Driving speed (or more specifically ‘driving too fast for the conditions’) is widely recognised as being one of the main contributory factors in traffic accidents (Treat, 1980; Taylor, 1999). Additionally a large number of studies have examined the accident risk factor associated with driving speed (Taylor et al., 2000). Taylor et al. (2002) found that a 1 mph increase in speed was associated, on average, with a 5 per cent increase in accident involvement - although this relationship did vary depending on a number of factors such as the type of road, accident severity and traffic density. There are many factors that influence the speed at which a driver chooses to drive (Quimby et al., 1999a, 1999b), while surveys of drivers caught speeding (Simon et al., 1991, Kanellaidis et al., 1995) also reveal a variety of reasons that can be either temporary (e.g. “I’m in a hurry”; “I didn’t know the speed limit”) or more permanent (e.g. “I’m more skilled that other drivers so can drive faster and still be safe”; “This car is designed to be safe when driven fast”). The type of vehicle driven, the posted speed limit and the perceived likelihood of enforcement will also be important in determining a driver’s choice of speed in addition to a number of psycho-social factors that have been found to influence speed (e.g. enjoyment of driving fast and speeding because of pressure of work). Additionally, factors such as whether the driver is accompanied or not and the driver’s relationship with the passenger (e.g. peer group friend or elderly relative) and the purpose of the journey have been shown to influence driving speed. Many of these various factors can be considered under the umbrella term of ‘attitudes’ - so that a driver’s attitudes to issues such as speed, risk, speed limits, enforcement and perceptions of their own and other’s driving behaviour are important in determining their behaviour and how safely they drive. The survey contained a number of questions that obtained information on different aspects of speed and speeding. These included: • Drivers’ perceptions of their speed and safety compared to other drivers; • How often they and other drivers exceeded the speed limit; • How ‘often driving too fast’ contributed to accidents; • Speed related self-reported behaviours, such as driving through amber traffic signals and overtaking when they could ‘just make it’; • Existing speed limits and enforcement activity; • Their enjoyment of speed, and • Accident involvement. The survey provided information on drivers’ attitudes to both ‘speed’ (irrespective of the speed limit) and ‘speeding’ (where speed is related to exceeding the speed limit). A number of these questions were also included in earlier SARTRE surveys so that it was possible (for some countries) to see how things had changed in the intervening period; see chapter 1 for more details of previous surveys (e.g. dates and number of countries involved) and chapter 11 for a more detailed analysis of changes over the three surveys. The SARTRE 3 survey was conducted in 14 countries that were member of the European Union (Luxemburg was the only member that did not take part), 7 ‘candidate’ countries (i.e. countries hoping to join the European Union in the future), Switzerland and Croatia. When presenting the results it was decided - for convenience when interpreting the findings results – to group the European Union and non-European Union countries. This meant that Switzerland was included amongst the non-European Union countries (although in terms of economics, politics and transport infrastructure it is perhaps more ‘similar’ to the other European Union countries); and Croatia was grouped with the other candidate countries although it has yet to formally ‘apply’ to join. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting