Characteristics And Classification Of Young Drivers' Driving Style And Its Influence On Hazard Perception

Driving style refers to the driver's habitual driving style in daily life.Driving style is an important factor thataffects drivers' driving safety.Although many instruments have been developedto explore the associations between drivers' driving styles and their accidentinvolvement,previous studies have not revealed the characteristics of young drivers' driving styles and figured out how to classify ones' driving style.In addition,many studies have found that young drivers' higher traffic accident rate is due to their poor hazard perception ability.However,whether young drivers' maladaptive driving styles canpose an adverse effect on their hazards still need furtherinvestigation.Therefore,the present study conducted three studies to(1)investigate the characteristics of young drivers' driving style in China;(2)explore the classification of young drivers' driving styles;(3)and to further investigate the effects of driving styles on their hazard perception.Study 1 investigated the characteristics of young drivers' driving style.One thousand and two hundreds young drivers recruited from four cites(Dalian,Huangshi,Kunming and Shanghai)were askedto fill in the Chinese version of multidimensionaldriving style inventory(MDSI-C).The relationship between driver's driving styles and demographic factors,traffic violations and traffic accidents were analyzed.Study 2 distinguished the classification of young drivers' driving styleEight hundreds young drivers recruited from another four cities(Shenyang,Beijing,Zhumadian and Haikou)were asked to complete the MDSI-C and a personality scale.After classifying the driving style of young drivers,their personality characteristics and differences were compared and analyzed.Study 3 explored the effects of driving styles on young drivers' hazard perception.Five hundred and seventy-six young drivers were recruited in Dalian.After classifying the driving styles of young drivers,22 young drivers with careful driving style,22 young drivers with anxious driving style,21 young drivers with angry driving style and 17 young drivers with careless driving style agreed to finish a hazard perception test.The test included 22 video clips filmed from driver's perspective.After each video clip blacked out,participants were asked to answer three questions "what is the hazard","where the hazard is" and "what will happen next".The differences between the four groups of drivers in the threequestions and total test scores were analyzed.This study draws the following conclusions:(1)Significant gender differences in driving styles were found.Men scored higheron angry,risky driving style,while women scored higher in careful and anxious driving style.The higher the score of maladaptive driving style that young drivers had(e.g.angry,risky driving style),the more traffic violations or accidents that they had in their past driving.(2)The driving style of most young drivers can classify into careful,anxious,angry or risky driving style.Young drivers with different driving styles have distinct personality characteristics.Young drivers with risky driving style had highest score on sensation seeking,those drivers with angry driving style had highest score on trait anger,and those drivers with careful driving style had highest score on altruism.(3)The hazard perception ability of young drivers with careful driving style is better than that of driver with risky driving style,angry driving style or anxious driving style.