Traffic Safety Policies for Saudi Women: Attitudinal Analysis

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the current Saudi traffic safety policies and how they are perceived by Saudi women in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The study was based on using a survey to define and calculate two sets of specific indicators, namely the Perceived Effectiveness Index (PEI) and the Commendation Index (CI), representing, respectively, the perception and acceptance of road traffic safety. The survey, which was conducted on a sample of Saudi women in Riyadh, demonstrated a high level of support for the ongoing road safety policies amongst the respondents, bringing to the fore some country-specific indications such as the low relevance of pedestrian crossing policies. The study aimed to contribute to an understanding of the specific gender aspects of transportation policies and their perception amongst the female population in Saudi Arabia to enable an understanding of the entire context of ongoing reforms in the Kingdom at various political, cultural, and societal levels. Our study, therefore, reveals potential strengths and provides an interdisciplinary contribution by drawing on the relevant literature in the field of travel behaviour and traffic safety policies and their perception amongst women. Saudi women’s attitudes towards 17 safety policies, including engineering, enforcement, education, and legislation policies, were examined. The policies were carefully designated to be practical and possible to implement. The analysis and assessment of the results obtained by the two indicators shed light on the participants’ acceptance, and hence their willingness, to cope with road safety policies, should they be implemented. The findings of this study showed that Saudi women’s attitudes to road safety policies were very positive; in particular, they showed sound support for enforcement policies.

1. Introduction

1.1. Background

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is one of the wealthier Arab States, is distinguished by retaining the most significant Islamic traditions. The family unit in Saudi Arabia is cherished as the main core of the society and has a different family structure compared with that in the West. The Saudi family is characterised by a larger number of members, including extended family members. Traditionally, Saudi men maintain responsibility for financial provision for the family, whilst women maintain organisational responsibilities in the family. The recent reforms and Vision 2030 have increasingly led Saudi women to take more senior-level jobs, drive vehicles, and exercise further independence and individualism. The impact of gender on roles in society, attitudes, perception, awareness, and responsibility varies in different populations as well. These are affected by socioeconomic standards, history, laws and regulations, personal character, and attitudes.

Effective road safety remedial policies represent a critical element for both transport planners and road safety authorities. Attitudes of the users of a transportation system represent a very important source of validation, providing acceptance or rejection of road safety public policies that are implemented or planned to be implemented. They can provide guidance for policymakers regarding which policies to implement, where to implement them, and how. Ref. [1] indicated that the responses of the public to proposed policies were very relevant to the decisions regarding road safety programs. While many research and investigation efforts have been carried out in the West, fewer studies have been carried out in Saudi Arabia. Studies related to women’s attitudes towards and responses to road safety programs are even more scarce in Saudi Arabia, where gender roles are stronger than they are in the West, for example.

The main research questions in this study revolved around Saudi Arabian women’s level of acceptance of road safety policies and their level of support for their implementation: Do Saudi women appreciate or support road safety measures? Do levels of education, age, income, and working status of women affect their level of support and perceptions and attitudes towards road safety policies in Saudi Arabia? Do they consider some road safety interventions more or less favourably than others?

Travel characteristics and decisions in Saudi Arabia significantly vary compared with those found in the West. Gender equality has been highlighted in the past as one of the urgent issues to consider in Saudi Arabia. The country was ranked very low (138 out of 144 countries) as reported by the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report in 2017. Until 2018, Saudi Arabia was unique in that women were not allowed to drive. In September 2017, a royal decree gave women the right to drive in the Kingdom. Since then, it has been expected that allowing women to drive can improve their accessibility and also promote employment participation amongst women through improving transportation flexibility and increasing their contributions to the labour force, which is an objective of the Saudi Vision 2030, namely a plan to reduce Saudi Arabia’s dependence on oil, diversify its economy, and develop public service sectors such as health, education, infrastructure, recreation, and tourism.

It is well-acknowledged that different groups in societies will have different attitudes towards road safety policies and legislation. Understanding such attitudes would represent a valuable tool to assess the societies themselves [2]. Moreover, a literature search [3] showed that the launching and eventual effectiveness of many road safety programs and strategies were heavily dependent on the level of support presented—and likely to be granted—by the different sectors of road users. The public’s perception towards such solutions well reflects the potential attitudes and behaviours once the policies and programs are presented [4,5,6,7].

