Italians’ Public Opinion on the Road Roundabouts Safety

Roundabouts have been shown to provide significant safety and operational benefits, but a better understanding of public perceptions of roundabouts is critical in order to assess the contribution of the driving behavior of the users on their safety. Therefore, research on user behavior and preferences is a helpful tool in improving road safety and accident prevention. The aim of this study was to increase knowledge about user perception of risk in roundabouts. Risk perception in specific situations, factors influencing perceived risk, and attitude towards suggested safety improvements were studied as well as knowledge about traffic rules regulating the interaction between road users was studied. The instrument used is a web nationwide survey, which resulted in a total of 1728 responses throughout Italy. These results provide a macroscopic view of road user perceptions of roundabouts at a statewide level. This study also showed that web-based surveys provide an efficient means of collecting detailed public opinion data. The overall opinion that the respondents expressed against roundabouts is positive. However, the survey results have shown that the judgment suffers significant variability in relation to some specific components of the people. It is different the degree of safety of roundabouts towards the different types of users (for example, are considered less safe against cyclists). There are no substantial differences between the judgment of male drivers and that of females.

Keywords: Road safety; Driving behaviour; Web-survey; Risk perception; Ordered probit models