Is organized carpooling safer? Speeding and distracted driving behaviors from a naturalistic driving study in Brazil

"It is a different type of policing than in the bush": Police officers' perceptions of the differences in enforcement of the phone use while driving legislation in rural and urban areas

Mobile phone use while driving continues to be a significant road safety concern, despite the severe legal countermeasures to reduce this behaviour. Phone use while driving-related crashes have been demonstrated to be an issue in rural areas, yet research into the impact of legal sanctions on phone use while driving has primarily focussed on urban areas. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate differences in enforcement of phone use while driving between rural and urban environments as reported by police officers. In addition, to provide necessary context, this study aimed to explore how the police officers perceive differences in drivers' engagement in phone use while driving between rural and urban environments. To address these aims, a total of 26 police officers from Queensland, Australia (18 with both rural and urban experience, 6 with only rural experience and 2 with only urban experience) completed an interview. A total of seven themes were developed from the data. Several differences between rural and urban environments were identified concerning different types of phone offending behaviour, as well as different resources, management and infrastructure that can impact police enforcement. For example, it was suggested that drivers in rural areas have less reasons to use their phone while driving. Nevertheless, when this behaviour does occur, it is more challenging to enforce this law in rural compared to urban environments. The results not only provide important contextual information for phone use while driving research, but also suggest that enforcement strategies for this behaviour may need to be recontextualised to incorporate the more nuanced aspects of rural policing.

Occupational Traffic Accidents among Teachers in Spain

Occupational traffic accidents are a leading cause of injuries or deaths among workers. Teachers in Spain are especially concerned about the problem of commuting due to their particular labor conditions. Multiple work-related factors are associated with the risk and severity of occupational traffic-related motor vehicle crashes. The objective of this research is to analyze the influence of the variables associated with the severity of occupational traffic accidents among teachers in Spain. A logistic regression model was used for the current study. The odds ratio (OR) and confidence interval (CI) were calculated for the injured worker on a sample of 20,190 occupational traffic accidents suffered by teachers. The results showed that women, Spanish nationality, younger than 55 years, and those driving a car were more likely to suffer a light crash. In contrast, men, foreign nationalities, older than 55 years, and those riding a motorbike were more likely to suffer a serious crash. Based on these findings, motor vehicle safety training could be designed and adapted to the riskiest profiles. Additionally, effective mobility plans for commuting could help reduce work-related traffic accidents.

Investigating the Effect of Social and Cultural Factors on Drivers in Malaysia: A Naturalistic Driving Study

Road accidents are increasing every year in Malaysia, and it is always challenging to collect reliable pre-crash data in the transportation community. Existing studies relied on simulators, police crash reports, questionnaires, and surveys to study Malaysia’s drivers’ behavior. Researchers previously criticized such methods for being biased and unreliable. To fill in the literature gap, this study presents the first naturalistic driving study in Malaysia. Thirty drivers were recruited to drive an instrumented vehicle for 750 km while collecting continuous driving data. The data acquisition system consists of various sensors such as OBDII, lidar, ultrasonic sensors, IMU, and GPS. Irrelevant data were filtered, and experts helped identify safety criteria regarding multiple driving metrics such as maximum acceptable speed limits, safe accelerations, safe decelerations, acceptable distances to vehicles ahead, and safe steering behavior. These thresholds were used to investigate the influence of social and cultural factors on driving in Malaysia. The findings show statistically significant differences between drivers based on gender, age, and cultural background. There are also significant differences in the results for those who drove on weekends rather than weekdays. The study presents several recommendations to various public and governmental sectors to help prevent future accidents and improve traffic safety.

The Future and Sustainability of Carpooling Practices. An Identification of Research Challenges

This article proposes several new research directions regarding the future and sustainability of carpooling practices. The reflection is based on a systematic review of the literature (2010–2021) and a consideration of some of the main recent changes in carpooling, such as carpooling platforms and apps, and changes in lifestyles that may affect carpooling practices, such as telework. Carpooling is defined here as the sharing of short- or long-distance car rides between people who are not members of the same household, for a trip (or part of a trip) already scheduled by the driver, free of charge or expense sharing. After a description of the corpus selection method used, followed by a brief review of existing literature, we propose three new avenues for research. The first avenue is a call for greater consideration of forms of transport, other than carpooling, to work (or to the place of study), which remain poorly studied. The second avenue proposes the investigation of the role that the current digitalisation of carpooling, namely online carpooling platforms and their integration into mobility platforms, and also the use of social media by carpoolers, could play in the coming years. The third avenue argues that the consequences of the rise of collaborative consumption and the current pandemic, namely teleworking practices and the perception of shared mobility, could have an effect on carpooling, which merits specific investigation.