ROAD SAFETY (OR LACK THEREOF) IN THE PUBLIC MIND

Transcription

1 ROAD SAFETY (OR LACK THEREOF) IN THE PUBLIC MIND INVESTIGATING TOLERANCE OF UNSAFE ROAD CONDITIONS AND BEHAVIOURS AMONG DRIVER S LICENCE HOLDERS IN QUEBEC November 2011

2 SUMMARY There is a fairly widespread belief in the realm of road safety that the public has collectively resigned itself to the reality of accident statistics, and that a popular culture of indifference, or at best tolerance, has emerged due to the fact that people view road accidents as ordinary phenomena byproducts of the motor vehicle traffic system that are certainly deplorable, but over which, at the end of the day, they have only limited control. The remedy seems henceforth readymade: if we manage to raise public awareness, and convince people to no longer view road accidents as the inevitable product of chance, their level of concern will increase, which in turn will lead to a groundswell of political and citizen action, adoption of safer behaviours and, eventually, fewer crashes. It can be quite tempting to accept this causal chain. It is founded, however, on some fragile assumptions. Are we sure, for example, that the public has minimized the significance of road accident rates? That they generally believe deaths and injuries on our roads to be an ineluctable fact of life? That they are indulgent toward dangerous driving behaviours, and even approve of them? The primary objective of our investigative study was to evaluate the level of tolerance of unsafe road behaviours on the part of driver s licence holders in Quebec, calling into question these a priori assumptions. Our approach was a novel one, especially given our decision to situate the analysis from a cultural perspective, seeking to concentrate much more on what drivers have in common that on what sets them apart by focusing our gaze not especially on their divergent opinions, but on points of view and behaviours that they share. Our investigative study also aimed at verifying the existence of specific subcultures among the driver s licence holder population, via systematic study of inter group variations (gender, age, region of residence, etc.). The study was conducted by means of a questionnaire mailed to a representative sample of the population of driver s licence holders in Quebec. The questionnaire covered five broad topics: degree of knowledge of the road safety record; degree of concern over social insecurity resulting from road accidents; degree of personal insecurity felt; standards of behaviour (personal and those perceived in others); and beliefs and opinions about road accident causes and prevention.

3 Slightly more than 1,700 people completed the questionnaire (response rate: 34%). The final sample was not without flaws, in part because it included only a very small number of student drivers insufficient, in fact, for it to be viewed as adequately representing that part of the driver s licence holder population. An analysis of the other components, however, indicates that our sample conforms to requirements and is fairly representative of the Quebec driver s licence holder population (holders of regular or probationary licences). The margin of error for the overall results is 2.4%, with a 95% confidence interval (i.e., 19 times out of 20). In light of the results observed, one can certainly not conclude that Quebec driver s licence holders are highly tolerant of unsafe road conditions and behaviours. Moreover, the majority tend to fairly severely underestimate the gravity of the road safety record. Despite this, however, they do consider road accidents to be an important social issue, one that deserves to be dealt with and, above all, one that is not necessarily irreparable. If this social conscience has not as of yet led to citizen mobilization of any kind, the main reason is clear: accident risk is not personally felt. People worry little that they themselves may pay the price for unsafe road behaviour. Furthermore, it appears that most of the driving behaviours we presented to respondents virtually all of which correspond either to outright violations of the Highway Safety Code or to transgressions of generally accepted good driving practice by and large do not meet with their approval. It is fairly clear, however, that driver s licence holders tend to believe that others are more accepting of several of those behaviours than they themselves are. A number of inter group differences emerge from the survey results, in particular when it comes to standards of behaviour. Strictly speaking, however, it cannot be claimed that our observations turned up evidence of any genuine subcultures. The main problem that appears to be undermining road culture is that people tend to believe others are tolerant of poor behaviour on the road. Reorienting perceptions of behaviours adopted and approved within the community of driver s licence holders may prove to be a profitable undertaking in more ways than one.

4 CONTENTS Introduction... 1 What do we know about the culture of road users?... 4 The topic of culture in research into user behaviours... 4 Definitions of the culture of road users... 6 Ass umptions about culture and questions that they raise Are we absolutely sure that people are tolerant of the current road safety record?...11 What considerations do members of the public use to assess the significance of unsafe road behaviours?...13 Are we absolutely sure that people today are consciously adopting unsafe behaviours?...17 Objectives of the study...23 Method of inquiry...25 Characteristics of the selected sample...25 Content of the questionnaire...29 Content of the mailed packages and procedures used...30 Procedures for drawing of the 10 prizes of $ Procedures for mass mailing...32 Results...33 Response rates observed per category of respondent...34 Initial distribution of the collected sample...36 Distribution by gender and age...36 Distribution by type of licence held...37 Distribution by language spoken...38 Distribution by region of residence...40 Profile of respondents...42 Degree of knowledge of Quebec s road safety record...55 Concern about social insecurity...62 Concern about personal insecurity...67 Beliefs and opinions about road accident causes and prevention...74 Standards of behaviour...85 Driving behaviours adopted (updated standards)...85 Observed variations due to gender...94 Observed variations due to age...95

