This thesis investigates drivers willingness to engage with a mobile phone while driving. Many studies have looked into the effects on driving performance that can result from phone usage, but few studies have directly considered what can encourage or inhibit phone engagement behaviours in the first place. An initial exploratory study (Study 1) was conducted, for which a photo elicitation interview (N=20) was designed and implemented. This aimed to find the extent to which factors influencing phone use transferred from out of the car to the driving environment. In particular, the study aimed to explore whether the driving environment could be considered unique. The results indicated that the high demands placed on the driver by the road environment clearly distinguished it from the other environments and the reported propensity to use a phone seemed to reflect this. Only factors which either changed the level of attention required by the task, such as a change in task demand as a result of changes in the traffic environment, had any substantial influence on willingness to engage. Driving may not be unique in terms of the overall factors influencing phone use but it is unique in the extent to which this particular factor seems to have such a strong bearing on interaction. Building on findings from Study 1, that the demand and attention required seemed to influence willingness to engage, it was noted that Fuller s (2005) Task Capability Interface model would serve as a useful framework for the remainder of the thesis. This model suggests that driver behaviour is dictated by the level of task difficulty perceived; an interaction between task demand and capability. Therefore, the effects these two elements might have on willingness to engage with mobile phones while driving were tested separately in the two remaining studies. Previous research suggested that task demand should comprise a combination of roadway demand and the intended phoning task. Study 2, therefore, experimentally tested the extent to which road demand and phone function intended to be used influenced drivers decisions to engage with their phone. Participants (N=20) viewed video clips of real road environments of varying demand. Rating scales were used by participants to rate their willingness to engage with various phone functions according to the scenario they had just viewed. It was found both roadway demand and phone functionality affected willingness to engage with a mobile phone whilst driving. There was a higher propensity to engage in phone use in road environments perceived to have a lower demand and lower propensity to engage in phone use in the highest demand scenarios. Answering a call was the most likely function to be engaged with by the participants and sending a text message was the least likely. The final study investigated how capability (comprising both phone and driving capability) influenced willingness to engage. Participants (N=40) were required to drive in a simulator under two conditions, simulated low and high road demand. Their willingness to interact with their phones, when faced with a number of phone tasks, was then observed. It was found that driving capability had an effect on willingness to engage in high demand scenarios with the less capable, novice, drivers having a higher propensity to engage with placing a call, sending a text message and reading a text message than the more experienced drivers. Novice drivers were willing to engage with some functions on their phone at possibly inappropriate times. It was further found that, in the simulated low demand road environment, phone capability influenced willingness to engage, with those who were more capable at placing a call and sending a text message found to be more willing to engage with these functions. The research reported in this thesis represents the first attempt in the literature to study, in depth, the factors which can influence phone engagement behaviour while driving. Novel contributions include investigating if factors influencing phone use transferred from out of the car to the driving environment. Further novel contributions included whether the phone function and road demand interact to influence willingness to engage and whether capability can affect phone engagement behaviour while driving. Extending the model developed by Fuller, the thesis offers an original model that describes the factors affecting phone engagement behaviour while driving. Suggestions are proposed for how the findings presented in this thesis can effectively be used and how future work should build on these initial foundations.

There has been a good effort made in Abu Dhabi for the last couple of years between government stakeholders to develop a road safety strategy, define rules and responsibilities, and gain a fully coordinated and integrated framework to deal with road safety. According to my point of view, the challenges that might be seen as a problem for the future development of Abu Dhabi can be the management and the usage of traffic safety technologies to reduce serious road traffic accidents. This study focused on the relationship between the use of traffic safety technologies and serious road traffic accidents on Abu Dhabi Highways. The motivation for this research is to implement correctly the traffic safety technologies in Abu Dhabi highways as a part of the need to adopt plans, programmes, and preventive measures to reduce or prevent the occurrence of traffic accidents in order to ensure the safety of individuals and property, in addition to preserving the security of the state and its human and economic components. The overall approach to this study is a mixed methodology, which combines quantitative and qualitative methods. A questionnaire is one method used in this regard, and is designed to be quantitative. In the quantitative method, comparing statistics of fatalities and injuries before and after installation of the speed cameras is used. As a result of this study and by making the connectivity between reviewing the results and findings of the literature review, identifying the questionnaire results, and exploring the before and after statistics led to findings which were used to develop a decision support framework that can be used to advise the regional safety strategy to be sustainable. The design framework was also validated through Abu Dhabi highways by a panel of experts, which was carried out using the focus group method, which was qualitative in nature. It is recommended from this research to invest much in traffic safety technologies, focus more on driver support systems and rapid response systems, improve driver behaviour as a priority in Abu Dhabi highways using traffic safety technologies, and integrate the compatibility of all of the above through an integrated system and specific performance indicators that are measured and followed up on an ongoing basis, and supported by geographic information systems (GIS).

