Proceedings of 26th International Scientific Conference. Transport Means 2022.

Self-reported behaviour in Montenegro: Driving above the speed limit

M. Grdinić-Rakonjac1, V. Pajković2, B. Antić3
1
University of Montenegro, Džordža Vašingtona 1, 81000, Podgorica, Montenegro, E-mail: grdinicm@ucg.ac.me
2
University of Montenegro, Džordža Vašingtona 1, 81000, Podgorica, Montenegro, E-mail: pajkovic@ucg.ac.me
3
University of Belgrade, Vojvode Stepe 305, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia, E-mail: b.antic@sf.bg.ac.rs

Abstract

Driving above the speed limit directly affects the risk of traffic accident, the severity of injuries and also the likelihood of
fatalities. For most strategies and policies conducted to increase the level of road safety, efficient speed management is a
challenging task. Lack of drivers’ behaviour data in developing countries represent major issue and self-reported
behaviour represent one of the alternative measurement. In this paper, self-reported speeding on different roads in
Montenegro will be presented and discussed. It will be shown that driving experience (number of years holding driver’s
license) is the most statistically influencing factor for over speeding choice when all analysed category of roads in matter.
KEY WORDS: road safety; Montenegro drivers; self-reported data; driving above the speed limit.

1. Introduction

The speed at which the vehicle moves directly affects the risk of an accident, the severity of injuries, but also the
probability of death [1]. Although traffic accidents are result of combination of several different factors, speeding was
recognised to have the important role and it was identified by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development as one of the most influential negative factors in traffic safety [2]. Higher speed causes higher stopping
distance and reduced driver's field of vision, and thus increases the risk of an incident resulting in a traffic accident. Since
it is necessary to absorb a larger amount of kinetic energy during a high-speed impact, the probability of serious injuries
increases if a collision occurs. Speeding is an influential factor in 27% of traffic accidents with fatalities in 2020, as well
as in 16% of traffic accidents with serious injuries and in 13% of the total number of traffic accidents in the UK [3]. In
2018 in America (USA), speeding was the cause of 31% of motorcyclist deaths, 18% of car driver deaths, as well as 14%
and 7% of light and large truck driver deaths, respectively [4]. Also, young drivers in USA had the highest risk of death
due to speeding: driving at a speed higher than allowed was the cause of 31% of young drivers' accidents in which a fatal
outcome occurred [4].
Given all the above, for most strategies that deal with increasing the level of traffic safety, efficient speed
management is the main task. In 2017, the countries of the European Union, as one of the global goals for increasing
traffic safety, adopted the task of halving the number of vehicles speeding than allowed by 2030 and reducing the
consequences of such accidents [5]. Setting national speed limits is an important step in reducing overall speed. Maximum
speeds in urban areas should be below or equal to 50 km/h, all in line with best practice [1]. In addition, it is important to
leave it to municipal authorities to reduce speed limits by taking into account local circumstances such as the presence of
schools or the high concentration of vulnerable road users. Research has shown that the general rule is that a reduction in
overall speed of only 1 km/h leads to a 3% reduction in accidents, and that the effects of speed reduction are greater when
it comes to accidents with more serious consequences, i.e. a change in average driving speed of 1 km/h leads to a change
in the number of fatal accidents by 5% [6]. A survey conducted in the United States showed that as many as 42% of
drivers exceeding speed by 10 miles per hour (about 16 km/h) do not consider it as speeding, while an additional 10%,
do not consider driving 20 miles per hour (about 32 km/h) above the limits as a violation.
The aim of this paper is to determine the level of driver behaviour in Montenegro in terms of driving at speeds
higher than allowed, depending on gender, age and experience of drivers as well as on different road categories. The
testing that will be presented in the paper was performed in 2019 in all municipalities in Montenegro.

