Institut Français des Sciences et Technologies des Transports, de l'Aménagement et des Réseaux

Type de document

CHAPITRE D'OUVRAGE (CO)

Langue

anglais

Auteur

FREYDIER ; BERTHELON ; BASTIEN-TONIAZZO ; GIGOUT

Résumé / Abstract

Epidemiological studies have shown that road accidents are the first cause of death among people aged 15 to 24 years. Experimental studies have demonstrated lower skills among young novice drivers compared to more experienced drivers. The hypothesis of a difference in risk taking between novice and experienced drivers is raised. The aim of this work is to study the evolution of inappropriate driving behaviours during the three years following licensure, i.e. the three years of probationary license. 253 students (115 men and 138 women) aged 18-21 years completed the Driving Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ) consisting in 50 items. All subjects obtained their driving license at the age of 18. Their task was to assess the frequency with which they committed a variety of errors and violations during the previous year, using a 5-points scale (0 : never to 5: almost always). Factor analysis conducted by Gabaude et al (2010) on the DBQ revealed (a) three factors (inattention errors; serious errors; violations), (b) four types of behaviour (slips; mistakes; intentional violations; unintentional violations) and (c) three risk levels (0: no risk; 1: possible risk; 2: definite risk). Three ANOVAs were performed on (a) the factorial structure, (b) the type of behavior and (c) the level of risk according to age, gender and type of training before licensure (early vs. traditional training). The results showed (a) an effect of age: young of 21 years old reported having more inappropriate driving behaviours that young 18 and 19 years old. This seemed linked to the fact that they indicated commit more offenses than younger counterparts. Moreover, contrary to these latter, they indicated an average number of offenses significantly higher than the number of inattention errors or serious errors. On the other hand, interaction between factors and sex of participants was reflected by the fact that men reported more offense than women, while these latter reported more inattention errors. The ANOVA performed on the type of driving behavior (b) indicated an interaction between age and type of training. There was an increase of inappropriate driving behaviours between 18 and 21 years old among young people who attended a traditional training to drive. This difference was not found among young people who attended an early training to drive. The analysis of risk level (c) showed that young of 21 years old reported taking more risk than those of 18 and 19 years old. The interaction between risk level and gender showed that women reported taking significantly less risk than men (the difference between risk levels 0 and 2 is significant). All these results are interpreted in terms of psycho-socio-cognitive differences.

Editeur

Ashgate Human Factors Publications