The principal aim of this study is to learn more about behaviour patterns and interactions which are reasons for the social climate. Social climate is the main precondition for cooperation and considerate behaviour, i.e. safety. Traffic conflicts and accidents are interpreted as a breakdown in interaction. Basic hypotheses are: (1) The traffic climate (as an analogy to social climate) has great responsibility for conflict in traffic. (2) The character of interaction and communication in traffic is an important factor for traffic safety. (3) The social conflict concept in a new perspective plays an important part in road traffic. An important criterion for assessing social climate is presence of interpersonal conflicts - a special form of interaction where people try to ensure that their interests etc are realised, even though they may be contradictory to interests of others - and type or style of their solution. The results of a study in which the route was divided into sections where: speeds are high; visual perception and distance keeping have an important role; turning right or left is difficult; interactions with pedestrians or cyclists were recorded; show that, generally, there are more positive or friendly reactions than unfriendly or dangerous ones, although there were some sections where there were more unfriendly reactions than actions.
Abstract