate effects of work-related time pressure and time control on commuting accidents and near-accidents. Participants were 83 employees (56% female) who each commuted between their regular place of residence and place of work using vehicles. The Workplace Cognitive Failure Scale (WCFS) asked for the frequency of failure in memory function, failure in attention regulation, and failure in action execution. Time pressure and time control at work were assessed by the Instrument for Stress Oriented Task Analysis (ISTA). Commuting accidents in the last 12 months were reported by 10% of participants, and half of the sample reported commuting near-accidents in the last 4 weeks. Cognitive failure significantly mediated the influence of time pressure at work on near-accidents even when age, gender, neuroticism, conscientiousness, commuting duration, commuting distance, and time pressure during commuting were controlled for. Time control was negatively related to cognitive failure and neuroticism, but no association with commuting accidents or near-accidents was found. Time pressure at work is likely to increase cognitive load. Time pressure might, therefore, increase cognitive failures during work and also during commuting. Hence, time pressure at work can decrease commuting safety. The result suggests a reduction of time pressure at work should improve commuting safety.     

Make it to work (and back home) safely: the effect of psychological work stressors on employee behaviour while commuting by car

Despite empirical data suggesting that commuting accidents are a major problem worldwide, research on employee behaviour while commuting by car is scant. In particular, our understanding of the antecedents of unsafe commuting behaviour is limited mainly to demographic variables and work-related physical stressors. Our study addressed this lacuna by investigating the association between work-related psychological stressors and unsafe commuting behaviour. In addition, we developed and validated a scale for measuring commuting norms and considered the permissiveness of these norms as a mediator in the stressor-commuting behaviour association. The results, based on data collected from 216 employees in a large manufacturing plant at 2 points in time, indicated that abusive supervision and work–family conflict were both positively related to unsafe commuting behaviour, and that the permissiveness of commuting norms partially mediated these relationships. The potential role of work organizations in educating employees about commuting behaviour and driving safety is discussed.     

Active commuting among junior high school students in a Chinese medium-sized city: Application of the theory of planned behavior

In China, junior high school students are considered as adolescents, and their parents have guardianship of them. If junior high school students want to travel by motorized vehicles, they need to get assistance from their parents. The present study uses the theory of planned behavior to construct a model of dependent travel behavior that depicts the active commuting of junior high school students to school. A total of 449 junior high school students’ parents in Jinjiang city of Fujian Province in China were surveyed by using a questionnaire. Non-parametric test, reliability and validity test, factor analysis, and a logistic model were performed to test the model. The results show that the model is a good fit for the junior high school students’ active travel to school in the morning, and the Nagelkerke R² of the model is 0.68. Behavioral intention and perceived behavioral control of parents affect students’ active commuting behavior, and behavioral intention is larger on behavior. Besides the inner attitude, the external environment such as non-motorized traffic facilities and the road traffic conditions along the way to school have significant effect on the behavior. In contrast to our expectations, parents leaving home for work in the morning, children’s gender, grade, and household income have no significant influence on the behavior. Measures should be taken by the local government to promote students’ active commuting to school, such as improving road traffic environment and providing safe routes.     

Non-Driving Related tasks and journey types for future autonomous vehicle owners

Highly automated vehicles (AVs) have the potential to improve the journey experience for all users by allowing them to partake in Non-Driving Related Tasks (NDRTs). Using a 42-question online survey of drivers (n = 1378, 59% males, 40% females), and in-depth interviews (n = 18, 56% males, 44% females), this study investigated NDRTs and the motivations for private ownership of highly automated vehicles (AVs). 42% of participants were identified to be more likely to own an AV and, believed that they were safer, would reduce congestion and the risk of accidents. There was also a genuine desire to actively fill the non-driving time being productive or using a device rather than passive tasks such as listening to music or watching their surroundings. Commuting was reported to be the most likely journey type amongst those more likely to own an AV. The commuting journey also showed the most diverse range of NDRTs including social (e.g., conversation, playing games), wellbeing (e.g., eating a meal, sleep), leisure (e.g., watching a video), and being productive (e.g., working on a laptop). This study provides insights into NDRTs to inform future interior vehicle design and motivations for owning highly automated vehicles.     

