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Behaviors and Attitudes

Resources

NHTSA studies behaviors and attitudes in highway safety, focusing on drivers, passengers, pedestrians, and motorcyclists. We identify and measure behaviors involved in crashes or associated with injuries, and develop and refine countermeasures to deter unsafe behaviors and promote safe alternatives.

Our recently published reports and research notes are listed chronologically below. To the right are additional resources including Traffic Techs.



211 Results
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Impaired Driving Leadership Model: Findings Based on Three State Case Studies - Report

This report describes case studies of the Impaired-Driving Leadership Model implemented by New Mexico, Washington State and Oklahoma. Each case study highlights the process that led to each model’s implementation, elements of the model’s structure, key components of its operation, and observed impacts following implementation. The report also identifies common and distinguishing elements of each model, lessons learned, and recommendations for other States considering implementing the model. The report indicates improvements (declines) in impaired-driving fatalities over time following implementation.

Additional Analysis of National Child Restraint Use Special Study: Child Restraint Misuse (Research Note)

This Research Note is the third in a series describing installation problems of child safety seats reported by the National Child Restraint Use Special Study. This report shows that in rear-facing infant and convertible seats, the most common misuses concerned: Child under 1 year old and angle of seat is 30° or less (42% of misuse cases); loose installation (seat moves 2 inches laterally, 29%); and harness slack (15%). In forward-facing car seats, the most common misuses were the following: loose installation (47%); harness slack (28%); and harness straps behind child’s arm, back, or leg (15%). In highback and backless booster seats, the most common misuses were the following: lap belt across abdomen or ribcage (59%); and shoulder belt behind arm or back (24%).

Pedestrian and Bicyclist Data Analysis (Research Note)

This Research Note presents fatality and injury data for pedestrians and bicyclists, and identifies similarities and differences between these two types of non-motorist road users. The first section examines long-term trends for both pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities over 35 years, from 1980 to 2015. It focuses on fatality numbers and percentages, gender and age, and considers changes that have taken place over time. The second section examines characteristics of both pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities including urban or rural locations, hours of the day, light conditions, month of the year, day of the week, and non-motorist actions prior to the crashes.

Evaluation of Teen Seat Belt Demonstration Projects in Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Texas

Four States in NHTSA’s Region 6 began multi-wave teen seat belt demonstration projects in May 2009. They conducted four waves of paid media and law enforcement activities over the following year. Two of these waves were conducted immediately prior to statewide Click It or Ticket (CIOT) seat belt mobilizations (May 2009 and May 2010), and two were conducted independent of CIOT mobilizations. Enforcement and media indices indicated that these were strong programs. Awareness surveys conducted in three of the States indicated that media efforts and law enforcement agencies successfully reached the teen population in two States (Mississippi and Texas). Teen seat belt use increased in all four States, but only in Mississippi did teen belt use increase substantially more in the program than control area. The results of this evaluation were similar to those found in previous teen-focused demonstrations in Colorado and Nevada.

Age Versus Experience: Evaluation of Video Feedback Intervention For Newly Licensed Teen Drivers

Event-triggered, video-based interventions can improve driving safety among young drivers. Nine states including Iowa allow drivers under 16 to operate motor vehicles but little is known about how younger drivers compare to16-year-old drivers in terms of risky driving behaviors. This project examined the effects of age, experience, and video-based feedback on the rate of unsafe driving events captured on video event recorders for 90 newly licensed teen drivers. Results show that young drivers who received feedback had lower rates of unsafe driving events relative to the control group. The results indicate that video-based feedback could have safety benefits for young drivers.

Countermeasures That Work: A Highway Safety Countermeasures Guide, Ninth Edition,

2017: This 9th edition of Countermeasures That Work is a basic reference to assist State Highway Safety Offices in selecting effective, evidence-based countermeasures for traffic safety problem areas. These areas include: Alcohol- and Drug-Impaired Driving; Seat Belts and Child Restraints; Speeding and Speed Management; Distracted and Drowsy Driving; Motorcycle Safety; Young Drivers; Older Drivers; Pedestrians; and Bicycles. The guide describes major strategies and countermeasures that are relevant to SHSOs; summarizes strategy/countermeasure use, effectiveness, costs, and implementation time; and provides references to the most important research summaries and individual studies. 

Visual Scanning Training For Older Drivers: A Literature Review

This literature review focuses on visual scanning ability and evaluations of training in visual scanning skills for older adults, updating a previous review of studies published from 1997 to 2008 describing age-related functional changes (Staplin, Lococo, Martell, & Stutts, 2012). Researchers searched for literature published from 2005 to 2016 and found 27 relevant studies in four broad categories, visual attention and visual scanning ability; visual scanning behavior; visual search and scanning abilities; and visual scanning abilities in a non-driving context. An annotated bibliography in the Appendix provides more detail on the subset of 16 studies performed in a driving context or that used driving performance as an outcome measure.

Additional Analysis of National Child Restraint Use Special Study: Characteristics Of Those Not Restrained (Research Note)

The National Child Restraint Use Special Study recorded the use of car seats and belt-positioning booster seats in children up to 8 years old in 4,167 vehicles. This report describes the examination of unrestrained drivers, drivers who report having ever driven with unrestrained children, and drivers transporting unrestrained children. Of drivers in the study, 129 were unrestrained; 725 had driven with unrestrained children; 51 percent said that a “short trip” was the reason.

Evaluation of Nighttime Seat Belt Enforcement Demonstration Program And Identification of Characteristics of Unbelted High-Risk Drivers

The present study evaluated the effectiveness of a high-visibility nighttime seat belt enforcement programconducted in Maryland by measuring changes in day and night self-reported and observed seat belt use and crashoutcomes. To better understand the characteristics of unbelted drivers, the study compared the driving records ofmotorists who received seat belt citations during the enforcement crackdown with drivers who were not cited forfailing to use seat belts.

Statistically significant pre-post increases in nighttime seat belt use in the program area were observed for three of the five activity waves.

Analysis of driver records found clear evidence that drivers cited for seat belt violations had poorer driving records than those who were not cited for seat belt violations. Some of the differences were substantial. For example, drivers cited for seat belt infractions were nearly eight times more likely than those not cited to have prior seat belt violations on their driver records.

Analysis of crash data for the program area found significant declines in the proportion of occupants involved in injury crashes that were unbelted, both at night and during the day. For fatal crashes, nonsignificant declines were observed in the proportion of occupants that were unbelted at night, as well as the proportion of occupants that were unbelted during the day and night combined.

National Traffic Speeds Survey III: 2015

A field survey was conducted during the summer of 2015 as a longitudinal repetition to similar efforts undertaken in 2007 and 2009. The goal was to measure travel speeds and prepare nationally representative speed estimates for all types of motor vehicles on freeways, arterial highways, and collector roads across the United States. Over 12 million vehicle speeds were measured at 677 sites included in the geographic cluster sample of 24 primary sampling units (PSUs). Each PSU was a county, or group of two or three counties representing combinations of regions of the United States, level of urbanization, and type of topography (flat, hilly, mountainous). Speeds were acquired on randomly drawn road segments on limited access highways, major and minor arterial roads, and collector roads. Speed measurement sites were selected in road segments with low, medium, or high degrees of horizontal and vertical curvature or gradient.