Seat belt use in long distance buses. Between system’s conditions and user’s practices

Abstract

This article presents the results of an investigation carried out by the Junta de Seguridad en el Transporte to understand the determinants of seat belt use by people who use the regular long-distance bus services in Argentina. The theoretical perspective recovers notions of the systemic model for the analysis of accidents that guide to observe the interactions between the conditions of the system and the behavior of the actors, also using tools from sociology and political theory. The method used consisted of a survey passing through different bus terminals in Argentina. The main conclusions support that the seat belt is valued as a safety element, but only a minority of people report that they always use it when traveling, influencing age and educational level. Users also perceive weak incentives from the transport system to use this security device.