Drivers’ road accident risk perception. A comparison between face-to-face interview and web-based survey

In this paper we investigate on the perceptions of the drivers on the risk of road accident. An objective of the research is to understand how driving attitudes and behaviour influence road accident risk according to the opinions of the drivers. We analyse two different kinds of perceptions: perceptions of users interviewed through a face-to-face survey, and perceptions of users reached by web. So, another important objective of the research is to verify the differences between the two samples, and the reliability of the responses. We proposed to the users an experiment based on the Stated Preferences according to which respondents had to express a ranking of hypothetical driving scenarios characterized by different levels of attributes describing driving attitudes. Logit models are used to estimate the influence of each attribute on accident risk. The results obtained from the two samples conduct to very different interpretations, but we can definitively say that the respect/violation of the driving rules and the correct/incorrect driver behaviour certainly affect the level of accident riskiness perceptions. From the results, we could retain online survey as reliable, and a valid alternative to traditional methods such as face-to-face survey, especially if we consider the advantages linked to the lower cost and the reduced risks of social desirability bias associated with self-administration.