A novel conceptual framework investigating the relationship between roadside advertising and road safety: The driver behaviour and roadside advertising conceptual framework

This paper proposes a conceptual framework to understand the relationship between roadside advertising signs, driver behaviour, and road safety outcomes. Roadside advertising signs are external distractions that may take a driver's attention away from safety-critical driving tasks, potentially increasing crash risk through driver distraction and inattention. Although studies report safety concerns, as a whole, the body of research in the field is inconclusive with inconsistent quality, making it difficult to draw firm conclusions. Definitive links between roadside advertising and road trauma are not yet evident, which has major consequences for road regulators' capacity to develop evidence-based policy to safely administer public roads. However, a lack of consistent evidence does not indicate an absence of risk but underscores its complexity. To address this problem, the Driver Behaviour and Roadside Advertising Conceptual Framework (DBRA framework) was developed to strategically investigate and conceptualise the phenomena of roadside advertising. A new term – “extended engagement” – has also been proposed to account for situations of prolonged attentional engagement with a roadside advertising sign. Further, it is posited that important variations in driving performance may be associated with a driver's extended engagement with a roadside advertising sign. Built on extant theories of driver behaviour and empirical research, the DBRA framework is designed to be a robust tool that encourages a common agenda for future roadside advertising research.     

The impact of rail-based stations on passengers’ safety perceptions. A systematic review of international evidence

Feeling safe in public transport is essential for mobility, and fear of crime can be a larger problem for the individual than crime itself. The aim of the present paper is to systematically review the international evidence in rail-bound environments regarding (a) characteristics impacting safety perceptions and (b) behavioural consequences of unsafety, using the databases ScienceDirect, Scopus, PsycInfo, and Google Scholar. From a selection of 3226 publications, 52 were selected. The sample sizes range from 16 to 137 513 rail users or potential users. A social-ecological framework was adopted to categorize the findings in which place, social, individual, and temporal characteristics were identified along with short-term and long-term behavioural consequences of unsafety. Among the most important characteristics affecting passengers’ safety are lighting, surveillance, other persons’ behaviour, time of day, and one’s own gender. Future studies should further explore the complexity in interactions between characteristics connected to perceived safety.     

Cyclists’ handheld phone use and traffic rule knowledge

Phone use is likely to distract cyclists and possibly increase crash risk. Therefore, handheld phone use among cyclists is forbidden by law in some countries, even though cyclists use compensatory strategies to attempt to mitigate distractions and related effects. Both demographic, environmental, and psychological factors have been associated with cyclists’ phone use. This study extends the existing literature by including traffic rule beliefs as an explanatory measure in predicting cyclists’ handheld phone use and additionally explores how well cyclists know these rules in different legislative contexts. Online questionnaire responses were collected in 2019 among 1055 cyclists living in Denmark (N = 568), where handheld phone use for cyclists was forbidden, and in the Netherlands (N = 487), where it was legal. Responses on phone use, traffic rule knowledge, cycling behaviour, demographic, and psychological measures were used to identify factors contributing to the likelihood of handheld phone use in three regression models; one for all respondents and one for each country. In the combined model, believing there are no rules on handheld phone use increased the likelihood of handheld phone use while cycling. Other significant factors were subjective norm, perceived behavioural difficulty, self-identity as a safe cyclist as well as demographic factors. The country-specific models found that male gender was only associated with more handheld phone use in the Netherlands, while believing there was no ban was only connected to an increase in the likelihood of using handheld phone in Denmark. Correct traffic rule knowledge was almost three times higher in Denmark, where handheld phone use was forbidden. The results identify subjective norms, potential overconfidence, and traffic rule awareness (when there is a ban) as relevant factors in reducing the likelihood of cyclists’ handheld phone use. Findings from country-specific models possibly point to a connection between culture and traffic rules. Future research should focus on underlying mechanisms and awareness of traffic rules.     

Do cyclists need HMIs in future automated traffic? An interview study

Cyclists are expected to interact with automated vehicles (AVs) in future traffic, yet we know little about the nature of this interaction and the safety implications of AVs on cyclists. On-bike human–machine interfaces (HMIs) and connecting cyclists to AVs and the road infrastructure may have the potential to enhance the safety of cyclists. This study aimed to identify cyclists’ needs in today’s and future traffic, and explore on-bike HMI functionality and the implications of equipping cyclists with devices to communicate with AVs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 cyclists in Norway and 15 cyclists in the Netherlands. Thematic analysis was used to identify and contextualise the factors of cyclist-AV interaction and on-bike HMIs. From the analysis, seven themes were identified: Interaction, Bicycles, Culture, Infrastructure, Legislation, AVs, and HMI. These themes are diverse and overlap with factors grouped in sub-themes. The results indicated that the cyclists prefer segregated future infrastructure, and in mixed urban traffic, they need confirmation of detection by AVs. External on-vehicle or on-bike HMIs might be solutions to fulfil the cyclists’ need for recognition. However, the analysis suggested that cyclists are hesitant about being equipped with devices to communicate with AVs: Responsibility for safety should lie with AV technology rather than with cyclists. A device requirement might become a barrier to cycling, as bicycles are traditionally cheap and simple, and additional costs might deter people from choosing cycling as a transport mode. Future studies should investigate user acceptance of on-bike HMIs among cyclists on a larger scale to test the findings’ generalisability, and explore other, perhaps more viable solutions than on-bike HMIs for enhancing AV-cyclist interaction.     

