Traffic psychology

Traffic psychology is a young, expanding field in psychology. Whereas traffic psychology is primarily related to the study of the behaviour of road users and the psychological processes underlying that behaviour (Rothengatter, 1997, 223) as well as to the relationship between behaviour and accidents, transportation psychology, sometimes referred to as mobility psychology, focuses on mobility issues, individual and social factors in the movement of people and goods, and travel demand management (TDM).

There is no single theoretical framework in traffic psychology, but, instead, many specific models explaining, for example, the perceptual, attentional, cognitive, social, motivational and emotional determinants of mobility and traffic behaviour. One of the most prominent behavioural models divides the various tasks involved in traffic participation into three hierarchical levels, i.e. the strategic, the tactical and the operational level. The model demonstrates the diversity of decision and control tasks which have to be accomplished when driving a vehicle. However, until now, most of the psychological models have had a rather heuristic nature, e.g. risk theories such as the risk compensation hypothesis, Fuller's task capability model, and thus are not sufficiently precise to allow for concrete behavioural prediction and control. This is partly due to the importance of individual differences, a major topic of psychology which has not yet been sufficiently accounted for in traffic and transportation. On the other hand, social and psychological attitude/behaviour models, such as Ajzen's theory of planned behavior, have been helpful in identifying determinants of mobility decisions.

Bringing together the scientific and practical lines, six areas of traffic and transportation psychology can be distinguished (Schlag, 1999):

Behavior and accident research
This is particularly in relation to different groups of road users (age groups, modes of transport), but also in relation to road design and motor vehicles. Explaining and predicting road user behaviour depends on the development of valid and reliable models about the role of human factors in mobility behaviour, and, especially, driver performance. Psychological traffic accident and behaviour research deals with matters such as:
 * analysis of the driving task, changing conceptually from a traditionally rather sensory-motor task to a task with high monitoring impact,
 * perception, cognition and attentiveness when driving, driver information processing and expectations,
 * the driver's state, workload, alertness and fatigue,
 * driver personality, risk-taking, attitudes, motives for driving, excitedness and emotion,
 * interactions and the social psychology of driving,
 * the relationship between the personal and environmental background of behaviour, overt behaviour, emerging conflicts and accidents,
 * work on risk compensation theory.

Accident prevention and improvement of traffic safety
This comprises education and information, above all following the “4 Es”: enforcement, education, engineering, encouragement/economy. The main goal is promoting safety by influencing and modifying behaviour using legal, educational, vehicle- and road-specific measures; driver training, driving-instructor education, information on traffic issues, campaign design and marketing, effective enforcement.

Research and counselling in questions of mobility, transport economy and engineering
The main objective is user-oriented supply and design in as practical a form as possible. This includes differentiation between transportation needs of special groups (the elderly, the handicapped, young people, etc.). The main topics are
 * mobility needs and travel demands, choice of means of transport,
 * travel behaviour research, above all activity-based approaches,
 * altering mobility behaviour and modal split, problems of habituation and resistance to change, car dependence,
 * design and acceptance of travel demand management, above all of road pricing measures (Schade & Schlag, 2003),
 * psychological aspects in road design and traffic environment,
 * quality management, especially quality of service, usability and well-being.

Vehicle construction and design
Psychology in car manufacturing traditionally deals with questions of ergonomics, but since the 1980s new in-car devices and related new infrastructure have emerged as a rapidly growing field. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and new information systems are designed to support the driver in an appropriate, user-oriented way. Based on analyses of driving tasks which drivers have to cope with, e.g. multiple tasks requiring divided attention, psychologists’ primary orientation in the design process is towards human needs. This involves defining the technical requirements, human-centred development and usability of ADAS, the operability of Human-Machine Interfaces (HMI), behavioural adaptation and risk compensation, acceptance of innovations, and social impacts.

Psychological assessment and counselling / rehabilitation
This kind of assessment and counselling is for drivers who display irregular behaviour. It involves driver assessment, training and rehabilitation, above all for drivers with offences (driving while intoxicated, severe offences against traffic laws), aptitude assessment for driving, selection and training for professional drivers.

Rail and flight psychology
Some of the fields mentioned above not only apply to road traffic but also to rail and air transport. Nevertheless, in some ways, rail and flight psychology have historically developed separately from traffic psychology, which is dominantly road-related. One major new direction in rail and flight psychology is the shift in focus from the perspective of the professional operator (selection and training) to that of the customer (quality of service, usability).

Approach
From its very beginning, in research and practice, traffic psychology has followed an interdisciplinary approach and has shared common topics with other fields, in particular medicine (e.g. related to driving aptitude), engineering (ergonomics of cars as well as human factors in traffic planning), and economics (e.g. travel demand management). People as road users are seen as the core of an interactive traffic system also comprising transportation means, routes, traffic environment and regulation. Thus, mobility, including its positive as well as detrimental impacts, originates in people’s desires, decisions and behaviour – and these might be influenced. The main accident causes are human errors and maladaptive behaviour, accounting alone or in interaction with roadway or vehicle-related causes for more than 90% of all traffic accidents. Recognizing the possible impact of psychology in studying and solving transport problems, traffic and transportation psychology has emerged rapidly since the 1980s.

Relevant journals

 * Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour
 * Accident Analysis and Prevention
 * Transportation

Encyclopedias, information services, statistics

 * Energy and Transport - Figures and Main Facts
 * ELTIS - European Local Transport Information Service
 * IRTAD - International Road Traffic and Accident Database
 * Transportation Demand Management TDM Encyclopedia
 * TRIS - Traffic Research Information System, U.S.-Department of Transportation
 * CARE - Community database on Accidents on the Roads in Europe

Research organisations, online resources

 * Traffic Psychology at Dresden University, Germany
 * Interdisciplinary Center for Traffic Sciences at Würzburg University, Germany
 * Traffic Psychology at Helsinki University, Finland
 * Traffic and Transport Psychology in the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP), Nottingham University, UK
 * Department of Psychology, Road User Behaviour Research at Uppsala University, Sweden
 * INTRAS - Research Institute on Traffic and Road Safety of the University of Valencia, Spain
 * Institute of Transportation Systems, German Aerospace Center, Germany

Congresses

 * 4th International Conference of Traffic and Transport Psychology, Washington DC, USA from August 31 to September 4, 2008
 * Fit to Drive - 2nd International Traffic Expert Congress, Wien from June 14 – 15th 2007
 * Fit to Drive - 1st International Traffic Expert Congress, Berlin from May 3 – 5th 2006