Trends in alcohol-impaired driving in Canada Trends in alcohol-impaired driving in Canada

Abstract Background Drinking and driving continues to be a major road safety problem in Canada with 744 persons killed in crashes involving a drinking driver and 37% of fatally injured drivers testing positive for alcohol in 2010, the most recent data year available. Aims This paper describes recent trends in drinking and driving in Canada to better understand the current situation, and to determine whether the magnitude of the problem has been increasing or decreasing. Methods Multiple indicators are used to examine trends in drinking driving behaviour and alcoholrelated fatalities. Data sources include: A National Fatality Database, a comprehensive source of national data compiled annually by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) from coroner/medical examiner files and police reports on fatal crashes; and the Road Safety Monitor (RSM), an annual National Public Opinion Poll on Drinking and Driving conducted by TIRF. Results From 1995 to 2010 in Canada, there has been a continued and fairly consistent decrease in the number of fatalities involving a drinking driver in absolute terms as well as when these numbers are standardized into per capita and per licensed driver rates. The number and percent of fatally injured drivers testing positive for alcohol have also declined over this study period. Survey data from the RSM further show that the percentage of those who reported driving after they thought they were over the legal limit has also decreased consistently and significantly since 2008. Discussion and conclusions Despite the apparent decreasing trend in drinking driving fatalities and behaviour since 1995, reductions have been relatively modest in recent years, and fatalities in crashes involving drivers who have consumed alcohol remain at high unacceptable levels

State of the Practice of State Alcohol Ignition Interlock Programs

DTNH2216D00020/693JJ920F000080A breath alcohol ignition interlock device (BAIID, or interlock) prevents a vehicle from being driven unless the driver provides a breath sample indicating a blood alcohol concentration lower than a pre-set level, usually .02 g/dL. Every State uses interlocks as a sanction for driving while impaired (DWI) offenses. The law may dictate that a DWI offender is required to use an interlock, or it may allow an offender the option to use an interlock in lieu of a harsher sanction such as license suspension or revocation. Offenders using interlocks must enroll in the State BAIID program to arrange for interlock installation, management, and removal. State BAIID programs vary due to variations in DWI and licensing laws. This project sought to document the state of the practice of BAIID programs by inviting BAIID program administrators and staff from each State to complete surveys or discuss the program features. Thirty-eight State programs completed the survey, participated in the discussions, or both. Thirteen programs (including the District of Columbia) did not participate in either, limiting the completeness of the findings. The project data are summarized online, located at: https://aic.tirf.ca/alcohol-interlock-program-inventory/. This project was conducted under the National Cooperative Research and Evaluation Program, a cooperative program between NHTSA and the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA). Each year, the States (through the GHSA) identify highway safety research or evaluation topics they believe are important for informing State policy, planning, and programmatic activities. This report addresses one of those requested topics, the need for current information on interlock programs

Comparison Of Self-Declared Mobile Use While Driving In Canada, The United States, And Europe

Existing literature on distracted driving includes very little research about the differences in self-reported prevalence worldwide. The current research aims to increase the available knowledge by comparing rates of various self-reported distracted driving behaviours from three different regions (Canada, the United States, and Europe). Self-declared mobile use (talking on a hand-held mobile, sending a text message or email), personal acceptability and attitudes towards mobile use while driving were measured as part of the E-Survey of Road users’ Attitudes (ESRA1) conducted in 25 countries during 2015-2016. The descriptive analysis compared rates of drivers’ mobile use behaviours, opinions, and attitudes by region. Two multivariate models predicting self-declared talking on a hand-held phone while driving, and self-declared sending of a text message or email while driving, were also estimated. This presentation will provide an overview of results from this research and place the findings in a broader context of distracted driving in particular and road safety in general, with special attention to differences between regions

MAPCH: Stata module map chains of events

-mapch- maps chains of events. A 'chain' consists of at least one event; an 'event' in this context is a change of information. For example, if 'A' changes into 'B' and 'B' changes into 'C', then this chain consists of two events, the first one being the change of 'A' into 'B' and the second one being the change of 'B' into 'C'. These changes are mapped and the end value of the chain is added as a new variable to each event in the chain (so the line "A B" in your database would become "A B C" and the line "B C" would become "B C C"). -mapch- also tabulates the frequency of n-step chains with ndata management, events, chains

A shortcut through long loops: An illustration of two alternatives to looping over observations

It is well known that looping over observations can be slow and should be avoided. The objective of this article is to discuss two alternative solutions to looping over observations that can be used to overcome a particular data-management problem of merging datasets in which unique key identifiers changed over time. The first alternative, mapch, which is introduced in this article, uses a combination of appending, indexing, and merging to solve the problem, while the second alternative uses repeated merging. Both solutions are much quicker than looping over observations. However, depending on the nature of the problem, one solution may work better than the other. It is argued that the use of such dataset-type manipulations may be suitable to overcome other data-management problems. More generally speaking, the issue that is addressed—searching for an alternative to looping over observations—may be common and illustrates the importance of balancing the costs of developing an efficient solution with the benefits accruing from that solution. Copyright 2008 by StataCorp LP.mapch, appending, data management, indexing, looping, merging

A shortcut through long loops: An illustration of two alternatives to looping over observations

