During the last twelve months we have seen a couple of questionnaires reaching out to the learner driver, trying to find out what they want and the driver trainer too. Driving during restricted hours was quite unpopular, as you would expect along with a restriction regarding carrying passengers. So why was this survey carried out, because although it predates the green paper for young drivers, the responses are not reflected in the proposals, so this appears to just be an exercise rather than a serious piece of research.
Usually when time and finance is invested in research the conclusions are discussed, chewed over and debated, but this was a politically motivated attempt to give the impression that someone is listening not just to the road safety proposals from various groups but also to the young driver, who these proposals affect. In reality, this appears to not be the case.
All of the proposals have been trialled and researched outside of the UK, and conclusions have been reached, we were not one of the chosen 14 member states and involved in 30 months of study, but the resulting evidence means that we would be pushing forward with the results of this trial. Therefore the green paper results have already been decided pre publication of the results in October.
Interestingly the learner driver, predominantly male who has a laid back demeanour, is not threatened by the potential of an accident and is prepared to demonstrate risky behaviour with an understanding of potential threat to life or liberty, does not show any evidence of wishing to change post test or post the age most associated with risk. So temperament and personality is a definite factor not changed by maturity. This research did demonstrate that the young driver in the risky group was the smallest group, with drivers from Bulgaria being over represented in this group, closely followed by Cyprus and Latvia.
Over confident drivers were the second largest group, with rage and anger becoming obvious when faced with an obstacle or traffic queue, they were more aggressive and most likely to be relaxed towards alcohol, mobile phones and driving, considering themselves to be suitably skilled and therefore unlikely to crash. This group were most likely to make a mistake.
Group three were the safe drivers, who still peaked with aggressive driving, they were however less likely to speed, commit violations, make mistakes but were the most anxious group, which in this research does not support the nervous driver as being a high risk. The safe group, when questioned, were most concerned about having a accident as a real possibility, compared to the other two.
Across the three groups the participants, which were 1000 from each of the 14 countries, so a significant group, the gender and age range was the same, showing that it is not so much an age related or gender problem as a personality, or genetic one.
Those who rode a scooter but not a car found the risky group considered themselves more likely to have an accident, risky behaviour was greater amongst the scooter rider group compared to the car driver, with their behaviour being more aggressive. The risky group stated their peers approved of their risk taking behaviour.
However, all groups, scooter drivers and car drivers or drivers of both, the majority had never had a drink and then driven with a reassuring 84%, which is a better figure than previously thought, all groups had however demonstrated they were most likely to have committed a speeding violation.
The research is many pages long and I will decipher more and blog the interesting parts, but the conclusion is the part that interested me, this research and data gathering took place prior to the green paper in the UK, the results of the findings were put forward for all EU countries to incorporate for the new driver, so it seems to me the writing is on the wall and this exercise is just a box ticker, not a real enquiry, hence the short consultation periods we have seen.
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