2. Methodology

The driver's decision to drive faster than prescribed by a traffic sign depends on many factors such as: the
psychological characteristics of the driver, his experience and driving abilities, the environment, the characteristics of the
road and the vehicle, etc. Speed measurement is traditionally performed by radars, cameras, etc. Data are usually presented
as a mean value, and such data, if the measuring instruments do not change location, can be systematically monitored and
compared over time. In most developed countries, the measurement is performed in this way, however, in developing
countries (such as Montenegro) where this type of measurement does not exist, data on traffic violations can be used as
an adequate replacement [7]. The obvious limitation of this measurement is in terms of comparability, because the final
results are greatly influenced by police activity. Another type of data often used in the literature is self-reported behaviour.
The advantage of this method is accessibility and ease of data collection, however, the value of the data itself is influenced
by individual norms and understandings in terms of speed.
Given that in Montenegro there is no methodologically established measurement of speed with measuring
instruments along the road, this paper will present a research of speeds conducted by public survey and collecting self-
reported behaviour data. The sampling control variables in this study relate to gender (men, women), age (drivers up to
24 years of age and older) and driving experience (possession of a driver's license for less than 5 years). Traffic exposure
was measured by giving possibility to each of respondents to select one of the following options: almost every day, one
up to three times a week, one up to three times a month or less than once per month (or do not drive) as answer to the
question of how many times they usually drive. In order to measure the degree of speeding in Montenegrin roads, each
respondent was asked about the incidence of speeding on different categories of roads, namely on the main roads, on city
streets and on other roads between municipalities; as well as the question of the degree of that incidence, i.e. whether it
is for more or less than 30 km/h, 20 km/h or 10 km/h on roads with higher speeds (60 - 80 km/h), lower speeds (50 - 60
km/h) and city streets, respectively. Finally, survey consisted of 12 question and the sample size was 1309 drivers from
each of the 21 municipalities in Montenegro. Descriptive statistic is given in Table 1.

Table 1
Descriptive statistic of collected data
Variables N %
Gender Male 707 54.01
Female 602 45.99
Licensure ≤5 years 375 28.68
>5 years 934 71.32
Driving frequency Almost everyday 998 76.24
1-3 times per week 195 14.90
1-3 times per month 55 4.20
Less than 1 time per week 61 4.66

3. Montenegro characteristics

The level of traffic safety in Montenegro is very low. Montenegro police (Ministry of Interior), which is the main
source of data on accidents and injuries, indicate that number of death and injuries from road traffic accidents are still
high and worrisome. In 2020, although number of accidents and injuries decreased by about 25%, 2% more people lost
their lives when compared to 2019.
In recent years, the trend of accidents has been on the rise and one of the important influencing factors is the poor
condition of road infrastructure. In Montenegro, which does not yet have a highway, road transport accounts for about
75% of passenger traffic [8], which takes place on a total of 7,000 km of road network, with about 900 km of highways,
about 950 km of regional roads and about 5,000 km of local roads. Observing the network density, Montenegro is at the
level of the regional average with 500 km of roads per 1000 km2 (Table 2), however, about 90% of roads are marked as
high risk [9]. Half of the total number of traffic accidents in Montenegro occur on city streets (Fig. 1), while a third was
on main roads (source of this data is Ministry of Interior of Montenegro).

Table 2
Road network density in Montenegro
Road density
km/1000 km/1000
km2 pop.
Montenegro 500 11.1
1%
Southeast Europe, average 555 5.9
Serbia 500 5.2 33%
Bosnia and Herzegovina 427 5.6
FYR Macedonia 513 6.4 49%
Albania 657 3.5
6%
New EU member states 1427 19.9
Main roads 11%
Czech Republic 1646 12.5
Estonia 1320 41.2 Regional rads
Hungary 1733 15.7 Local roads
Slovenia 1007 10.2 City streets
Croatia 506 6.4 Other
Fig. 1 Road accidents by category of roads
4. Results

This paper presents the behaviour of drivers related to speeding depending on different categories of roads in
Montenegro. The frequency of self-reported speeding of the total sample is shown in Table 3 along with the average score
and standard deviation if answers are ranked from 1 (Always) to 6 (Never). In that way, higher score represents safer
behaviour and from results it can be seen that drives in Montenegro are generally more careful on city streets and that
they drive above the speed limit usually on main roads. Also, they were less strict about smaller amount of over speeding
– about 27% of respondents reported (with often, very often and always) driving above the speed limit on main streets by
less than 30 km/h in contrast to 12% of drivers that reported over speeding by more than 30 km/h. Furthermore, 44%
firmly stated that they never exceed the speed by more than 30 km/h and only 24% were determined when exceeding by
less than 30 km/h. Similar situation is on other roads as well.

