An exploration of perceptions of overt and covert speed enforcement, related attitudes and behaviours
Keywords: Enforcement & Penalties
ARSRPE
Submission Date: 2000
Abstract
One thousand respondents were surveyed via telephone in order to explore perceptions of overt and covert aspects of speed enforcement, risk of detection, and speed-related skills, attitudes, and behaviours. Agreement ratings on a 0-10 scale requested for a series of items. Initial factor analyses identified 14 factors. A second-order factor analysis extracted five factors: risk of detection, beliefs about speeding, speeding behaviours, driving skills and speed awareness, and beliefs about the overt or covert nature of speed enforcement. Cluster analysis identified four driver profiles based on these factors. A first group perceived speed camera enforcement as overt, believed personal risk of detection as high, and were the least inclined to speed. A second group believed camera enforcement was somewhat covert, personal risk of detection low, and were also less inclined to speed. A third group perceived all enforcement as overt, personal risk of detection as low, and reported speeding behaviour. A final group was the most inclined to speed. While they perceived camera enforcement as overt, personal risk of detection was considered high. Age and sex differences across groups and road safety implications are discussed.