A social psychological approach to driving violations in two Chinese cities

A questionnaire study conducted in two Chinese cities investigated the determinants of the respondents’ aberrant driving behaviours. The Chinese Driving Questionnaire (CDQ) was developed and a version of the Manchester Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ) containing an extended set of driving violations particularly relevant in China was also included. Factor analysis of the DBQ revealed four factors with Alpha values over .60, two of them violations and the other two lapses and errors. Factor analysis of the CDQ items also revealed four factors with Alpha values over .60, namely the sense of social hierarchy, potential road safety countermeasure, belief in interpersonal network, and challenging legitimate authority. The result of a correlation analysis of the DBQ and CDQ scales showed that while the two violation scales were significantly and positively correlated with the social hierarchy and interpersonal network scale, the two lapse and error scales basically were not. When the DBQ scales were regressed on demographic variables and CDQ scales, the results of the hierarchical regressions showed that the prediction of self-reported driving violations had been significantly improved by the addition of culture relevant factors measured in the CDQ, while there was no major change in the prediction of lapses and errors. Logistic regression analysis showed that aggressive violations made a significant contribution to traffic accident involvement, independent of the demographic variables. The present study also identified some potential road safety countermeasures, and suggested young female drivers, and drivers at their early thirties should be especially targeted in road safety campaign.