Responsibility for reducing road-related injuries and fatalities lies in the hands of a large number of diverse groups. Safety performance must be measured on more than one front, which is why acquiring data from other sources is so important. One type of data that is often overlooked in many jurisdictions is that derived from public surveys. Organizations that use public surveys consistently do so to determine not only general attitudes towards road safety but also, and more specifically, to measure indicators such as driver experience with enforcement, their self-reported driving behavior, their perception of the likelihood of being detected and fined for contravening the rules of the road, and so on. The information extracted from the surveys provides police, government, and other agencies with valuable data to help measure the effectiveness of their programs and to develop improvement strategies. If made available publicly, the information also generates more media interest, elevating the issue of road safety within the public consciousness. Social change is slow, as witnessed by the twenty years required to change attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors around the issues of impaired driving and restraint device use. It is only through regular and consistent measurement that these changes can be tracked.
Abstract