Exploring the relationship between traffic resilience and driver behaviors through traffic climate
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55329/trjs3850Keywords:
driver behaviors, traffic climate, traffic resilienceAbstract
Traffic safety culture and climate have emerged as an integral part of road safety policy and practice in recent decades, resulting in an emphasis on a holistic approach to road safety through systems thinking. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between drivers' perceptions of traffic resilience and traffic climate and their impact on driver behaviors. A total of 216 drivers aged between 19 and 32 years completed an online questionnaire consisting of the Traffic Resilience Scale (TRS), the Traffic Climate Scale (TCS), the Driver Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ), and the Positive Driver Behaviors Scale (PDBS). Serial mediation analyses were conducted to examine the objectives of the study. The results showed that drivers who perceived the traffic system as more resilient tended to perceive the traffic system as more functional and less externally demanding. The drivers' perceptions of traffic resilience were found to be directly related to the traffic climate and indirectly related to the driver behaviors through external affective demands and internal requirements. Increased traffic resilience was associated with increased aberrant behaviors and decreased positive behaviors through reduced external affective demands and internal requirements. These findings can be considered to make a unique contribution to the literature in understanding the motivations behind aberrant behaviors of drivers and highlight the need for road safety policies to take into account road users' perceptions of traffic resilience and traffic climate in order to better understand, predict, and modify road user behaviors for a safer traffic system.
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Author Biographies
İbrahim Öztürk, University of Leeds, the United Kingdom
Dr. İbrahim Öztürk is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in traffic and transportation Psychology from Middle East Technical University (Türkiye). His research focuses on self-reported and simulated driver behaviors, traffic safety culture, and individual differences in driver behaviors and road user-vehicle technology interaction across cultures.
CRediT contribution: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing.
Ece Tümer, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Türkiye
Ece Tümer is the International Projects Coordinator at the Smart City Department, İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality. She has a Master of Science degree in city planning from the City and Region Planning Department, Middle East Technical University. Ece has been involved in several national and international projects on smart cities and road safety.
CRediT contribution: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing—review & editing.
Bahar Öz, Middle East Technical University, Türkiye
Dr. Bahar Öz is an Associate Professor of Psychology and faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Middle East Technical University (METU). Dr. Öz’s research is focused on traffic and transportation psychology. She has been conducting quantitative and qualitative research on driver behaviors, driver skills, and individual, social, and cultural characteristics in relation to people’s understanding of traffic context and their various types of reactions in this context. She has conducted studies with different road user groups, including professional drivers, motorcycle users, pedestrians, disabled, old, and young road users. In addition to her researcher and academician roles, Dr. Öz also works as the Advisor to the President for Academic Programs and Education at METU.
CRediT contribution: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Writing—review & editing.
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Copyright (c) 2024 İbrahim Öztürk, Ece Tümer, Bahar Öz
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
