Two related factors form the theoretical and practical bases for the Social Attitudes to Road Traffic Risk in Europe (SARTRE) 4 projects:

• Road safety is dependent to a large extent on actual road users' behaviour, which in turn is influenced by their attitudes, beliefs and perceptions. Knowing opinions and beliefs may help with the understanding of traffic behaviour.
• Citizens' perceptions and opinions about transport, road safety, control measures in-use or contemplated by authorities, are very relevant to policy makers for understanding the needs of the public, the limitations of their policies and the potential support for new policies.

The objective of the project is to survey, with a uniform methodology, the attitudes, opinions, self-reported behaviour and experiences of European drivers, their riders, and non-drivers.

The project will provide a follow-up to the previous three SARTRE projects, and will include additional groups (non-drivers and motorized two-wheelers), and a more policy-focused questionnaire.

The focus will continue on a number of core safety issues: speeding, impaired-driving (drink-driving, drugs, possibly also fatigue or distraction) and seat-belt wearing.

New issues will be included, those that gained importance during the last years, e.g. 'eco-driving' and mobility, harmonisation, cross-border traffic control, the safety of motorised two-wheelers, risk to pedestrians in urban areas, security concerns and new traffic enforcement technologies.

The gathered data will provide the EC and member states a current picture of road users' attitudes and opinions, with the ability to compare between states and identify possible reasons for differences. On several core issues it will be possible to compare the findings to SARTRE 3 results, and evaluate the changes that had taken place in drivers' attitudes in the EU since the release of the White Paper on European Transport Policy just prior to the SARTRE 3 project.