Self-reported habitual practices and perceptions of young drivers in Sri Lanka

Abstract

It is important to identify the young and inexperienced people’s driving practices and perceptions at a very early phase of their driving exposure so that areas of improvement for safer driving can be identified. This study analyses 400 young and inexperienced drivers’ self-reported habitual practices and opinions through a questionnaire survey. This questionnaire focuses on supervision of early driving, restrictions by parents, accident and traffic offences involving young drivers, and several other habitual driving practices. Analyses are performed using reliability statistics, inter-item correlation, likelihood ratio tests, and parameter estimates. The highest inter-item correlation value obtained is 0.467 which was for overtaking vehicles in restricted areas and speeding short distances to run a yellow light before it changes to red. Driving after alcohol consumption, mobile phone usage, taking an illegal U-turn at restricted areas, indicating signals when changing lanes and overtaking a slow driver from the left were significantly influenced by the choice of young drivers to not use seat belts. These habitual practices while driving highlight the need for early intervention to improve road safety. In conclusion, there is always one or more habitual driving practices that affects other driving habits of young drivers.