How do drivers behave during indecision zone maneuvers?

Yellow signal indications at intersections are well-known to be a contributor to traffic crashes. This study examined drivers’ behavior during yellow signal indication (i.e., indecision zone) maneuvers. Data from a driving simulator study was used, which included drivers’ performance data when they encountered a yellow signal indication at intersections under different secondary-task conditions. This study calculated drivers’ likelihood to go through a yellow signal indication and examined factors that are related to drivers’ decision making on intersection traversing. The results showed that drivers’ decision on stopping or not at a yellow signal indication was associated with different variables including age, distraction, pedal conditions, and time to stop line. Distracted drivers’ insensitive behavior was also captured from the significant interaction effect between time to stop line and distraction conditions, which implied that intersection related crash risk may increase when drivers were distracted.     

Do young novice drivers overestimate their driving skills more than experienced drivers? Different methods lead to different conclusions

In this study we argue that drivers have to make an assessment of their own driving skills, in order to sufficiently adapt to their task demands in traffic. There are indications that drivers in general, but novice drivers in particular, overestimate their driving skills. However, study results differ on the subject of self-assessment of skills. The objectives of this paper are (1) to study whether novice drivers indeed overestimate their driving skills more than experienced drivers; and (2) to evaluate the influence of the method to measure self-assessment of skills (i.e. comparison to ‘average’ and ‘peer’ driver versus independent measures of own performance). The results show that the conclusion of whether novice drivers overestimate their driving skills is highly affected by the method chosen to measure self-assessment of skills. When drivers are asked to compare themselves to the average and peer driver, we can conclude that novice drivers are not as optimistic about their driving skills as has been reported in the past. They seem to recognize that they are not as skilled (yet) as the average driver. However, when comparing their self-assessment with their actual behaviour there are indications that they overestimate their driving skills.     

Do mental workload and presence experienced when driving a real car predispose drivers to simulator sickness? An exploratory study

This study is aimed at determining whether the simulator sickness (SS) experienced by some drivers is influenced by psychological factors, such as cognitive solicitation, affective factors and a feeling of presence. We also wished to determine whether SS is caused by an individual reaction to the virtual environment (VE) itself or can be attributed to a more general personal predisposition. For this reason, we considered three conditions: driving a simulator, driving one’s own vehicle and driving a school-owned vehicle. Fourteen expert drivers participated in the study. Each drove under a different experimental condition and then responded to various questionnaires (SSQ, NASA-TLX and QPF). Our results showed that it is possible to identify at least three sources of explanation of why some people are more liable to feel sick in a driving simulator.     

How realistic are older drivers’ ratings of their driving ability?

One strategy that can be used by older drivers to guard against age-related declines in driving capability is to regulate their driving. This strategy presumes that self-judgments of driving capability are realistic. We found no significant relationships between older drivers’ hazard perception skill ratings and performance on an objective and validated video-based hazard perception test, even when self-ratings of performance on specific scenarios in the test were used. Self-enhancement biases were found across all components of driving skill, including hazard perception. If older drivers’ judgments of their driving capability are unrealistic, then this may compromise the effectiveness of any self-restriction strategies to reduce crash risk.     

Why Turks do not use seat belts? An interview study

Despite the effectiveness of seat belt use and legislation, seat belt use rate is low in Turkey. The aim of this study was to investigate the motives to use and not to use a seat belt in different traveling conditions in a sample of car drivers and passengers. Interviews were made face to face with 221 interviewees from different age and occupation groups. Frequently reported reasons for using a seat belt were traveling conditions, safety, situational conditions, habit of using a seat belt, and avoiding punishment. Frequently reported reasons for not using a seat belt were situational conditions, not believing in the effectiveness, discomfort and having no habit. Safety was the strongest predictor of reported seat belt use in both low and high risk traveling conditions. Findings suggest that seat belt campaigns should mainly emphasize seat belt's safety impact and aim at habit formation.     

Where do novice and experienced drivers direct their attention on approach to urban rail level crossings?

