The road user behaviour of New Zealand adolescents

Original article can be found at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13698478 Copyright Elsevier Ltd. DOI: 10.1016/j.trf.2009.09.002The present study aimed to describe the road user behaviour of New Zealand adolescents and to investigate the applicability of the Adolescent Road user Behaviour Questionnaire (ARBQ) to New Zealand adolescents. In total 944 adolescents were surveyed in the North and South islands of New Zealand. Factor analysis of the scale produced three factors which had acceptable internal reliability and were very similar to those found in the original research. The three factors were “unsafe crossing behaviour”, “playing on the road” and “planned protective behaviour”. This research also found that males and those who were at least part Maori were more likely to put themselves at risk by playing on the road. Furthermore, those who identified themselves as being part Maori also engaged in unsafe road crossing behaviour more often than Caucasian and Asian adolescents. Interestingly, only the interaction effect between age and sex was significantly related to engagement in planned protective behaviour. However, despite differences between New Zealand and England, and differences in the sample characteristics, the scale appeared to be measuring the same latent variables. Therefore, this research confirmed that the ARBQ is a useful tool for investigating the behaviour of adolescents on the road.Peer reviewe

Increasing seatbelt usage in logging skidders through behaviour modification and seatbelt design : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology at Massey University

This study examined methods for increasing seatbelt usage in one type of heavy logging machine (the skidder). This machine is used extensively for extracting felled trees and transporting them from where they are cut down to a central processing area. Preliminary investigations suggested that the operators of these machines failed to wear their seatbelts because they were poorly designed and because the operators simply forgot. A survey of the literature on increasing safety behaviours found that the two most powerful techniques were behaviour modification and human factors engineering (or ergonomics). Therefore, these were the two techniques used here. The standard seatbelts were redesigned to make them easier to use and an orange flashing reminder light was installed into the machines of seven full-time skidder operators. These machines were operating in either Kaingaroa, Rotoehu, Tahorakuri or Te Whakao Forests in the central North Island of New Zealand. The experiment used a multiple baseline single subject design, with the subjects receiving each treatment twice. With the installation of the redesigned seatbelt, mean seatbelt usage for six subjects rose from 21% to 31%. One subject refused to wear a seatbelt throughout the experiment. Installing the reminder light increased seatbelt usage by a further 1%. Removing the new seatbelt design caused usage to drop 16%. A further decrease of 5% occurred with the return to baseline phase when the reminder light had also been removed. The second introduction of the new seatbelt resulted in an increase in usage from 10% to a mean level of 46%. This was increased a further 22% with the reintroduction of the reminder light. The results showed that an easier to use seatbelt in combination with a reminder light can increase the level of seatbelt usage. The results also provide further evidence of the power of both behaviour modification techniques and human factors engineering in the field of occupational safety

Social desirability and self-reported driving behaviours: Should we be worried?

Original article can be found at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13698478 Copyright Elsevier Ltd.There is widespread use of self-report measures of driving behaviour in the traffic psychology literature, despite the frequent criticism that such measures are subject to social desirability bias. However, no research has yet investigated the more recently developed measures of driving anxiety and avoidance behaviour for socially desirable responding. Furthermore, relatively little research has investigated the issue of socially desirable responding on self-reported driver behaviour in general, and that which does exist has several shortcomings. The present study used a repeated measures design to assess the effect of social desirability on a measure of driving avoidance, the Driving and Riding Avoidance Scale (DRAS), and the Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ). A sample of 228 undergraduate students completed the DRAS, DBQ and a measure of socially desirable responding in class, which constituted a public place, and then again 2 months later in the privacy of their homes. None of the DBQ items were significantly different across the two locations. However, two of the DRAS general avoidance items were higher in the public setting, perhaps demonstrating the effect of socially desirable responding on driving avoidance due to environmental or practical concern. Nevertheless, overall it appears as though the DRAS and DBQ are not particularly vulnerable to socially desirable responding, although further well-designed research on the effects of such bias on these and other self-report measures of driving behaviour should be undertaken.Peer reviewe

Factors Influencing the Effective Life of Chainsaw Protective Legwear

In 1983, chainsaw cuts to the leg accounted for 29% of all reported lost time accidents in the New Zealand logging industry. The introduction of protective legwear reduced this figure to 8% in 1986. Since this time chainsaw cuts to the leg have continued to account for more than 5% of all injuries. There were several possible explanations for this failure to eliminate chainsaw cuts to the leg, including the deterioration of the protective legwear over time. Therefore, two research projects were established. The first attempted to find out how long the legwear was able to protect the user at the level required by the New Zealand Standard. This research found that the legwear failed after 6 months use by loggers working in New Zealand plantation forests. The second project was established to determine which factors caused the deterioration of the legwear's protective properties. This project found that exposure to even small quantities of oil resulted in the legwear comprehensively failing the New Zealand Standards test

