Citation

Gusti WH, Christie N. J. Transp. Health 2022; 25(Suppl): e101448.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jth.2022.101448

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

BACKGROUND: UK motorways are well known for their safety to the motorists, but data showed that they are not on track for Global Vision Zero on road safety. From 2017-2019, fatalities on UK motorways rose by 8% in 2018, but slightly fell by 2% in 2019. Same fluctuation goes for Killed or Seriously Injured (KSI) data. These percentages do not illustrate that KSI on UK motorways will halve by 2025 as Global Vision Zero for road safety aspired. This research study seeks to find the main factors influencing perceived safety and driving confidence on UK motorways. Perceived safety is a feeling when motorist feel safe and driving confidence correlates to enjoy driving without being nervous and making errors. There are 14 independent variables gathered from relevant studies which have possible impact on safety and confidence, include roadside traffic sign, road works, safe area, surrounding Heavy Goods Vehicles, other vehicle's driving behaviour, weather condition, road lighting, hard shoulder, speed limit, overhead signs, police presence, speed cameras, service stations, and glare.

Methods: This study required pilot survey to 11 participants to confirm the questionnaires and convenience sampling approach to recruit 225 motorists who have driven on UK motorways by using online close-ended questionnaires. This non-probability sampling can provide a sample that represents specific viewpoints of the population. Reliability test, chi-square tests, and binary logistic regression analysis were then conducted. Simple thematic analysis about comments related to motorways was also performed.

Results: Cronbach's Alpha from the final questionnaire is 0.702, confirming that questionnaire used is sufficient. The results from this sampling group showed that motorists perceiving UK motorways as safe were those males in 17-35 age group holding their driving license for more than 5 years. Speed cameras, glare from other driver's headlights and HGV presence on motorways were the main factors influencing perceived safety. Then again, motorists who felt very confident driving on UK motorists were only males. This confidence was affected due to police presence and road lighting. Therefore, motorway operators need to focus on these influential factors to provide safe motorways for everyone.

Conclusions: This research study had successfully produced useful quantitative and qualitative results from relatively small sample size within limited budget and time. However, this study was not able to provide holistic point of view of perceived safety and driving confidence on UK motorways. Sample representativeness, questionnaire validity, and chosen methodology are the main limitations on this study.

Language: en