Crashes at rail level crossings (RLXs) remain a persistent but ill-defined safety issue. In urban areas, RLXs are typically located in areas of high workload and visual clutter, such as busy shopping strips. Despite this, the impact of such environments on driver behaviour and compliance with RLX controls is not well understood. This study sought to examine where drivers direct their attention on approach to urban RLXs located in busy shopping strip areas, and whether this differs between novice and experienced drivers. Participants drove an instrumented vehicle around a pre-defined urban route containing several active (flashing light with boom barriers) RLXs. Drivers’ visual scanning behaviour and cognitive processes were examined on approach to RLXs. The results suggest that RLXs were not a key focus of drivers’ attention. Further, rather than actively scanning, participants were over-reliant on RLX warning signals and the behaviour of surrounding vehicles to alert them to the presence of both trains and RLXs. This study provides important insights into drivers’ visual and cognitive behaviour on approach to urban RLXs located in areas of high visual demand.     

How do Price medalists’ scholarly impact change before and after their awards?

Scientometrics - How a scholar's achievement and productivity may change by the award of an academic prize is a topic of a long-term interest in research fields such as scientometrics. Numerous...     

How do top management team characteristics affect digital orientation? Exploring the internal driving forces of firm digitalization

The top management team (TMT) plays a key role in the process of the firm digital transformation. However, few studies have focused on the impact of TMT characteristics on the digital orientation of firms. In this paper, we simultaneously explore the impact of the dispersion, aggregation, and background characteristics of TMT on the digital orientation of firms. Based on the upper echelons theory and strategic orientation theory, we propose that the diversity and average education level of TMT positively impact firms' digital orientation. The average age and tenure of TMT have a negative impact on the digital orientation of firms. The overseas and financial backgrounds of TMT members have a positive impact on the digital orientation of firms. Our hypothesis was tested using large-scale longitudinal data and computer-aided text analysis methods from Chinese listed companies. This paper provides useful supplements to early research on digital driving factors and digital orientation in emerging economies, and also provides more universal suggestions for digital practices in firms.     

Why do people switch mobile payment service platforms? An empirical study in Taiwan

Although an increasing number of studies have recently investigated mobile payment service (MPS) platform user behaviours, the majority of these studies have focused on user adoption. However, user switching behaviour has been paid limited attention as yet. The current study investigates critical antecedents of user switching intention of MPS platform drawing on the perspective of the push-pull-mooring framework. The proposed model was empirically tested with 612 valid responses collected using on-line questionnaire survey in Taiwan. The results of this study revealed that user regret, alternative attractiveness, perceived complementarity of the alternative, and perceived network size of the alternative positively relate to user intention to switch. The most critical push effect driving MPS platform users to switch is user regret caused by dissatisfaction with system quality and information quality, especially in terms of system stability and visual attractiveness. In terms of pull effects, the improvement of alternative attractiveness and perceived network size of the alternative should be paid more attention, so thereby expanding their provision of complementary resources can be considered as an effective tactic. Furthermore, inertia is also negatively associated with user switching intention. Of all of the sources of inertia, uncertainty costs are a major crucial mooring effect. The performance of sunk costs still leaves much to be increased because of the insufficient user use and investment in the incumbent MPS platform. The findings will be helpful for MPS platform practitioners when fully comprehending users’ switching behaviour and formulating appropriate strategies to retain existing users while still attracting potential new users.     

Are aggressive people aggressive drivers? A study of the relationship between self-reported general aggressiveness, driver anger and aggressive driving

In this study the relationships among self-reported general aggressiveness, impulsiveness, driver anger, and aggressive responses to anger-provoking situations on the road were studied. The British version of a driver anger scale (UK DAS), aggression questionnaire (AQ), and an impulsiveness questionnaire (I7) together with background questions (gender, age, annual mileage) were administered to a sample of 270 British drivers. Variation in strength of correlations between anger and aggressive reactions in the 21 UK DAS items showed that the relationship between driver anger and aggression depends in part on the characteristics of the situation. In addition, three path models for describing the relationships among the measures were constructed separately for women and men. The models suggested that the effects of verbal aggressiveness on self-reported driver aggression were mediated by driver anger whereas physical aggressiveness was directly related to aggressive behaviour. Age was negatively related to both driver anger and aggression among men whereas annual mileage was negatively related to aggression among women. The models constructed indicate that aggressive driver behaviour is a complex phenomenon with a range of psychological causes.     