Table 3
Self-reported exceeding the speed limit – total sample (%)
Some- NeverOften Very Rarely
Always Mean SD
times often
Are you exceeding the speed limit?
On main roads 20.55 28.27 29.34 12.22 5.19 4.43 4.33 1.31
On other roads 31.26 30.20 23.24 9.01 3.10 3.18 4.68 1.26
On city streets 44.00 29.33 16.95 5.40 1.82 2.51 5.01 1.18
Do you exceed the prescribed speed on roads with higher permitted speeds (60-80 km/h)?
By more than 30 km/h 44.24 27.73 16.29 7.12 2.73 1.89 4.98 1.20
By less than 30 km/h 24.28 28.07 20.94 13.81 5.92 6.98 4.30 1.47
Are you exceeding the prescribed speed on roads with lower permitted speeds (50-60 km/h)?
By more than 20 km/h 36.66 28.12 21.69 8.92 2.57 2.04 4.81 1.21
By less than 20 km/h 23.54 25.06 25.74 13.25 6.06 6.36 4.28 1.44
Are you exceeding the prescribed speed on city streets?
By more than 10 km/h 41.39 26.07 20.88 6.78 2.67 2.21 4.90 1.22
By less than 10 km/h 30.57 26.51 19.31 12.11 4.83 6.67 4.46 1.48

In Fig. 2 a graph of the percentage of individual answers to the question "Are you exceeding the speed limit?" is
given depending on the category of the road, but also on the gender, age and experience of the respondents. It can be
noticed that drivers usually respect the speed limit when driving on city streets (about 75% reported that they rarely or
never drive faster than prescribed). Female drivers as well as persons holding a driving license for up to 5 years were the
most decisive in this attitude, and a statistically significant difference was identified depending on the experience of the
driver (p = 0.000) for all road categories. Speeding is the behaviour that drivers in Montenegro most often undertake when
driving on main roads, where about 20% of all respondents answered that they do it often, very often or always (Fig. 2).
Fig. 3 gives a graphical representation of the percentage of individual answers to the question "Do you exceed the
prescribed speed on roads with higher permitted speeds (60-80 km/h)?" The length of the driver's license has been shown
to have a statistically significant effect on the driver's decision to take this negative action (p = 0.000 and p = 0.002 for
exceeding by more and less than 30 km/h, respectively), with more experienced individuals identified as a riskier category
(on average, 18.2% of drivers who have a driver's license for more than 5 years answered that they often, very often and
always exceed the speed limit on the observed road category compared to 14.4% less experienced).

60 %
50
40
30
20
10
0
>24 years

>24 years

>24 years
>5 years

>5 years

>5 years
≤5 years

≤5 years

≤5 years
≤24 years

≤24 years

≤24 years
Female

Female

Female
Male

Male

Male

Gender Age Expirience Gender Age Expirience Gender Age Expirience

On main roads On city streets On others roads

Never Rarely Sometimes Often Very often Always

Fig. 2 The percentage of individual answers to the question "Are you exceeding the speed limit?"
 60 %
50
40
30
20
10
0
Male Female ≤24 years >24 years ≤5 years >5 years Male Female ≤24 years >24 years ≤5 years >5 years
Gender Age Expirience Gender Age Expirience
By more than 30 km/h By less than 30 km/h

Never Rarely Sometimes Often Very often Always

Fig. 3 The percentage of individual answers to the question "Do you exceed the prescribed speed on roads with higher
permitted speeds (60-80 km/h)?"

The percentage share of individual answers to the question "Are you exceeding the prescribed speed on roads with
lower permitted speeds (50-60 km/h)?" is shown in Fig. 4. In this case as well, experience proved to play a statistically
significant role for both larger (by more than 20 km/h) and smaller degree of speeding (by less than 20 km/h). In addition
to experience, gender was singled out as a statistically significant factor influencing whether a person will exceed the
speed limit by more than 20 km/h, with men showing (answers often, very often and always) greater determination for
this negative action (14.3%) compared to women (12.7%).

