Attitudes of Greek Drivers with Focus on Mobile Phone Use While Driving

Abstract

Objective: This article investigates the attitudes and behavior of Greek drivers with specific focus on mobile phone use while driving.

Methods: The research is based on the data of the pan-European SARTRE 4 survey, which was conducted on a representative sample of Greek drivers in 2011. Analysis of the drivers' behavior was carried out by the statistical methods of factor and cluster analysis.

Results: According to the results of factor analysis, Greek drivers' responses in the selected questions were summarized into 4 factors, describing road behavior and accident involvement probability as well as their views on issues concerning other drivers' road behaviors, fatigued driving, enforcement of road safety, and mobile phone use while driving. The results of cluster analysis indicated 5 different groups of Greek drivers—the moderate, the optimistic, the conservative, the risky, and the reasonably cautious—and the characteristics of each group where identified.

Conclusions: These results may be useful for the appropriate design of targeted road safety campaigns and other countermeasures.

Keywords:

• mobile phone
• driving
• driver behavior
• drivers' attitudes
• road safety
• factor analysis
• cluster analysis