Field study on the behavior of right-turning vehicles in Malaysia and their contribution on the safety of unsignalized intersections

Behavior of right turning vehicles in the context of safety is characterized by their use of turning indicators and compliance with the stop rule. They are influence by the width of the carriageway and the variation in volume on the major road with respect to the traffic moving in the near and far side direction. Other factors affecting the behavior are the speed and spacing between vehicles moving on the major road. Lack of adequate past knowledge on the effect of geometric variation in terms of road width and directional variation in volume on the safety of unsignalized intersections have provided the motivation for this study. This paper focuses on the many factors that affect the behavior of right-turning vehicles resulting into conflicts. A brief account of the unique indigenous maneuver termed as the “Weaving Merging Right Turn” (WMRT) is provided and its effectiveness with respect to conventional right turn is evaluated. Data of 39,016 vehicles collected on 10 sites between January and June 2014 was analyzed. Multiple accidents were observed only on sites which had near side traffic volume greater than far side traffic volume. This result remains consistent with sites having single as well as multiple lanes per direction on the major roads. The number of conflicts for vehicles performing the WMRT was 2.5 times less as compared to the conventional right turn. Moreover WMRT was found to be the maneuver of choice for right turning motorcyclists with 60% of them opting for it over the conventional right turn on intersections having major road width less than 9 m. None of the motorcyclists, which were involved in a traffic conflict, were observed to use their turning indicator. Moreover none of the motorcyclists, which experienced a traffic conflict, were found to comply with the stopping rule at sites with major road width less than 9 m. On sites with major road width greater than 9 m, 45% of motorcyclists, involved in a traffic conflict, complied with the stopping rule as compared to 79% by vehicles other than motorcycles.     

Public health consequences of road traffic injuries – Estimation of seriously injured persons based on risk for permanent medical impairment

Despite the fact, that Sweden has one of the safest traffic environments in the world, a large number of people are still injured in road traffic accidents in Sweden. The core concept of the Vision Zero that was adopted by the Swedish parliament in 1997 is to decrease the number of deaths and serious injuries caused by traffic. The vision has been followed-up in terms of decreased mortality, but there was not a consensus on how the concept “seriously injured” should be measured at that time. The aim of this paper is to describe how to develop a measure to estimate the number of seriously injured people in Sweden. The results show that it is possible to estimate the health impact of road traffic accidents based on the definition of medical impairment. According to the results, 8389 people were seriously injured (permanently medical impaired more then 1%) in the road transport area in Sweden in 2013. If the number of people who had slipped or fallen down without any vehicle being involved is excluded, the number of seriously injured was around 4700. The result of the study has been included in the road safety goal for Sweden with the aim to have 25% less seriously injured people in 2020 than the average for the years 2006–2008. The results also showed that 91% of the seriously injured were transported by car, bike or by foot. The relatively high proportion of pedestrian fall accidents happening within the transport system irrespective of whether a vehicle was moving or not raises the question whether these types of accidents should be included in the reporting of formal road traffic accidents.     

阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停低通气综合征是引发道路交通事故的重要原因

为了分析我国道路交通事故是否与阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停相关,以道路交通事故为主题查阅1993年~2012年万方数据库,并辅以手检同期《中华创伤杂志》和《中华流行病学杂志》,重点查阅全国性及地区性道路交通事故原因的论著,看其是否涉及阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停问题。结果显示这期间共发表了相关论著43篇,全部论文在分析道路交通事故时均未提及阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停这一重要原因,提示国内道路交通安全研究中忽略了一个与之关系密切的阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停问题,建议今后将这个问题引入到道路交通安全管理项目中。     

The impact of daytime running (LED) lights on motorcycles speed estimation: A driving simulator study

