Gender factors in road safety: administrative and legal aspects and possible integration into public road safety policy

This article is a comprehensive study on how the road user’s behavior depends upon their gender. The authors examine the key findings supported by the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate statistics and independent studies results, and discuss the possible reasons for the specifics found. The object of this research is road safety system including specific mechanisms for developing, assessing, and implementing corresponding measures and their possible improvement by means of gender factor integration. The subject is the gender specifics of road users (drivers, pedestrians) behavior, risk perception, and vulnerability as factors that work on the level and the structure of traffic safety. The authors consider how the above specifics may be applied in national road safety policy. The purpose of the research is to analyze persistent gender patterns of behavior that have significant implications for the development of targeted programs to enhance road safety, identify potential, and determine mechanisms for integrating the gender factor in such programs and road safety policy as a whole. The study is based on a synthesis of data obtained using the following methods: analysis of official statistics on road accidents, reports and surveys, including self-assessment of behavior, attitudes towards risk, knowledge of traffic rules, motivation to comply with the rules, meta-analysis, review and generalization of the results of independent studies to identify trends. Based on the analysis of empirical data, patterns in violations, risks, and behavioral strategies associated with gender are identified. Methodological approaches to studying the problem, as well as sociocultural and psychophysiological factors underlying gender differences, are taken into account, justifying the need to consider these factors to enhance the effectiveness of measures aimed at reducing accidents and injuries. The author concludes that ignoring the gender factor leads to suboptimal resource utilization and reduced effectiveness of road safety programs, while taking it into account contributes to the creation of a more inclusive and safer transportation system for all road users. The authors also offer specific recommendations for policy, planning, infrastructure, education, and research.