Understanding the growing role of driving anger in the risk of traffic incidents involving Vietnamese motorcyclists

Abstract

Objective This study validates the Vietnamese versions of the Driving Anger Scale and Driving Anger Expression Inventory, two prominent instruments for determining driving anger proneness and expression. Using these scales, the authors investigate the relationships between driving anger and motorcyclists' on-road risks in Vietnam. Methods Factor analyses are conducted to explore the dimensional constructs of the two scales with a dataset of 960 Vietnamese motorcyclists. The t-tests were applied to assess the differences in driving anger levels between motorcyclists' subgroups. Negative binomial regression is used to predict the probability of motorcyclists' traffic incidents based on driving anger factors and individual differences. Results The Vietnamese Driving Anger Scale has three factors, including Hostile gestures (alpha=.78), Unpleasant conditions (alpha=.80), and Traffic violations (alpha=.74). Hostile gestures elicit the most driving anger among Vietnamese motorcyclists. Besides, females report higher propensities for driving anger than males over three anger-provoking factors. The Driving Anger Expression Inventory has a two-factor structure, including Aggressive expressions (alpha=.83) and Adaptive expressions (alpha=.74). Vietnamese motorcyclists are more prone to have adaptive expressions than aggressive expressions when angry on-road. The regression results reveal the significant effects of gender and two factors of the Driving Anger Expression Inventory on the probability of traffic incidences. Females have considerably fewer traffic accidents and offenses than males. Besides, the number of minor crashes and violations grows by 1.54 and 1.93 times with each unit rise of the Aggressive expressions factor. Increasing adaptive expression level is associated with a decrease in the numbers of major crashes and offenses (40% and 19% less, respectively). Conclusions This study provides insights into driving anger in Vietnam, a motorcycle-dominant country. The findings corroborate the Vietnamese versions of the Driving Anger Scale and Driving Anger Expression Inventory, which contributes to understanding the formation and expression of driving anger and its roles in predicting driving outcomes. Furthermore, the higher on-road risks of males and motorcyclists with more aggressive expressions are highlighted. Generally, enhancing the risk perception about driving anger and promoting the advantages of on-road adaptive expressions may significantly reduce traffic issues in Vietnam.