Motorcycles are the most common type of vehicle involved in traffic deaths, especially in underdeveloped and developing countries. In order to prevent traffic accidents involving motorcyclists, one of the measures is to respect the “see and be seen” rule. If a motorcycle is perceived in time or another motorcyclist is spotted in time, there is enough time to react, in order to avoid a traffic accident or reduce the consequences. In many countries, it is for this reason that the use of daytime running lights on motor vehicles and/or motorcycles is legally prescribed. In the Republic of Serbia, a country that belongs among the least developed countries, about a third of those killed in traffic accidents are motorcycle drivers. For these reasons, an experimental study was conducted on a driving simulator to examine the importance of (non) use of daytime running lights on the estimation of motorcycle speed. Three different situations were examined: without daytime running lights, with daytime running lights, and with LED daytime running lights; for test speeds of 30 km/h, 50 km/h, 70 km/h, and 90 km/h. In the experiment, 128 young drivers participated. The results showed that the speed of a motorcycle with LED daytime running lights on is perceived most accurately.     

Surrogate safety indicator for unsignalised pedestrian crossings

ProblemAlthough the road safety situation in Poland is generally improving, the number of accidents at pedestrian crossings has not decreased in the last four years. This paper presents the results of the MOBIS research project, the aim of which was to develop surrogate safety indicators, based on detection of pedestrian-vehicle conflicts using video analysis.MethodPedestrian and vehicle traffic was filmed at two unsignalised pedestrian zebra crossings in Warsaw and Wrocław for over 40 days. Motion trajectories of vehicles and pedestrians were determined based on video processing. Several variables describing pedestrian-vehicle interactions were calculated, such as speed, post-encroachment time, distance between the participants, decelerations, etc. Classification of encounters was based on interactions of pedestrians and vehicles i.e. drivers yielding to pedestrians, vehicles passing just in front of, or behind pedestrians.Results and discussionCriteria for identification of dangerous encounters were selected with the assumption that it should be possible to automate the assessment process. The selected variables were: pedestrian-vehicle passing distance and the vehicle speed at that moment. Other criteria were used in cases of abrupt braking – deceleration exceeding 4 m/s² and vehicle speed. A Dangerous Encounter Index is proposed as a surrogate safety indicator for pedestrian crossings. It relates the occurrence of dangerous events to exposure, defined as the number of pedestrian-vehicle encounters.Practical applicationsThe proposed index shows that crossing two lanes involves more risk than crossing one lane, given similar traffic flow. Some improvement of safety at both types of crossing was observed after active signage involving blinking lights had been introduced. The proposed method is a step towards automation of safety assessment.     

Driver injury severity study for truck involved accidents at highway-rail grade crossings in the United States

Although trucks only account for approximately 4% of all the vehicles based on the Federal Railway Administration (FRA) database, about 25% involved truck accidents happen at highway-rail grade crossings. This study applied an ordered probit model to explore the determinants of injury severity of truck drivers at highway-rail grade crossing in the United States. Given the importance of trucking to the economics of a country and the safety concerns posed by the trucks (as a result of their large size and weight making them difficult to control, maneuver, and stop), a comprehensive research on truck accidents is critical. Based on data analysis results, the strong effects of driver-, environmental-, weather- characteristics on the injury severities in truck accidents happened at highway-rail grade crossings are found. The findings reveal that better speed control for trucks will significantly reduce driver injury severity in accidents occurring at highway-rail grade crossings. In addition, several truck driver behavior characteristics (such as driving under influence of fatigue during peak hour) were found to be statistically significant predictors of high-level injury severity. Thus, education and enforcement targeted to truck drivers could facilitate safety improvements. Moreover, environmental factor (such as area type and roadway pavement) is found to be statistically significant. Truck drivers are more likely to have severe injury in open space area with low traffic volume compared with other areas. The bad weather and visibility condition is found to increase the probability of truck drivers’ high level injury severity.     

