Continuous Household Survey: Road Safety Results 2021/22

Introduction

This report presents information from the 2021/22 Continuous Household Survey (CHS) in relation to the attitudes, awareness and behaviour of respondents to specific road safety issues. Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, data collection for both the 2020/21 and 2021/22 surveys moved from face-to-face interviewing to telephone mode. For further information please refer to the Continuous Household Survey 2021/22 Technical Report

The following questions which were not asked in 2020/21 were added back in again for 2021/22:

In general, the presence of street lights means that the speed limit (in miles per hour) on that road is…?
What do you think are the risks, if any, associated with using a hand-held mobile phone while driving?

The final dataset contains the records for 4,103 adults with these people being asked questions relating to their understanding of speed limits and mobile phone usage while driving with 4,063 providing responses to at least one of these questions.

A set of questions on attitudes to Road Safety in Northern Ireland was first included in the 2016/17 Continuous Household Survey (CHS) and where applicable, comparisons have been made between the findings for this year and the last available year. This is the final year that questions on understanding of speed limits and mobile phone usage will be asked and therefore brings this series to an end.

The Department for Infrastructure (DfI) and its Road Safety Partners are committed to promoting improved road safety and delivering better regulation of the transport sector. An annual programme of research and statistical investigations into road safety problems in NI continues to be developed and implemented in collaboration with Road Safety Partner organisations. The results from this report form part of that research programme.

Key Findings from 2021/22 CHS

The majority of respondents (90%) responded correctly that the presence of street lights, generally means that the speed limit is 30 miles per hour.
Almost three fifths of all drivers (58%) reported that they used their phone in some capacity while driving a car. This is a decrease from the 64% reported in 2020/21.
Making a hands-free call accounted for the highest usage in a moving (49%) or stationary vehicle (47%), while six percent of drivers admitted to making a hand-held call while driving.
Older drivers were identified as the group who were least likely to use their phone while driving with just under a third (30%) of those aged 65 or over admitting having done so in the last 12 months.
The top 3 risks stated by respondents of using a mobile phone while driving were being more likely to cause a crash (94%), being more likely to be involved in a crash (90%) and being less likely to notice a danger ahead (87%).
More than half (54%) of respondents believe that drivers were likely to be stopped by police for using their mobile phone while driving.

Section 1 - Understanding of speed limits

Presence of street lights: The respondents were asked in an open response question that “in general, the presence of street lights means that the speed limit (in miles per hour) on that road is….?” The vast majority of respondents, 3,494 out of 3,868 (90%) responded correctly that the speed limit is generally 30 miles per hour* when street lights are present.

Figure 1.1 Speed limit perceived by the presence of street lights as reported by respondents, 2021/22

Opinions differed when the figure of those who responded 30 miles per hour in 2021/22 was broken down by driver status, sex, urban/rural area and deprivation area, however, there were no differences to report by age group. All comparisons shown in the infographic below are significantly different, with those from a rural location, males and those from least deprived areas having a higher proportion responding correctly; however, the greatest percentage point difference was reported between drivers and non-drivers, with drivers much more likely to state 30 miles per hour as their response – 93% compared with 80%. This is the second time this question has been asked (it wasn’t included last year due to the pandemic) and comparisons with 2019/20 reveal that the differences for categories between those who stated 30 miles per hour in 2021/22 and 2019/20 are not statistically significant.

Figure 1.2 Proportion of people who correctly responded that the presence of street lights indicates that the speed limit is generally 30mph, 2021/22

* ^where ^no ^other ^speed ^limit ^signs ^are ^present

Section 2 - Attitudes to Mobile phone use while driving

Respondents were asked in the last 12 months whether they have used their mobile phone in any of the following ways while driving:

Made or received a phone call (hand-held or hands free)
Used their phone to send or read a text message
Used their phone for email, social media or internet
Used their phone for sat nav or music
Quickly checked their phone (for example, to see your notifications)
None of the above

Almost three-fifths of all drivers (58%) surveyed carried out at least one action on their mobile phone while driving (moving or stationary) within the last 12 months, while (42%) stated they had not accessed their phone while driving.

The infographic below shows that making a hands-free call was the most frequent, with approximately half (51%) of drivers responding having done so within the last year. The next highest usage was using sat nav or music (23%), followed by making a quick check of the phone (10%), texting (8%), making a handheld call (6%) and finally using the phone for e-mail, social media or internet which was reported by 3% of drivers.

