Social and economic cost of traffic accidents in Turkey has reached an alarming level. It is almost impossible to completely understand the problem of road safety within the framework of the conventional "human-vehicle-road" trilogy only in developing countries including Turkey. In this review, jhe issue of traffic safety and driver behavior was analyzed from the social psychological perspective by considering the culture specific characteristics. It was asserted that the system and/or integrative approaches such as "person in situation", rather than "individual differences" perspective may be much more effective for attaining permanent solutions. Concerning human factors in traffic accidents, traffic violations' seem to be the primary causal agent. Most of the driver behaviors including violations can be explained on the basis of both individual level, such as overconfidence on the driving skills, and social level, such as the lack of deterrent social norms. The asymmetrical interplay between driving and safety skills also plays a role on the risky driving and violations. Whatsoever the reasons of risky driving, there is an urgent need for the well-designed and applicable behavior modification programs which take into account cultural specific aspects for sustainable traffic safety. For this purpose, the commonly known behavior change models were summarized and the four fundamental elements of traffic and transportation safety (legislation, enforcement, reinforcement, and education) were extensively discussed in the final section of this paper.