The Instructor

Today I read an article that I would consider quite insulting to the driving instructor fraternity, it starts with 'many instructors', personally I'm quite disappointed by the sweeping generalisation but more worryingly the intention behind the article implies that we are not good at what we do.

Coaching has swept the ADI culture, well CCL has, but many compare the two, and with this has come a disregard for methods that have gone before, however the research I shall be publishing quite soon states that each style has a place and learning by rote should never be dismissed when you consider it's history and success.  Of course, robotic teaching styles may be considered to be out of touch with the modern pupil, they were really always misplaced in the learning arena, but, does that make the student less able, after all these are human beings, thinking people who question the majority of things to satisfy their own curiosity and learning to drive is no different.

So does commanding a routine of MSM mean that the pupil just displays the right amount of technique to be test standard? Only if the ADI explains it in that way, do this to pass a test, rather archaic actually, I meet many instructors in my role and unsurprisingly the educational process, the fact that more ADI's have multiple trainer roles, has improved what is demanded in the environment of the mobile office.

Why, why, why, is heard more now than ever before, schools are encouraging questioning, the teacher is more likely to have a mentor and in many cases the student too, as a life coach I meet many professional people outside of this industry who are questioning the work ethic of their company and seeking change for everyone for the greater good, so why on Earth is it presumed, not proven, that the ADI has stopped somewhere in the 1980's and become fossilised.

I recently spent some time with a professional person, occasional driver, outside of working and travelled in their car as a passenger, naturally I noted their behaviour, useful for my final chapter and saw that their habits were good despite holding a licence for many years, at the end of the journey I questioned their routine and they smiled and said blame my driving instructor I can still hear their voice ringing in my ears after forty years. Refreshing, not unusual and definitely an example to some.

Is UK road safety suffering?

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.

Trusting the Learner

Over the last few decades there has been much research into the learner driver and their errors, their inexperience and what can be done to change their accident figures. However some recent research has identified some areas that are going to be difficult to change, which is their reaction in event of a danger.

Putting a young driver in an accident scenario in a simulator showed they may close their eyes, turn away from the risk but they do not include in their reaction the vehicle they are driving. This wasn't all drivers, but the majority, those who had to make a decision which involved the whole picture, vehicle and driver resulted in a much more lengthy reaction time. With a small time frame of just a couple of seconds to respond to an incident unfolding ahead, they were more likely to collide than avoid.

Is this a result of poor teaching, as some would have us believe, well vehicle handling and control can find some responsibility at the foot of the tutor, but inbuilt reaction is harder to control. You cannot make someone respond in a particular way in a moment of trauma. The shock and disbelief that someone else had got it wrong in the scenarios which were not the young drivers fault slowed the reaction time considerably, almost as if they were watching from a higher view point.

There is some research, not much as it has just begun, that questions young people who have been involved in a collision, either slight or with considerable vehicle damage, but not where anyone had severe injury. Their responses although varied in the description pointed to a handful of similarities. The time it took to assess and decide, the lack of natural desire to protect themselves inclusive of the vehicle and the pause for help.  So are young drivers spoon fed too much help from their tutor? Well the team behind this investigation are still questioning and searching data, as well as interviewing and following a group of new drivers who fall into specific category risk groups. This includes their class, finance and area they live, things that have previously been identified as increased risk.

In one of the groups a student was travelling in a car with their instructor when a vehicle was travelling towards them at speed on the wrong side of the road, over taking, the driver continued towards the risk, assuming the other car would move away from their path, the instructor reacted and moved the car away from the danger. Parked up afterwards the following conversation took place.

Tutor: Did you see the oncoming car?
Student: Yes
Tutor: Why did you not react, we could have been killed?
Student: But it was my right of way
Tutor: Do you believe the car that was driving towards us considered that?
Student: I don't know
Tutor: What would have happened if I hadn't moved the car away from the risk?
Student: Do you think he would have hit us?
Tutor: I don't believe we would be here for this conversation
Student: Oh

So a strange captured conversation, the student believing their priority would over ride the poor decision by the on coming driver, although the learner could see danger, they also truly thought the other driver would be the one to evade the risk rather than collide, yet for some faced with such danger a reaction to the extreme could have taken place.

The study group, which is an EU study, are trying to discover why the reactions of young drivers differ so greatly to new drivers over the age of 30. The older group, of which there are fewer participants, all responded earlier and were protective of not just themselves but the vehicle too when faced with a situation that had the potential to cause harm. The researchers do not believe this is related to tuition at all but related directly to the understanding of consequences.

A small sterile group of young drivers, who were particularly trained for ten hours dealing with consequence and risk against a group who were not still had the same reaction. This confirms some previous research carried out and published in the BMJ, where a young person is physically unable to distinguish between risk, speed and consequence, but which improves vastly over the age of 24. The variances in the group age 24 to 30 has not yet been explored.

So it seems with all the preparation and training, when faced with a real situation, not created by the young driver their responses are slower, despite in most cases the identification of risk was early. The data being accumulated from these studies is likely to continue for some time, whether it can help the future of road safety is yet to be seen. For me the most interesting study group is going to be cyclists and their behaviour.