Can friendship serve as an impetus for safe driving among young drivers?

Reckless driving is a key factor in injury and death among young people, especially men, throughout the world. At this developmental stage (ages 17–24), the youngster’s behavior, including driving habits, is strongly influenced by the social discourse. Whereas previous studies have investigated the impact of concepts such as peer pressure and the number of passengers in the car, they have dealt little with the overall social relations that characterize young people, particularly, the nature of their friendships and their reflection in safe versus risky driving.Using qualitative phenomenological methodology, the present study relies on 32 semi-structured in-depth interviews to explore the elements of the relationships among young drivers in the context of driving behavior. Aristotle’s conceptualization of three types of friendship was employed as the interpretative framework. The findings reveal that a young driver’s behavior when driving with friends is associated with the different perceptions of friendship, and is gender and age sensitive. The elements of a friendship of utility (reciprocal interests, practical and beneficial interactions) were connected with safety at all ages and in both genders, and those of a friendship of virtue (responsibility, equality, concern for others) were associated with safe driving among females of all ages and among some of the older male drivers (21–24 years). In contrast, the components of a friendship of pleasure (spending leisure time together, sharing mutual interests) were related to risky and distracted driving, especially among the younger male drivers (17–19 years). It is suggested that interventions might promote safe driving among young people by fostering the positive aspects of their peer relationships.     

Aging effect on detectability,criticality and urgency under various auditory conditions

The objective of the study was to investigate the relationship between different components of an auditory warning signal and determine elderly driver’s detection, criticality and urgency perceptions under varied auditory warning conditions. A laboratory study was conducted involving 28 younger and 28 older adults. A pure-tone audiogram was administered for quantification of the participant’s hearing level (in dBHL) prior to the test protocols. Audiogram was conducted in a sound isolated booth. The main experiment investigated the effects of frequency, temporal characteristics, aging, and noise on detectability, caution and perceived urgent levels. Method of adjustment was used by the subjects to adjust the sound pressure level (dBA) till they detected, or felt caution or urgent. Overall, the results indicated that elderly had higher sound pressure threshold than younger individuals in all the sessions (i.e., detectability, caution and urgency). Elderly were found to have higher hearing thresholds especially at 4000 Hz. Higher frequencies were also seen to require less sound pressure thresholds to convey feeling of caution and urgency. Sound pressure threshold to convey the feeling of urgency was the lowest for 2000 Hz and 4000 Hz with 1000 Hz requiring the highest threshold intensity. In conclusion, current study findings suggest frequency, temporal and spectral components to influence a person’s criterion. We would recommend the use of complex tones (multi-components) having high frequency around 2000 Hz for detection, warning and urgent conditions.     

The effect of context and drivers’ age on highway traffic signs comprehension

Background: Comprehension of traffic signs is crucial to safety. Objectives: To test the effects of the presentation condition (with or without driving context) on symbolic based road signs comprehension and comprehension time for young and older drivers. Method: 50 young drivers and 50 older drivers were presented with images of 28 Israeli road signs, both without context (with a white background) and in context (with the driving surrounding). Data were collected on the accuracy of signs meaning and on the time it took the participants to provide the meaning. Results: Younger drivers performed significantly better than older drivers on both accuracy and response time (RT). Older drivers’ average RT was approximately twice as long as younger drivers’ RT. However, the presentation mode (with or without context) did not affect sign comprehension of either group, but the presence of the context did increase the time it took the drivers to comprehend the sign’s meaning. In addition, correct response time was similar to opposite to sign’s meaning response time. Implications: Older drivers, can benefit from retraining in sign comprehension of current signage. The training should involve signs in their natural road environment to reduce comprehension time while actually driving. Moreover, signs that were understood as having an opposite meaning should be redesigned or be accompanied by text.     

