世論 What Japan Thinks

If there’s one thing Japanese drivers hate, it’s fags and other rubbish being tossed out of car windows, according to this survey from iShare into driving manners.

You’ll notice that there are a couple of questions regarding insurance. This is because the survey was conducted in conjunction with American Home and their car insurance arm, American Home Direct.

Demographics

On the 6th of September 2010 1,067 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-base questionnaire. All of the respondents had free use of a car that they drove at least once a week. 85.0% of the sample were male, 3.0% in their twenties, 38.5% in their thirties, 44.0% in their forties, and 14.5% in their fifties.

The demographics are quite different from the usual CLUB BBQ ones – the male:female split is usually closer to 50:50, and the twenties age group around 30%, indicating that younger and female ownership of cars is pretty low.

My worst manners in others is poor indicating, although my own driving manners are perfect. People who dangle their hand holding a ciggie out the window irrationally annoy me too. Being driven by someone who doesn’t anticipate is my way of spotting a useless driver.

Research results

Q1: What do you think is the absolute worst manners by drivers? (Sample size=1,067)

	All	Male N=907	Female N=160
Throwing rubbish, fag ends out the window	46.9%	47.1%	45.6%
Not keeping one’s distance from the car in front	8.2%	8.3%	8.1%
Frequently honking the horn	6.1%	6.4%	4.4%
Too early, too late indicator usage	5.8%	5.8%	5.6%
Not leaving space, etc for other cars to change lanes	5.4%	5.3%	6.3%
Not letting pedestrians cross the road	4.6%	4.5%	5.0%
Yelling out the car window	3.6%	3.6%	3.1%
Overdoing acceleration	3.1%	3.0%	3.8%
Frequently switching lanes	3.0%	2.9%	3.8%
Leaving the car sticking out of parking spaces	2.6%	2.4%	3.8%
Turning the car stereo up load	1.6%	1.7%	1.3%
Blowing cigarette smoke out of the car window	1.3%	1.2%	1.9%
Other	7.8%	7.8%	7.5%

Q2: Have you ever committed any bad manners while driving? (Sample size=1,067)

	All	Male N=907	Female N=160
Yes	63.1%	65.0%	51.9%
No	36.9%	35.0%	48.1%

Q3: When being driven by someone else, what moment most makes you think the driver is extremely poor? (Sample size=1,067)

	All	Male N=907	Female N=160
Unnecessary braking	36.5%	37.2%	32.5%
Coming to an over-abrupt stop	17.8%	16.8%	23.8%
Taking far too many attempts to get into a parking bay	8.9%	8.2%	13.1%
Unnecessarily fast start	8.7%	7.9%	13.1%
Not using the mirrors, just looking straight ahead	6.8%	7.5%	3.1%
Not getting into the flow on the expressways	6.3%	7.2%	1.3%
Flitting from lane to lane	5.7%	5.7%	5.6%
Jerking at the wheel in curves	3.1%	2.8%	5.0%
Barely talking when driving	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%
Other	5.8%	6.4%	2.5%

Q4: Do you think you are a skilful driver? (Sample size=1,067)

	All	Male N=907	Female N=160
Yes	9.4%	10.0%	5.6%
Perhaps	54.2%	56.9%	38.8%
Perhaps not (to SQ)	30.3%	27.9%	43.8%
Not at all (to SQ)	6.2%	5.2%	11.9%

Q4SQ: What is the main reason why you think you are not a skilled driver? (Sample size=389)

	All	Male N=300	Female N=89
No reason, just don’t think I am	64.3%	63.7%	66.3%
Because I’ve had an accident	11.3%	11.7%	10.1%
Because people have told me I’m not good	3.1%	2.0%	6.7%
Because the police have given me a warning, penalty points while driving	1.0%	1.0%	1.1%
Other	20.3%	21.7%	15.7%

Q5: What conditions, locations do you find the hardest to drive in? (Sample size=1,067)

	All	Male N=907	Female N=160
Streets with lots of pedestrians	23.5%	24.7%	16.9%
Streets with lots of parked card	21.3%	21.2%	21.9%
Rainy roads	18.7%	19.1%	16.3%
Near schools, other places with lots of children	17.4%	16.3%	23.8%
Night driving	6.8%	6.2%	10.6%
In jammed-up expressways	2.9%	3.0%	2.5%
In long tunnels	2.0%	2.0%	1.9%
Other	7.4%	7.6%	6.3%

Q6: Do you think that as part of driver manners, in addition to compulsory automobile liability insurance, one should also take out optional car insurance? (Sample size=1,067)

	All	Male N=907	Female N=160
Definitely should (to SQ)	88.9%	89.9%	83.8%
Perhaps should (to SQ)	9.7%	8.6%	15.6%
Don’t need to	1.4%	1.5%	0.6%

Q6SQ: What is the main reason why they should take out car insurance? (Sample size=1,052)

	All	Male N=893	Female N=159
Since compulsory automobile liability insurance payout limit is low, the coverage is limited	52.2%	54.4%	39.6%
Even if you take care it’s possbile to have an accident	36.1%	33.8%	49.1%
In court cases liability can surpass the amount covered by compulsory automobile liability insurance	5.2%	5.6%	3.1%
After a traffic accident the insurance company can take care of procedures, dealing with the other party, etc	2.8%	2.8%	2.5%
In an accident where the other person is 100% at fault, in addition to compensation from the other person’s insurance, a payout from my own insurance may also be needed	0.9%	1.0%	0.0%
The number of accidents have been increasing	0.6%	0.6%	0.6%
Other	2.3%	1.8%	5.0%

Q7: What sort of driver’s car would you definitely not want to get into? (Sample size=1,067)

	All	Male N=907	Female N=160
An uninsured driver’s	39.6%	39.9%	37.5%
An ill-mannered driver’s	35.5%	35.3%	36.9%
A poor driver’s	21.1%	20.9%	21.9%
Other	3.8%	3.9%	3.8%