Driving attitudes, behaviours, risk perception and risk concern among young student car-drivers, motorcyclists and pedestrians in various EU countries

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThe number of car crashes has gradually reduced in the last decade across all European Countries, but the number of motorcycle crashes has remained nearly the same. In our research we investigate whether there are differences in attitudes towards road safety issues, driving behaviours in specific imagined situations, risk perception and risk concern, among young student drivers and riders. The study involved a large sample taken from across six European countries.The results reveal that although there are no differences between motorcyclists and car drivers in their attitudes toward road safety rules, differences do appear when the road rules compliance is assessed in specific imagined situations, with motorcyclists reporting to be more prone than car-drivers to violations of traffic rules. Moreover, despite the perceived risk during driving is the same for motorcyclists and car-drivers, differences do appear on their concern about this risk, with motorcyclists reporting to be less concerned than car-drivers about the risk of a road crash. This could lead to a high probability of risky driving behaviour in motorcyclists than in car-drivers. Present findings have important practical implications for road safety training courses. . Road crashes are indeed the major cause of death among young people, with the most vulnerable group being represented by people between 15 and 29 years. The second is that, despite the overall strong decrease in the number of road crashes, motorcyclists' fatalities decrease much more slowly. Actually, during the last decade (from 2006 to 2015), the European countries have seen a strong decrease of fatalities for traffic accident (À45% fatalities for drivers or passengers of cars and taxis; À57% fatalities for driver of heavy goods vehicles >3,5t; Source: CARE-EU road accidents database, 2017). For motorcyclists, the number of fatalities decreased by only 28%. Motorcycle and moped (together referred to as Powered Two Wheelers -PTW) road fatalities accounted for 18% of the total number of road crash fatalities occurred in 2015 in the EU-28 countries.Thus, the number of car crashes has been gradually decreasing in the last decade, whereas the number of PTW crashes has slightly increased.The reasons for such a discrepancy are still unclear; though, understanding this phenomenon is necessary for any crashes prevention programs to be effective. The purpose of the present study is to investigate whether a difference does exist in the general attitude toward road-safety issues between car-drivers and PTW riders that can account for the discrepancy in the number of road crashes between these two groups of road users. The study starts up within the European Commission's ICARUS project (Inter-Cultural Approaches for Road Users Safety) which focused on the behaviours of young drivers as well as on the main factors jeopardizing road safety.The high crash rates shown by PTW riders is generally considered a consequence of several factors, spanning from the higher vulnerability of motorcy...

Mobile Phone Use “on the Road”: A Self-Report Study on Young Drivers

“…Therefore, we considered risk perception: several studies have shown how road risk perception influences engagement in risky behaviors (Cordellieri et al, 2019;Piccardi et al, 2021), indeed, our results appear to support the hypothesis that the variable perception of risk in driving mobile phone use, influences the variable multitasking.…”

“…In particular, Glendon et al (1996) showed that young male drivers tend to underestimate their personal perception of risk and overestimate their competence compared to women. Recent studies have addressed gender differences in different risk profiles, demonstrating a higher risk tendency among adolescent males, although the level of risk perception was found to be the same in both genders (Cordellieri et al, 2016(Cordellieri et al, , 2019.…”

“…In particular, Wilde (1994) has shown that driving behavior is influenced by subjective risk perception. It was previously observed that those who perceive high levels of risk engage in behaviors such as reduced speed increased attention while driving, as well as compliance with traffic rules, in contrast to those who perceive low levels of risk (Slovic et al, 2005;Cordellieri et al, 2019;Song et al, 2021).…”

Assessing Self-Reported Risky Riding Behavior of Motorcyclists at Unsignalized Intersections for Sustainable Transportation

“…They have greater chance to ignore the consideration of risk perceptions in the decision-making process. A recent study by Cordellieri et al [6] mentioned that the most vulnerable group regarding deaths due to road crashes is the young-age group, namely, aged between 15 and 29. They stated that the young-age group is normally related to a higher risk of being involved in a road crash, for instance, speeding, drunk riding, and a lack of observation and signaling at intersections.…”

“…Although the level of risk perception during driving behavior is the same for both motorcyclists and car drivers, the level of concern of motorcyclists about the risk of road accidents is less than that of car drivers. This leads to a higher possibility of risky driving behavior in motorcyclists than that in car drivers [6].…”