Factors affecting stability and change in risky driving from late adolescence to the late twenties

The risky driving tendencies of young drivers has been extensively researched, but much less is known about across-time patterns of risky driving behavior and the factors which influence these. This study identified factors associated with stable, increasing and decreasing risky driving trajectories among 751 Australian drivers participating in an ongoing longitudinal study. Five groups were formed on the basis of participants’ patterns of risky driving from 19–20 to 27–28 years (i.e., stable low-risk, stable speeding, stable high-risk, increasing and decreasing). Very few participants exhibited a stable high-risk pattern. Characteristics that differentiated the different across-time groups were identified using Multinomial Logistic Regression. The most consistent correlates of risky driving patterns were antisocial behavior, binge drinking and relationship status. Sex, school completion, temperament, civic engagement, and antisocial peer friendships were also correlated with different across-time patterns. The implications of these findings for road safety are discussed.     

Evidence that implementation intentions reduce drivers’ speeding behavior: Testing a new intervention to change driver behavior

Implementation intentions have the potential to break unwanted habits and help individuals behave in line with their goal intentions. We tested the effects of implementation intentions in the context of drivers’ speeding behavior. A randomized controlled design was used. Speeding behavior, goal intentions and theoretically derived motivational pre-cursors of goal intentions were measured at both baseline and follow-up (one month later) using self-report questionnaires. Immediately following the baseline questionnaire, the experimental (intervention) group (N = 117) specified implementation intentions using a volitional help sheet, which required the participants to link critical situations in which they were tempted to speed with goal-directed responses to resist the temptation. The control group (N = 126) instead received general information about the risks of speeding. In support of the hypotheses, the experimental group reported exceeding the speed limit significantly less often at follow-up than did the control group. This effect was specific to ‘inclined abstainers’ (i.e., participants who reported speeding more than they intended to at baseline and were therefore motivated to reduce their speeding) and could not be attributed to any changes in goal intentions to speed or any other measured motivational construct. Also in line with the hypotheses, implementation intentions attenuated the past-subsequent speeding behavior relationship and augmented the goal intention – subsequent speeding behavior relationship. The findings imply that implementation intentions are effective at reducing speeding and that they do so by weakening the effect of habit, thereby helping drivers to behave in accordance with their existing goal intentions. The volitional help sheet used in this study is an effective tool for promoting implementation intentions to reduce speeding.     

K18D系列煤炭漏斗车提速改造方案介绍

分析了目前在国铁线上运营的K18D系列煤炭漏斗车进行提速改造的意叉,对K18D系列煤炭漏斗车换装转K2型转向架提速改造总体要求、总体改造方案及改造内容进行了阐述和探讨,并介绍该改造方案在试改样车上得到了验证,表明了该改造方案完全合理,且经济可行.     

A prospective study of relationships between propositions about risk and driver speeding

Risk propositions are specific and modifiable hypotheses that people hold about the outcomes of risk-taking behavior. According to fuzzy trace theory (FTT), risk propositions arise from the subjective and idiosyncratic interpretations that people make about the meaning of risk information, and form the primary basis of decision-making. A community sample of 255 drivers was interviewed at baseline (T1), 6 weeks after baseline (T2) and 14 weeks after baseline (T3). We tested whether propositions about speeding-related risk at time 1 (T1) would predict speeding at time 3 (T3), controlling perceptions of speeding-related danger and other speeding-related variables (the perceived possibility of being caught and the enjoyment and excitement to be gained from speeding) measured at time 2 (T2). We also tested whether relationships between T1 propositions and T3 speeding would be mediated by T2 perceptions of danger. T1 propositions predicted T3 speeding independently of the control variables, and we also found evidence consistent with mediation by T2 danger. In line with FTT, risk propositions were not scaleable as a single dimension, but generally predicted speeding as independent entities. Taken together these findings support the view that drivers perceive speeding risk as a series of potentially modifiable propositions which may have item-specific influences on speeding behavior.     