The effects of traffic wardens on the red-light infringement behavior of vulnerable road users

In some Chinese cities, traffic wardens are employed to maintain traffic order at the intersections with a high mixed traffic flow in peak hours. The main work of a traffic warden is to advise pedestrians and riders to wait at the appropriate area during red light periods. In many other countries, there are also traffic wardens at the areas with dense crowds or vehicles, such as at some large parking lots near parks and shopping malls. This paper investigated the effects of traffic wardens on the crossing behavior of pedestrians, cyclists and electric bike riders at signalized intersections. A total of 795 samples with traffic wardens and 773 samples without traffic wardens at intersections in Beijing, China were observed. Logistic regression and multivariate analysis of variance were used to test the effect of traffic wardens on the red-light crossing behavior. The results indicated that the presence of traffic wardens would significantly reduce by 21% red-light infringement behavior of vulnerable road users. However, the effects of traffic wardens were different among different groups. The effect of traffic wardens on reducing the violation rate for pedestrians was smaller compared to cyclists and electric bike riders (8% vs. 23% and 27%, respectively). The effect of traffic wardens was significant for the individuals approaching straight ahead the intersection, while it was not significant for the individuals approaching from the left and right sides of the observed direction. The possible reasons for the different effects and some practical countermeasures to reduce red light infringement were discussed. This study provides insights into the effects of traffic wardens on enhancing the safety of vulnerable road users under mixed traffic conditions. It is useful for the administrators to evaluate the supervision performance of traffic wardens and make informed decisions to employ traffic wardens at locations with dense crowds or vehicles.     

危险类型对公交驾驶员危险知觉的影响

结合反应时方法和多维度驾驶风格量表,以140名公交驾驶员为研究对象,采用2（危险类型：隐藏危险、明显危险）×2（驾驶员分组：有无交通违规/事故记录）的混合实验设计考察危险类型对危险知觉的影响。结果发现：驾驶员对明显危险的反应时比隐藏危险短,无交通违规/事故记录驾驶员对明显和隐藏危险的反应时均比有交通违规/事故记录驾驶员短。控制驾驶风格后,危险类型主效应不再显著。结果表明,公交驾驶员危险知觉的特点随着危险类型不同而变化。     

Spatial and temporal processing in healthy aging: implications for perceptions of driving skills

Sensitivity to the attributes of a stimulus (form or motion) and accuracy when detecting rapidly presented stimulus information were measured in older (N = 36) and younger (N = 37) groups. Before and after practice, the older group was significantly less sensitive to global motion (but not to form) and less accurate on a rapid sequencing task when detecting the individual elements presented in long but not short sequences. These effect sizes produced power for the different analyses that ranged between 0.5 and 1.00. The reduced sensitivity found among older individuals to temporal but not spatial stimuli, adds support to previous findings of a selective age-related deficit in temporal processing. Older women were significantly less sensitive than older men, younger men and younger women on the global motion task. Gender effects were evident when, in response to global motion stimuli, complex extraction and integration processes needed to be undertaken rapidly. Significant moderate correlations were found between age, global motion sensitivity and reports of perceptions of other vehicles and road signs when driving. These associations suggest that reduced motion sensitivity may produce functional difficulties for the older adults when judging speeds or estimating gaps in traffic while driving.     

Drivers Display Anger‐Congruent Attention to Potential Traffic Hazards

Previous research has suggested that angry drivers may respond differently to potential hazards. This study replicates and extends these findings. Under simulated driving conditions, two groups of drivers experienced conditions that would either increase angry mood (N = 12; men = 6) or not (control group, N = 12; men = 6). All drivers then performed a neutral drive, during which they encountered a number of traffic events not experienced in the initial drive. These included vehicles emerging from driveways into their path and jaywalking pedestrians. Subjective anger, eye‐movement behaviour and driving behaviours (speed and reaction times) were measured as drivers drove. Subjective moods (Profile of Mood States) were assessed before and after each drive. Anger‐provoked drivers reported reliably higher increases in angry mood when compared with the control group after the initial drive, and these increases remained stable across the subsequent neutral drive. During the neutral drive, anger‐provoked drivers demonstrated evidence of more heuristic style processing of potential hazards, with shorter initial gazes at less apparent hazards and longer latencies to look back at jaywalking pedestrians obscured by parked vehicles. Anger‐provoked drivers also took longer to make corrective actions to avoid potential collisions. It is concluded that anger‐provoked drivers may initially make more superficial assessments of certain driving situations and consequently underestimate the inherent risk. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Geophysical variables and behavior: LXVIII. Distal and lunar variables and traffic accidents in Saskatchewan 1984-1989.

