Attitude of Drivers to Traffic Regulations - Research Paper Example

?Attitude of Drivers to Traffic Regulations By default, traffic laws re supposed to be followed without any compromise. Road users who are made up of pedestrians and drivers are supposed to respond to the regulated implications of the three colors of the traffic light by acting as the light signals them to. For drivers, they are to move when the light goes green; slow down when the light goes yellow and finally stop when the light goes red. For pedestrians, they are to stop when the light is green and go when the light is red. However, these basic laws are not followed, especially by drivers. In this brief research, the researcher wanted to find ways the various factors that influenced reasons for disobeying basic traffic regulations. To simplify the data collection process and make the entire project simplified, the researcher came up with a hypothesis, which the data collection and findings of the research sought to justify. The hypothesis was that “the degree to which car drivers conform to traffic regulations depends on the gender of the driver and on the presence of passengers.” To this effect, the researcher selected one particular junction at the heart of the city where a traffic light operated. The data collection procedure included the use of both observation and interview. Through the interview, it was observed that more males broke the traffic rules as compared to females. Further interview showed that the situation existed out of impunity. This is to say that most people broke traffic rules because in most cases there were no authorities to enforce the law. Introduction Traffic laws are in place basically to ensure sanity on our roads and avoid road carnage. This notwithstanding, not many drivers obey basic traffic rules (Gardener, 2009). Most often than not, drivers are seen jumping the traffic. They do this by cross their way through even when the traffic light signals for them to stop. Again, it has been noticed that not most drivers would break the traffic rule by stopping when they are not to. The researcher has a strong conviction that there are a number of factors that are responsible for the creation of this basic problem. In the estimation of the researcher, a major factor that will influence such as situation has to do with the degree of courage a driver would have that even if he beats the red light, he or she will not run into other cars. Because of this assertion, the researcher holds the hypothesis that male drivers are the worse offenders of traffic rules. Again, the passenger make up of a car would contribute to traffic law irregularities. Method The research design designed by the researcher was a survey research design. This means that the researcher selected a very large sample size and generalized the results with what prevails in all other areas. There was a specific setting for data collection and this was New Jersey. This means that are was a level of confounding where the researcher did not have to deal with people from other parts of the State. On the sampling technique, the researcher adapted the use of random sampling technique, where no specific groups of people were targeted. The approach of the researcher was to record the gender of the first one hundred (100) drivers who committed various traffic offenses at the 4 way intersection. The hundred people were therefore to constitute the sample size of the researcher. Not aware of the possible number of drivers who may conduct various traffic offenses in a day, the researcher gave himself up to five days to collect data. If he gathered one hundred (100) offenders before the first days, he would not proceed with the data collection and vice versa. Generally, the researcher used observation as a major primary data collection approach. However, in order to make the data analysis and discussion easier, the researcher went ahead to interview some drivers in the traffic lane as to why they would possibly break traffic regulations. Results and discussion The results from the data collection proved that indeed male drivers were the worse offenders of traffic regulations. It also showed that vehicles that had most male passengers offended traffic regulations. In totality, there were one hundred (100) traffic law offenders. Twenty two (22) of these were females whiles as many as seventy eight (78) were males. The age group of the offenders was observed to be between sixteen and fifty nine (16–59). In the category of female drivers, young females were the worse offenders while in the category of males; adult males were the worse offenders. Though this research is not in comparison with any theory, it can be said that there seem to be some theoretical implications to the effect that males are more courageous in the commitment of civil crimes and also take dangerous risks than females. Having used observation and interview of drivers at a given 4 way intersection, the researcher is convinced that there could still have been an effective data collection process if other approaches had been used for the study. For instance the researcher could have visited a police station to collect data of traffic rule offenders. This way, the researcher would have been offered the opportunity of even collecting a more accurate data in the sense that he would have had the opportunity of knowing the actual age, educational qualification and socioeconomic background of these traffic law abusers. Such other data would have made the findings more reliable and prone to detailed discussion. Generally, the researcher considers the data collected as highly valid and reliable in terms of its conclusions and accuracies. However, as a survey instead of a case study, the confounded variables, which came in the form of using only one location could have affected data. For instance because the researcher used more than one day, it could be that the same drivers could have been recorded for the different days. What is more, for the fact that the research design was a survey and not a case study, using a confounded sample could hinder the empirical nature of the results in the sense that it could lack credibility for generalizing it for road traffic situation in other parts of the State other than New Jersey. In conclusion, the results show a clear indication of a very high degree of impunity towards the traffic regulations. This is to say that law enforcement in the area of traffic management is not very intensive. This said because it was observed that most of the traffic points did not have law enforcement agents available. In places where there were law agents, they looked on unconcerned when the illegal act was going on. It is therefore high time that law enforcement be strengthen to make compliance more forceful. Limitation Having touched on the fact that the confounded variables might have presented its own limitations to the study, it would be said that the experimental situation was another situation that was responsible for a couple of limitations for the study. For instance, the study was only collecting data on drivers who beat the red light at the traffic light by driving through when they were supposed to stop. The study did not actually consider the intension and reasons behind such acts. It could for instance be that there were drivers who beat the red light for genuine and reasonable purposes like emergencies involving some passengers on board. Again, the researcher had a lot of limitation regarding the time frame within which data was collected. For instance the researcher collected data for about three hours each day spanning from 4pm to 7pm. This means that a lot of people who also use the traffic lane at other periods of the day were exempted from the study. Meanwhile, their inclusion could have offered some important hypothesis such as the fact that people abuse traffic rules in morning drives than during evening rush hours. Further Research This study has made very convincing conclusions on the relationship between gender and road traffic rule adherence. What may be left for future researchers to consider will be the need to investigate the worse age group offenders. Even though this research tried to bring in a factor of age, it was not part of the main objectives for the research and so it was not carried out extensively. For instance the researcher only made imaginations of the age groups of traffic offenders. Future researchers can on their part be more detailed on this by using a research instrument that will make it possible to collect realistic data on the age of offenders. What is more, the time of day when most of these traffic offenses are committed can be investigated or studied. This would be a very useful data for law enforcement agents on how to plan their time on patrol programs, aimed at reducing traffic offenses. Conclusion By and large, this has been a research that has been very successful in working around the hypothesis that The degree to which car drivers conform to traffic regulations depends on the gender of the driver and on the presence of passengers. The research findings have indeed proofed that 78% of traffic offenders are males whereas 22% are females. Ethical dimensions were observed for the study by not disclosing the specific identity of any member on the sample size. To a very large extent, the findings can be generalized but only limited to the New Jersey population. Practically, it could be said that road traffic abuses account for some of New Jersey’s worse road carnages and accidents that are recorded. Reference list Gardener F (2009). Traffic Rules and Regulations for New Jersey. New Jersey: Primetime Print House. Read More