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We use a controlled experiment to analyze the impact of watching different types of educational traffic campaign videos on overconfidence of undergraduate university students in Brazil. The videos have the same underlying traffic educational content but differ in the form of exhibition. We find that videos with shocking content (Australian school) are more effective in reducing drivers' overconfidence, followed by those with punitive content (American school). We do not find empirical evidence that videos with technical content (European school) change overconfidence. Since several works point to a strong association between overconfidence and road safety, our study can support the conduit of driving safety measures by identifying efficient ways of reducing drivers' overconfidence. Finally, this paper also introduces how to use machine learning techniques to mitigate the usual subjectivity in the design of the econometric specification that is commonly faced in many researches in experimental economics., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Average speed enforcement is a relatively new approach gaining popularity throughout Europe and Australia. This paper reviews the evidence regarding the impact of this approach on vehicle speeds, crash rates and a number of additional road safety and public health outcomes. The economic and practical viability of the approach as a road safety countermeasure is also explored. A literature review, with an international scope, of both published and grey literature was conducted. There is a growing body of evidence to suggest a number of road safety benefits associated with average speed enforcement, including high rates of compliance with speed limits, reductions in average and 85th percentile speeds and reduced speed variability between vehicles. Moreover, the approach has been demonstrated to be particularly effective in reducing excessive speeding behaviour. Reductions in crash rates have also been reported in association with average speed enforcement, particularly in relation to fatal and serious injury crashes. In addition, the approach has been shown to improve traffic flow, reduce vehicle emissions and has also been associated with high levels of public acceptance. Average speed enforcement offers a greater network-wide approach to managing speeds that reduces the impact of time and distance halo effects associated with other automated speed enforcement approaches. Although comparatively expensive it represents a highly reliable approach to speed enforcement that produces considerable returns on investment through reduced social and economic costs associated with crashes., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This paper introduces a simple statistical technique that can be used to assess the external validity of road safety evaluation studies. External validity refers to the possibility of generalising the results of research to other contexts than those in which it was made. There are several aspects of external validity. Two aspects that are often of interest concern the applicability of the results of road safety evaluation studies across countries and time. Can the results of studies made in one or more countries be applied in countries where studies have not been made? Can the results of studies made many years ago still be applied? The technique introduced in this paper is designed to provide support in answering these questions. The technique evaluates the stability of research results in time and space. The technique is based on cumulative meta-analysis and produces statistics that show the consistency of study results in time and space (across countries). The range of replications denotes the span of time and countries in which studies have been made. The idea is that if the results of studies are stable throughout the range of replications, one may have greater confidence in their external validity than if the results of research vary in time and between countries. The technique is illustrated by means of numerical examples., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This paper examines the stability of long-term trends in the number of traffic fatalities in eight highly motorised countries: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands, Great Britain, Australia and The United States. In all these countries, the number of traffic fatalities reached a peak around 1970-1972 and has since declined. The decline has, however, been irregular and fairly long periods of stagnation or even increase in the number of fatalities have occurred in all countries. A stable trend is defined in this paper as a trend that remains unchanged and therefore can be used to successfully predict the future number of fatalities by means of extrapolation. It is concluded that the trends towards fewer fatalities in the countries selected have not been stable and that even trend lines that fit past trends very closely are usually worthless for predictive purposes. An attempt was made to identify factors influencing long-term trends by fitting negative binomial regression models to fatality data. Although some of the models fitted the data marginally better than simple trend lines, these models are not necessarily more useful for predicting future trends than simple trend lines, since using the models for prediction requires that future changes in all explanatory variables must be predicted. The chief lesson is that past trends do not provide a reliable basis for predicting future developments with respect to the number of traffic fatalities.

Since the 1980s, many countries have set quantified road safety targets as part of their comprehensive road safety strategies. This paper studies the association between the setting of quantified road safety targets and road fatality reduction over the past two decades. Both aggregate and disaggregate levels of hypothesis tests are performed on data from 14 countries that set road safety targets during the period 1981-1999. A before-and-after analysis of the treatment and comparison groups is conducted, and the results show that the majority of countries with quantified road safety targets experienced a reduction in road fatalities in this period. Overall, the establishment of quantified road safety targets is found to have an appreciable association with an improvement in road safety.

This paper presents a meta-analysis of 33 studies that have evaluated the effects on road safety of area-wide urban traffic calming schemes. Area-wide urban traffic calming schemes are typically implemented in residential areas in towns in order to reduce the environmental and safety problems caused by road traffic. A hierarchical road system is established and through traffic is removed from residential streets by means of, for example, street closures or one-way systems. Speed reducing devices are often installed in residential streets. Main roads are improved in order to carry a larger traffic volume without additional delays or more accidents. The meta-analysis shows that area-wide urban traffic calming schemes on the average reduce the number of injury accidents by about 15%. The largest reduction in the number of accidents is found for residential streets (about 25%), a somewhat smaller reduction is found for main roads (about 10%). Similar reductions are found in the number of property damage only accidents. The results of evaluation studies are robust with respect to study design. There is no evidence of publication bias in evaluation studies. Study findings are found to have high external validity.

This paper reports international differences in the extent of alcohol-impaired driving. These differences are then interpreted in the light of inducements and disincentives to drink and to drive.