The conditioned anticipation of people (CAP) model of driving in urban spaces

Despite significant gains in overall collision rates, pedestrian and bicycle safety in complete street environments remains an on-going challenge. However, urban areas with the most risk exposure for pedestrians continue to maintain lower incident rates than their suburban counterparts (“Dangerous by Design” 2021). Under most driving circumstances, the over-rehearsed nature of driving leads to a psychological state similar to self-hypnosis, where attention is subconsciously maintained on the driving task while metacognitive awareness is minimized or eliminated. This state continues until some type of conflict, uncertainty, and/or novel stimulus is presented. The primary difference in driver attention in urban environments is postulated to result from the Conditioned Anticipation of People (CAP). Based on the human neurological predisposition to recognize and fixate on human faces and figures, we hypothesize that in areas where drivers have been conditioned to expect human presence, low-level metacognition is preemptively re-engaged to address their presence, resulting in higher attentional resource expenditure and increased distraction management. Such conditioning may be generated by contextual features common to pedestrian-friendly environments but, necessarily, must be reinforced over time by the Actual Presence of People (APP). CAP driver engagement is limited by the perceptual abilities of the driver such that at higher speeds or within wider corridors, the presence of pedestrians is more difficult to perceive. This results in a non-CAP attention pattern, exhibiting minimal metacognitive activity, high levels of automaticity, and reduced attention. This model was generated based on the observation that vulnerable user presence and the roadway contextual features that support the driver's ability to see vulnerable users were related to attention data measured during the SHRP2 Naturalistic Driving Study. Visually discernable features that were associated with vulnerable user presence had relationships with attention and large effect sizes (η² > 0.5). Contextual features that had relationships with vulnerable user presence, but minimal visual impact or interfered with the driver’s ability to see vulnerable users had no relationship to driver attention. This behavioral pattern provides supportive evidence for the proposed model.     

Feedback frequency of graphical countdown timers affects pedestrian estimated waiting time at red lights

Graphical countdown timers (similar to a progress bar) have the potential to shorten pedestrians’ perceived waiting time at the red light. Based on the findings from human-computer interaction (HCI) and time estimation theories, the potential may be affected by feedback frequency. This study tested how the feedback frequency of countdown progress bar in traffic light influenced time estimation in a field experiment, and further explored its mechanism in a laboratory experiment. In both experiments, participants estimated various durations (30 s, 45 s, 60 s) under three levels of feedback frequency: low (0.5 Hz), medium (1 Hz), and high (2 Hz). The results showed that although waiting time was underestimated in all conditions, lower feedback frequency led to shorter estimated duration, with slight changes in different contexts. In the traffic context, the effect of feedback frequency was comparable across different countdown duration, but it became stronger at longer countdown duration in the non-traffic context. Overall, the effect of feedback frequency was accompanied by changes in neither arousal level (measured by the subjective scale and physiological indices) nor internal clock speed, which are two critical determinants of time perception. The findings have practical implications on the display design of red light and theoretical implications on time estimation processes.     

Illusion of safety? Safety-related perceptions of pedestrians and car drivers around 3D crosswalks

Facilitating safe pedestrian road crossings is a major prerequisite for safe urban environments. In multiple cities around the world, 3D crosswalks have been painted, which provoke an optical illusion, of e.g., a crosswalk floating above the road, in car drivers who approach the crosswalk. However, to date, no detailed study of road users’ safety related perceptions on 3D crosswalks has been conducted. Hence, we investigated car drivers’ and pedestrians’ perceptions of a 3D crosswalk, and how they rate its safety in comparison to traditional (non-3D illusion) crosswalks. In an on-site questionnaire survey, we interviewed 201 pedestrians and 102 car drivers in the direct vicinity of a newly painted 3D crosswalk located in Yangon, Myanmar. Our results show that only 53.9 % of the car drivers report to have consciously perceived the 3D effect of the crosswalk. Nonetheless, both, pedestrians and car drivers rate the 3D crosswalk as safer for road crossing than a traditional crosswalk. A high share of pedestrians (43.3 %) report taking a detour to use the 3D crosswalk for road crossing. Approximately one third (31.3 %) of pedestrians and 48.0 % of car drivers interviewed have talked to their friends about the 3D crosswalk, indicating a high potential for using 3D crosswalks as a marketing tool for road safety actors to generate attention for pedestrian safety. Unrelated to our main research question, we found that pedestrians prefer to cross in groups, as it increases the perceived likelihood of cars yielding to them. Overall, the data points to significant increases in the perceived safety of drivers as well pedestrians around the 3D crosswalk. Future studies need to investigate how these perceptions translate to actual safety related behavior.     

Life-Ecology Integrated Security in Building a Global Community of Health for Human Beings

The sudden onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic brought people the most serious global public health emergency since the end of World War II. Posing a threat to human survival and development, the pandemic has given prominence to global issues concerning life safety and ecological security and triggered studies on their integrated advancement. Only by fully understanding the importance and urgency of the life-ecology integrated security and establishing the new idea, new strategy, new plan, and basic path can we survive deadly emergencies, build a community with a shared future and health for all, and jointly contribute to and share the benefits of a safe, healthy and beautiful world with common prosperity, long-lasting peace and stability of humanity.     

Dimensions of Operational Stress and Forms of Unacceptable Risk-Taking With Small Arms

This research studied the association between dimensions of operational stress, forms of risk-taking with small arms, and possible mediators. Operational threat and negative affect were predictors, unauthorized preparedness and risky games were dependent variables, and safety climate and personality profile from the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire—Revised Short Form were mediators. The participants were 461 compulsory service soldiers in 31 companies. The results revealed that operational threat is related to unauthorized preparedness, and positive–negative affect is related to risky games. Safety climate mediated risky games only. Unauthorized preparedness and risky games were influenced by the interaction of Psychoticism and the Lie scale from the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire—Revised Short Form.