60 %
50
40
30
20
10
0
Male Female ≤24 years >24 years ≤5 years >5 years Male Female ≤24 years >24 years ≤5 years >5 years
Gender Age Expirience Gender Age Expirience
By more than 20 km/h By less than 20 km/h

Never Rarely Sometimes Often Very often Always

Fig. 4 The percentage of individual answers to the question "Are you exceeding the prescribed speed on roads with
lower permitted speeds (50-60 km/h)?"

60 %
50
40
30
20
10
0
Male Female ≤24 years >24 years ≤5 years >5 years Male Female ≤24 years >24 years ≤5 years >5 years
Gender Age Expirience Gender Age Expirience
By more than 10 km/h By less than 10 km/h

Never Rarely Sometimes Often Very often Always

Fig. 5 The percentage of individual answers to the question "Are you exceeding the prescribed speed on city streets?"
 Similar results are obtained when it comes to speeding on city streets (Fig. 5). There was a statistically significant
difference in the answers in relation to the length of holding of the driving license of the respondents (p = 0.036 and p =
0.006 for exceeding by more and less than 10 km/h, respectively) and in relation to gender (p = 0.042) when it comes to
exceeding the speed limit by less than 10 km/h. Drivers with less years of driving experience were identified as less risky
(75.6% and 62.7% of drivers in this category reported that they rarely or never exceed the speed limit on city streets by
more and less than 10 km/h, respectively) along with women drivers (61.1% of women reported never or rarely speeding
in the city by less than 10 km/h compared to 53.7% of men).

Conclusions

Traffic accidents are result of combination of several different factors but speed is highlighted as a crucial problem
in road safety. Increasing speed also increases the risk of accidents, so, the problem of speeding should be addressed in
order to reduce accidents with fatalities and accidents with serious injuries.
In this research, drivers’ behaviours related to exceeding the speed limit in Montenegrin roads are examined. Since
Montenegro is developing countries with lack of road behaviour data, survey among 1309 drivers is conducted in order
to collect self-reported speed-related data. Drivers were classified based on gender, age and experience while observed
road types were: main roads, other roads between municipalities and city streets. Results showed that drives in
Montenegro are generally more careful on city streets and that they are while driving on main and other roads. The length
of the driver’s license has been shown to have a statistically significant effect on the driver's decision to exceed the speed
limit in all road categories with more experienced individuals identified as a riskier category.
The results of the research presented in the paper can be a good basis for educating and informing drivers, but also
other traffic participants, about the importance of speed assessment for improving traffic safety. Also, policymakers can
abstract the riskiest group of drivers and focus their preventive activities on them.
Further directions of research related to the driving above the speed limit should be aimed at examining this
behaviour in smaller territorial units of the Montenegro (e.g. regions or municipalities, because the experiment has no
special requirements for implementation), to compare them with each other, as well as with other countries (neighbouring
and European union). It is necessary to conduct various educational and informational contents at the national, regional
and local level in order to influence the change of attitudes and behaviour of drivers about the importance of speed for
traffic safety, all with the aim of creating a safer environment for all traffic participants.

References

1. World Health Organization (WHO). 2017. Managing speed. Geneva (Switzerland): WHO. Available from:
https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/managing-speed
2. OECD/ECMT, 2006. Speed management. Paris: OECD. Available from: https://www.itf-oecd.org/content/publication
3. Speeding. [online cit.: 2022-04-13]. Available from: https://www.rospa.com/road-safety/advice/drivers/speeding
4. Driver Demographics. [online cit.: 2022-04-13]. Available from: https://driving-tests.org/driving-statistics
5. World Health Organization (WHO). Global status report on road safety 2018. Available from:
https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241565684
6. European Transport Safety Council. 2001. Transport safety performance indicators. Brussels. ISBN: 90-76024-11-1
7. Antić, B., Grdinić-Rakonjac, M., Pajković, V. 2020. Benchmarking of the road safety performance among the
regions by using DEA, Transportation Research Procedia, 45: 78-86.
8. Monstat. 2011. Traffic in Montenegro 2005–2010, Podgorica.
9. Pajković, V., Grdinić, M. 2014. Road safety – performance and perception: Montenegro case study, Proceedings of
International Conference on Traffic and Transport Engineering (ICTTE), Belgrade, Serbia, 1083-1088.