Ethical Predispositions to Violate or Obey Traffic Rules and the Mediating Role of Driving Styles

Abstract

Traffic law violations are the most important determinants of traffic accidents. This study examined the influence of drivers' ethical perspective on their traffic violations and the mediating role of driving styles in these relationships. A sample of 313 drivers participated in the study. Contrary to expectations, high ethical relativism was found to be associated with fewer aggressive traffic violations. This suggests that the informal normative system that parallels the official traffic regulations is the more salient reference against which drivers usually assess the adequacy of their behaviors, highly relativistic drivers being more willing to also take into consideration the official traffic code in these appraisals. We also found significant interactions between idealism and relativism on both ordinary and aggressive violations. Idealism emerged as a predictor of these violations only in drivers low in relativism. In this group, one's concern about the harm that he/she might cause to other traffic participants induces higher traffic law abidingness. These influences of idealism were mediated by certain driving styles. Drivers' general ethical perspective fosters a specific pattern of driving styles and, consequently, the tendency to commit or to refrain from traffic violations.

Relative Contribution of Social Factors to University Students’ Compliance with Traffic Rules: The Case of Al-Ahsa Province, Saudi Arabia

“…These results confirm results of previously conducted studies (Trueloves, Freeman & Davey, 2019;Holman& Popusoi 2018;Xu, Li & Jiang, 2014;Mawanga and Ntayi, 2010), which revealed that social factors have a pivotal role in derivers' compliance with traffic rules and safety standards or their violation, and emphasized the importance of compliance with traffic rules and safety standards to be an essential part of the urban culture in order to reduce traffic accidents (Mawanga & Jntayi, 2010). Therefore, the present study emphasizes that family, school and community together can significantly contribute to the reduction of traffic accidents and will save millions of lives and billions of dollars every year if enlightenment on traffic accidents becomes a key part of daily activities as earlier studies also demonstrated (Lee & Al-Mansour, 2019;Penmetsa, & Pulugurtha, 2017;Yusuf, 2017).…”

Theory of planned behaviour, psychological stressors and intention to avoid violating traffic rules: A Multi-Level modelling analysis

“…This supports previous TPB studies (Conner et al, 2007;Elliot & Thomson, 2010), which further highlights the potential importance of moral norms for traffic behaviours. Nonetheless, depending on the types and motives of violation behaviours, people may interpret traffic violations as (non) normative actions (Havârneanu & Havârneanu, 2012), which may have important moral underpinnings (Holman & Popusoi, 2018). Further studies are needed to determine the extent to which a moral perspective relates to obedience to traffic rules.…”

“…stress) and intentions. While moral norms are expected to have an important influence on the drivers' choice to obey or transgress the rules (Holman & Popusoi, 2018), findings suggest that stress appears to directly affect moral reasoning (Starcke et al, 2011;Youssef et al, 2012). For example, in a series of experimental studies, Shalvi et al (2012) found that individuals under stressful conditions (i.e.…”

Effect of poor road network and maintenance on safety and security in Delta State Nigeria: Mixed perceptions in industrialized oil-producing community

“…At the international level, it is common knowledge that drivers violate traffic rules [11][12][13]. What this report is model-based emphasis that perspectives of the road users determine the associated OHS behavior [11][12][13]; and can be used as predicting factor [14]. Given that knowledge is power, it implies that there is need to empower the people.…”