1.2. Road Safety

Scholars have established different methodologies and approaches to assess perceptions and attitudes of road users regarding many aspects of the performance and safety of road traffic. Such approaches and methodologies were unique in most cases and were specifically developed to be appropriate for specific study areas and geographical locations. However, many researchers around the globe have adopted some approaches that were developed for other study areas in order to gain experience and knowledge, at least at the early stages of the research.

The Handbook of Road Safety Measures [8] provides a wide-ranging review of road safety policies and interventions that have been implemented, mostly in Western and highly motorised countries. These measures have traditionally been categorised into the following interventions [9]:

• Improving human behaviour (speed, alcohol, seat belts, and helmets) through legislation, enforcement, and campaigns;
• Safer infrastructure through planning and design;
• Safer vehicles through better crashworthiness, active vehicle safety, and vehicle inspections.

Although this categorisation has been developed in Western countries, there will be benefits in adopting a similar approach in studies in other regions. Undoubtedly, the knowledge and perception gained from those countries may not be wholly transferable to countries such as Saudi Arabia that differ in religious, social, and political aspects; however, there will be some advantages in communicating the experience and the utilised approaches in Western countries to provide a further understanding of factors that affect the perceptions and acceptability of such interventions and the level of support of road users towards various road safety policies. In other words, learning from previously tested approaches and methodologies proves valuable even when the context is different [9].

In the current research, our investigation was focused on transportation policy measures and interventions which were further categorised into four groups: engineering, enforcement, education, and legislation policies.

1.3. Literature on Behavioural Studies for Women

Transportation accessibility and opportunities for employment represent most of the research that focuses on women and gender research [10]. While women in general tend to have a more multifaceted travel and time pattern, men usually travel longer distances than women [10]. These are expected differences, as women tend to have more childcare and house responsibilities [11]. Other research investigated the ability of women over men to adjust their work and family responsibilities in order to fulfil their tasks [12]. In Europe, women are claimed to be commuting shorter distances than men in general, and this does not rely on the level of education, job, or work statistics [13]. Women have also been established as keener and more aware of sustainability, and their behaviour does reflect that image. For example, a Swedish study presented evidence that women are further likely to reduce their motorised trips for environmental reasons [14]. In the UK, travel research reported that young women tend to travel more than their male counterparts and that they are more sustainable in terms of the transportation modes they use [15].

There has been much less research on women’s attitudes and perceptions towards road safety and measures and policies that target road safety improvements, in particular in developing countries where gender differences can be an issue.

Factors that can affect gender differences in terms of travel behaviour and attitudes may include level of education, age, income, car ownership and use, culture and institutions, and general attitudes and preferences [16,17]. Although research on such differences is relatively advanced in Western countries, the situation is different in developing countries. The consequences of traditional culture, gender differences, religion, employment, and accessibility affect travel choices and behaviour, as discussed and reported in [18,19,20,21,22,23]. Ref. [24] investigated the influences of gender and culture in developing countries and reported that men are much more likely than women to have access to private vehicles and that women are more likely to be using public transport and walking for shorter trips.

It is, therefore, concluded that there is still much to be revealed on travel characteristics and behaviour in less developed countries. In particular, the Middle Eastern nations have specific cultural characteristics that might affect not only their travel patterns but also their attitudes towards travel policies and programs. In the Middle East, women’s travel choices and preferences are influenced by many factors, including social and cultural issues. There is a severe shortage of studies that investigate travel behaviour in this region.

Equality in travel resources and access to driving is important, as the physical and social environment is at present shaped by motorised vehicles and their related infrastructure. Therefore, the ability to contribute opinions and attitudes towards policies and programs related to road safety is a major advantage. This understanding will no doubt result in a better travelling environment in terms of traffic safety.

1.4. Road Safety and Attitudinal Studies

In its 2018 Road Safety Global Status report [25], the World Health Organization reported 1.35 million road fatalities and over 50 million road crash injuries. Road accident statistics in Saudi Arabia, as well as in a number of similar wealthy Middle Eastern countries, exhibit high rates and frequencies of road accidents, especially in younger male individuals. A limited number of studies have been carried out in those countries to assess attitudes towards road safety, policies, and programs that are designed to reduce road accidents, as well as the level of support and acceptability of such actions [26,27,28].