Anger,aggression, risky behavior,and crash-related outcomes in three groups of drivers

High anger drivers who acknowledged problems with driving anger and were interested in treatment were compared to high and low anger drivers who did not acknowledge problems with driving anger or want treatment. Although high anger drivers who acknowledged problems reported greater anger on two measures than high anger drivers who did not acknowledge problems, both high anger groups tended not to differ from one another and were more frequently and intensely angered when driving, reported more aggressive and less adaptive/constructive forms of expressing anger while driving, engaged in more aggressive and risky behavior on the road, and experienced more of some accident-related outcomes than low anger drivers. High anger groups did not differ from each other, but reported more trait anxiety and anger and more outward negative and less controlled general anger expression than the low anger group. The two groups of high anger drivers, however, require different types of interventions given their state of readiness for driving anger reduction. Results were also interpreted as supportive of the state-trait model of anger and construct validity of the Driving Anger Scale.     

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.     

An exploratory investigation into the self-regulatory processes influencing drug driving: Are young drivers more externally regulated?

An upward trend in drug driving has been observed in several countries around the world. Research suggests that younger drivers are more likely to engage in drug driving compared to older drivers. There is also evidence to suggest young drivers differ from older drivers in their capacity for self-regulation. Despite this, research has yet to explore the impact of age on the self-regulatory processes with regard to decisions to drug drive among drug users. A total of 507 Queensland drivers (72.8% female), who reported ever taking an illegal drug, were involved in the research. Participants completed an online questionnaire, which collected demographic and drug consumption information, as well as items assessing the self-regulatory processes influencing drug driving, and drug driving behaviour. Regardless of age, participants reported a tendency towards internalised regulation. However, results suggest that young drivers (aged 18–24 years) feel greater belongingness to people who promote safe transport decisions after taking drugs, compared to drivers aged 25 years and over. Interaction effects revealed that for young drug takers, feeling greater relatedness, along with perceiving competence and importance in planning alternative transport after taking drugs, can be protective against drug driving behaviours. Significant predictors of drug driving were lower relatedness, greater perceived pressure to drug drive, lower effort/importance to plan safe alternatives after taking drugs, being of older age, and greater drug abuse. Counterintuitively, perceiving more options (choice) to take alternative transport after taking drugs also predicted the offending behaviour. The results of this study suggest that enhancing drivers’ competency to make (and value) safe driving decisions is a critical step for road safety.     

Effectiveness of risk awareness perception training in dynamic simulator scenarios involving salient distractors

The Risk Awareness Perception Training (RAPT) has been shown to improve latent hazard anticipation in young drivers. However, previous evaluation scenarios in a driving simulator often lacked either dynamic road environment features or control for such variations. The current study investigated whether the effectiveness of RAPT persists even in the presence of dynamic and salient distractors. Twenty RAPT-trained drivers and twenty-one Placebo-trained young drivers (aged 18–21) drove through eight simulated driving scenarios with latent hazards. A pedestrian avatar served as a distractor and was placed across from the latent hazard location. In half of the scenarios, the pedestrian remained static while in the other half the pedestrian started to move, without potential interference with the driver’s travelling path, as the drivers approached the latent hazard. Consistent with previous research, RAPT-trained drivers demonstrated better latent hazard anticipation performance than Placebo-trained drivers regardless of dynamic movement of the pedestrian avatar. Additionally, RAPT-trained drivers adopted wider scanning patterns and fixated more frequently on both the latent hazard and the pedestrian compared to Placebo-trained drivers. The results imply that RAPT may protect drivers from being distracted by dynamic stimuli and allow them to scan safety–critical areas containing latent hazards. Furthermore, RAPT may not only improve tactical hazard anticipation skills, but also modal hazard anticipation skills in young drivers.     

On the way to autonomous driving: How age influences the acceptance of driver assistance systems

Driver assistance systems have the potential to create the basis for future mobility solutions. They enable older generations in need of assistance to maintain their mobility even in the case of physical deficits. Therefore, we conducted a literature review and identified factors that may influence the acceptance of driver assistance systems. Based on the technology acceptance model and other influencing factors, we developed a research model that was validated with the help of a study (n = 227). The results show that, depending on age, there are differences in the acceptance of driver assistance systems and their influencing factors among old and young people. The five determinants of acceptance, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and trust in technology are viewed as equally important for all age groups. Differences emerge within the group of older vehicle drivers with varying weighting. For the 50–59 age group, perceived ease of use and social norm are most important, while for the 60–69 age group, perceived usefulness and trust in technology are very important. Among 70–90-year olds, trust in technology is emphasized as most important. Our results show how important it is to increase the confidence of older drivers in age-appropriate driver assistance systems, using target-group-specific advertising and public relations work.     

