Defining the public support: what can determine acceptability of road safety measures by a general public?

Abstract

Increasing road safety is one of the main goals in traffic policy. Measures to increase.(sustainable) road safety can be divided into infrastructural measures, which make road infrastructure and traffic situations more understandable and transparent for road users; vehicle technologies, like intelligent transport systems that increase the safety of drivers and passengers; information, education and enforcement of road users. Engineering, education and enforcement, also known as the 3E’s, are considered as an integrated approach of road safety policy. These measures consider mostly adaptation of or guidance in road user behaviour. However, traffic behavioural change implies acceptance of traffic policies and/or regulations. Nowadays, new technologies, such as intelligent transport systems (ITS), could create alternative solutions for a better road safety. But how sure can we be whether (new) traffic rules will be accepted by the people, especially if technologies, like ITS, would be implemented? Or will there be support by the general public? Measuring public support of road safety defines the degree of acceptance or intentions people have to adapt or not to adapt to the desired behaviour. In today’s applied traffic behaviour studies – like studies on advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) - the focus on acceptance is mostly limited, or not measured at all. Most of the existing studies only give some indications of the drivers’ perception on their behaviour. If there are issues that can indicate acceptance, it is mostly measured in relation with potential benefits for the driver (e.g. will you use device X, if your insurance will be cheaper?). The focus of this paper is defining what is actually meant with ‘public support’, what the benefits are of knowing the public support for road safety policy, and how it can be measured. Through literature search, the content of public support will be outlined and the underlying personal and social factors will be described and linked with social behavioural and acceptance theories. This may result in a first theoretical framework to develop a future model for measuring public support of road safety measures, especially related to the use of ITS within reducing inappropriate speed.