General attitudes of car drivers to enforcement of traffic regulations are reported. These were obtained from the SARTRE database covering drivers in 13 European Union countries. The analysis looks at how individual differences relate to a single ‘enforcement index’ that reflects drivers’ general support for (or opposition to) enforcement. The results show that: drivers who are female, old, married or widowed, professionally non-active, with low annual kilometrages, long driving experience and reporting no involvement in road accident, are more likely to be in favour of enforcement of traffic regulations; drivers who are male, young, single, professionally independent, with high annual kilometrages, short-to-medium driving experience and reporting having had road accident(s), are more likely to be opposed to enforcement of traffic regulations; differences between countries are considerable, partly due to the different composition of their driving populations regarding the factors listed earlier; however, the ‘best practice’ adopted in some (safer) countries could be used as a model for improving enforcement measures in other countries. (Author/publisher) For an overview off all working papers and deliverables of the ESCAPE project, see http://virtual.vtt.fi/virtual/proj6/escape/deliver.htm
Abstract