Subjective Safety and Risk Perception: Results from the European Survey on Road Users' Safety Attitudes (ESRA)

Abstract

The first ESRA (European Survey of Road users’ safety Attitudes) survey – a joint initiative of research organisations and road safety institutes in 20 European countries – was conducted online in 2015/2016 using representative samples of at least n=1,000 of the national adult populations in these countries. The survey aimed at collecting comparable data on road users’ opinions, attitudes and behaviour with respect to road traffic risks. This paper puts its focus on the main results of the 2015/2016 ESRA survey concerning subjective safety and risk perception in traffic. For both topics, general perception of road safety issues, the feeling of (un)safety regarding different transport modes, risk perception of causes for accidents, confrontation with risky behaviours of other road users and self-reported involvement in road crashes were analysed at an European level. The association between road fatalities and subjective concern as well as between (un)safe feeling in different transport modes and fatality rates was covered in a further analysis.