Moreover, in Saudi Arabia, women have just gained the right to drive and use the road as drivers. The implication of such a pioneering policy on road safety has multidimensional aspects, which involve a set of specific religious, social, and political phenomena in the Saudi context. On the one hand, drivers’ experience is supposed to improve their driving skills; Saudi women have just started on the road and may lack basic sufficient experience in this sector. On the other hand, previous studies show that women tend to express greater support for safety measures than men. Risky driving has mostly been associated with men rather than women [29,30]. Statistics also show that men are more involved in fatal accidents than women [31].

Understanding and assessing people’s attitudes towards any interventional measures related to transportation is the first step to achieving safer roads. Then, the identification of appropriate actions is the second step that is based on the findings derived from the first step.

1.5. Saudi Women in the New Era

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the latest country to allow women to drive, which occurred in 2018. In the same year, the country was voted into the Executive Board of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women [32,33]. Since the implementation of this policy, it has been predicted that permitting women to drive is an empowering factor for enhancing their mobility, as it increases their contribution to the workforce by 8% to 30%, promotes the country’s stance on gender equality programs, and helps to achieve the Kingdom’s 2030 Vision, which is a declared objective of the Saudi Arabia 2030 vision. The country is working hard to progress towards a rising economy, with technological advances and growing associations with Western organisations and their benchmarks. To this end, there is a vital need for better and more in-depth insight into the opinions, understanding, and preferences of all members of society. Aspects concerning road safety and policies that aim to enhance safety measures are still under investigation in Saudi Arabia. This is especially so for Saudi women, as they have been entangled in a greater debate on the role of political, religious, and cultural conduct in their society. Thus, this study presents a qualitative study into road safety policies and their level of acceptability for women in Saudi Arabia.

2. Methodology

2.1. The Questionnaire

In this research, data on the attitudes of Saudi women towards road safety were collected using a questionnaire. The study was designed to assess and analyse women’s attitudes on road safety, road safety policies, and their effectiveness. A questionnaire was developed and distributed to female individuals who were contacted during prayer times in the shopping malls, as discussed later. During these time periods of about 30–40 min, women were approached to fill in the questionnaires. Initially, the survey was piloted on 11 participants and was then modified to ensure the clarity and simplicity of the questions and duration.

The questionnaire comprised a foreword to the survey, 5 sections containing 28 questions, and a final section on acknowledgement. The sections included the general characteristics of participants (age, education, work status, etc.); driving characteristics (car driving, driving attitudes, driving license, availability of a private driver, etc.); attitudes towards speeding; attitudes towards safe driving; and attitudes towards transport safety policies.

The reliability and validity of the survey were tested using two main criteria. Firstly, the test–retest technique was used, which is a test for reliability. This test was carried out by conducting the survey on seven participants, then repeating the survey a week later on the same seven participants, with their consent to repeat the survey. It was not possible to recruit more than seven participants to agree to repeat the test and provide their contact details. The responses were tested and showed statistical significance to ensure the reliability of the survey. Therefore, this methodology allowed the research team to ensure that the survey is reliable. Another statistical test that was implemented is a test of the validity of the survey. For the validity of the survey, two indicators were developed: the perceived effectiveness of speed policies and the acceptability of the policies to be implemented. These two indicators were developed from the survey data and participants’ responses to the survey to check their validity and to validate their reliability.

The data collected from the survey were tested for validity and reliability. “Validity” means the quality of being based on truth or reason, or of being able to be accepted. It concerns the extent to which the utilised test or measure accurately assesses what it is supposed to. For the research to have some validity, a possible indication is to achieve similar findings by using two different means or methods.

Therefore, in this research, we calibrated two different indicators from the same responses to confirm the results. The test for validity was simply to compare the responses obtained from the two indicators. By carrying out a quick observation of the two sets of scores, it appeared that the pattern observed in both sets of results were similar. For the test of reliability, a test–retest comparison was used. In other words, a small number of participants were asked to carry out the survey, which was then repeated after several days. This was agreed with those participants who agreed to the task and agreed to provide their contact details. The investigation of the results showed very good similarity between the responses which indicated that the collected data are reliable.

2.2. The Safety Policies

Safety policies were carefully designated to be convincing and practical and possible to implement. Four main categories of safety policies were selected. These are:

• Engineering policies;
• Enforcement policies;
• Education policies;
• Legislation policies.

Table 1. The four categories of policies with example policies.

