Drunk driving offenders’ knowledge and behaviour in relation to alcohol-involved driving in Yinchuan and a comparison with Guangzhou,China

ObjectiveThis study was conducted after a legislative amendment criminalising drunk driving (BAC > 80 mg/100 ml) had been in force for a year and investigated whether drunk driving offenders in Yinchuan, China were aware of the law, and whether their knowledge of and exposure to enforcement and the existence of alcohol use disorders were related to their alcohol-involved driving behaviour. The results were compared with results from an earlier study in Guangzhou, China.MethodA survey was conducted from July to October 2012 in Yinchuan to collect information on drunk driving offenders’ knowledge and practice in relation to alcohol-involved driving. The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) was used to assess hazardous drinking levels. In total, 106 drunk driving offenders were recruited while in detention. The findings were compared with those of the Guangzhou study, where the same procedure was used to recruit 101 drunk driving offenders.ResultsThe mean age of the sample was 31.7 years (SD = 8.1; range 17–59 years). Males constituted 96% of the sample. The mean age at which offenders reported starting to drink alcohol was 18.7 years (SD = 3.2; range 10–26 years). Driver’s licenses had been held for an average of 8.5 years. The status of knowledge in relation to alcohol-involved driving in Yinchuan was slightly lower in proportion than in Guangzhou. The rate of alcohol-involved driving reported in the previous 12 months in Yinchuan (43%) was slightly higher than in Guangzhou (39%). The proportion of recidivists in Guangzhou (21.8%) was higher than Yinchuan’s (10.4%). On average, offenders had experienced 1.6 police alcohol breath tests in the previous year (SD = 1.3; range 1–10). AUDIT scores indicated that a substantial proportion of the offenders had high levels of alcohol use disorders.DiscussionLimited awareness of legal alcohol limits might contribute to drunk driving offences. The high level of alcohol consumption by many offenders suggests that hazardous drinking levels may be a contributor. Recidivist drivers also had higher AUDIT scores, which suggest there may be benefit in using the AUDIT to identify potential drink drivers and recidivists, subject to further research.     

Socio-economic and driving experience factors affecting drivers’ perceptions of traffic crash risk

Drivers are estimated to contribute an overwhelming proportion to the burden of traffic crashes, as factors that increase crash risk are frequently due to unsafe driving behaviours. The relationship between risk perceptions and people’s risky driving behaviours is still not well understood. This paper aims to further analyse the potential effect of risky driving behaviours on drivers’ perceptions of crash risk and differences in perceptions among drivers.Crash risk perceptions in an inter-city, two-way road context of 492 drivers were measured by using a Stated Preference (SP) ranking survey. Rank-ordered logit models were used to evaluate the impact on risk perception of five unsafe driving behaviours and to identify differences in drivers’ risk perceptions. The five unsafe driving behaviours considered in the analysis were respectively related to whether or not the driver follows the speed limits, the rules of passing another car and the safe distance, whether or not the driver is distracted, and whether or not she/he is driving under optimal personal conditions.All risky driving behaviours showed a significant potential effect (p < 0.001) on crash risk perceptions, and model’s results allowed to differentiate more important from less important unsafe driving behaviours based on their weight on perceived crash risk. Additionally, this paper further analyses the potential differences in risk perception of these traffic violations between drivers of different characteristics, such as driving experience, household size, income and gender.The SP technique could be applied to further analyse differences in perceptions of risky driving behaviours among drivers. Future research should consider the potential effect of driving skill on perceptions of risky driving behaviours.     

Shared road is double happiness: Evaluation of a “Share the road” sign

A road sign with the text «Share the road» and a picture of a smiling cyclist and a passing car was evaluated in a before–after study with surveys among cyclists and car drivers. The sign was set up at two sites on a test road near Oslo in summer 2014. A similar road was used as a comparison. About two thirds of the participants on the test road had noticed the sign. The majority liked it and agreed with its message. Cyclists have more often noticed the sign than car drivers have and they were somewhat more positive towards the sign. Effects on self-reported behavior and the perceived behavior of others were evaluated by comparing changes from the before- to the after-period between test and comparison road. Self-reported behavior of both cyclists and car drivers has improved on the test road after the sign was set up, especially in overtaking situations, and these results are in accordance with how cyclists and car drivers perceived each other’s behavior. The general perception of other road users has improved as well. The results are most likely representative of similar roads with a large proportion of car traffic that is related to recreation and a relatively low level of conflict.     