How do prolonged wakefulness and alcohol compare in the decrements they produce on a simulated driving task?

The effects of alcohol ingestion were compared with those of prolonged wakefulness on a simulated driving task. Eighteen healthy, male subjects aged between 19 and 35 years drove for 30 min on a simulated driving task at blood alcohol concentrations of 0.00, 0.05 and 0.08%. Subjective sleepiness was assessed before and after the driving task. Driving performance was measured in terms of the mean and standard deviation (S.D.) of lane position (tracking); the mean and S.D. of speed deviation (the difference between the actual speed and the posted speed limit); and the number of off-road occurrences. Ratings of sleepiness increased with increasing blood alcohol concentration, and were higher following the driving task. With increasing blood alcohol concentration, tracking variability, speed variability, and off-road events increased, while speed deviation decreased, the result of subjects driving faster. The results were compared with a previous study examining simulated driving performance during one night of prolonged wakefulness [Arnedt, J.T., MacLean A.W., 1996. Effects of sleep loss on urban and motorway driving stimulation performance. Presented at the Drive Alert... Arrive Alive International Forum, Washington DC], using an approach adopted by Dawson and Reid [Dawson, D., Reid, K., 1997. Fatigue, alcohol and performance impairment. Nature 388, 23]. For mean tracking, tracking variability, and speed variability 18.5 and 21 h of wakefulness produced changes of the same magnitude as 0.05 and 0.08% blood alcohol concentration, respectively. Alcohol consumption produced changes in speed deviation and off-road occurrences of greater magnitude than the corresponding levels of prolonged wakefulness. While limited to situations in which there is no other traffic present, the findings suggest that impairments in simulated driving are evident even at relatively modest blood alcohol levels, and that wakefulness prolonged by as little as 3 h can produce decrements in the ability to maintain speed and road position as serious as those found at the legal limits of alcohol consumption.     

How accurately does the public perceive differences in transport risks? An exploratory analysis of scales representing perceived risk

This paper probes the extent to which the public accurately perceives differences in transport risks. The paper is based on a survey of a random sample of the Norwegian population, conducted in September 2003. In the survey, respondents were asked: "How safe do you think it is to travel by means of (bus, train, etc.)?" Answers were given as: very safe, safe, a little unsafe, and very unsafe. A cursory examination of the answers suggested that the Norwegian public was quite well informed about differences in the risk of accident between different modes of transport, as well as between groups formed according to age and gender for each mode of transport. This paper probes the relationship between statistical estimates of risk and summary representations of perceived risk more systematically. It is found that the differences in fatality rate between different modes of transport are quite well perceived by the Norwegian public, irrespective of the way in which perceived risk is represented numerically. The relationship between statistical estimates of risk and numerical representations of perceived risk for each mode of transport is more sensitive to the choice of a numerical representation of perceived risk. A scale in which the answer "very safe" is assigned the value of 0.01 and the answer "very unsafe" is assigned the value of 10 is found to perform quite well. When the perception of risk is represented numerically according to this scale, a positive correlation between statistically estimated risk and perceived risk is found in seven of the eight comparisons that were made to determine how well variation in accident rates according to age and gender for car occupants, car drivers, cyclists and pedestrians are perceived.     

Excellent gamer, excellent driver? The impact of adolescents' video game playing on driving behavior: a two-wave panel study

This study explored the impact of adolescents’ playing of racing and drive’em up games on their risky driving behavior. Participants were 354 adolescent boys and girls who took part in a longitudinal panel survey on video game playing and risk taking attitudes, intentions and behaviors. In line with cultivation theory and theory of planned behavior the results showed that (even after controlling for aggression and sensation seeking) video game playing during adolescence succeeded in predicting later risky driving behavior through adolescents’ attitudes and intentions to exhibit this behavior in the future. The results suggest that this relationship may in part be explained by the game content.