Category of Measure	Example Policies
Engineering	P1: Speed reduction policies
	P2: Monitoring drivers’ speed
	P3: Improving road network alignment
	P4: Use of road signs and marking
	P5: Pedestrian crossing facilities
Enforcement	P6: Enforcement of speed limits (e.g., speed cameras)
	P7: Enforcement of penalties (monetary fines)
	P8: Physical presence of traffic police
Education and raising awareness	P9: Continuous courses after obtaining a driving license
	P10: Theory driving tests
	P11: Media awareness campaigns
	P12: School awareness campaign
Legislation	P13: Setting speed limits
	P14: Legislation related to speeding penalties
	P15: Legislation related to seat belt usage
	P16: Legislation related to the age of driving
	P17: Licensing system specially established for foreign drivers

presents the four sets of policies with the example policies that were presented to the respondents. These policies were adopted based on the literature review of road safety studies and other relevant studies and tailored to suit the Saudi context. It should be noted that some policies could match more than one category. For example, monitoring drivers’ speed can be categorised as both an engineering and an enforcement policy. Under the engineering category, this policy indicates monitoring drivers’ speed with the aim to understand and set appropriate road speed limits. Under the category of enforcement, it appears as an enforcement policy.

The perceived effectiveness of the formulated policies and their acceptability for implementation were assessed and analysed. A Likert-type five-point scale response system was used to assess the level of support for the designed policies. The standard five-point rating of the Likert scale was as follows: significantly reduce accidents, reduce accidents, do not know, increase accidents, and significantly increase accidents. The perceived support for the policies’ implementation was reported using a binary-point scale (accept/not accept). The 4 categories of policies comprised a total of 17 policies.

2.3. The Participants

The survey was carried out in the capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, in November 2019. The sample size was determined to minimise resources and optimise the accuracy, reliability, and statistical significance of the outcomes of the analysis. Many techniques exist to investigate appropriate sample sizes [24]. These include the use of census data, evidence from the literature search, the rule of thumb (30 to 500), or reliance on published statistical tables and formulas such as Cochran’s, Yamane’s, and sample mean. In this research, we followed the guidance from previous similar investigations on attitudes towards road use safety and policies. The samples of such studies ranged from 100 to 300 and more [25,26,27,28,34,35,36,37,38]. The surveys were carried out in a shopping mall in Riyadh. During the evening prayer times, all shops in shopping centres are shut to allow people to pray. During prayer times, most women are either praying or sitting having a coffee and chatting in one of the cafes in shopping centres. It was during these time periods when women were spoken to and asked if they would be willing to take part in a survey on female driving, safety aspects, etc. Therefore, they were briefed on the purpose of the survey and asked if they were willing to participate; they were also informed about the duration, type of questions, etc.

Those who were interested to contribute to the survey were followed up; subsequently, a link to the survey was provided, and they were asked to complete it. A summary of the general characteristics of the participants of the survey is presented in

Table 2. General characteristics of the participants.

Variable Category	Group (Class)	Total Respondents	Percent
Car driving	Car driver	69	18
	No car driving	306	82
Age (years)	18–25	124	33
	26–35	85	23
	36–45	79	21
	46–55	53	14
	Over 55	34	9
Educational Level	Lower than high school	27	4
	High school	186	25
	Diploma	111	31
	University graduate	330	36
	Post-graduate	94	4
Work status	Full-time worker	56	15
	Part-time worker	102	27
	Students	85	23
	Unemployed	132	35
Income	High	105	28
	Medium	180	48
	Low	90	24

.

The questionnaire was carried out with a random sample of 1000 respondents. A total of 375 completed questionnaires were ultimately used in the analysis after deleting all the uncompleted surveys.

From Table 2, it can be inferred that the majority of the respondents were in the no-car-driving category (82%), while only 18% reported that they drove cars. In terms of age groups, the statistics revealed that the majority of the participants were in the category of 18–25 years old (33%), 23% were in the category of 26–35 years old, 21% were in the category of 36–45 years old, and 14% were in the category of 46–55 years old. Only 9% were in the category of over 55 years old. In terms of education, the highest percentage of participants were university graduates (36%). A total of 111 participants (31%) were diploma holders, and 25% of participants reported a high school qualification.

In terms of employment, 35% of participants were unemployed, 27% reported that they worked part time only, 23% of participants were students, and only 15% reported that they were in full-time employment. In terms of the income distribution, 48% of participants were in the medium category of income, 28% reported that their income fell under the high-income category, and 24% reported belonging to the low-income category.

