ABSTRACT
The driver acceleration behaviour measure as a global measure of driver behaviour and predictor of accidents is the subject of this paper. It was found to be stable over two years under ecologically valid circumstances for a sample of bus drivers. It was weakly influenced by traffic density, number of passengers and number of passing vehicles but was more strongly associated with experience. Female drivers, older drivers, those with increased service length, those who worked more hours and people with Swedish names all had lower levels of driver acceleration behaviour. There was also possibly an effect of slippery road conditions. The distribution of acceleration values approached normal when the values of some hundreds of drivers were plotted. It was concluded that driver acceleration behaviour is a robust individual differences variable, with fair psychometric and statistical properties, which make it suitable for use in practical settings as well as for research.
