Traffic Crimes and risky driving: The role of personality and driving anger

The current study aims to examine the influence of personality traits (alternative Zuckerman model) and driving anger in the explanation of risky driving style in individuals convicted for road safety offences (N = 245), using as a basis an adaptation of the context-mediated model. This is a transversal, descriptive study designed to be implemented by means of surveys, in which took part 245 men convicted of road safety offences from five prisons in Galicia (a region in northwestern Spain) took part. The average age of the participants was 38.73 years (Sx-9.61), with a range between 18 and 64 years. All participants had three or more years of driving experience. Our data shows that the Impulsive-Sensation Seeking (Imp-SS) personality trait had a direct and positive effect on dangerous driving, while the Activity (Act) trait had a direct but negative effect. The Aggression-Hostility (Agg-Host) trait, in turn, influenced the risky driving style, but not directly, but by raising driving anger levels, so it acted as a powerful mediator between the Aggression-Hostility (Agg-Hos) trait and the risky driving style. In general, our research partially replicates and expands previous findings regarding the model used, the aggression-hostility personality trait (Agg-Host) was placed in the distal context, driving anger in the proximal context, while age and personality traits Activity (Act) and Impulsive-Sensation Seeking (Imp-SS) were direct predictors. The results of this study may have practical implications for the detection and rehabilitation of offenders and penalties for road safety offences.

Left-Turn Driving Behavior Based On Situational Anger: Day Or Night

Anger is a key factor affecting drivers' subjective judgment and driving skills. The influence of anger on driving behavior has been widely studied, but there is a lack of comparative research under different lighting conditions. Through driving simulation experiment, this paper studies the influence of anger on left-turn driving behavior under two light conditions of day and night. In the experiment, 32 licensed participants were divided into two groups, one in emotional neutrality and the other in anger. Among them, the emotional state of anger is induced by a traffic related video. The results showed that compared with daytime participants, participants at night had higher anger intensity, shorter gap acceptance and post encroachment time (PET) when left-turn driving. In addition, compared with emotion neutral participants, angry participants tended to accept shorter gap acceptance and post encroachment time (PET) when turning left. This indicates that participants failed to respond correctly to left-turn driving behavior in a state of anger. However, the response of gender differences to situational driving anger was not affected by light conditions. The anger intensity of male participants during the day and night was higher than that of female participants, and the gap acceptance and post encroachment time (PET) during left-turn were shorter than that of female participants. This shows that male participants are more likely to produce high-intensity anger and are more likely to make dangerous driving decisions in a state of anger. This paper puts forward some suggestions on the identification of anger and the prevention of angry driving.

Factors influencing safety perceptions and cycling frequency of people who grew up in different mobility cultures

Denmark is one of the world’s leading cycling countries. For most new residents coming from abroad, the Danish cycling culture strongly contrasts with the mobility culture of their country of origin. Based on an online survey including students and knowledge workers who grew up in Denmark (n=106) and abroad (n=148), this study examined safety perception and cycling frequency of both groups. We found a significant increase of foreigner’s self-reported safety perceptions and cycling frequencies after moving to Denmark. In regression analyses, we found that age of learning to cycle, experiencing anger from car drivers, stress and being unaware of cycling rules had an effect on safety perception. Stress and driving anger were significant factors for the sub-sample of newcomers, but not for Danes. Attitude towards cycling and cycling norm in the country of origin (measured based on a new 6-item cycling norm index, CNI) were significant factors of cycling frequency. Unlike our expectations, a low CNI increased cycling frequency in Denmark. Newcomers’ cycling frequency was additionally influenced by the age of learning to cycle. Based on the results, it seems advisable to help newcomers to cycling countries to get familiar with formal and informal cycling rules to reduce their stress and make them feel safer when cycling. While this will probably reduce conflicts with car drivers, efforts to reduce car drivers’ anger expression against cyclists also need to be increased.