Are there moderating effects of safety orientation on risky behaviours and expressed irritation in traffic?

The first aim of the present study was to investigate the moderating effects of safety skills on the relationship between perceptual-motor skills and risky driving behaviours (i.e. speeding in urban areas, speeding in rural areas and tendencies to overtake). The second aim was to examine the moderating effects of safety skills on the relationship between irritations evoked by different driving behaviours (i.e. progress impeded, reckless driving and direct hostility) and expressed irritation by same behaviours. A sample of 100 Swedish drivers completed a questionnaire including the Driver Skill Inventory (DSI), a Swedish version of the Driving Anger Scale (Swe-DAS), as well as questions about expressed irritation and risky driving behaviours. The results showed that safety skills made significant contributions to the prediction of risky driving behaviours (i.e. speeding in urban areas, speeding in rural areas and tendencies to overtake) so that higher safety skills was associated with less risky driving behaviours. Irritation evoked by different driving behaviours (i.e. progress impeded, reckless driving and direct hostility) made significant contributions to the prediction of expressed irritation by the same behaviours, so that higher levels of irritation were associated with more often expressed irritation. No moderation effects of safety orientation could be found on risky driving behaviours or on irritation in traffic, with the exception of a small interaction effect between safety skills and irritation evoked by progress impeded.