Road users’ evaluations and perceptions of road infrastructure, trip characteristics, and daily trip experiences across countries

Abstract

Governments in every country have made attempts to encourage road safety, and road users’ perceptions of these attempts are crucial to understanding community needs and the effectiveness of road safety initiatives. However, while many studies compare countries with respect to fatality rates or possible causative factors related to these fatalities, little is known about how road users in different countries evaluate and perceive their tangible road environments from their own points of view. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to statistically explore drivers’-motorcyclists’, pedestrians’, cyclists’ and public transport users’ evaluations and perceptions of road infrastructure, trip characteristics and daily trip experiences in Estonia, Greece, Kosovo, Russia, and Turkey. In total, 1221 participants completed a questionnaire battery that included different sets of questions for different types of road users. Chi-Square analysis was used to examine the similarities and differences in the evaluations and perceptions of different road users across five countries. The main findings suggest that all road users across the five countries evaluated environmental characteristics significantly differently from each other. No similar trend could be observed within and between road users and countries. This is a quantitative study that provides descriptive information about road users’ perceptions and evaluations across countries, which can be used for both conceptual and practical purposes. In future studies, this study finding can be used for system-based interventions and may inform government regulation on human or human-environmental interactive factors in order to improve regional and overall road safety.