The effectiveness and influencing factors of a penalty point system in China from the perspective of risky driving behaviors

The impacts of non-motorized traffic enforcement cameras on red light violations of cyclists at signalized intersections

INTRODUCTION

With a significant increase in accidents involving cyclists, more attention has been paid to cycling safety. Previous studies on traffic accident revealed that red-light violations of non-motorized vehicles have become the leading cause of crashes at signalized intersections. The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of non-motorized traffic enforcement cameras (NTECs) on the red-light running behavior of cyclists, including ordinary e-bike riders, delivery e-bike riders, and bicyclists.

METHOD

An observational study of 5,217 cyclists was conducted at six primary intersections in the downtown areas of Nanjing, China. A random parameter logit model was used to explore the safety effect of the NTECs and other factors related to red-light violation behavior.

RESULTS

The results indicate higher reductions in red-light violations at intersections with the NTECs compared than at the non-adjacent intersections without the NTECs. Furthermore, the NTECs demonstrated a beneficial but smaller impact on the reduction of violations at adjacent intersections. Another primary finding was that the effects of the NTECs varied among three types of cyclists (ordinary e-bike riders, delivery e-bike riders, and bicyclists).

CONCLUSIONS

The NTECs were found to be most effective in the case of delivery e-bike riders, followed by ordinary e-bike riders and bicyclists. In addition, the factors associated with the red-light violation behaviors of these three groups were also found to be different. In general, group size, maximum waiting time, waiting position, and visual search were significantly related to the probability of red-light violations in all three groups.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

Based on these findings, this study provides some feasible suggestions for improving the effect of the NTECs and for the future extension of the NTECs installation, such as the randomization of the enforcement and publicity campaigns.

Traffic costs of air pollution: the effect of PM2.5 on traffic violation

Although emerging studies have investigated the effect of air pollution on traffic crashes, it is unclear to scholars whether air pollution affects another road safety problem-traffic violations. To address this gap, the current paper constructs a data set from 1,390,221 traffic violation records of 640,971 drivers from the Wuhan Traffic Management Bureau between January 2018 and December 2018. An ordered logistic regression was conducted to verify our hypotheses. The result shows that PM_2.5 has no overall impact on the severity of traffic violations, but each 1% increase in the daily concentration of PM_2.5 leads to a 1.02-fold increase in the odds of serious inexperience-related violations and a 0.99-fold decrease in the odds of serious overconfidence-related violations. This effect is the strongest in PM_2.5, followed by NO₂, and has not been observed in CO and O₃. In addition, robustness tests indicate that the relationship between air pollution and traffic violations is consistent among the different subsets (e.g., clear weather, no rain and snow, and good visibility). We also provide valuable practical advice for drivers and traffic authorities.

Perceived loss of resources and adherence to guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic in Israel

Following the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world issued guidelines designed to prevent contagion. This longitudinal study explored variables associated with citizens' adherence to these guidelines. Questionnaires were administered to a panel of Israeli citizens three times: in June (Time 1, n = 896), July (Time 2, n = 712) and August (Time 3, n = 662) 2020. The relationships of perceived loss of resources (e.g. stable employment) at Time 1 with adherence to guidelines at Time 2 and Time 3 were moderated by assumptions about controllability: The relationships were stronger for people who believed that appropriate behavior would lead to positive outcomes and prevent negative outcomes. The results indicate that messages about the pandemic should be accompanied by encouraging messages regarding the ability to control.

Can the effectiveness of driver education be sustained? Effects of driving breaks on novice drivers' traffic violations

Prior studies have shown that driver education can reduce traffic violations. However, few studies have examined how driving break between driver education and owning a car influences novice drivers' traffic violations. The main objective of this study is to examine the association between driving break and traffic violations. Data from 356,786 drivers with a total of 978,855 violations during their first year of driving were extracted from the Wuhan Traffic Management Bureau. Specifically, we focused on three outcome measures: time length of first traffic violation, severity of first traffic violation, and number of traffic violations in the first year of driving. The results indicated that driving break accelerated the occurrence of the first traffic violation but reduced its severity. The results also showed that driving break was significantly related to an increase in traffic violations during the first year of driving. The detrimental effects of driving break on the time length of first traffic violation and the number of traffic violations in the first year of driving were attenuated in older age groups. The inhibitory effect of driving break on serious violations was stronger in older age groups. The findings support that the effectiveness of driver education will fade over time if one does not consolidate the learned knowledge and skills through practice.

Analyzing the Importance of Driver Behavior Criteria Related to Road Safety for Different Driving Cultures

Driver behavior has been considered as the most critical and uncertain criteria in the study of traffic safety issues. Driver behavior identification and categorization by using the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) can overcome the uncertainty of driver behavior by capturing the ambiguity of driver thinking style. The main goal of this paper is to examine the significant driver behavior criteria that influence traffic safety for different traffic cultures such as Hungary, Turkey, Pakistan and China. The study utilized the FAHP framework to compare and quantify the driver behavior criteria designed on a three-level hierarchical structure. The FAHP procedure computed the weight factors and ranked the significant driver behavior criteria based on pairwise comparisons (PCs) of driver's responses on the Driver Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ). The study results observed "violations" as the most significant driver behavior criteria for level 1 by all nominated regions except Hungary. While for level 2, "aggressive violations" is observed as the most significant driver behavior criteria by all regions except Turkey. Moreover, for level 3, Hungary and Turkey drivers evaluated the "drive with alcohol use" as the most significant driver behavior criteria. While Pakistan and China drivers evaluated the "fail to yield pedestrian" as the most significant driver behavior criteria. Finally, Kendall's agreement test was performed to measure the agreement degree between observed groups for each level in a hierarchical structure. The methodology applied can be easily transferable to other study areas and our results in this study can be helpful for the drivers of each region to focus on highlighted significant driver behavior criteria to reduce fatal and seriously injured traffic accidents.