Political belief, attitudes toward risk, and behavior on the road

We utilize unique information on traffic citations to explore the role of political belief in risky driving behavior. Information on this little-explored measure of risk-taking is obtained from the traffic citations dataset of the Israel Police for 2019–2022. We identify political belief based on voting outcomes by small statistical area for the 2019 Israel parliament elections. Controlling for statistical area socio-economic and demographic characteristics, geographic centrality and access, and traffic enforcement, results indicate substantial variation in risk-related traffic violations by political belief. Results show that statistical areas that support liberal parties exhibit, on average, 20–25 percent fewer risk-related traffic citations than those statistical areas that support conservative parties. Findings provide new insights as to the prediction of risk-related traffic violations and inform specification of community traffic enforcement and messaging protocols so as to reduce injury and enhance safety.