Socio-economic and driving experience factors affecting drivers´ perceptions of traffic crash risk

Drivers are estimated to contribute an overwhelming proportion to the burden of trafficcrashes, as factors that increase crash risk are frequently due to unsafe driving behaviours.The relationship between risk perceptions and people’s risky driving behaviours is still notwell understood. This paper aims to further analyse the potential effect of risky driving behaviourson drivers’ perceptions of crash risk and differences in perceptions among drivers.Crash risk perceptions in an inter-city, two-way road context of 492 drivers were measuredby using a Stated Preference (SP) ranking survey. Rank-ordered logit models were used toevaluate the impact on risk perception of five unsafe driving behaviours and to identify differencesin drivers’ risk perceptions. The five unsafe driving behaviours considered in theanalysis were respectively related to whether or not the driver follows the speed limits,the rules of passing another car and the safe distance, whether or not the driver is distracted,and whether or not she/he is driving under optimal personal conditions.All risky driving behaviours showed a significant potential effect (p < 0.001) on crash riskperceptions, and model’s results allowed to differentiate more important from less importantunsafe driving behaviours based on their weight on perceived crash risk. Additionally,this paper further analyses the potential differences in risk perception of these traffic violationsbetween drivers of different characteristics, such as driving experience, household size,income and gender.The SP technique could be applied to further analyse differences in perceptions of riskydriving behaviours among drivers. Future research should consider the potential effect ofdriving skill on perceptions of risky driving behaviours.