Investigating the Factors Affecting Traffic Violations: A Study of Demographic and Environmental Influences

This study investigates the factors influencing eight types of traffic violations in Isfahan, Iran—speeding, not wearing a seatbelt, cell phone use while driving, red-light running, wrong-way driving (e.g., driving in the opposite direction on a one-way street), not carrying required documents (e.g., car insurance, driving license, and vehicle registration), illegal reversing (e.g., reversing on highways), and ignoring police stop signals—using comprehensive traffic ticket data (580,289 records) covering the entire year of 2015. A multinomial logit (MNL) model is applied, considering demographic and environmental factors. Results show that older drivers were less likely to speed but more likely to commit violations such as red-light running. Males were more likely to speed, and higher education levels were correlated with increased likelihood of violations such as red-light running. Local drivers were more prone to seatbelt and cell phone violations than were interprovincial drivers. Furthermore, the road type and time of day environmental factors significantly influenced violation patterns. Intercity roads observed more speeding and document-related violations, whereas roads within cities had higher occurrences of seatbelt and cell phone use. Morning hours were associated with higher speeding, and evening and night hours saw increased red-light running. Public holidays were linked to more relaxed attitudes, leading to higher rates of violations such as speeding and illegal reversing. This analysis sheds light on an area for which extremely limited data are available.