The Handbook of Traffic Psychology covers all key areas of research in this field including theory, applications, methodology and analyses, variables that affect traffic, driver problem behaviors, and countermeasures to reduce risk on roadways. Comprehensive in scope, the methodology section includes case-control studies, self-report instruments and methods, field methods and naturalistic observational techniques, instrumented vehicles and in-car recording techniques, modeling and simulation methods, in vivo methods, clinical assessment, and crash datasets and analyses. Experienced researchers will better understand what methods are most useful for what kinds of studies and students can better understand the myriad of techniques used in this discipline. Focuses specifically on traffic, as opposed to transport Covers all key areas of research in traffic psychology including theory, applications, methodology and analyses, variables that affect traffic, driver problem behaviors, and countermeasures to reduce the risk of variables and behavior Contents include how to conduct traffic research and how to analyze data Contributors come from more than 10 countries, including US, UK, Japan, Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland, Mexico, Australia, Canada, Turkey, France, Finland, Norway, Israel, and South Africa

Traffic psychology is a rapidly expanding and broad field within applied psychology with a considerable volume of research activities and a growing network of academic strands of enquiry. The discipline primarily focuses on the behaviour of road users and the psychological processes underlying these behaviours, looking at issues such as cognition, distraction, fatigue, personality and social aspects, often delivering practical applications and educational interventions. Traffic psychology has been the focus of research for almost as long as the motor car has been in existence and was first recognised as a discipline in 1990 when the International Association of Applied Psychology formed Division 13: Traffic and Transportation Psychology. The benefits of understanding traffic psychology are being increasingly recognised by a whole host of organisations keen to improve road safety or minimise health and safety risks when travelling in vehicles. The objective of this volume is to describe and discuss recent advances in the study of traffic psychology, with a major focus on how the field contributes to the understanding of at-risk road-user behaviour. The intended readerships include road-safety researchers from a variety of different academic backgrounds, senior practitioners in the field including regulatory authorities, the private and public sector personnel, and vehicle manufacturers concerned with improving road safety.

Seventeen essays by European experts treat the human factor in the drive for mobility. Barjobet, editor/chairman of the European Association of Transport Psychologists, which now finally has a journal in the field, introduces this applied branch of psychology that contributes insights on drivers' individual differences in perceptions, attitudes, behaviors, and skills; and improving education, diagnosis (e.g., of accident proneness), and therapy that impact road safety. Looking at the future of traffic psychology, the concluding contribution focuses on the challenges of developing better theory, driver behavior models, and driving ability tests; changing habits; collaboration of traffic professionals; and their role in driver support systems and sustainable development via public transport. Lacks a subject index. c. Book News Inc.

Driving is a fact of life. We are all spending more and more time on the road, and traffic is an issue we face everyday. This book will make you think about it in a whole new light. We have always had a passion for cars and driving. Now Traffic offers us an exceptionally rich understanding of that passion. Vanderbilt explains why traffic jams form, outlines the unintended consequences of our attempts to engineer safety and even identifies the most common mistakes drivers make in parking lots. Based on exhaustive research and interviews with driving experts and traffic officials around the globe, Traffic gets under the hood of the quotidian activity of driving to uncover the surprisingly complex web of physical, psychological and technical factors that explain how traffic works.

Just as our transport systems become more and more important to our economic and social well-being, so they become more and more crowded and more at risk from congestion, disruption, and collapse. Technology and engineering can provide part of the solution, but the complete solution will need to take account of the behaviour of the users of the transport networks. The role of psychologists in this is to understand how people make decisions about the alternative modes of transport and about the alternative routes to their destinations, to understand how novice and other vulnerable users can develop safe and effective behaviours, how competent users can operate within the transport system optimally and within their perceptual and cognitive limitations. The contributions to this volume address these issues of how the use of our transport systems can be improved by taking into account knowledge of the behaviour of the people who use the systems. Topics discussed include driver training and licensing, driver impairment, road user attitudes and behaviour, enforcement and behaviour change, driver support systems, and the psychology of mobility and transport mode choice. This work will be of value not only to psychologists but to all transport professionals interested in the application of psychology to traffic.

Road accidents are the major cause of death and injury among young people in the developing world, and the field of psychology can offer great insights into the many factors that are at play when we get behind the wheels of our cars. Based on data collected around the world on drivers of all age groups, Graham Hole provides an up to date picture of the realities of driving, including visual perception issues, cell phone distractions, fatigue, drugs, and the effects of aging. These insights can help explain why we crash, as well as how we achieve the amazing feat of not crashing more often than we do. In this jargon-free and very accessible book, Hole applies psychological methods and insights to this every-day experience with two audiences in mind. First, he speaks to accident investigators, who frequently rely on well-developed understandings of engineering and forensics and less insight into the psychology of the driver. Second, of course, this book will be of value to anyone interested in the application of cognitive psychology to real-world behaviors, and to anyone who drives.