Case study 3: Psychology of driving

Question 1

What is traffic psychology?

Answer 1

the study of the behavior of road users and the psychological processes underlying that behavior
-draws on lots of different areas of psychology

Question 2

Who are road users?

Answer 2

Anyone who is out on the road

Question 3

What would the psychology of human drivers be classified as?

Answer 3

a topic in applied cognition or human factors

Question 4

How many deaths per year on roads? What will it rise to by 2020?

Answer 4

1.24 million, will rise to 1.9 mill without action

Question 5

How many are injured or disabled?

Answer 5

20-50 million

Question 6

What # cause of death is it?

Answer 6

8th

Question 7

It is the #1 cause of death among what age-group?

Answer 7

15-29 years

Question 8

50% of those dying on the world’s roads are what?

Answer 8

vulnerable road users e.g. pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists

Question 9

What is the economic cost of road traffic crashes?

Answer 9

$592 billion

Question 10

By 2020, road fatalities will increase by what % in low and middle-income countries, but decline by what in high-income countries?

Answer 10

increase by 80% low-income, decline by 30% high-income

Question 11

Has Australia’s road injury declined or increased? And despite what?

Answer 11

declined (despite more road users)

Question 12

What are the two things that brought our road toll down?

Answer 12

• compulsory seatbelts

- RBT

Question 13

What % does wearing a seatbelt for front-seat passengers reduce death by?

Answer 13

40-65%

Question 14

What type of road users have the highest death rate?

Answer 14

drivers

Question 15

What is the age group that has the most deaths?

Answer 15

17-20 & 70s plus

Question 16

Is there usual a single cause for crashes?

Answer 16

rarely a single cause, but a ‘causal chain’ of events

Question 17

What are the main causes of crashes, in order?

Answer 17

1. speed
2. fatigue
3. alcohol
4. no seatbelt

Question 18

Why focus on fatalities?

Answer 18

• most reliable and detailed source of stats

- the statistics > modelling > make forecsts

Question 19

In order from top to bottom, what are the facets of the ‘Accident Pyramid’

Answer 19

1. fatality
2. severe injury
3. minor injury
4. near miss
5. unsafe acts (behaviour)

Question 20

Discuss three unintended actions in James Reason’s Taxonomy of Errors or ‘human malfunctions’

Answer 20

• attentional failures (distractions)
• memory failures (forgetting in a school zone)
• rule and knowledge based mistakes (being in wrong lane for roundabout)

Question 21

What is the intended action in James Reason’s Taxonomy of Errors or ‘human malfunctions’

Answer 21

Intentional non-compliance

Question 22

What is the universal problem re driving?

Answer 22

young male adults!

Question 23

What % of all global road traffic fatalities are male?

Answer 23

73%

Question 24

What area of the brain is relevant to the high road toll death of young male drivers?

Answer 24

prefrontal cortex

Question 25

What is the main reason young drivers are so vulnerable?

Answer 25

Inexperience

Question 26

Drivers aged 21 years are how many times more involved in crashes than drivers aged 21 years or more?

Answer 26

3 times