Shock at drivers’ stop-sign responses
Results of a survey into motorists’ behaviour make for alarming reading, reports Rob Maetzig.
Palmerston North university lecturer Dr Andrew Gilbey was so annoyed with himself for copping a fine for failing to stop at a stop sign, he decided to conduct his own survey on how many motorists do it.
The results are shocking – he’s found that one in every three drivers fails to stop, even when there are other vehicles approaching from another direction.
Even worse, his research has found that if one driver fails to stop, following drivers tend to mimic the action and not stop either. ‘‘People are probably thinking, ‘If I stop, I’m going to use extra petrol and my journey will take longer. The person in front of me didn’t stop, so why should I?’,’’ says Gilbey.
‘‘Psychologists know people mimic other people, but they’re still not sure how much conscious thought is involved.
‘‘In this case there seems to be conscious decision-making – otherwise you would expect drivers to mimic good behaviour as well.’’
Gilbey, who has a PhD in psychology and is a senior lecturer at the Massey School of Aviation, says his $150 fine and loss of 20 demerit points had been a sore point ever since he was ticketed about 10 years ago.
Since then, he watched heaps of motorists go through stop signs, so he decided to collect some empirical evidence.
With the help of colleague Dr Kawtar Tani from the Universal College of Learning, he set up a camera at the main road entrance to Massey University in Palmerston North, and let it run for 20 minutes at a time.
‘‘We ended up with almost 800 observations where there was conflicting cross-traffic, that is, a situation where drivers really should have stopped because there was a car coming the other way,’’ he says.
‘‘Surprisingly, 32 per cent of drivers didn’t stop. That’s almost one in three drivers who choose not to stop, despite obviously conflicting traffic.’’
The figures were even worse when there was no obviously conflicting cross-traffic. In this situation, just 17 per cent of drivers obeyed the stop sign. Gilbey says these figures are consistent with a findings of an earlier overseas study
And on closer examination of the footage, he noticed a pattern: drivers were likely to mimic the bad behaviour of the driver in front of them.
Driver behaviour was compared in situations where there was no car in front; when the car in front didn’t stop at the intersection; and when the car in front did stop.
Gilbey found that a driver following a car that did not stop was significantly less likely to stop – only 11 per cent of drivers stopped, compared to 17 per cent who stopped when there was no car in front of them.
Although in the past he himself has been fined for failing to stop at a stop sign, Gilbey says he recognises that the rules are there to keep motorists safe. ‘‘If you are caught, you cop a fairly substantial fine and get 20 demerit points, and that hurts,’’ he says. ‘‘But it doesn’t hurt as much as getting hit by another car at the intersection.’’
Latest available statistics show that in 2012, 18,500 infringement notices were issued for failing to stop at a stop sign.
"Psychologists know people mimic other people, but they're still not sure how much conscious thought is involved."
Lecturer Andrew Gilbey