Advances in Traffic Psychology

Traffic psychology is a rapidly expanding and broad field within applied psychology with a considerable volume of research activities and a growing network of academic strands of enquiry. The discipline primarily focuses on the behaviour of road users and the psychological processes underlying these behaviours, looking at issues such as cognition, distraction, fatigue, personality and social aspects, often delivering practical applications and educational interventions. Traffic psychology has been the focus of research for almost as long as the motor car has been in existence and was first recognised as a discipline in 1990 when the International Association of Applied Psychology formed Division 13: Traffic and Transportation Psychology. The benefits of understanding traffic psychology are being increasingly recognised by a whole host of organisations keen to improve road safety or minimise health and safety risks when travelling in vehicles. The objective of this volume is to describe and discuss recent advances in the study of traffic psychology, with a major focus on how the field contributes to the understanding of at-risk road-user behaviour. The intended readerships include road-safety researchers from a variety of different academic backgrounds, senior practitioners in the field including regulatory authorities, the private and public sector personnel, and vehicle manufacturers concerned with improving road safety.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Preface; Part I Driver Personality, Emotions and Stress: Driven by anger: the causes and consequences of anger during virtual journeys, Amanda N. Stephens and John A. Groeger; Urban and rural differences in attitudes related to risky driving behaviour: the role of sensation seeking and risk perception, Matthew Coogan, Sonja Forward, Jean-Pascal Assailly and Thomas Adler; Executive function development and stress effects on driving performance: preliminary findings from a young adult sample, Melanie J. White, Ross McD. Young and Andry Rakotonirainy; Effects of sadness on driver's behaviour: an empirical study using emotional induction and a driving simulator, Christelle Pêcher, Céline Lemercier and Jean-Marie Cellier. Part II Driver Distraction and Inattention: A roadside survey of driving distractions in Austria, Mark Sullman and Max Metzger; Personality and demographic predictors of aggressive and distracted driving, Harold Stanislaw; Impact of inattention provoked by sadness on older drivers' behaviour, Céline Lemercier and Christelle Pêcher; Distracting effects of radio news and the effects on train operator performance, Masayoshi Shigemori, Ayanori Sato, Yusuke Shinpo and Nobuo Ohta. Part III Vulnerable Road Users: Typical human errors in traffic accidents involving powered two-wheelers, Magali Jaffard and Pierre van Elslande; Applicability of learner driver research to learner motorcyclists, Narelle Haworth and Peter Rowden; Influence of cognitive bias on young cyclists' road crossing intentions at non-signalized intersections, Yasunori Kinosada and Shinnosuke Usui. Part IV Hazard Perception and Risk: Driver fatigue: the perils of vehicle automation, Gerald Matthews, Catherine E. Neubauer, Dyani J. Saxby and Lisa K. Langheim; Knowledge of traffic hazards - does it make a difference for safety?, Anders af WÃ¥hlberg and Lisa Dorn; The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and speeding behaviour of young drivers, Catherine Ferguson, Lynne Cohen, Julie Ann Pooley and Andrew Guilfoyle; Older drivers' hazard perception performance, Tania Dukic, Emelie Eriksson and Fridulv Sagberg; Predicting traffic accident rates: human values add predictive power to age and gender, Ivars Austers, Viesturs Renge and Inese Muzikante; Examining the evidence that drugs impair driving: some recent findings from the Drugs and Driving Research Unit (DDRU) at Swinburne University, Con Stough, Rebecca King, Luke Downey and Edward Ogden; Effects of snowfall on seat-belt use, Özlem Simsekoglu and Timo Lajunen; Differences in driving behaviours between elderly drivers and middle-aged drivers at intersections, Nozomi Renge, MasahiroTada, Kazumi Renge and Shinnosuke Usui; Older drivers' reasons for continuing to drive, Tsuneo Matsuura. Part V Driver Behaviour and Driving Simulation: A tandem model of proceduralization (automaticity) in driving, Samuel G. Charlton and Nicola J. Starkey; Road-rail level crossings: expectations and behaviour, Jessica Edquist, Christina M. Rudin-Brown and Michael Lenné; Stochastic changes in driver reaction time with arousal state, Takahiro Yoshioka, Shuji Mori, Yuji Matsuki and Osamu Uekusa. Part VI Technology in Vehicles and User Acceptance: Using local road features and participatory design for self-explaining roads, Samuel G. Charlton; Behavioural adaptation as a consequence of extended use of low-speed backing aids, Christina M. Rudin-Brown, Peter C. Burns, Lisa Hagen, Shelley Roberts and Andrea Scipione; Enhancing sustainability of electric vehicles: a field study approach to understanding user acceptance and behaviour, Thomas Franke, Franziska Bühler, Peter Cocron, Isabel Neumann and Josef F. Krems; Index.