Figure 2.1 Phone usage overall by use type while driving¹ within last 12 months 2021/22

¹ regardless of while moving or stationary

Figure 2.2 Proportion of phone usage overall within last 12 months while driving by category 2021/22

There were no differences in responses by urban/rural location. However, females, respondents living in the most deprived areas and those aged 65 or over were less likely to have used a phone while driving in the last 12 months.

Using a Mobile Phone in a Moving Vehicle 2021/22

Approximately half of all drivers stated that they had made a hands-free call (49%) while driving a moving vehicle in the last 12 months; this is in comparison with 5% of drivers who had made a hand-held call in the same time period. Aside from making a call, the next highest action when in a moving vehicle reported by respondents was to use their phone for sat nav or music (21%), with having a quick check of the phone (3%), texting (2%) and checking e-mail, social media or internet (1%) making up the rest of the other responses. Over two-fifths of all respondents (45%) reported that they had never used their phone in the last 12 months while driving in a moving vehicle

Using a Mobile Phone in a Stationary Vehicle 2021/22

A higher proportion of drivers reported that they made a hand-held call (6%), texted (7%), used e-mail, social media or internet (3%) or quickly checked their phone (10%) when the vehicle was stationary in traffic than those in a moving vehicle. There was no real change in usage for using a hands-free phone or using satnav or music regardless of whether the vehicle was moving or stationary. 45% of all drivers stated that they did not interact with their phone while stuck in traffic or waiting at traffic which is the same proportion as observed in moving vehicles.

Using mobile phone in a vehicle 2021/22 compared with 2020/21

There was a significant decrease overall in driver’s interaction with their phones between 2021/22 and 2020/21. Performing a hand-held call was the only thing not to change from 2020/21 with all other actions showing a decrease from that of last year. Overall usage decreased from 64% to 58% with texting and quickly checking the phone decreasing the most, both falling by 6%.

Figure 2.3 Mobile Phone Usage in a Moving Vehicle and Stationary Vehicle 2021/22

Phone Usage While Driving - Further Breakdown

Responses to the question of mobile phone usage while driving was further analysed to see if there were any differences apparent by sex, age, location, or deprivation area. Only those responses that show a significant difference are displayed below. In general, there were no differences between the age groups younger than 65, so these have been grouped, and analysis therefore focuses on those aged under 65 compared with those aged 65+.

Figure 2.4: Proportion of respondents who made or received a hand-held call while driving 2021/22

Male drivers and drivers under the age of 65 were more likely to use a hand-held phone in both a moving and stationary vehicle than females and drivers aged 65 and over.

Figure 2.5: Proportion of respondents who made or received a hands-free call while driving 2021/22

Male drivers, drivers from the least deprived areas and drivers under the age of 65 were more likely to make a hands-free call in both moving and stationary vehicles than female drivers, drivers from the most deprived areas and drivers aged 65 and over.

Figure 2.6: Proportion of respondents who used phone to send or read a text message while driving 2021/22

Figure 2.8: Proportion of respondents who used phone for sat nav or music while driving 2021/22

There was a significant difference to report amongst all groups for those who used sat nav or music with males, drivers from urban areas, drivers from the least deprived areas and drivers under the age of 65 being more likely to use sat nav or music regardless of whether their vehicle was moving or stationary.

Figure 2.9: Proportion of respondents who quickly checked phone while driving 2021/22

Drivers under the age of 65 were more likely to perform a quick check of their phones while driving in both moving and stationary vehicles than drivers aged 65 and over. Male drivers and drivers from the least deprived quintile were more likely than female drivers and drivers from the most deprived quintile to check their phones in a moving vehicle while drivers from an urban area were more likely to check their phone whilst stationary than rural drivers.

Figure 2.10: Proportion of respondents who did not use phone at all while driving 2021/22

Female drivers, drivers from the most deprived areas and drivers aged 65 and over were much less likely to use their phones in both moving and stationary vehicles than male drivers, drivers from the least deprived areas and drivers under the age of 65.

Mobile Phone Risks

Respondents were asked what they thought the main risks were of using a hand-held mobile phone while driving. While all of the mentioned risks (see infographic below) were chosen by the majority of respondents, most people indicated that the main risk associated with using a mobile phone while driving was to do with crashing; 94% felt it would be more likely to cause a crash and 90% thought it would be more likely to be involved in a crash. Less than 1% of respondents thought that there were no risks involved in using a mobile phone while driving.

