Socio-cultural beliefs and road use in a low income country: a qualitative investigation of superstition-related road use behaviour in Pakistan

In developed countries much research has been conducted on human factors (including attitudes, beliefs and perceptions) contributing to road crashes. Less progress has been made in understanding and addressing human factors contributing to crashes in developing countries. In Pakistan, there are strong worldviews that foster diverse beliefs about crash causes and ways of avoiding them. Socio-cultural beliefs (traditions, customs and religion) impede efforts by developing countries to cope with the pace of modernisation and rapid motorisation. Therefore, to address gaps in our current knowledge about these issues, the current study sought to investigate driver perceptions, attitudes and beliefs towards road crashes and explored how they are linked to road user behaviour. A qualitative study involving 30 in-depth interviews identified superstitious road use behaviours interconnected with religious and superstitious beliefs, and low public credibility of evidence-based explanations. Moving towards the uptake of evidence-based protective behaviours is therefore a challenging, though desirable, task.

• Record URL:
  • http://acrs.org.au/publications/acrs-conference-papers/acrs-database/
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Peer reviewed full paper
• Authors:
  • Kayani, A
  • King, M
  • Fleiter, J
• Conference:
  • Australasian Road Safety Conference, 2016, Canberra, ACT, Australia
• Publication Date: 2016-9

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 12p
• Monograph Title: Proceedings of the 2016 Australasian Road Safety Conference, 6-8 September, Canberra, Australia

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Attitudes; Behavior; Crash causes; Demographics; Drivers; Education; Traffic safety; Traffic safety education; Travel behavior
• Uncontrolled Terms: Safe systems (road users)
• Geographic Terms: Pakistan
• ATRI Terms: Attitude; Crash cause; Crash countermeasure; Demography; Road user behaviour; Road user education
• ITRD Terms: 1661: Accident prevention; 2267: Attitude (psychol); 1755: Road user
• Subject Areas: Education and Training; Safety and Human Factors; Society; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01617917
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB
• Files: ITRD, ATRI
• Created Date: Nov 28 2016 2:31PM