Road safety interventions in rapidly urbanising cities often prioritise infrastructure and enforcement while overlooking the social processes shaping everyday driving practices. This study examines how risk-taking is perceived, negotiated, and normalised among drivers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, using an exploratory mixed-methods urban case study. A 29-item behavioural questionnaire was administered to 150 drivers and motorcyclists, complemented by eight semi-structured interviews with officials and practitioners. Exploratory factor analysis identified five behavioural dimensions and supported construction of a composite risk-taking index, while logistic regression models examined associations with compliance and demographic characteristics. Informal manoeuvres and instinct-based navigation emerged as routine elements of everyday driving. Quantitative analysis showed limited statistically significant differences in average risk-taking across demographic groups, but qualitative evidence revealed clear identity-based differences in how risky behaviours were interpreted and justified, particularly among younger and male drivers. Risk-taking was strongly shaped by perceived peer norms and enforcement credibility. Integrating Social Identity Theory with risk culture perspectives, the findings demonstrate that traffic risk is socially embedded and interactionally negotiated rather than solely an individual behavioural deficit. These results highlight the importance of norm-sensitive interventions alongside conventional enforcement and infrastructure strategies.
Garcia et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
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