The attitudes of western Australian drivers to 40 different types of driver behaviour were measured. An anonymous mail questionnaire was sent to a sample of the general driving population and to eight groups of motorists who had been convicted of previous traffic offences. The eight traffic offences were disobeying a traffic sign, disobeying a traffic light, not wearing a seat belt, driving under the influence of alcohol, driving with a blood alcohol level exceeding 0.08, driving a vehicle with a vehicle defect, speeding in a 110 km/h zone and speeding in a 60 km/h zone. The response rate for the randomly selected sample was 52 per cent. An overall response rate of 48 per cent was achieved for the study. Respondents were asked to rate their opinion of driving behaviours on a scale ranging from acceptable to extremely serious. Of the 40 driving behaviours chosen for inclusion in this study, driving with a blood alcohol level well over the legal limit was rated as the most serious by respondents. The attitudes of the randomly selected group of motorists were compared with those of each of the eight groups of motorists with prior convictions. Where statistically significant variations in attitudes occurred, the traffic violation groups displayed a more tolerant attitude to drivers committing traffic offences. Seat belt and speeding offenders' attitudes differed most from the attitudes of the randomly selected group of motorists. (A)
Abstract