Driving is an individual activity practised in cooperation with other road users. A driver therefore should perform his task in the way that satisfies his needs, and at the same time enables others to satisfy their needs. Thus, driving is a kind of social skill, an empathy, an ability to communicate and cooperate, and also to accept and respect a given norm of behaviour. Effectiveness of a norm depends to a certain extent on its internalisation. Identification with a norm is not only a rational process, but also emotional – a driver learns to tolerate and respect others. It is connected with assessment and comparison of own behaviour with other drivers’ behaviour – overestimation of own skills and behaviour compared with others is often an obstacle to internalisation of norms and improvement of own behaviour by a driver. In this chapter, the principal survey results concerning self-reported behaviour and attitudes to other drivers, together with accident risk, are presented. It includes findings about exposure, accident involvement, various aspects of driving style, comparison with other drivers and aggressive behaviour. (Author/publisher)
Abstract