Cognitive and personality determinants of safe driving performance in professional drivers

Large truck and bus crashes still cause a high rate of fatalities and costs. Considering that the human factor plays an important role it is obvious that there is great interest in predicting safe driving performance in professional drivers, especially with new technologies emerging to assist drivers. This study uses a modern theoretical framework to assess which psychometric tests are still able to predict safe driving performance in today’s professional drivers under these new circumstances.126 male professional bus drivers completed a standardized digital test battery and three driving exercises. The test battery was used to assess reaction time, concentration, ability to gain an overview, reactive stress tolerance, logical reasoning, and safety-related personality traits. The exercises consisted of an on-road driving test, an obstacle course, and a maneuvering course.The study yielded satisfactory indicators of criterion related validity. It also showed that different tests were relevant for the prediction of safe driving performance in different driving exercises. Contrary to previous research, logical reasoning showed significant effects. The results indicate that in order to assess safe driving performance in professional drivers, a comprehensive assessment with psychometric tests should be recommended.     

Difficulties experienced by older drivers during their regular driving and their expectations towards Advanced Driving Aid Systems and vehicle automation

The aim of this study was to analyse the difficulties experienced by older drivers during their regular driving, and to identify their needs and their expectations regarding Advanced Driving Aid Systems (ADAS) and vehicle automation. More than 100 items were investigated by using a Focus Group method based on a Collective Questionnaire (named FoG-CoQS). Thirty elderly drivers, 15 females and 15 males aged from 70 to 81 years (mean age of 73.3; S.D. = 3.18) were recruited among a representative sample of 76 older drivers living in the Rhône area and having previously participated to an on-road experiment, in order to collect from this Focus Group method further information about the driving difficulties they experienced in their everyday life and their expectations towards driving aids. Seven main topics were more particularly investigated, recovering at last all the main dimensions of the driving task (from navigation to speed control, through intersection crossing).Regarding driving difficulties, one of the most interesting result collected is the high contrast between the literature review, identifying Left Turn (LT) manoeuvres at crossroads as a risky driving situation for elderly drivers, and the relatively low values of perceived difficulties (i.e. compared to other driving sub-tasks) collected during this Focus Group among our sample of older drivers. Regarding the driving aid functions investigated, 10 of them obtained high scores of “perceived utility” (i.e. overpassing 60% on scales ranging from 0% [no utility] to 100% [high utility]), and they concerned assistances liable to support all the main components of the driving task investigated in this study.Additional results are related to the differences between the elderly female and male drivers. Several driving situations were assessed as significantly more difficult to perform by the older female than by the older male drivers, like intersection crossing, entering expressways, or implementing a lane change manoeuver. By contrast, this gender effect is more limited regarding driving aids: synthetically, men and women have a positive attitude towards driving aid systems and their expectations for future ADAS are quite similar (for instance, “informative systems” are preferred than driving aids based on “vehicle automation”).Finally, from two transversal items (i.e. “difficulties” to perform a driving sub-task and “perceived utility” of ADAS), it was possible to rank older drivers’ difficulties experienced during their everyday life (from lowest difficulties to “navigate on a familiar itinerary” to highest when “interacting with bicyclists”) and their expectations towards driving aids (from lowest utility score given to “Automatic Lane Change systems” to highest utility value provided to “Speed Informer systems”). At last, older drivers’ acceptance and expectations towards highly automated cars was also investigated: full automation was assessed as an interesting solution to ensure the self-mobility of elderly peoples in their circle, but also for themselves in the future, in case of impairments of their own cognitive or physical capacities.