The overall purpose of the report is to investigate the actual and perceived safety threat to motorists caused by stones or other objects being thrown from bridges on to car windscreens. In investigating this issue the report looks at how three different stakeholder groups view the issue and what they think should be done about it. • Motorists • Police Forces • Road Safety Agencies. The research for this report consisted of extensive desk research, to examine the available literature pertaining to the problem of stones and other objects being thrown into the highways, qualitative interviews with police and other relevant agencies to discover their views of the extent and seriousness of the problem and a survey among motorists themselves. The motorists’ survey was conducted online among a sample of 1,891 motorists with samples spread across all age ranges and geographical locations. Motorists were also asked their typical mileage per annum. Most drove between 5,000 and 9,999 miles (41%) with almost a third driving 10,000 to 19,999 miles (32%). Just under a fifth (19%) drove less than 5,000 miles per annum, with 8% driving 20,000 miles or more. The motorist sample was taken from Toluna UK’s highly profiled, responsive and rigorously maintained online market research panel of over 700,000 participants. Whilst an online sample cannot be fully representative of the UK motorist population, there is no reason to believe that the responses of the large and varied sample achieved would differ significantly from the general motorist population. Respondent information the survey questionnaire and can be found in the report appendix. (Author/publisher)
Abstract