Chapter 14
Person and Environment: Traffic Culture
Tuuml; rker Ouml; zkan and Timo Lajunen
Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
PERSON AND ENVIRONMENT: BEHAVIOR AND ACCIDENTS
Behavior is a result of a contribution of the person, the situation or environment, and some probabilistic interactive function of person and environment (Lewin, 1952, p. 25). The person is labeled as a human factor component, whereas the situation and/or environment are labeled as vehicle-related factors and road environment in traffic. A human (i.e., road user) is also embedded in a complex multilevel sociocultural and technical environment of traffic. Any outcome, such as an accident, is therefore a result of the contribution of human factor (i.e., road user),
environment, and the probabilistic interaction of human factor and the environment (Ouml; zkan, 2006).
Accident Causation: Perspectives, Theories, and Periods
The perspectives, theories, and periods of human error and/ or accident causation have actually evolved systematically throughout the years. Salmon, Lenne, Stanton, Jenkins, and Walker (2010) stated that human factor (error) models can basically be categorized as either person models (e.g., the generic error modeling system by Reason (1990)), focusing on the errors made at an individual operator (e.g., driver) level, or system models (e.g., the Swiss cheese model by Reason (1990)), focusing on the interaction between wider systematic failures and errors made by an individual operator.
Elvik (1996) described accident theories that have been
proposed to explain road accidents and presented them chronologically as random events (1900e1920), accident proneness (1918e1955), causal theory (1940e1960), systems theory (1955e1980), and behavioral theory (1978e2000). According to Elvik, the theory of accidents as random events and accident proneness theory were designed to explain why some people have more accidents than othersdthat is, their objective was to explain variation in the number of accidents within a certain group (or even “innate characteristics”). Causal accident theory was
developed to identify the real causes of accidents by probing the events leading to each accident in detail (e.g., in-depth accident analysis). Systems theory, on the other hand, takes the total number of accidents in a system as the starting point of its explanatory efforts. Systems theory proposed that accidents are the result of maladjustments in the interaction between the components of complex systems. Behaviorally oriented accident theories have once more focused on individual road user behavior as a critical determinant of accident occurrence. The basic idea of these theories is that human risk assessment and human risk acceptance are very important determinants of the actual number of accidents that occur during an activity. Similarly, it has been proposed (i.e., by risk homeostasis theory) that every society has the number of accidents it wants to have, and the only way to permanently lower this number is to change the target level of risk (or the desired level of safety; e.g., the number of accidents, injuries, fatalities can be tolerated by the society including decision makers and public). In summary, Elvik stated that (1) all accident theories that have been proposed contain an element of truth, (2) none of the theories tell the whole truth, and (3) almost all theories have been proposed as means of reducing accidents rather than out of intellectual curiosity. Hale and Hovden (1998) described the three ages of safety management as an expansion of perspectives on accident phenomena by emphasizing their supplementary characteristics. The first period was mainly associated with technical measures, whereas the second one focused on behavioral factors and individual behavior. The third period was influenced by ergonomics and later merged with sociotechnical approaches (Hovden, Albrechtsen, amp; Herrera, 2010). Wiegmann, von Thaden, and Gibbons (2007) claimed that recent years have witnessed the development of a fourth stage, the “safety culture period.” Operators are performing their duties or interacting with technology as coordinated teams embedded within
a particular culture (e.g., organizational culture).
In this chapter, we propose a framework as a product of intellectual curiosity to “fight” accidents. It is hoped that this framework will also contain an element of truth of
Handbook of Traffic Psychology. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-381984-0.10014-1 179
Copyright copy; 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
accident occurrence in the “whole truth” of accident causation. In addition, we aim to merge person (i.e., the role of behavioral factors in traffic accidents) and environment perspectives (i.e., the structure of the complex multilevel sociocultural and technical environment of traffic and its goals and mechanisms) in “the fourth age of safety” (i.e., “traffic safety culture”).
Behavioral Factors in Accidents: Driver Behaviors and Performance
Most road traffic accidents can be directly attributed to behavioral factors as a sole or a contributory factor (Lewin, 1982). Behavioral factors in driving can be investigated under two separate components: driver behavior/style and performance/skills (Elander, West, amp; French, 1993). Driver behavior refers to the ways drivers choose to drive or habitually drive, including the choice of driving speed, habitual level of general attentiveness, and gap acceptance (Elander et al., 1993). In other words, it explains what drivers usually “do.” Driver performance includes infor- mation processing and motor and safety skills, which improve with practice and training (i.e., with driving expe- rience). In other words, it explains wh
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