Route familiarity in road safety: A literature review and an identification proposal

• Published in: Transportation research. Part F, Traffic psychology and behaviour Traffic psychology and behaviour, 2019-04, Vol.62, p.651-671
• Main Authors: Intini, Paolo, Colonna, Pasquale, Olaussen Ryeng, Eirin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Automobile driving; Balances (scales); Crashes; Drivers; Driving behaviour; Familiarity identification; Literature reviews; Occupational safety; Review; Road design; Road safety; Route familiarity; Safety management; Traffic accidents & safety; Traffic congestion; Traffic flow; Traffic safety; Vehicle safety
• ISSN: 1369-8478; 1873-5517
• DOI: 10.1016/j.trf.2018.12.020

•A review of research studies about route familiarity in road safety was conducted.•Route familiarity was shown as able to broadly affect the driving behaviour.•Both psychological and economic perspectives revealed this potential influence.•The several implications in the road and traffic engineering practice were shown.•Different criteria for identifying route familiarity were harmonized in a new proposal. Route familiarity can be an important safety-related variable, which is often neglected. A review of previous works highlighting the relationships between route familiarity and road safety in behavioural studies and engineering standards/frameworks has been conducted. Theoretical frameworks supported by experimental results have revealed that driving behaviour can be affected by route familiarity. The latter may lead to distraction and self-confidence; and in turn to more dangerous behaviours after repeated journeys. From an economic perspective, the possible worsening of driving safety performance may be explained by trade-offs with mobility benefits. Route familiarity is also considered in engineering practice. Road design guidelines assuming a “design driver” were suggested as implicitly preserving the safety of familiar/unfamiliar drivers. The mix of familiar and unfamiliar drivers in traffic flow is explicitly considered when computing the design traffic. The safety implications of these matters find only partial confirmation in previous studies focused on involvement in crashes. However, comparing those findings was difficult due to the high variability in measuring the route familiarity itself. An attempt to harmonize the possible identifications of familiarity for future studies, based on previous findings, is proposed. The proposal considers two different scales used for measuring route familiarity: one based on travelling frequency, the other on distance from residence.