Anger,aggression and road rage behaviour in Malaysian drivers

This study tested the four factor structure of the Driving Anger Expression Inventory (DAX) in a sample of young Malaysian drivers and the relationship these factors had with several other variables. Confirmatory Factor Analysis broadly supported the four factor solution of the DAX, being: Personal Physical Aggressive Expression, Use of a Vehicle to Express Anger, Verbal Aggressive Expression and Adaptive/Constructive expression. The short version of the Driving Anger Scale was positively correlated with the three types of aggressive responses and not surprisingly with a variable comprised of all three types of aggressive responses (Total Aggressive Expression). Total Aggressive Expression was higher for males and negatively related to age, years licensed and slower preferred driving speed. All three of the aggressive forms of expression had significant relationships with crash-related conditions, such as: loss of concentration, losing control of their vehicle, having received a ticket and involvement in near-misses. In particular, all three of the aggressive forms of expression had significant relationships with losing control of the vehicle and Total Aggressive Expression was correlated with all crash-related conditions. In addition, Personal Physical Aggressive Expression and Total Aggressive Expression were both significantly related to crash involvement.     

Feature selection and classification: A developmental study

Two hundred and thirteen children between the ages of 4 and 16 sorted 30 complex objects freely into groups. These were either schematic faces, schematic imaginary animals, or histoform patterns and were constructed from 9 independently and continuously varying features, each with 10 levels. The three sets were equivalent in terms of underlying numerical structure. A new method of analysis of the groups formed yielded the following direct measures of subjective organization in the sorting of each child: the number of features used in sorting, the accuracy of sorting, and the number of independent dimensions of classification. Both the material and the analysis of sorting were devised on the assumption that only some of the component features of complex objects are used for classification, while others are ignored. Sorting performance differed markedly both with age and with different types of material. The improvement in sorting ability with age, except for the youngest children, could be attributed to an increase in the number of features used rather than an improvement in the accuracy of use. In contrast, the poor sorting of histoform patterns as opposed to faces and animals was due to a low level of sorting accuracy. The basic results on the development of classification confirmed previous studies, and hence suggest that it is valid to consider feature selection as a basic component of classification.     

Perception of work reinforcer systems: Factor structure

The factor structure of 109 Occupational Reinforcer Patterns approximating the distribution of the employed labor force of the United States was investigated. These work-reinforcer systems, as perceived by almost 6000 raters, were found to be represented best by a three-factor solution. The factors were identified as a Self Reinforcement factor, an Environmental/Organizational reinforcement factor, and a Reinforcement via-Altruism factor. The factors were found to correspond to, respectively, the Achievement-Autonomy, Safety-Comfort, and Al-truism need factors of the Minnesota Importance Questionnaire. For these two measures utilized in the assessment of individual-environment correspondence, commensurate measurement—as required by person-environment fit theories—is possible.     

Instrumental to Pavlovian transfer: Learning about response-reinforcer contingencies affects subsequent learning about stimulus-reinforcer contingencies

Two experiments examined the interaction between response-reinforcer (R-S) and stimulus-reinforcer (S-S) learning. In both experiments, three groups of rats were exposed to escapable, yoked inescapable, or no shocks. All groups were then exposed to either two or four sessions of truly random control (TRC) conditioning (Experiment 1) or to an excitatory conditioning procedure (Experiment 2) in which the shock US occurred with either moderate or low probability. Excitatory strength of the CS was assessed during extinction by a conditioned emotional response (CER) test. Inescapably shocked rats conditioned less than did their escapably shocked and nonshocked partners under all TRC conditions of Experiment 1, but only conditioned less than their partners in Experiment 2 when exposed to the moderate CS-US contingency for four sessions. These results provide a clear demonstration of transfer between instrumental training and Pavlovian excitatory conditioning and thus, support the influence of learning about R-S contingencies upon subsequent learning about S-S contingencies. Both a contextual blocking interpretation and an expansion of the learned helplessness theory were discussed as possible explanations of this transfer.