It is well known that looping over observations can be slow and should be avoided. The objective of this article is to discuss two alternative solutions to looping over observations that can be used to overcome a particular data-management problem of merging datasets in which unique key identifiers changed over time. The first alternative, mapch, which is introduced in this article, uses a combination of appending, indexing, and merging to solve the problem, while the second alternative uses repeated merging. Both solutions are much quicker than looping over observations. However, depending on the nature of the problem, one solution may work better than the other. It is argued that the use of such dataset-type manipulations may be suitable to overcome other data-management problems. More generally speaking, the issue that is addressed—searching for an alternative to looping over observations—may be common and illustrates the importance of balancing the costs of developing an efficient solution with the benefits accruing from that solution

Promoting Crowdsourcing for Urban Research: Cycling Safety Citizen Science in Four Cities

People generate massive volumes of data on the Internet about cities. Researchers may engage these crowds to fill data gaps and better understand and inform planning decisions. Crowdsourced tools for data collection must be supported by outreach; however, researchers typically have limited experience with marketing and promotion. Our goal is to provide guidance on effective promotion strategies. We evaluated promotion efforts for BikeMaps.org, a crowdsourced tool for cycling collisions, near misses, hazards, and thefts. We analyzed website use (sessions) and incidents reported, and how they related to promotion medium (social, traditional news, or in-person), intended audience (cyclists or general), and community context (cycling mode share, cycling facilities, and a survey in the broader community). We compared four Canadian cities, three with active promotion, and one without, over eight months. High-use events were identified in time periods with above average web sessions. We found that promotion was essential for use of the project. Targeting cycling specific audiences resulted in more data submitted, while targeting general audiences resulted in greater age and gender diversity. We encourage researchers to use tools to monitor and adapt to promotion medium, audience, and community context. Strategic promotion may help achieve more diverse representation in crowdsourced data

Une meilleure intégration de l’éducation et de la formation des conducteurs par un nouveau cadre d’accès gradué à la conduite en Amérique du Nord

International audienceGraduated Driver Licensing (GDL) and driver education are two safety measures for teen and new drivers that have been widely adopted in North America, often in isolation from one another. Driver education pre-dated GDL and has remained relatively unchanged from its inception, whereas GDL has undergone enhancements although the pace of change has slowed down. GDL has proven safety effectiveness which has not been the case for driver education, although a few recent studies have had promising results on the safety value of both traditional and nontraditional programs. This paper makes the case for integrating driver education with enhanced GDL to better address the elevated crash risk of teen drivers. It recommends that driver education be multi-phased and more closely aligned with the tiered structure of GDL and that the National Driver Education Standards (NDES) become the new “norm” for driver education. It also provides guidance for improving the content and delivery of driver education, including the use of nontraditional teaching techniques and training approaches. Future efforts to integrate and improve GDL and driver education, however, need to be researched using solid evaluation designs to ensure they have safety effects and contribute to GDL’s overall success.Les systèmes d’acquisition de permis de conduire par étape (Graduated Driving License - GDL) et l’éducation des conducteurs, deux mesures de sécurité envers les adolescents et les nouveaux conducteurs, ont été largement adoptés en Amérique du Nord bien que souvent de manière séparée. L’éducation des conducteurs est antérieure à l’accès graduel à la conduite et est restée relativement inchangée depuis sa création, alors que le système GDL a connu des améliorations bien que le rythme du changement ait ralenti. L’accès graduel à la conduite a démontré son efficacité en termes de sécurité ce qui n’a pas été le cas de l’éducation des conducteurs bien que quelques études récentes aient données des résultats prometteurs en termes de sécurité aussi bien avec des programmes traditionnels que non traditionnels. Ce document plaide en faveur d’une éducation des conducteurs intégrée avec un système GDL amélioré pour mieux répondre au risque d’accident élevé des conducteurs adolescents. Il recommande que l’éducation des conducteurs soit multiphase et plus étroitement alignée sur la structure hiérarchique du GDL et que les Normes nationales d’instruction des conducteurs (NDES) deviennent la nouvelle « norme » pour leur éducation. Il fournit également des conseils pour améliorer le contenu et la prestation de l’éducation du conducteur, y compris l’utilisation de techniques d’enseignement et de formation non traditionnelles. Les efforts à venir visant à intégrer et à améliorer le système GDL et l’éducation des conducteurs doivent toutefois faire l’objet de recherches en utilisant des modèles d’évaluation solides pour s’assurer qu’ils ont des effets sur la sécurité

Gender Issues. ESRA2 Thematic report Nr. XXX

The purpose of this thematic report on gender issues is to explore the cultural effect on gender differences in reported risky behaviours while driving. This ESRA thematic report analyses gender differences in self-reported data on driving behaviour, attitudes and beliefs, comparing countries and regions. The four regions based on a geographical criterion, were used to distinguish potential cultural differences on a meso-level, while gender differences were also investigated on a microlevel, by analysing the differences by country. For the sake of brevity and clarity, data from the same hypothetical psychological construct available in the ESRA questionnaire were grouped together into aggregate scores. The scores of men and women were compared at the level of each country and region. The focus was on the items concerning psychological constructs on which we can expect gender differences, according to literature: self-declared and acceptability of unsafe behaviours, self-efficacy, perceived safety, road safety policy support, risk perception, number of crashes, social desirability and compliance intention, law perception, descriptive norms, enforcement, and perception of automated vehicles