Figure 2.11: Proportion of respondents who did not use phone at all while driving 2021/22

Mobile phone risks - comparison between 2021/22 and 2019/20

Five risks had a significantly higher response this year than in 2019/20 (the last time this question was asked) with being more likely to be involved in a crash, less likely to notice a danger ahead, less able to react to manoeuvres of other road users and being less aware of speed and avoiding vulnerable road users all increasing. Only being likely to be stopped/caught by police showed a significant decrease. The six risks which showed a significant change are all listed below:

Being more likely to be involved in a crash increased from 86% in 2019/20 to 90% this year with all groups showing an increase in proportion for this risk from that of two years ago. Except for respondents from a rural area, all groups increased in proportion for being less able to react to manoeuvres. All groups also increased for being less aware of speed except for rural respondents and those under the age of 65. Both being able to react to manoeuvres and being less aware of speed increased from 79% in 2019/20 to 83% in 2021/22.

Being less aware of a danger ahead increased from 86% in 2019/20 to 87%² in 2021/22 with males, drivers, the most deprived quintile and those aged 65 and over all showing an increase from two years ago.

² Significant to two decimal places

Avoiding vulnerable road users increased from 78% in 2019/20 to 80% this year. Males, drivers, urban respondents, the least deprived quintile and those over the age of 65 expressed a higher proportion for this risk in 2021/22 than 2019/20.

Being stopped by police was the only risk to decrease, falling from 69% in 2019/20 to 65% this year. All groups were significantly lower except for males, non-drivers and the most deprived quintile which did not show any real change from the proportions reported two years ago.

Figure 2.12: Risks of using a mobile phone while driving, by other categories 2021/22 (only significant differences are shown)

There were no differences to report in 2021/22 between males and females.

Those from an urban area were more concerned about the risks of using a mobile phone while driving. This group identified a greater proportion for each risk than those from a rural area with the only exception being stopped by police, which saw no difference between the two groups.

Drivers and those from the least deprived quintile reported a higher proportion for all risks for using a mobile phone while driving with the exception of causing a crash and being stopped by police.

Finally older people reported they thought they would be less likely to be stopped by the police when using a mobile phone while driving than those under the age of 65. There were no other differences to report between the age groups for any other risk.

Mobile Phone Use - likely to be stopped by the police

Respondents were then asked, ‘Do you think that it is likely that drivers using a hand-held mobile phone whilst driving will be caught by the police?’ The majority of those surveyed responded ‘Yes’ with 54% while those who responded ‘No’ made up the other 46%.

There were significant differences to report amongst all the categories with:

Females (56%) thought they were more likely to be stopped by police when using a hand-held phone than males (52%).
Non-drivers (59%) were much more likely than drivers (53%) to think this would be the case.
A higher proportion of respondents from a rural area (57%) believed they would be stopped by the police than those from an urban area (52%).
Those aged between 16 and 24 (64%) were much more likely to think they’d be stopped by police when using a mobile phone while driving than the other age groups.
The 54% represents an increase from the 48% who responded ‘Yes’ last year with an increase in all categories from 2020/21 except for those in the least deprived quintile and those aged between 25 and 34.

Figure 2.13: Proportion of respondents who believe that drivers were more likely to be stopped by police whilst driving when using a hand-held mobile phone 2021/22

Contact Information

An Official Statistics Publication Published by: Analysis, Statistics & Research Branch Department for Infrastructure, Room 5-25, Clarence Court, 10-18 Adelaide Street, Belfast, BT2 8GB

Contact: Philip Ward
Telephone: 028 9054 0029 (Text relay prefix 18001)
Email: ASRB@nisra.gov.uk
Published: January 2023

Annex

Annex A: Technical Notes

Background

The information presented in this publication derives from the Northern Ireland Continuous Household Survey (CHS), a Northern Ireland wide household survey administered by the Central Survey Unit (CSU) of the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). CSU is one of the main business areas of NISRA and has a long track record and a wealth of experience in the design, management and analysis of behavioural and attitude surveys in the context of a wide range of social policy issues. CSU procedures are consistent with the Official Statistics Code of Practice. The survey is based on a sample of the general population resident in private households and has been running since 1983 and is designed to provide a regular source of information on a wide range of social and economic issues relevant to Northern Ireland.

Data Collection

DFI commissioned these questions on road safety issues in the 2021/2022 CHS. The questions are presented in Annex C on page 21 of this publication. Data were collected by CSU based on a random sample of 9,000 domestic addresses drawn from the NISRA Address register. This is maintained by Census Branch and is created by merging the POINTER database with additional records and removing duplicates and communal establishments. Various validation checks were carried out as part of the processing.

