The perceptions of young rural drivers in NSW, Australia of speeding and associated risk: a mixed methods study

Low-range, mid-range and high-range speeding: The association with speeding habits, perceived legitimacy and deterrence

INTRODUCTION

Speeding is a global road safety concern contributing to an excessive number of fatal crashes and serious debilitating injuries. Research identifying amendable factors associated with speeding to inform interventions is critical.

METHOD

This study examined the association of habit, perceived legitimacy of enforcement, and deterrence elements with three levels of speeding behavior; low- (<10 km/hr over the posted speed limit), mid- (10-20 km/hr), and high-range (>20 km/hr) speeding. An online survey of 870 participants aged over 17 years (M = 37 years) was administered.

RESULTS

Approximately 80% of participants reported low-range speeding, 40% mid-range speeding, and 20% high-range speeding. Differences were found between speeding on urban and open roads with the proportion of participants greater for mid- and high-range speeding on open roads. Multiple linear regressions were run finding habit and deterrence variables to be significant predictors of all three levels of speeding. Perceived legitimacy of enforcement was a significant predictor of high-range speeding only.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

These findings suggest countermeasures that encourage good speed-related habits would be promising. It is also concluded that additional deterrence measures that reduce punishment avoidance experiences (e.g., better detection of speeding behaviors) are needed to further curb speeding behaviors. Nevertheless, the current punishment for all levels of speeding is perceived to be an effective deterrent. These recommendations inform policy, training and education, and campaigns that target engagement in speeding.

Disadvantaged by More Than Distance: A Systematic Literature Review of Injury in Rural Australia

Rural populations experience injury-related mortality and morbidity rates 1.5 times greater than metropolitan residents. Motivated by a call for stronger epidemiological evidence around rural injuries to inform prevention, a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature published between January 2010 and March 2021 was undertaken to explore the epidemiology of rural injury and associated risk factors in Australia. A subsequent aim was to explore definitions of rurality used in injury prevention studies. There were 151 papers included in the review, utilizing 23 unique definitions to describe rurality. People living in rural areas were more likely to be injured, for injuries to be more severe, and for injuries to have greater resulting morbidity than people in metropolitan areas. The increase in severity reflects the mechanism of rural injury, with rural injury events more likely to involve a higher energy exchange. Risk-taking behavior and alcohol consumption were significant risk factors for rural injury, along with rural cluster demographics such as age, sex, high socio-economic disadvantage, and health-related comorbidities. As injury in rural populations is multifactorial and nonhomogeneous, a wide variety of evidence-based strategies are needed. This requires funding, political leadership for policy formation and development, and implementation of evidence-based prevention interventions.

A unified deterrence-based model of legal and non-legal factors that influence young driver speeding behaviour

Young driver speeding behaviour remains a large contributor to road trauma worldwide. In order to provide a more-in depth understanding of how to deter young drivers from this behaviour, this study developed and tested a model of the legal and non-legal factors that influence young driver's intentional speeding behaviour (exceeding the speed limit by more than 10 km/hr). A prospective survey design was conducted to measure the impact of perceptions of legal factors (including classical deterrence and reconceptualised deterrence variables) and non-legal factors (including the variables of fear of physical loss, material loss and perceived social sanctions, as well as the perception that it is safe to engage in the behaviour without being involved in a crash) at time 1, on engagement in speeding behaviour at time 2, which occurred 3 months later. A total of 200 participants aged 17-25 years completed both surveys (Mean age = 20.44 years). Using structural equation modelling, a unique model combining classical and extended deterrence theory, as well as prominent non-legal factors was created, and the variables were able to explain 41% of the variance in speeding behaviour. A high perceived severity of the punishment, experiencing direct punishment avoidance and perceiving that it is safe to speed were significant direct predictors. Meanwhile, there were also numerous significant partially mediated relationships found for both legal and non-legal variables. These findings provide important implications for both the application of deterrence-based theories in road safety and for improving countermeasures to deter young drivers more effectively from engagement in speeding.

