We define transport safety culture (TSC) as shared norms prescribing certain transport safety behaviours, shared expectations regarding the behaviours of others and shared values signifying what’s important (e.g. safety, mobility, respect, politeness). An important aspect of our approach is that overall TSC is a composite of overlapping safety cultures associated with different types of sociocultural unit.
The main aims of the project are to examine the influence of culture on transport safety behaviour in private and professional road and sea transport, and to clarify implications for safety intervention strategies.
In doing this we seek to answer three research questions:
- How much does membership in different sociocultural units (e.g. nation, region, peer-groups, sector, organizations) influence individual transport safety behaviour in professional and private road and sea transport?
- How much does TSC influence safety behaviour and outcomes relative to known risk factors like sex, age, experience, technology and infrastructure?
- How can the knowledge on group membership influencing TSC and the relative importance of TSC as a predictor of transport safety behaviour and safety outcomes be used to increase transport safety?