Diese Arbeit soll im Wesentlichen dazu beitragen, die Frage der Abhängigkeit von Unfallursachen bzw. beschreibenden Eigenschaften eines Verkehrsunfalls zum Alter des Hauptverursachers im motorisierten Straßenverkehr zu beantworten. Anhand der Darstellung des Unfallgeschehens in der BRD kann abgeleitet werden, dass die Anzahl der Unfälle im Straßenverkehr seit einigen Jahren langsam aber stetig steigt. Im Gegenzug sinkt jedoch die Schwere der Unfälle. Anhand der Definition verschiedener verkehrsunfallbezogener Risikofaktoren können die Unfallrisikogruppen in Form der Fahranfänger und Senioren identifiziert werden. Das Risiko zu verunfallen ist für einen 17-Jährigen Fahranfänger mehr als sechsmal höher als das Risiko der Referenzkategorie der erfahrenen Fahrer. Die Gründe dafür werden durch eine altersbezogene Unfallursachenanalyse offengelegt. Um einen Überblick über verschiedene Ansätze zur Bestimmung der Unfallursachen zu bekommen, wird neben den durch die Polizei kategorisierten amtlichen Unfallursachen und der merkmalsorientierten Dokumentation das Konzept eines verhaltenspsychologischen Ansatzes diskutiert. Es ist davon auszugehen, dass die Gründe für einen Unfall facettenreicher sind als es die Kategorien der amtlichen Statistik abbilden können. Primär wird davon ausgegangen, dass verschiedene Metaereignisse, wie zum Beispiel Ablenkung in Kombination mit einer amtlich dokumentierten Unfallursache, in einer Wirkungskette als Bedingung für ein Unfallereignis auftreten. Mit Unfällen gehen auch immer Strategien zur Unfallvermeidung einher. Präventionsmaßnahmen werden in umfänglicher Form von verschiedenen Interessengruppen formuliert und praktiziert. Wesentliche Ansätze werden zur Bewertung des Zusammenhangs zwischen personenbezogenen Merkmalen, wie dem Alter, diskutiert. Eine Clusteranalyse, als strukturentdeckendes Verfahren, von sächsischen Unfalldaten klärt, ob das Alter einer Person im Zusammenhang mit einer dokumentierten Konfiguration von Unfalleigenschaften steht und schafft dabei eine Grundlage zur Ausrichtung geeigneter Präventionsmaßnahmen in Abhängigkeit zum Alter des Hauptverursachers. Die wesentlichen in der Literaturrecherche formulierten Zusammenhänge zwischen den Unfalleigenschaften und dem Alter einer Person gelten auch für den räumlich begrenzten Unfalldatensatz. Zusätzlich konnten eine Reihe weiterer Eigenschaften als bedeutsam klassifiziert werden. Zudem ergeben sich auch für Unfallverursacher, die keiner Risikogruppe zugeordnet wurden, bedeutsame Eigenschaften eines Unfalls mit Getöteten.

Most knowledge of road accidents patterns derives from datasets. Heightened risk of involvement in road accidents can be shown to be associated with, inter alia, membership of minority ethnic groups and poverty. In addition, males are involved in a greater number of road accidents than are females. Very little work has been done to explain why these patterns should occur or why some places are linked to a greater risk of road accidents for specific groups of road users. This thesis adopts qualitative methodologies to examine reasons for the apparent over-representation in road accidents of Black teenage male pedestrians living in London, an exercise that not only suggests why Black teenagers should be over-represented in datasets but identifies factors that may explain the dynamics behind many accidents in road space. The thesis focuses on the nature of road space as social space, and a road accident as a unique event that is brought into being through an interaction between users as they meet, each user importing his or her own expectations, feelings and interpretations to the experience. Data are used to argue that no one road user independently ‘causes' a road accident and the thesis concludes that an apparently higher rate of road accidents involving Black teenagers is a function of the constructed social space of the road. Rather than anything intrinsic to the individual, the circumstances of a road accident involving a Black teenage pedestrian can reveal many tensions that underpin society. The final chapter proposes a variety of ways of tackling road accidents, concluding that to be effective, road safety programmes should be developed for diverse societies or communities, rather than discrete groups within communities.