The influence of driving anger on truck drivers' speeding behavior in Serbia: the evidence from naturalistic global positioning system driving data.

OBJECTIVE: Speeding behavior is recognized as one of the three main causes of risk on the roads and the most frequent ordinary violation among truck drivers. The study reported in this article focused on the driving anger personality trait and its role in predicting the observed speeding behavior in a sample of truck drivers. METHODS: A longitudinal study design was implemented, where 93 Serbian truck drivers filled in an adapted form of the Driving Anger Scale designed to assess the amount of driving anger evoked by specific traffic situations. The drivers' second-by-second speeding behavior data were captured using GPS tracking and recording devices installed in the vehicles over a period of six months. Hierarchical multiple linear regression was used to examine the predictive performance of driving anger. RESULTS: The results showed that more than three fourths of the exceeded speed ranged from 1 to 9 km/h and the highest percentage of speed events occurred in urban areas. The findings suggest that truck drivers experienced the highest level of anger in driving because of the discourteous and illegal behavior of other drivers. Younger truck drivers are more likely to drive fast compared to older drivers. Truck drivers who perform driving tasks more often and spend less time driving are more likely to participate in speed events. The results revealed that the subscales of anger, hostile gestures and traffic obstructions have a positive effect, while slow driving has a negative effect on the observed speeding behavior of truck drivers. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms the predictive performance of driving anger facets. The results of the research can help us improve our understanding of the mechanisms of speeding behavior of truck drivers.

Reliability reallocation models as a support tools in traffic safety analysis.

One of the essential questions placed before a road authority is where to act first, i.e. which road sections should be treated in order to achieve the desired level of reliability of a particular road, while this is at the same time the subject of this research. The paper shows how the reliability reallocation theory can be applied in safety analysis of a road consisting of sections. The model has been successfully tested using two apportionment techniques - ARINC and the minimum effort algorithm. The given methods were applied in the traffic safety analysis as a basic step, for the purpose of achieving a higher level of reliability. The previous methods used for selecting hazardous locations do not provide precise values for the required frequency of accidents, i.e. the time period between the occurrences of two accidents. In other words, they do not allow for the establishment of a connection between a precise demand for increased reliability (expressed as a percentage) and the selection of particular road sections for further analysis. The paper shows that reallocation models can also be applied in road safety analysis, or more precisely, as part of the measures for increasing their level of safety. A tool has been developed for selecting road sections for treatment on the basis of a precisely defined increase in the level of reliability of a particular road, i.e. the mean time between the occurrences of two accidents.