Searching for relationships between self-reported familiarity and road safety based on surveys with geographic variability
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55329/btdw5686Keywords:
driver behavior, familiarity, international study, road safety, surveyAbstract
The study is aimed at understanding if (a) declared driving behavioural changes due to familiarity can be observed through surveys; (b) self-reported route familiarity can be related to negative safety performances (crashes and fines); (c) the relationships are stable across different countries. Driving on habitual routes could imply different behaviours than on generic routes, and possibly different safety performances. The relationships between route familiarity and safety performances are often searched through experimental studies or accident data analyses. Surveys were spread to young Italian and Norwegian drivers, asking both general and specific questions on the habitual route travelled and the recently experienced crashes and fines. 316 answers, 235 Italian and 71 Norwegian, were analysed. Comparisons of self-reported driving scores between generic and habitual routes were performed. Logistic regressions having as response variables negative outcomes (crashes and fines) on frequent routes, different behaviour on habitual routes, and nationality were developed. Different relationships were highlighted, concerning differences in perceived ability on the habitual route, a possible excess of self-confidence, which however are differently related to crashes and fines. Different tendencies were found for the same variables in the two countries, sometimes opposite. Surveys are suggested as useful to reveal familiarity-behavioural changes/negative outcomes relationships. Considering international studies may reveal significant driving behavioural differences and patterns. The results have some potential applications for driver education, since some relationships between familiarity effects in young drivers and negative safety outcomes were noted.
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Author Biographies
Paolo Intini, University of Salento, Italy | Polytechnic University of Bari, Italy
Paolo Intini, PhD, is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Innovation Engineering at the University of Salento, Italy. At the time of the article revised submission he was lecturer at the Department of Civil, Environmental, Building, Land Engineering and Chemistry at the Polytechnic University of Bari. He received his B.S., M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering and Ph.D. from the Polytechnic University of Bari, with a focus in highway and transportation engineering. His research primarily focuses on road safety, highway engineering, human factors.
CRediT contribution: Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Software, Visualization, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing.
Nicola Berloco, Polytechnic University of Bari, Italy
Nicola Berloco, PhD, is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, Building, Land Engineering and Chemistry at the Polytechnic University of Bari. He received his M.S. degree in Civil Engineering and Ph.D. from the Polytechnic University of Bari, with a focus in highway and transportation engineering. His research primarily focuses on sustainable mobility and highway engineering.
CRediT contribution: Methodology, Visualization, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing.
Pasquale Colonna, Polytechnic University of Bari, Italy
Pasquale Colonna is currently an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Civil, Environmental, Building, Land Engineering and Chemistry at the Polytechnic University of Bari. He was formerly full professor in the Scientific Disciplinary Sector ICAR/04 ‘Roads, Railways and Airports’ at the same university, where he also was Head of the Highway and Transportation Department.
CRediT contribution: Methodology, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing.
Damiano De Gennaro, Polytechnic University of Bari, Italy
Damiano de Gennaro, former student of the Polytechnic University of Bari. Damiano de Gennaro is currently working as a Highways Engineer in the Operational Road Safety Team for Jacobs UK. He received his B.S. degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering and M.S. degree in Civil Engineering (Highways and Transports) from the Polytechnic University of Bari, Italy.
CRediT contribution: Data curation, Investigation, Software, Visualization, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing.
Vittorio Ranieri, Polytechnic University of Bari, Italy
Vittorio Ranieri is currently full professor in the Scientific Disciplinary Sector ICAR/04 ‘Roads, Railways and Airports’ in the Department of Civil, Environmental, Building, Land Engineering and Chemistry at the Polytechnic University of Bari. His research primarily focuses on highway engineering, road safety, pavements and materials, road/vehicle automation.
CRediT contribution: Methodology, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing.
Eirin Olaussen Ryeng, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
Eirin Olaussen Ryeng is professor in Transportation planning at Department of Civil- and Environmental Engineering at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Her research interests cover traffic safety, sustainable mobility, universal design, and road user- and travel behaviour.
CRediT contribution: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing.
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Copyright (c) 2022 Paolo Intini, Nicola Berloco, Pasquale Colonna, Damiano De Gennaro, Vittorio Ranieri, Eirin Olaussen Ryeng
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
