The role of values in road safety culture: Examining the relationship between valuation of freedom to take risk and accident risk among motorcycle riders and car drivers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55329/ggnj7534Keywords:
Greece, motorcycles, Norway, road safety culture, values, Vision ZeroAbstract
Focus on paternalistic values versus individual freedom is a fundamental theme, which defines the status of road safety in different settings. The present study examines the role of values related to freedom to take risk in traffic in road safety culture based on survey data from car drivers (n = 882) and motorcycle riders (n = 330) from two countries with distinctly different road safety records: Norway, which had the lowest road mortality rate in Europe with 20 road deaths per million inhabitants in 2017, and Greece, which had 69 road deaths per million inhabitants, which was well above the EU average of 50. Contrary to our first hypothesis, we do not find a statistically significant higher valuation of freedom to take risk in traffic among Greek drivers and riders than among drivers and riders from Norway. In line with our second hypothesis, we find that motorcycle riders in both countries value freedom to take risk in traffic significantly higher than car drivers in their country. Regression analyses indicate a relationship between higher valuation of freedom to take risk in traffic and risky rider behaviours, which are related to accident involvement. Our results indicate that values focusing on freedom to take risk have an important role in road safety culture, presumably legitimizing and motivating risky driving/riding. This is in line with previous research, where riders cite freedom as the main enjoyment factor for riding. Previous studies find six times higher accident risk among riders than drivers, which is explained partly by pointing to risky rider behaviours.
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Author Biographies
Tor-Olav Nævestad, Institute of Transport Economics, Norway
Sociologist and PhD Tor-Olav Nævestad heads the research group ‘Safety and Resilience’ at the Institute of Transport Economics in Oslo, Norway. Nævestad has been working on several projects related to safety culture, safety management and regulation among companies and authorities in the transport sector and in high-risk sectors. One of the key themes in his research has been to develop an understanding of how the safety culture concept can be applied to private and professional road users, and how this understanding can be used to develop measures aiming to improve road safety. Nævestad also conducts research on resilience and disaster risk management.
CrediT contribution: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Writing—original draft.
Alexandra Laiou, National Technical University of Athens, Greece
Alexandra Laiou is a Civil-Transportation Engineer, Senior Research Associate in the Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering of the School of Civil Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens. She holds a Civil Engineering Diploma from NTUA majoring in Transportation Engineering and an MSc in Construction Project Management from Edinburgh Napier University. She has over 17 years of experience in transportation planning and engineering, specializing in road safety, engineering project management and transportation planning and management. She has participated in more than 40 research and engineering projects in Greece and abroad. She has more than 100 scientific publications in the field of transport planning and engineering.
CRediT contribution: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Writing—original draft.
George Yannis, National Technical University of Athens, Greece
Professor George Yannis is a Full Professor in Traffic Safety and Management with particular focus on data management and analysis at the Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering of the School of Civil Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens. He has contributed extensively in more than 245 research and engineering projects and studies and in several scientific committees of the European Commission and other International Organizations (UN/ECE, OECD, WHO, World Bank, EIB, CEDR, ERF, UITP, ETSC, ECTRI, WCTR, TRB). He has published more than 640 scientific papers (more than 200 in scientific journals) widely cited worldwide.
CRediT contribution: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Writing—original draft
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Copyright (c) 2022 Tor-Olav Nævestad, Alexandra Laiou, George Yannis
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