Traffic psychology studies the relationship between psychological processes and the behavior of road users, applying theoretical aspects of psychology to improve traffic mobility through the development of crash countermeasures and education that motivates desired behavior. The field identifies three motivations for driver behavior, reasoned or planned behavior, impulsive or emotional behavior, and habitual behavior, and it applies social and cognitive psychology through enforcement, road-safety education campaigns and therapeutic rehabilitation programs, examining attention, memory, spatial cognition, inexperience, stress, inebriation, distracting stimuli, fatigue and secondary tasks such as phone conversations as factors in crash causation.
Facts
Central QuestionHow do psychological processes shape the behavior of road users, and how can that understanding reduce crashes and improve traffic safety? 1 Key DebateWhether drivers who feel safer because of a vehicle, road or regulation improvement actually drive more cautiously, or compensate by taking on more risk, the risk-compensation question underlying the field's own study of driver decision-making. 1 Sources
1. Wikipedia: Traffic psychology
Wikimedia FoundationOpening paragraph
Traffic psychology is a discipline of psychology that studies the relationship between psychological processes and the behavior of road users.
Behavior research section
Drivers generally use some degree of risk compensation to assess driving decisions and it is skewed by varying levels of intoxication.
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