Study on unsafe and aggressive driving habits of light passenger vhicle drivers in Dhaka City

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to identify light passenger vehicle drivers’ perception about unsafe and aggressive driving habits and to determine light passenger vehicle drivers’ perception on cause of accident due to unsafe and aggressive driving and on remedial measures to control unsafe and aggressive driving as well as to minimize accident due to unsafe and aggressive driving in Dhaka City. The study used survey questionnaire, which were conducted on randomly selected 500 light passenger vehicle drivers throughout the whole area of Dhaka City. The questionnaire consists of four sections - Personal Information (12 questions), Driving Hours and Methods of Employment and Payment (5 questions), Drivers’ Habits (14 questions) and Drivers’ Opinion (2 questions). The study reveals that 52% of the drivers’ family monthly income is Taka 10,000- 15,000. Most of the drivers (78%) receive their wages on monthly basis though their jobs are temporary. 73% drivers do not have any formal written contracts for their jobs with their employers. Most of the drivers (97%) drive the vehicles everyday normally beyond the normal driving hours and about 26% drivers cannot afford to maintain sufficient rest-break while driving. Some of the drivers (25%) responded that their average driving speeds are more than the average driving speed in the City. Most of the drivers (71%) follow speed meter and almost all the drivers follow traffic signs/signals while driving. About 86% drivers never interrogated or interrogated a few times a year by police. Most of the drivers (84%) never use mobile phone while driving. As regards driver’s feelings about own driving, drivers’ responses indicated that their driving in Dhaka City is considerably unsafe (21%) and considerably aggressive (67%) but considerably defensive (44%). Light passenger vehicle drivers in their opinion strongly responded that habitual driving is the main cause of aggressive driving behavior (68%) followed by other causes like irregular driving (50%), competition on the road (46%), pressure of passengers (35%) and being in hurry/time pressure (33%). Light passenger vehicle drivers in their opinion strongly responded that the main immediate measure to control aggressive driving as well as to minimize aggressive driving related accident is to double or triple fine for traffic violations (53%), followed by other measures like more police officer assigned to traffic (38%), encouraging passengers to object/advise when their drivers are not driving safely (33%) and taking away drivers license more often (27%).