Survey Methodology

Due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, NISRA suspended all face-to-face household interviews in the middle of March 2020 and as a result all interviews carried out on the Continuous Household Survey in both 2020/21 and 2021/22 were conducted with adults aged 16 and over by telephone.

Respondents

The final dataset contains 4,103 records and 4,063 adults provided a response to at least one of the road safety questions. The number of respondents who answered each question, i.e., the base number, is stated in the tables. The base number is the unweighted count. The base number may also vary between questions due to some respondents not answering certain questions. For example, some questions are only asked of those respondents who can drive.

Data Quality

There are a number of factors, which users should take into consideration when interpreting the 2021/22 results, and care should be taken when comparing these to previously published findings from the survey.

While survey methodology changed, the impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the resultant introduction of new public health regulations, guidance and advice may have also fundamentally changed peoples’ behaviour and attitudes. It is difficult to separate out change caused by the methodological adjustments and actual behavioural change at this point in time.
The change in data collection mode from face-to-face to telephone may have altered how people responded to the survey.
The change in data collection mode also necessitated some streamlining of the questionnaire and changes to how some questions were asked or presented as well as the response categories associated with them. This may also have implications for how people responded to the survey.
The achieved response rate on the survey in telephone mode was 41% and this is a slightly lower response compared to the normal achieved response rate of 55% in face-to-face mode. This has reduced the number of cases at the household and individual levels. The precision of the survey estimates on the 2021-22 year is also reduced compared to previous findings.
The demographic profile of the achieved sample has changed in comparison with previous years in terms. There is more of an under-representation of people aged 16-44 compared to previous years.

Any changes within the 2021/22 data compared to previous years have to be considered in the context of all of the above. Care should be taken in reaching any conclusions based on 2021/22 and comparisons to previous years. It would be advisable to look at changes in behaviour or attitudes contained in the 2021/22 results over the next couple of years, particularly when data collection on the survey returns to face-to-face mode and society returns to normal, to see if they are part of a permanent changing trend.

Weighting

A chi square goodness-of-fit test showed that the CHS sample was not representative of the population by age and sex when compared with the 2020 Mid-Year Population Estimates for Northern Ireland (NISRA, 25 June 2021). As a result, the survey was weighted by a variable called ‘w3’ to compensate for non-response bias. While weighting for non-response (also called post-stratification) should reduce bias, it must be acknowledged that it will not eliminate bias. The reasons individuals choose to take part in surveys are complex and depend on lots of factors specific to the individual. As a result, the non-response biases in surveys are likely to be complex. Post-stratification works on the assumption that, by aligning the survey to the population along a small number of dimensions such as age, sex and MDM, many of these complex biases will reduce. However, it would be misleading to suggest that they will be eliminated.

Multiple Response Questions

Multiple response questions are those for which respondents can give more than one response if they wish. In such questions, when individual percentages are summed, they may add to more than 100%.

Rounding Conventions

Percentages have been rounded to whole numbers and as a consequence some percentages may not sum to 100. Values under 0.5% have been rounded to one decimal place and also presented to one decimal place in those cases where significance depends on the unrounded percentage, for example in the texting (Figure 2.6) and email, social media or internet infographics (Figures 2.7).

Significant difference

Any statements in this report regarding differences between groups such as males and females, different age groups, urban/rural, etc., are statistically significant at the 95% confidence level. This means that we can be 95% confident that the differences between groups are actual differences and have not just arisen by chance. Both the base numbers and the sizes of the percentages have an effect on statistical significance. Therefore on occasion, a difference between two groups may be statistically significant while the same difference in percentage points between two other groups may not be statistically significant. The reason for this is because the larger the base numbers or the closer the percentages are to 0 or 100, the smaller the standard errors. This leads to increased precision of the estimates which increases the likelihood that the difference between the proportions is actually significant and did not just arise by chance. The following respondent groups were considered; driver/non-driver, sex, urban/rural location, deprivation area and age group. See definitions below:

Driver and non-driver

Respondents were assigned as drivers or non-drivers based on their response to the ‘May I check, do you drive?’ question. Options were either ‘Yes’ (Drivers with less/Drivers with more than 2 years of experience) or ‘No’ (Currently learning to drive, expired licence, never learned).

Sex

Sex of respondent is defined as whether the respondent is male or female.

