THE SPEEDING DRIVER: WHO, HOW AND WHY?
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION TO THE REPORT
1.1 While the number of fatal accidents on Scotland's roads fell by 30% between 1991 and 2001, from 443 to 308, there were 347 deaths on Scotland's roads in 2001 and 3,406 people were seriously injured ('Road Accidents Scotland 2001' Scottish Executive National Statistics, December 2002). A primary aim of the Scottish Road Safety Campaign (SRSC) is to reduce road accidents in Scotland. Towards this aim SRSC commissioned two studies of Scottish drivers' attitudes towards speeding in 1991 (Waterton, 1992) and 1994 (Market Research Scotland Ltd, 1994) and, in 1996, an analysis of police records of drivers caught speeding (Colin Buchanan & Partners, 1996). In 2002 SRSC wished to establish, since these earlier studies,
- whether public attitudes towards speeding have changed
- whether drivers now speed less, or in different circumstances
- the types of drivers who currently speed and under what circumstances they speed
- whether any changes in drivers' attitudes or behaviour might be attributable to recent engineering, enforcement or publicity measures, and
- which drivers are more likely to be involved in road traffic accidents.
1.2 This Report, by a team of researchers from TRL Limited, Napier University's Transport Research Institute, and market research company NFO System Three Social Research addresses these questions.
1.3 The Report consists of:
- a review of recent national and international literature on the speeding driver ( Chapter 2)
- eight focus groups with drivers of different ages, gender, trip obligations and inclinations towards speeding ( Chapter 3)
- interviews with eight crash-involved drivers about the subsequent impact on their driving (summarised in Chapter 3 with full transcripts at Appendix A)
- a review of the views of local authority and other road safety personnel on recent anti-speeding campaigns and initiatives in Scotland ( Chapter 4)
- an analysis of a sample of 1,885 police records of speeding offenders dealt with by conditional offer or police report, and ( Chapter 5)
- an extensive household survey of 1,084 Scottish car drivers covering aspects of their car use ( Chapter 6), speed choices ( Chapter 7), knowledge of speed limits and views on speed limits and enforcement ( Chapter 8), views on publicity and engineering measures to reduce speeding ( Chapter 9), and their recent crash history while driving and its association with their speeding behaviour ( Chapter 10).
1.4 Results are compared with previous studies for the Scottish Executive in Chapter 11 and the Report gives a comprehensive picture of the beliefs, attitudes and behaviour of speeding drivers in Scotland in 2002.