Case study 3: Psychology of driving Flashcards
What is traffic psychology?
the study of the behavior of road users and the psychological processes underlying that behavior
-draws on lots of different areas of psychology
Who are road users?
Anyone who is out on the road
What would the psychology of human drivers be classified as?
a topic in applied cognition or human factors
How many deaths per year on roads? What will it rise to by 2020?
1.24 million, will rise to 1.9 mill without action
How many are injured or disabled?
20-50 million
What # cause of death is it?
8th
It is the #1 cause of death among what age-group?
15-29 years
50% of those dying on the world’s roads are what?
vulnerable road users e.g. pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists
What is the economic cost of road traffic crashes?
$592 billion
By 2020, road fatalities will increase by what % in low and middle-income countries, but decline by what in high-income countries?
increase by 80% low-income, decline by 30% high-income
Has Australia’s road injury declined or increased? And despite what?
declined (despite more road users)
What are the two things that brought our road toll down?
- compulsory seatbelts
- RBT
What % does wearing a seatbelt for front-seat passengers reduce death by?
40-65%
What type of road users have the highest death rate?
drivers
What is the age group that has the most deaths?
17-20 & 70s plus
Is there usual a single cause for crashes?
rarely a single cause, but a ‘causal chain’ of events
What are the main causes of crashes, in order?
- speed
- fatigue
- alcohol
- no seatbelt
Why focus on fatalities?
- most reliable and detailed source of stats
- the statistics > modelling > make forecsts
In order from top to bottom, what are the facets of the ‘Accident Pyramid’
- fatality
- severe injury
- minor injury
- near miss
- unsafe acts (behaviour)
Discuss three unintended actions in James Reason’s Taxonomy of Errors or ‘human malfunctions’
- attentional failures (distractions)
- memory failures (forgetting in a school zone)
- rule and knowledge based mistakes (being in wrong lane for roundabout)
What is the intended action in James Reason’s Taxonomy of Errors or ‘human malfunctions’
Intentional non-compliance
What is the universal problem re driving?
young male adults!
What % of all global road traffic fatalities are male?
73%
What area of the brain is relevant to the high road toll death of young male drivers?
prefrontal cortex
What is the main reason young drivers are so vulnerable?
Inexperience
Drivers aged 21 years are how many times more involved in crashes than drivers aged 21 years or more?
3 times