The beliefs which motivate young male and female drivers to speed: A comparison of low and high intenders

In Australia, young drivers aged 17–24 years, and particularly males, have the highest risk of being involved in a fatal crash. Investigation of young drivers’ beliefs allows for a greater understanding of their involvement in risky behaviours, such as speeding, as beliefs are associated with intentions, the antecedent to behaviour. The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was used to conceptualise beliefs using a scenario based questionnaire distributed to licenced drivers (N = 398). The questionnaire measured individual's beliefs and intentions to speed in a particular situation. Consistent with a TPB-based approach, the beliefs of those with low intentions to speed (‘low intenders’) were compared with the beliefs of those with high intentions (‘high intenders’) with such comparisons conducted separately for males and females. Overall, significant differences in the beliefs held by low and high intenders and for both females and males were found. Specifically, for females, it was found that high intenders were significantly more likely to perceive advantages of speeding, less likely to perceive disadvantages, and more likely to be encouraged to speed on familiar and inappropriately signed roads than female low intenders. Females, however, did not differ in their perceptions of support from friends, with all females reporting some level of disapproval from most friends and all females (i.e., low and high intenders) reporting approval to speed from their male friends. The results for males revealed that high intenders were significantly more likely to speed on familiar and inappropriately signed roads as well as having greater perceptions of support from all friends, except from those friends with whom they worked. Low and high intending males did not differ in their perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of speeding, with the exception of feelings of excitement whereby high intenders reported speeding to be more exciting than low intenders. The findings are discussed in terms of how they may directly inform the content of mass media and public education campaigns aimed at encouraging young drivers to slow down.     

The paradox of driving speed: two adverse effects on highway accident rate

Whereas speeding is known to be a substantial risk factor in driving, there is no unequivocal evidence that accident rate on limited-access motor highways is considerably affected by average speed or by speed limits meant to regulate it. It is suggested here that the seeming puzzle actually may have a straightforward explanation: accident-prone interactions (APIs) between cars occur when they pass each other--mostly moving in the same directions or in opposite ones. Such interactions are shown here to happen more frequently, the lower average speed is. To the extent that high speed limits contribute to increase in average speed, they serve to reduce the number of such interactions, thereby to moderate at least part of the negative effect of speed on the driver's ability to avoid an impending accident.     

A longitudinal investigation of the predictors of older drivers’ speeding behaviour

There is little objective evidence about the extent older drivers’ are involved in speeding or factors that may influence this behaviour. Particular concern exists for the increasing number of older drivers with poor or declining cognitive and visual function. This study investigates whether a reduction in speeding forms part of the self-restrictive driving behaviour evident when older drivers experience poor cognitive and visual function. Driving data over 12 months were collected from 182 volunteers aged 75–94 years. Driving speed was estimated using Global Positioning System location, and speed limit data was based on a service-provider database. Speed events were defined as driving 1 km/h or more, with 3% tolerance, above a single speed limit, averaged over 30 s. Almost all participants (99%) were involved in speed events. While, 16–31% of participants experienced a meaningful decline in cognitive or visual function during the 12-months, these declines were not predictive of a change in speed events. Our results indicate speeding behaviour in this age group was highly prevalent, but less so for the oldest drivers whereby the rate of speed events was 7% lower per year older (IRR = 0.93, 95%CI = 0.89–0.96). Older drivers with worse function were less involved in speed events (unadjusted for distance driven) during 12 months of observation. Weekly distance driven decreased over the year by approximately 0.45 km with every week of monitoring for these older drivers. When distance driven was taken into account, decreased function was not predictive of involvement in speed events, indicating the reduction in speed events may be achieved by older drivers with lower function reducing distance driven. These results are important for developing policy to address speeding behaviour of the growing population of older drivers to reduce the incidence of crashes and resulting casualties.     

THERMAL ANALYSIS OF FRICTIONAL DISK IN SPEEDING WET CLUTCH

Multi-frictional disks are employed to transmit the torque in speeding wet clutch, and the oil thickness within frictional disks could be adjusted for practical output speeding. As oil combined with a-hydrocarbon or polyester is getting widely used as lubricant and the speeding wet clutch works within hydrodynamic lubrication, mixture lubrication, boundary lubrication and contact situation, established the thermal analysis model for investigating the behavior of frictional disks in speeding wet clutch, which covers the power-law fluid model, Patir-Cheng average flow model,GT asperity contact-model, oil film inertia and heat effects, mean energy equation, and heat conduction equation. The formulas in the model are deduced. The numeral calculation and analysis for hydrodynamic lubrication and mixture lubrication are executed. Relationships and variations among transmitting torque, mean push pressure, output speed, and load are presented. Thermal effect should be considered during the hydrodynamic lubricat     

Masculinity causes speeding in young men

The goal of this study was to examine if masculinity is causally responsible for speeding in young men. Participants (83 males) were randomly assigned to a masculine, feminine, or neutral priming condition. Priming consisted in active listening to either masculine, feminine, or neutral words coming from the car radio while driving in a high-end driving simulator. Results showed that when the concept of masculinity was activated by priming, participants' driving speed increased significantly from the beginning to the end of the driving simulation as compared to the neutral and the feminine condition. Results are discussed with respect to real life health implications.