There have been many reports of motorists using the lack of traffic on the roads during the Covid19 lockdown to flout the speed limits and now with more traffic back on the roads there is a danger that some may continue to drive at excessive speeds even after things are back to ‘normal’.
Behavioural Science in transportation (understanding the behaviour and motivations of transport users such as motorists and rail commuters etc) is a fascinating subject which plays a big part in the engineering and design of roads and their ‘furniture’ in an attempt to gently persuade drivers to modify their driving behaviour to something more appropriate.
There are many such psychological tactics in place to combat speeding but could we be doing more? What other engineering solutions could be implemented to stop excessive speeding? How do different countries tackle speeding on their roads? What could we learn from them?
mmm the 40/50 yr old experienced drives fast ??? that's interesting , but we know most serious accidents involve young and inexperienced drivers who are also driving fast , and then we have driving fast due to intoxication , which we are not clear about is old or young.
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I have a slightly different take on this. I have observed, throughout my driving days, middle-aged men in up-market cars, driving in a manner in which many of us would disapprove. They speed, overtake in risky conditions, cut up other drivers, tailgate and generally annoy us. In my early driving days I used to think it quite unfair that such drivers, with salaries enabling them to afford expensive cars, could probably obtain motor insurance cheaper than I could on the strength of sheer age only.
The point is that these drivers are experienced enough to know what they can get away with, so despite their bad driving manner they manage to steer clear of accidents most of the time. By comparison, the young boy-racer in a banger may well be tempted to speed and overtake in dangerous conditions, and cut up other motorists not through wilful intent but through poor judgement of space. They go round bends too quickly, or brake on them, and sooner or later this poor judgement leads to accidents. Hence they feature more in accident statistics, which are the basis of insurers' calculations.
mmm the 40/50 yr old experienced drives fast ??? that's interesting , but we know most serious accidents involve young and inexperienced drivers who are also driving fast , and then we have driving fast due to intoxication , which we are not clear about is old or young.
. . .
I have a slightly different take on this. I have observed, throughout my driving days, middle-aged men in up-market cars, driving in a manner in which many of us would disapprove. They speed, overtake in risky conditions, cut up other drivers, tailgate and generally annoy us. In my early driving days I used to think it quite unfair that such drivers, with salaries enabling them to afford expensive cars, could probably obtain motor insurance cheaper than I could on the strength of sheer age only.
The point is that these drivers are experienced enough to know what they can get away with, so despite their bad driving manner they manage to steer clear of accidents most of the time. By comparison, the young boy-racer in a banger may well be tempted to speed and overtake in dangerous conditions, and cut up other motorists not through wilful intent but through poor judgement of space. They go round bends too quickly, or brake on them, and sooner or later this poor judgement leads to accidents. Hence they feature more in accident statistics, which are the basis of insurers' calculations.