Urban and Rural Areas

Urban and Rural areas have been classified using the statistical classification of settlements defined by the Inter-Departmental Urban-Rural Definition Group. * Bands A to E are classified as Urban. This includes Belfast Metropolitan Urban Area (Band A), Derry Urban Area (Band B) and large, medium and small towns (Bands C-E) with populations greater than or equal to 5,000 people. * Bands F to H are classified as rural. This includes intermediate settlements (Band F), villages (Band G) and small villages, hamlets and open countryside (Band H) with populations of less than 5,000 people and including open countryside.

Deprivation quintile

Each respondent was assigned a deprivation quintile based on the Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measure 2017 (NIMDM2017); these are the official measures of deprivation in Northern Ireland and replace the NIMDM2010. These measures were informed through public consultation and Steering Group agreement and provide a mechanism for ranking the 890 Super Output areas (SOAs) in Northern Ireland from the most deprived (rank 1 to the least deprived (rank 890). They include ranks of the areas for each of the 7 distinct types (or domains) of deprivation, which have been combined to produce an overall multiple deprivation measure (MDM) rank of the areas.

Age group

Respondents are grouped into the following age categories; 16-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, 65 or over. For the purpose of this report, with the exception of being stopped by police, the age groups 16-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54 and 55-64 were grouped together to compare against those aged 65. This is due to there being no real difference between age groups under the age of 65 for the understanding speed limits and mobile phone use/risk questions.

Sampling error

No sample is likely to precisely mirror the characteristics of the population it is drawn from due to both sampling and non-sampling errors. An estimate of the amount of error due to the sampling process can be calculated. For a simple random sample design, the sampling error (s.e.) of any percentage, p, can be calculated by the formula: s.e. (p) = √(𝒑∗(𝟏𝟎𝟎−𝒑)/𝒏) where n is the number of respondents on which the percentage is based.

Confidence Interval

A 95% confidence interval for the population percentage can be calculated using the formula: 95% confidence interval = p +/- 1.96 * s.e. (p) This means that if 100 similar, independent samples were chosen from the same population, 95 of them would yield an estimate for the percentage, p, within this range of values. The absence of design effects in the survey means that standard statistical tests of significance can be applied directly to the data.

Annex B: Questionnaire

[DDINT] I am now going to ask you some questions on road safety.

[MODE] May I check, do you have a valid driving license? IF YES, PLEASE PROBE FOR LEVEL OF EXPERIENCE 1. Yes – driver with less than 2 years experience 2. Yes – driver with more than 2 years experience 3. No – Currently learning to drive 4. No – Driving license has expired 5. No – never learned to drive

[DRIVE2] Have you driven a vehicle on a public road in the last 12 months? INCLUDE ANY PROVIDED BY EMPLOYERS IF NORMALLY AVAILABLE FOR PRIVATE USE 1. Yes – I have driven a vehicle I own 2. Yes – I have driven a vehicle I have access to 3. No

[LIGHTS1] In general, the presence of street lights means that the speed limit (in miles per hour) on that road is….? OPEN RESPONSE

ASKED IF [DRIVE2] = 1 or 2 [MOB1a] In the last 12 months, have you used your mobile phone in any of the ways listed while you were driving a moving vehicle? CODE ALL THAT APPLY 1. made or received a phone call (hand-held) 2. made or received a phone call (hands free) 3. used your phone to send or read a text message 4. used your phone for email, social media or internet 5. used your phone for sat nav or music 6. quickly checked your phone (for example, to see your notifications) 7. None of the above

ASKED IF [DRIVE2] = 1 or 2 [MOB2a] In the last 12 months, have you used your mobile phone in any of the ways listed while you were driving and the vehicle was stationary but still on the road e.g. stuck in traffic or at traffic lights? CODE ALL THAT APPLY 1. made or received a phone call (hand-held) 2. made or received a phone call (hands free) 3. used your phone to send or read a text message 4. used your phone for any other purpose (email, social media, internet) 5. used your phone for sat nav or music 6. quickly checked your phone (for example, to see your notifications) 7. None of the above

[MOB3] (MOBILE RISKS) What do you think are the risks, if any, associated with using a hand-held mobile phone while driving? CODE ALL THAT APPLY

More likely to cause a crash
More likely to be involved in a crash
Less likely to notice a danger ahead
Less able to control vehicle/steering/or make gear changes
Less able to react to manoeuvres of other road users
Less likely to be able to avoid vulnerable road users
Less aware of speed
Likely to be stopped/caught by police
Other > [MOB3oth]
None

[MOB3oth] Please specify other risk.

[MOB4] Do you think that it is likely that drivers using a hand-held mobile phone whilst driving will be caught by the police?

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