Abstract
This paper has explored aberrant behaviours of drivers in Pakistan with the help of extended violation scale of the modified Manchester Driver Behaviour Questionnaire. Principal component analysis with promax rotation reveals that the drivers in the country have four discrete behavioural dimensions including aggressive driving, unlawful driving, risky driving, and egoistic driving. Further, univariate descriptive indicate that the study's drivers engage in risky overtaking and close following more than drunk driving or speeding. The results also demonstrate that the behaviour of drivers is attributable to their personal characteristics and being young, affluent or separated/divorced can negatively influence it.
1. Introduction
Road Traffic Accidents (RTA) are attributed to many factors including road, vehicle and humans. These factors combine in a way that leads to a road user failing to cope in a particular situation (Casbard et al., 2003). Road safety literature generally agrees that human factors are one of the most dominant factors in understanding the chain of events leading to an accident and indicates driver malfunctioning as the prime contributor in road accidents (e.g. Christ, Panosch, & Bukasa, 2004; GRSP, 2011). Among human factors, driver behaviour: what driver chooses to do has much greater influence on safety than driver’s performance: what driver can do (Evans, 1996). It is said that the problem of traffic crashes is more due to the drivers doing things that they know they ought not to do, than of drivers not knowing what to do (Evans, 1991).
7. Conclusions and policy considerations
The rationale for this research study come from the ever declining road safety performance of Pakistan. The results identify that the sample of drivers recruited in the study are undisciplined and aggressive. They sound horn; engage in improper overtaking; intimidate female drivers; force their way out as well as disregard stop lines and continuous lines. The analysis classify aberrant behaviours of drivers from urban Lahore into four distinct dimensions; aggressive driving, unlawful driving, risky driving, and egoistic driving. The findings highlight aggressive driving as the strongest behavioural dimension of the study’s drivers. It is further noted that all behavioural factors are strongly correlated to each other such that commission of one leads to the other. Particularly, aggressive behaviour of drivers and their practice of unlawful driving is found significantly correlated to near-misses and RTAs. Also the generation of discrete and statistically robust behavioural factors out of extended violation scale of the DBQ provides support to use the measures after further testing for future research in Pakistan. Driver behaviour is also found attributable to his personal characteristics. The study adds that being young, affluent, and separated/divorced negatively influences driving behaviours. It further suggests that stereotyping men with bad behaviours may not be true in Pakistan’s case as the sample of female drivers reported more deviant behaviours.
