Speed and motivation

This literature study focuses on the preparation of surveys to be presented to road users (both motorists as well as vulnerable road users) in regard to areas within and beyond their own residential neighbourhoods. The purpose of these surveys is to provide data about motivations road users have in regard to how fast they travel on the roads and what they think about the driving speed of others. Theinformation thus collected has consequences for the form and content of the questions that can be asked as well as for the content of possible information campaigns. As far as the form of the questions is concerned, determining an attitude is based on asking two kinds of questions: a question about the probability that a certain behaviour will lead to a certain consequence, and a question about how the respondent evaluates that consequence. These answers are then multiplied by one another during statistical analysis. Additional processing of these products (correlations, factor analysis) places high demands on the character of the original scales; this processing is possible only by using ratio scales. Since many attitude studies about speed and other traffic behaviour fail to take this rule into account, basing results on them becomes very difficult if not impossible. As to the content of the questionnaires and information campaigns, both established and newly developed concepts can be found in the literature pertaining to road safety psychology and social psychology. Traditional methods of measuring attitude sometimes ignore the possibility that new motivations are going to be a factor and underestimate the factor of feelings people may have in the future. This study, however, provides an overview of what is known about the influence of attitudes, as well as the possible influencing of attitudes, in regard to speed, speed control measures and the speed of other road users. Attention is requested for such attitude characteristics as strength, accessibility, ambivalence, importance and consistency as well as for the difference between cognitive and affective aspects. The behaviour of road users in regard to driving speed is affected by the driving speed of fellow road users and by how people evaluate the opinions and reactions of significant others (family, friends, the government, police and passengers). The relative importance of attitudes and social norms depends on the kind of road in question. People are not only subject to but also exert social influences. Information campaigns can make use of this fact. People's intentions and behaviours are also affected by the control people think they have over their behaviour. People not only have the feeling that it is difficult to control driving speed behaviour, but they also overestimate their own ability to control the consequences of speed. Attitudes can be seen as anticipated emotions: people weigh the advantages against the disadvantages as well as the pleasant and unpleasant feelings to be expected. These do not necessarily have to agree with the emotions that will arise when the time comes. Gradually, more and more is becoming known about the effect that emotions have on the choice of a certain speed and on the assessment of another person's speed, as well as about the use of emotional appeals in campaigns. Such emotions as guilt, regret, fear, anger, boredom and pleasure occupy an important place here. Emotion theory offers a good framework for studying these emotions as the basis for motivations. Attention is requested for investigating moods since moods appear to be important for all kinds of operations and behaviours. Finally, personality characteristics are investigated. People vary in their propensities for experiencing emotions such as fearfulness as well as the way in which they manage their emotions. The most familiar factor in speed behaviour is that of sensation-seeking. The need to control difficult situations is probably a primary factor in driving at higher speeds; the need for danger plays a lesser role. A second possibility is aggression. Aggression probably leads to all kinds of dangerous behaviour, including driving at high speeds