5 Observed variations due to language spoken...99 Observed variations due to region of residence Observed variations due to driver profile Summary Driving behaviours adopted by others (descriptive standards) Observed variations due to characteristics of respondents Personally acceptable behaviours (moral standards) Observed variations due to characteristics of respondents Summary Behaviours perceived as acceptable to others (injunctive standards) Observed variations due to characteristics of respondents Observed variations due to gender Observed variations due to language spoken Observed variations due to region of residence Observed variations due to age Summary Unsafe speeds Observed variations due to characteristics of respondents Observed variations due to gender Observed variations due to language spoken Observed variations due to driver profile Observed variations due to region of residence Observed variations due to age Summary Conclusion Summary of observations Discussion Bibliograph y Appendices...188

6 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Table 2: Distribution, by gender and age, of the sample extracted from the SAAQ file Distribution of the sample extracted from the SAAQ file by language spoken, administrative region of residence and type of licence held Table 3: Response rates obtained by main characteristics of respondents Table 4: Initial distribution of sample by gender and age Table 5: Initial distribution of sample by type of licence held Table 6: Initial distribution of sample by language of correspondence and by language most often spoken at home Table 7: Initial distribution of sample by region of residence Table 8: Sociodemographic characteristics of respondents (weighted data) Table 9: Characteristics of respondents with respect to driving (weighted data) Table 10: Table 11: Table 12: Table 13: Table 14: Table 15: Table 16: Table 17: Table 18: Degree of threat to the welfare and safety of the population of Quebec: road accidents compared with other social issues Areas of action worth investing in: The objective of making our roads safer compared with other objectives Frequency with which driver s licence holders believe they themselves are at risk of being involved in a road accident Relative importance ascribed by driver s licence holders in Quebec to various causes of accidents Frequency with which driver s licence holders in Quebec adopt various behaviours Frequency with which driver s licence holders think about the risk of being given a traffic ticket Frequency with which driver s licence holders in Quebec observe other drivers exhibiting the various behaviours under evaluation Degree of acceptability ascribed to the various behaviours by driver s licence holders in Quebec Degree of acceptability of the various driving behaviours that driver s licence holders feel exists in other drivers Table 19: Measures of unsafe speeds, breakdown by gender Table 20: Measures of unsafe speeds, breakdown by language...152

7 Table 21: Measures of unsafe speeds, breakdown by driver profile Table 22: Measures of unsafe speeds, breakdown by region of residence Table 23: Measures of unsafe speeds, breakdown by age...155

8 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Estimates of number of fatalities Figure 2: Estimates of number of seriously injured victims Figure 3: Figure 4: Figure 5: Figure 6: Figure 7: Figure 8: Figure 9: Figure 10: Figure 11: Figure 12: Figure 13: Figure 14: Figure 15: Figure 16: Figure 17: Number of fatalities attributable to road accidents compared with the number of fatalities attributable to other causes Percentages of people who answered that the issues presented are fairly or very threatening to the welfare and safety of the population of Quebec Progress or stagnation of the sense of security among holders of driver s licences in Quebec Perception of driver s licence holders of the risk that they themselves may be responsible for a road accident Percentages of people who answered that the causes presented are often or very often linked to accidents Most road accidents are preventable If drivers were more careful, most accidents could be prevented You can be killed or injured in an accident even if you always drive carefully A driver who fails to obey the rules is not necessarily a dangerous driver It is better to follow the flow of traffic than to obey the letter of the law Percentages of people who answered that they never or only seldom adopt the behaviours presented Percentages of people who answered that they often or very often adopt the behaviours presented Percentages of people who answered that they never or only seldom observe these various behaviours in other drivers Percentages of people who answered that they often or very often observe these various behaviours in other drivers Average of behaviours that driver s licence holders say they adopt compared with that of behaviours that they claim to observe Figure 18: How driver s licence holders judge Quebecers driving behaviours Figure 19: Percentages of people who answered that it would be unacceptable (not at all or not very acceptable) for them to adopt these driving behaviours...123

9 Figure 20: Figure 21: Figure 22: Figure 23: Figure 24: Percentages of people who answered that they have the impression that other drivers find it unacceptable (not at all or not very acceptable) to adopt these driving behaviours Comparison of average degrees of acceptability of the 15 behaviours, as self attributed and as perceived in others Minimum speed at which driver s licence holders feel that driving could become dangerous on a highway where the speed limit is 100 km/h Minimum speed at which driver s licence holders feel that driving could become dangerous on a secondary road where the speed limit is 90 km/h Minimum speed at which driver s licence holders feel that driving could become dangerous on a road in a city or town where the speed limit is 50 km/h...149