An attempt is made to clarify the relationship between road user behaviour and traffic accidents and to point out those aspects of road-user behaviour that are most intimately related to accident occurrence and its resultant loss. The authors feel that much book and journal space is devoted to describing the difficulties of the driver's task as a perceptual-motor performance and much of the research work is accordingly directed, whereas the critical mostly motivational aspects of the total determination of the driver's behaviour are not generally given sufficient notice. A systematization of the factors determining the driver decision-making process is attempted and as a result a model, based on a kind of closed-loop system, is presented in which the present motives of the driver, together with the subjective risk experienced by him and the expectancies based on the perception of the present situation and previous related experiences, determine his current decision making. The basic idea of the book is to bring more safety on the roads by accepting the road user, such as he is, and to direct the efforts to the other components of the total road-traffic system so that it will provide more safety to the much less alterable human component.
Abstract