Research Papers (2009 – 2013)

Abstract

Drinking and driving (DD) has been studied through disciplines such as transportation engineering, epidemiology, psychology, economics and criminology. In order to complement some of these analyses I discuss and examine, in the particular context of male drivers and DD behavior, three sociological perspectives: road safety education, relational risk, and social capital. In order to assess these approaches, I apply logistic regression to predict selfassessments of DD. Results indicate that while road safety education is a weak predictor, relational risk and social capital provide us with a more comprehensive understanding of this phenomenon. Male drivers who engage in DD are more likely to be divorced, have no children, and perceive DD to be a low risk behavior. Findings and limitations of this study are discussed in reference to both road safety and sociological literatures. Data were taken from the “Road Users Attitudes and Behaviors towards Traffic Safety” survey from the National Commission of Road Safety of the Government of Chile (2005). The sample size was reported to be 2,118 (N of male drivers was 396). This survey was representative of Chile’s Metropolitan Region pedestrian, passenger and driver population.

José Ignacio, Nazif Muñozof