A cross-tabulation analysis was carried out which revealed that those who reported the highest income categories were not exactly those who were full-time workers. Out of the 15% who reported full-time employment status, only half (7%) were in the high-income category. Further, of the women who indicated to fall under the medium-income category, about 50% also reported that they were unemployed. This might indicate that household income does rely on the total household income which includes the male members of the family. It should also be noted here that the financial status of most Saudi women is independent of that of their husbands.

2.4. The Survey

As discussed, we assessed the female participants’ perceived effectiveness of road safety policies and their acceptability for implementation. A standard five-point rating Likert scale technique (significantly reduce accidents, reduce accidents, do not know, increase accidents, and significantly increase accidents) was used to assess the participants’ level of acceptance. The acceptability of policy implementation was assessed using a binary-point scale (accept/not accept).

Table 3. The method used to report the perceptions and attitudes of the participants towards road safety policies.

Road Safety Policies Measure P1, … P7, …	Perception of Effectiveness of Road Safety Policies					Acceptability for Policies for Implementation
	Significantly Improves Road Safety	ImprovesRoad Safety	Do Not Know	Worsens Road Safety	Significantly Worsens Road Safety	Accept	Not Accept
P1: Policy 1
P2: Policy 2

presents the method that was used to report the participants’ perceptions and attitudes towards road safety policies.

The five-point scale was rated with the values {5, 4, 3, 2, 1}. The acceptability of policies for implementation was stated by the participants and then rated using a two-point scale (accept/not accept). Similarly, the two-point scale was denoted by the values {2, 1}. These values were allocated as the estimates of the significance or power of each of the road safety policies in gaining the participants’ support for their implementation. Then, 2 indicators were calculated for each of the 17 investigated road safety policies. The first indicator was termed the “Perceived Effectiveness Index”. It represents the perceived effectiveness of each policy to improve road safety. The second indicator was termed the “Commendation Index”, which represents the level of support for its implementation.

Perceived Effectiveness Index (PEI) and Commendation Index (CI) were computed from the total responses for each road safety policy to find an average point for each safety policy. The PEI and CI scores were computed as the average scores by adding up the sum of the assigned scores for each policy and dividing by the total number of responses, as presented in Equation (1):

$$\mathrm{Score}=\frac{\sum Scores assigned by participants}{Total summation of partcipants}$$

(1)

Therefore, PEI represents a score out of five, while CI represents a score out of two. The above equation represents a simple analysis procedure often used for finding average values and summarises the number of responses or indicators into some type of aggregated scores. In both cases, the higher the score, the higher the level of support for that policy and for its implementation.

3. Discussion of Results

3.1. General Findings

The survey results revealed that, overall, the level of acceptability of and support for road safety policies were significantly high and that they were affected by being a car driver, age, level of education, and income. Gender was not a factor in the analysis, as all the participants were females. Most of the participants were in the no-car-driving category (82%). However, over 50% of those reported that they were in the process of planning or had started to train to obtain a driving license. In particular, the measure “the physical presence of traffic police” was supported by over 90% of those who drove cars and 43% of those who did not. This might indicate that those who had just started driving felt that they needed that level of security by having the presence of the traffic police. This might be a result of fear of high driving speeds that are often observed on the roads, especially by younger drivers.

Almost steadily, over 65% of the older participants (>36 years) exhibited stronger support towards road safety policies than the younger age groups. This was particularly clear for all the enforcement policies. The younger participants (<35 years), on the other hand, showed stronger support towards the engineering policies. Similarly, the older participants were more supportive of legislation policies and, in particular, the policy relates to a licensing system for foreign drivers.

It should be noted here that most households in Saudi Arabia with medium or high income employ at least one or more private drivers for the family, who are often low-skilled and of low income. Foreign drivers have, therefore, been often associated with having bad or dangerous driving habits.

3.2. Comparisons with Other Countries

It should be noted that research findings in different geographical areas are different depending on the socioeconomic characteristics of each specific geographical area [39,40,41,42,43,44]. The findings of different studies largely depend on the specific behaviour and attitudes of participants in each area, their exposure to road safety policies and measures, and their experiences with road safety. The implementation of road safety policies also differs in different countries depending on the level of maturity of research in such countries, the level of available resources, and the implemented road safety approaches.