Understanding the psychological precursors of young drivers' willingness to speed and text while driving

This study applied the Prototype Willingness Model (PWM) to investigate the factors that may predict young drivers' (non-intentional) willingness to text while driving, text while stopped, and engage in high and low levels of speeding. In addition, the study sought to assess whether general optimism bias would predict young drivers' willingness to text and speed over and above the PWM. Licenced drivers (N = 183) aged 17-25 years (M = 19.84, SD = 2.30) in Queensland, Australia completed an online survey. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that the PWM was effective in explaining the variance in willingness to perform all four illegal driving behaviours. Particularly, young drivers who possessed favourable attitudes and a positive prototype perception towards these behaviours were more willing to engage in texting and speeding. In contrast to the study's predictions, optimistically biased beliefs decreased young drivers' willingness to text while stopped and engage in high and low levels of speeding. The findings of the study may help inform policy and educational campaigns to better target risky driving behaviours by considering the influence of attitudes, prototypes and the non-intentional pathway that may lead to engagement in texting while driving and stopped and engagement in high and low levels of speeding.

Risk and safety perception on urban and rural roads: Effects of environmental features, driver age and risk sensitivity

OBJECTIVE

The ability to detect changing visual information is a vital component of safe driving. In addition to detecting changing visual information, drivers must also interpret its relevance to safety. Environmental changes considered to have high safety relevance will likely demand greater attention and more timely responses than those considered to have lower safety relevance. The aim of this study was to explore factors that are likely to influence perceptions of risk and safety regarding changing visual information in the driving environment. Factors explored were the environment in which the change occurs (i.e., urban vs. rural), the type of object that changes, and the driver's age, experience, and risk sensitivity.

METHODS

Sixty-three licensed drivers aged 18-70 years completed a hazard rating task, which required them to rate the perceived hazardousness of changing specific elements within urban and rural driving environments. Three attributes of potential hazards were systematically manipulated: the environment (urban, rural); the type of object changed (road sign, car, motorcycle, pedestrian, traffic light, animal, tree); and its inherent safety risk (low risk, high risk). Inherent safety risk was manipulated by either varying the object's placement, on/near or away from the road, or altering an infrastructure element that would require a change to driver behavior. Participants also completed two driving-related risk perception tasks, rating their relative crash risk and perceived risk of aberrant driving behaviors.

RESULTS

Driver age was not significantly associated with hazard ratings, but individual differences in perceived risk of aberrant driving behaviors predicted hazard ratings, suggesting that general driving-related risk sensitivity plays a strong role in safety perception. In both urban and rural scenes, there were significant associations between hazard ratings and inherent safety risk, with low-risk changes perceived as consistently less hazardous than high-risk impact changes; however, the effect was larger for urban environments. There were also effects of object type, with certain objects rated as consistently more safety relevant. In urban scenes, changes involving pedestrians were rated significantly more hazardous than all other objects, and in rural scenes, changes involving animals were rated as significantly more hazardous. Notably, hazard ratings were found to be higher in urban compared with rural driving environments, even when changes were matched between environments.

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrates that drivers perceive rural roads as less risky than urban roads, even when similar scenarios occur in both environments. Age did not affect hazard ratings. Instead, the findings suggest that the assessment of risk posed by hazards is influenced more by individual differences in risk sensitivity. This highlights the need for driver education to account for appraisal of hazards' risk and relevance, in addition to hazard detection, when considering factors that promote road safety.

Who is in control of road safety? A STAMP control structure analysis of the road transport system in Queensland, Australia

Despite significant progress, road trauma continues to represent a global safety issue. In Queensland (Qld), Australia, there is currently a focus on preventing the 'fatal five' behaviours underpinning road trauma (drug and drink driving, distraction, seat belt wearing, speeding, and fatigue), along with an emphasis on a shared responsibility for road safety that spans road users, vehicle manufacturers, designers, policy makers etc. The aim of this article is to clarify who shares the responsibility for road safety in Qld and to determine what control measures are enacted to prevent the fatal five behaviours. This is achieved through the presentation of a control structure model that depicts the actors and organisations within the Qld road transport system along with the control and feedback relationships that exist between them. Validated through a Delphi study, the model shows a diverse set of actors and organisations who share the responsibility for road safety that goes beyond those discussed in road safety policies and strategies. The analysis also shows that, compared to other safety critical domains, there are less formal control structures in road transport and that opportunities exist to add new controls and strengthen existing ones. Relationships that influence rather than control are also prominent. Finally, when compared to other safety critical domains, the strength of road safety controls is brought into question.