Proceedings of the 2nd Business & Management Conference, Madrid

THE PERCEPTION OF ROAD SAFETY COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGNS: THE GENDER INFLUENCE

HELENA SOFIA RODRIGUES, MANUEL FONSECA, PAULO RIBEIRO CARDOSO

Abstract:

Traffic accidents are a global phenomenon with devastating social and economic consequences. In Portugal, according to data provided by the National Road Safety Authority (ANSR, 2014) there were in 2014, 30,604 accidents with victims and 482 deaths. The communication campaigns of road safety are a tool available to fight this reality. There are studies that point the fact that men are much more involved in road accidents than women. The aim of this study was to investigate how gender differences influence the behavior and attitude of the Portuguese drivers regarding driving as well as the attitude toward the road safety campaigns. There are no studies that make this kind of differentiation in the country. To implement this purpose, firstly it was described the profile of drivers by gender regarding a set of behavioral variables. Then, keeping the gender differentiation for principle, the attitude of drivers toward the road safety communication campaigns was analyzed. It was applied a survey to 310 Portuguese drivers from both genders. It was found that female drivers have less risky behaviors, namely speeding and driving after drink. Besides, women remember better the road safety campaigns and intend to apply them in the daily journey as a safety measure.

Keywords: Road traffic accidents; road safety campaigns; driver behavior; gender effect; target audience; Pearson Chi-Square; principal components analysis

DOI: 10.20472/BMC.2015.002.012

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