The daily total number of traffic accidents and traffic accident severity for the years 1984 to 1989 in Saskatchewan were analyzed to estimate relationships with day of the week, season of the year, and various lunar variables (lunar phase, distance of the moon from the earth, and moon-sun tidal index). A regression model with both a linear term and a trigonometric term was fitted to the data. No relationship between lunar cycles and total accidents or severity of accident was found. A larger number of total accidents was found during the winter months and weekends; however, more severe accidents tended to occur during the summer months. A slight linear trend was uncovered for total accidents over the time period under consideration.     

通勤恢复活动对工作激情的动态影响及其机制

员工在通勤时间里减少身心压力, 将身体和心理资源恢复到正常状态的活动称为“通勤恢复活动”。通勤恢复活动可能跨领域对人们的工作激情产生动态影响。通过日记研究法和潜在剖面分析法, 从短期和长期研究通勤恢复活动对工作激情的动态影响、内在机制和边界条件, 拟解决3个关键问题：第一, 通勤恢复活动如何影响员工的和谐型工作激情和强迫型工作激情及其内在机制是什么?第二, 不同自我调节模式的员工在通勤恢复活动影响工作激情的机制上如何发挥调节效应?第三, 通勤恢复活动各维度组合的不同剖面对工作激情有怎么样的影响?对这些问题的深入探讨, 不仅弥补通勤研究和恢复研究中被忽视却又十分重要的研究缺陷, 而且对人们开展通勤恢复活动提升通勤恢复活动以激发员工的工作激情, 同样有很强的现实意义。     

Working hours, job stress, work satisfaction, and accident rates among medical practitioners and allied personnel

Predictors of accident behavior among German medical staff revealed that work-related injuries/accidents experienced during a recent 12-month period were significantly related to working hours per week, distance from home to practice, number of dependent children, gender, and job-related stress. The average yearly number of car accidents was predicted by age and number of working hours. Furthermore, driving accidents going to or coming from work during the last year was determined by working climate, hours of work, length of lunchtime break, distance traveled to and from work, number of dependent children, and gender. Physicians working in excess of 48 hours per week displayed significantly more driving accidents but not work-related accidents, and they reported significantly higher levels of job-related stress than those colleagues working fewer than 48 hours per week. The implications of these results are discussed in the framework on risk management in the health services.     

Risk factors in work-related traffic

The aim of this study is to examine the `extra motives' assumed by the theory of zero risk (Näätänen, R. & Summala, H., Road-user behavior and traffic accidents, Amsterdam, North-Holland, 1976) for drivers who frequently drive during their working hours. Sales and marketing people and construction workers were selected as subjects of a questionnaire study. Time pressure, tiredness, thinking about work while driving, and use of mobile telephone were shown to be risk factors in driving during working hours. The results confirmed the zero risk theory as there are some extra motives in driving at work which disturb the drivers' concentration in traffic.     

Can prosocial attitude reduce the risk behavior in simulated driving?

High traffic density may lead to more traffic accidents because of more frequent lane change and overtaking behaviors, but drivers with different characteristics may exhibit different driving behaviors. The present study explored the difference in driving behaviors between drivers with a high/low prosocial attitude under high/low traffic density. In this study, a 2 (high/low prosocial attitude) *2 (high/low traffic density) mixed design was used to investigate the interaction between prosocial attitude and traffic density on lane change and overtaking behavior. The implicit association test paradigm was used to measure prosocial attitude, and drivers were divided into two groups. Forty subjects were asked to complete simulated driving tasks under the two conditions of high and low traffic density, and driving behaviors were recorded by driving simulators. The results show that high traffic density leads to more lane change and overtaking behavior. Drivers with a high prosocial attitude have better driving performance under both high and low traffic density, but drivers with a low prosocial attitude maintain a smaller transverse distance from adjacent vehicles in high traffic density, which may increase risk. This study provides support for the selection, training and intervention of professional drivers.