Road safety research in China: review and appraisal

Abstract

Objective: This study explored two major problems of China's traffic and reviewed the human factors research in road safety published in Chinese journals.

Methods: A comprehensive search of Chinese journals related to road safety was conducted. Forty-three studies were found and reviewed in this article.

Results: One problem is pedestrians and bicyclists crossing streets and their interactions with vehicle drivers. The other is aggressive driving, such as frequently changing lanes, tailgating, moving forward, and obstructing the path of others. All the reviewed studies were classified into 4 categories according to the research topics: driver capacity, driving style, driver fatigue, and traffic accidents. Driver capacity research studied Chinese drivers' physical and mental abilities, including information processing, vision, reaction, attention distribution, and mental workload, and their differences between accident and non-accident drivers. Driving style research explored the influence of drivers' personality traits, psychological stress, temperament types, and mood on their behavior and accident involvement. It was found that accident and non-accident drivers were significantly different in sympathy, perseverance, aggressiveness, cooperativeness, and anxiety. In studies of driver fatigue, researchers investigated the impact of driving time, time of a day, road environment, age, and driving experience on drivers' capacities and performance. The characteristics of China's traffic accidents and road alignment of accident-prone roads were analyzed in the traffic accident research.

Conclusions: We determined the gap between existing research and the two salient problems of China's traffic and pointed out directions for future research.