In comparison with previous research, very few data exist on socioeconomic characteristics and impacts on attitudes towards road safety policies. In this paper, gender differences were not investigated since all the participants were females. According to the previous literature, age has often been positively associated with the level of experience in driving [39,40,41,42,43,44,45].

The older the participants are, the longer it is often assumed that they have been driving [40]. This is not the case, however, in Saudi Arabia and in this particular case of having only female participants.

In terms of experience with driving, all the participants had almost the same level of experience, as allowing women to drive is just a recent development in the country. While higher income has generally been associated with a lower rate of road accidents [40,44], the wealthier developing countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, and Qatar have presented a different trend of much higher rates [45].

3.3. Level of Support to Road Safety Policies

The perceived effectiveness of each of the road safety policies and support for their implementation were assessed using a five-point rating Likert scale technique (significantly improves road safety, improves road safety, do not know, worsens road safety, and significantly worsens road safety).

Table 4. Arithmetic means of the Perceived Effectiveness Index (PEI) and Commendation Index (CI) for safety policies.

Road Safety Policy	Perceived Effectiveness Index (PEI)	Commendation Index (CI)
P1	2.658	1.654
P2	2.431	1.112
P3	3.732	1.727
P4	4.154	1.875
P5	2.126	1.267
P6	3.572	1.392
P7	1.812	1.303
P8	4.291	1.283
P9	2.715	1.231
P10	1.875	1.332
P11	3.931	1.909
P12	4.179	1.894
P13	3.830	1.733
P14	2.329	1.329
P15	1.987	1.386
P16	2.241	1.721
P17	4.156	1.925

presents the computed scores for each of the sets of indicators. The higher the scores, the higher the support for any policy. In other words, the higher scores showed higher support from the participants for the safety policies.

Table 4 shows the Perceived Effectiveness Index (PEI) and Commendation Index (CI) scores for each of the road safety policies. Any policy that attained a score of four or above four was considered to be highly supported by the participants and seen as an effective policy to improve road safety. Largely, enforcement and engineering policies were highly supported and were deemed effective over, for example, the legislation policies. The two less effective engineering policies were monitoring drivers’ speeds and pedestrian crossing facilities (P2 and P5). Monitoring vehicle speeds was obviously not a favourable policy in this case. The less preference for the latter engineering policy (P5) can perhaps be explained by the lack of walking culture and lack of interest in walking facilities. The enforcement policies (P6–P8), including speeding penalties, seat belts, and the age of driving, were perceived to be effective. Only the penalty-related policy was perceived as less favourable. The participants were less encouraged about most of the legislation policies. About 86% of the participants perceived the policy index P8 (physical presence of traffic police) was perceived as the most effective policy (score 4.291) out of the 17 policies. This may indicate that manual enforcement is still both popular and perceived to be effective in Saudi Arabia. Other policies that were perceived as highly effective included P4 (use of road signs and marking), which was deemed as effective by about 83% of the participants; P12 (school awareness campaign) was identified by about 84% of the participants to be the most effective; and P17 (licensing system specially established for foreign drivers) was perceived by 83% of the participants to be the most effective.

The level of support for the policies, specified by the Commendation Index (CI), well matched the PEI policies. Nearly all the values in this category were close to 2.00. This showed a high level of support for the implementation of road safety policies. The top scores in this category included safety policies (P3, P4, P8, P11, P12, and P17). The lowest policy score in this category was P5 (pedestrian crossing policy), which was nominated for implementation by about 63% of the participants, relatively lower than most of the other policies. It should be noted here that, in Saudi Arabia, car ownership and use are very high. Walking is mostly not observed in urban areas in the country. Another contributing factor is the climate which is characterised by a very high temperature for the majority of the year. This might explain why policies related to walking would not be perceived as highly important. On the other hand, P4 was recommended by 90% of the participants for implementation.

4. Further Analysis

The further analysis of the obtained scores revealed the overall support for enforcement policies, which were considered most effective over the rest of the policies.

Table 5. Overall average scores of Perceived Effectiveness Index (PEI) and Commendation Index (CI).

