The Driver Behaviour Questionnaire: a North American analysis.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Traffic Safety
• Human Factors

Background:

• The Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ) is a widely used tool for assessing driver behaviors associated with collision risk.
• Originally developed in Britain, its applicability to other driving populations requires validation.

Purpose of the Study:

• Adapt the DBQ for a North American driving context.
• Examine the underlying component structure of the adapted DBQ.
• Evaluate the predictive power of DBQ scores for self-reported traffic collisions.

Main Methods:

• The study involved adapting the DBQ for North American drivers.
• Statistical analyses were performed to assess the component structure of the questionnaire items.
• The relationship between DBQ scores and self-reported collision involvement was analyzed.

Main Results:

• Analysis of the original DBQ items suggested a two-component structure of errors and violations, with no evidence for a 'lapses' component.
• A subset of 20 items, similar to those used by Parker et al., revealed a three-component structure: errors, lapses, and violations.
• While violations and lapses were correlated with collision involvement, the predictive accuracy of the models was low.

Conclusions:

• The North American version of the DBQ exhibits a similar component structure to previous findings.
• The study found that the DBQ has limited efficacy in predicting self-reported traffic collisions in this population.