Final report of Working Group 2: Traffic psychology. A COST Action TU1101 / HOPE collaboration

1. Background The workgroup of Traffic Psychology is concerned with the social, behavioral, and perceptual aspects that are associated with use and non-use of bicycle helmets, in their various forms and under various cycling conditions. 2. Objectives The objectives of WG2 are to (1) share current knowledge among the people already working in the field, (2) suggest new ideas for research on and evaluation of the design of bicycle helmets, and (3) discuss options for funding of such research within the individual frameworks of the participants. 3. Areas for research include: 3.1. The patterns of use of helmets among different users: children, adults, and sports enthusiasts. 3.2. The use of helmets in different environments: rural roads, urban streets, and bike trails. 3.3. Concerns bicyclists have relative to their safety and convenience and the perceived impact of using helmets on comfort and convenience. 3.4. The benefit of helmets for enhancing visibility, and how variations in helmet design and colors affect daytime, nighttime, and dusktime visibility. 3.5. The role of helmets in the acceptance of city-wide pickup-and-drop-off bicycles. 3.6. The impact of helmets on visual search behaviour of bicyclists. 4. Activities The main activities of the WG2 members consisted of: 4.1. Sharing ideas at periodic meetings and in short-term scientific meetings (STSM). 4.2. Formulating a major cooperative study to be jointly conducted in the different environments/cultures/countries. 4.3. Developing research proposals to be submitted to funding organizations – in government and industry. 4.4. Promoting research in this area among graduate students and young Ph.D.’s and cooperating with other researchers in other institutions. 5. Outputs and products: The bulk of this report will consist of short summaries of the outputs listed below of activities conducted and products generated by the WG2 members in the course of the four years of the COST Action TU1101. The outputs are divided into the three categories listed below. 5.1. Multi-country survey of bicycle use, and attitude, and crash experience by adult bicyclists in 17 countries. 5.2. Short-term scientific meetings (STSMs). 5.3. Presentations, technical reports and scientific papers published by the WG members on cycling with particular reference to cycling safety and bicycle helmets. 5.4. Potential applications and implementation of WG2 members’ research. (Less)