Policy Category	Overall Average Score Effectiveness Index (PEI)	Overall Average Score Commendation Index (CI)
Engineering	3.0202	1.527
Enforcement	3.225	1.326
Education	3.175	1.5915
Legislation	2.9086	1.6188

shows the overall average scores of the Perceived Effectiveness Index (PEI) and Commendation Index (CI) for the different categories of policies. From the table, it can be derived that the overall average effectiveness indices for the enforcement, education, engineering, and legislation policies were 3.225, 3.175, 3.020, and 2.908, respectively. While the enforcement index was the highest, the legislation index was the lowest. On the other hand, interestingly, the overall average commendation indices in order of acceptability of implementation were legislation, education, engineering, and enforcement (1.6188, 1.5915, 1.527, and 1.326), respectively. This shows that, while enforcement policies were deemed to be effective in improving road safety, they were not very popular when it came to implementation. The legislation policies, on the other hand, did not score high in terms of their effectiveness; however, they attained the highest score in commendation for implementation. This might reflect a general perception of a lack of adequate legislation in the field of road safety and a lower preference for the implementation of harsher safety policies such as penalties.

Although road safety policies have been implemented in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia dating back to as far as 1970, many new road safety regulations have further been instigated in the Kingdom with the aim to reduce road accidents and improve road safety [28]. In particular, traffic regulations and enforcement policies have seen vast progress. Inadequate traffic laws, lack of enforcement, lack of education and awareness, lack of political support, and deprived engineering policies were identified as threats to road safety in other developing countries [28,46,47,48]. In this research, enforcement and education policies showed the highest scores of support amongst the female participants in terms of their perceived effectiveness. There is still a gap in terms of willingness to accept the implementation of policies, in particular, those related to enforcement. These results are compatible with those of other studies carried out in other countries.

In summary, this research addressed a highly significant issue by seeking to clarify how the current Saudi traffic safety policies are perceived by women in the Kingdom. The study was based on a well-outlined set of sociological techniques, highlighting two specific indicators—the Perceived Effectiveness Index (PEI) and Commendation Index (CI). As a result, the conducted survey provided evidence of a high level of support for the continuing Saudi policies amongst the respondents bringing to the fore some country-specific distinctions such as, for example, enforcement and regulation policies, in terms of their perceived effectiveness while showing that legislation and education scored higher when it came to implementation.

5. Conclusions

Travel behaviour and travel characteristics in Arab countries are significantly different than they are in Western nations. Fewer studies and investigations have been carried out to investigate such variations in travel behaviour and attitudes in the Middle East. In this paper, we reported a study of attitudes and preferences of Saudi female drivers towards policies related to road safety. The challenges of setting road safety policies include achieving efficiency, effectiveness, and acceptance among all members of society. In order to assess road safety policies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and in particular, for the female members of the society, data are needed to assess the attitudes and acceptability of road safety policies in the Kingdom.

A questionnaire was designed, and data were collected on Saudi female drivers to collect information on their perceived acceptability and support of a total of 17 road safety policies falling under 4 categories, namely engineering, enforcement, education, and legislation policies. In total, 375 filled-in responses were collected in November 2019 in Riyadh. The overall support for road safety policies was stated by Saudi female drivers to be especially towards enforcement and education policies. It is worth noting here that there was strong support for education policies particularly needed for foreign drivers in the country. This is an issue that warrants further attention and research.

It should also be further concluded that research findings in the area of behaviour and attitudes towards road safety policies differ in different countries depending on the level of maturity of research, resource availability, and the implemented road safety approaches. Saudi Arabia is a wealthy developing country with considerable resources and ambitions to be at the forefront in terms of road safety. Therefore, it is possible that the road map for its journey could well be very different than that experienced in both developing and developed countries. A good understanding of perceptions of the population and their potential behaviour is key to attaining highly effective policies in this field. The results from current research revealed the female participants’ support for regulations and education policies as effective for reducing road accidents and improving road safety. These results are similar to research results in other countries. When asked about the implementation of such policies, responses showed less support for the implementation of enforcement policies. Education policies are very important and very effective to improve public knowledge and support for all road safety policies. These findings are comparable with other findings from other countries.

There is an added value to this type of research, especially in a country such as Saudi Arabia, where women have just started to drive. While improving the road network alignment may be a new topic, particularly for women who have just started to drive and who perhaps do not know enough about highway engineering, the investigation of attitudes represents an opportunity for raising awareness and providing further education to become more aware of road safety. Further research and development in the area of road safety in Saudi Arabia and many other similar countries is urgently needed.