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What contributes most to road safety, skill aquired through training, or experience, or drivers attitude?
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A mixture of all three, but in my opinion attitude is by far the most important. Unfortunately, by the time someone reaches 17 their attitude has already been formed. An ignorant little chav who got his first ASBO age 12 is already beyond hope, and he will be the one who drags someone from their car and beats the whatsit out of them for daring to get in the way. These types have long learnt to play the system, having been through most of it, so all the fancy theory tests in the world will be easy meat for them.
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Playing the system won't get you thru the Theory Test if you can't read or write, which many of these people can't after 10 years in what we laughingly call an education system! I understand that there are ten of thousands of yoofs who can't pass the thoery test so they drive anyway, as we know to our cost.
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Playing the system won't get you thru the Theory Test if you can't read or write >>
People who are illiterate get an oral test.
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I hear what you say RR but if they are illiterate how do they read vital road signs? Skid risk for the next 3 miles - caution workforce on the hard shoulder etc? People who are illiterate should get some lessons and not be pandered to beacuse they are ignorant and/or lazy!
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That is almost as outrageous as the 50% of literate drivers who don't know what most roadsigns mean even on the rare occasion that they notice one.
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I think the most important ones aren't necessarily any of those, but I think it's anticipation and judgement. Bad judgement is probably a factor in the majority of accidents. I think new drivers haven't developed these skills as well as experienced drivers, which might be why they keep killing themselves.
Most drivers go too fast in some conditions, it often not because they want to kill somebody, but it's because they have misjudged the conditions, their car's performance, or their ability. Training can improve just about every aspect of driving, including attitude. The problem with training is that very few people get enough of it. Very few do addition lessons/tests once they've got their full license.
The problem with experience is that there is good experience and bad experience. There will be a lot of white van men on the roads with lots of expereince, a few will probably be very good drivers, but a very large number of them are very bad.
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I agree with anticipation, I like to see as far ahead as possible and dont like driving behind something I cant see through. If I position myself far enough back to see ahead the space tends to get filled by an overtaker who sits close behind the bus, truck or whatever.
I would hope that judgement improves with experience.
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Common sense, sadly in short supply :o(
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What contributes most to road safety, skill aquired through training, or experience, or drivers attitude?
As an entree to a general discussion about driving skills, reasonable question. Otherwise, it's a false trichotomy - just like saying which is the most important side of a triangle. It's got to be the success of the interplay between all factors surely?
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I think it is a combination of skill, knowledge and attitude. Driver training can instil the necessary skills and can help and encourage drivers to acquire the necessary knowledge. However attitude is much harder as it is driven by a number of complex factors including peer group pressure, parental attitudes and a myriad of other elements.
The theory and practical driving tests currently cover knowledge and skills and Psychometric testing is one option which could be introduced to cover attitude. Arguably, everyone who has passed the driving tests is at least capable of driving safely, sadly many choose not to due to having a bad attitude to the driving task.
You could also argue that if their skills and knowledge are lacking this is also down to a poor attitude. If we had a sophisticated and mature campaign aimed at changing attitudes to the point where it became socially unacceptable to drive badly there really would be some progress.
I am thinking here about the acknowledged success of the drink driving campaign run through the 90's which has toned down in the past few years to be replaced with the anti-speeding campaign. Tragically the drink driving figures have begun to rise again, perhaps as a result.
The point is that what this campaign managed to do was to change attitudes to the point where people did not commit the offence because they thought it was just plain wrong rather than out of any fear of the penalties. It became socially unacceptable and anyone who did it was regarded as an idiot.
How much more constructive would it be to have a similar campaign against bad driving of all types by drivers of all ages. Changing hearts and minds would be far more effective than vilifying groups of motorists like young drivers or blaming every accident on speeding.
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I think that when it comes to driving 80% of safe driving is down to attitude.
Cars are also safer as well with ESP and ABS etc although clearly you need some skill - but if everyone drove around with the right attitude, our roads would be musch safer and less stressful.
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Experience hones skills but only in drivers with the right attitude. Most drivers underestimate the necessary level of conscious intellectual activity involved in driving. They switch on an unsophisticated autopilot far too early in their driving careers, and far too early in every journey.
Just look at the pink fluffies all around you next time you go out on the road.
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