The Effect of Psychological Factors of Speeding Behavior Using a Driving Simulator (Focused on Speeding Intention)

Speeding is a major cause of traffic accidents that affects the safety of pedestrians and harms drivers and their families, property and mental health. However, most researches on speeding behavior have been conducted by survey method, so the relationship between cause and effect is not clear. The reliability of the research cannot be carefully examined because most researches involve retrospective methods. It is clear that conducting experimental research is important for overcoming these limitations, but it is impossible to perform tests with real cars in real traffic situations due to the inability to control situational factors (e.g., other vehicles, traffic signal) which affect participants' behavior. A car simulator experiment was designed and the theory of planned behavior was applied to the experiment. Each participant was grouped and assigned to either high speeding intention group or low speeding intention group according to their levels of speeding intention and analyzed the difference of driving behavior indexes between two groups. The results revealed statistically significant differences between two groups on driving speed, speeding frequency, and accelerator pressure deviation. Finally, the limitations and the implications of this study were discussed.