Driving distractions: an insight gained from roadside interviews on their prevalence and factors associated with driver distraction

The present research investigated the proportion of drivers that engage in a wide range of observable and unobservable driving distractions, along with a number of variables associated with driver distraction. A total of 426 semi-structured interviews were performed, with the results weighed according to the proportion of driver licences among city residents of each gender and age group (18–24, 25–44, 45–64, and 65+). Drivers were most inclined to think about phone-related activities when asked about driving distractions, although the vast majority also recognised that a wide variety of other activities can be regarded as distractions. Drivers were aware of the ban on handheld mobile phone activities, but their knowledge of the law was less accurate in relation to other illegal activities, such as manipulating a SatNav while driving. Almost 90% of participants reported engaging in distractions while driving, such as: looking at something outside the vehicle, thinking about things unrelated to the driving task and manipulating the audio entertainment system. The figures for text messaging, having a handheld or hands-free conversation were also relatively high (43.7%, 32.2%, and 25.4%, respectively). Texting while driving was perceived to be the most dangerous secondary activity, followed by having a handheld conversation, with significant differences between distractions. Further, hands-free conversations were perceived to be significantly less risky than handheld conversations. Perceived descriptive norms consistently predicted engagement in all distraction types. The results show that drivers are well aware that secondary activities can be distracting and are risky, and yet a substantial proportion of drivers reported engaging in a wide variety of distractions while driving

Road lighting and distraction whilst driving: Establishing the significant types of distraction

There is a body of research showing how changes in lighting conditions affect hazard detection in the context of driving after dark. There is a separate body of research showing that driving is impaired by distraction. The two have yet to be integrated: this is critical for lighting design recommendations because giving consideration to distraction may affect the optimal conditions established in lighting studies. A first step in that process is establishing the critical type(s) of distraction that might then be simulated in lighting research. This paper reviews evidence for the prevalence of driving distractions as recorded by two methods: interviews with drivers following collision and observation of drivers on real roads. These data suggest that auditory distractions such as conversation with passengers and listening to music are prevalent distractions, and are therefore appropriate distractions to incorporate in further research of lighting and hazard detection experiments

Harvesting Wind Damaged Trees: A Study of the Safety Implications for Fallers and Choker Setters

Hazards occurring to the fallers and chokersetters (breaker-outs) within cable yarder (hauler) crews working in windthr/ow salvage conditions were recorded. Fallers were exposed to considerably more and potentially more serious hazards than fallers working under normal conditions. The most hazardous parts of the faller's job were those of felling, clearing around the tree to be felled and clearing a path to the tree to be felled. The two most dangerous tree types to deal with were "hung-up" and "rootball trees". The choker setters were exposed to a similar number of hazards per cycle as choker setting in normal conditions, but a number of previously undocumented hazards were recorded. The majority of choking hazards (70%) occurred during the "wait" phase of choking with the most frequent hazard being "standing within one tree length of the turn". The information contained in this article may assist other contractors and forest companies faced with the difficult task of harvesting windthr/own trees

Advances in Driving Anger

Driving anger is the most widely studied emotion in the driving context and one of the more commonly studied topics in traffic and transportation psychology. Anger has a substantial impact on driving behaviour and is both a cause and a consequence of numerous negative driving outcomes. Over the years, what we have come to know about driving anger has developed in proportion to the increase in quality of research dedicated to this topic. The idea behind this special issue is to provide a forum in which to better understand driving anger: to highlight what has been learned about driving anger over the past quarter century and to stimulate new research for the next decade

Mobile phone applications use while driving in Ukraine: Self-reported frequencies and psychosocial factors underpinning this risky behaviour

© 2021 Hill et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Despite the fact that mobile phones have been transformed over the last decade into information and communication hubs that are fundamental to modern life, there is little information on how this has impacted on mobile phone use while driving. The present study was conducted in Ukraine, where this risky behaviour remains a common driving practice, despite legislative bans. A total of 220 (male = 82%; mean age = 35.53; SD = 10.54) drivers completed an online survey assessing frequency of engaging in a range of mobile phone applications while driving. Four variables of the theory of planned behaviour (general attitude and intention towards phone use while driving, social norms towards mobile phone use, perceived behavioural control, the specific beliefs about being able to engage in distracting activities and drive safely), and type A behaviour pattern were also collected. The results showed that, during the last year, 65% of drivers had read a text message and 49% had written a text using mobile phone applications. Likewise, a substantial proportion of the sample reported using social media while driving, by checking (34%), sending or typing a post (25%) on social network applications. Hierarchical stepwise regressions showed that a positive attitude towards mobile phone use while driving and beliefs about being able to drive safely and write or read a text message were significantly associated with the mobile phone applications use while driving. No associations were found between the type A behaviour pattern and mobile phone applications use.Peer reviewe