A Finnish adult usually has two options in getting driver training for a driving licence. These are through driving schools or driver training by an individual permit. Since a family member is the trainer in the latter, its influence on traffic safety has been questioned. Previous research has provided no methodologically sound means of assessing this question. Traffic safety in the literature is normally seen as the lack of accidents. This notion provided the idea of exploring the characteristics of traffic safety positively rather than stressing the lack of accidents as a criterion. This is also relevant to driver training, which is based on existing teaching methods and aids. A concept of unexplained and unpredictable factors in traffic performance called chance also emerged both in the literature and in the preliminary work for this study. The notions of safety and chance were conducive to a hermeneutic approach which relies on the ability of the drivers to account of their conceptions. The research resembled an expedition, the purpose of which was to keep a weather eye on everything which might be important. Since the researcher did not have fixed ideas, which would impair his ability to explore traffic safety or driver training matters, four broad research tasks, not strict hypotheses, were designed. The tasks were: 1. Questioning the accident criterion for driver training, and determining a new positive criterion. 2. Comparing driving school and permission driver training by this positive criterion. 3. Comparing the safety thinking of young male drivers, young female drivers, and master drivers. 4. Elaborating the notion of chance incorporated into traffic safety conceptions. The research applied systematic analysis, including phenomenographic interviews and phenomenographic analysis. Newly licensed young males provided the main data, while newly licensed young females and master drivers served as the comparison. All interesting findings and even useful clues are reported for the reader’s consideration. This approach, deviating from the usual hypothetically deductive one, produced a new view of traffic safety. The interviewees’ understanding of safety was in line with socialisation according to the categories of description identified from the conceptions. They conceived no absolute or perpetual state of safety. The young male permission interviewees focused on driving and taking precautions. The young male school interviewees utilised concepts in analysing problems but could not resolve them. Chance conceptions represented a personal lack of resources in driving, which were characteristic of the permission interviewees, the school interviewees conceived unpredictable incidents where there was a lack of resources in particular events, such as an elk on the road. The interviewees managed critical incidents by common sense but this concept was also used when they excused their mistakes. The interviewees constructed a thinking process called maxims in this study. These were rules of thumb justifying pieces of driving or directing performance. The maxims, approximating to internal representations, were few. While none of the road rules provide a maxim, the interviewees fundamentally agreed with the legislator that traffic is always dangerous. The young males thought of chance divergently, i.e. they deliberated on aspects of driving, which enabled experimentation. The young females and the master drivers thought convergently, i.e. they began with appropriate maxims, ensuring that their behaviour was as safe as possible. (A)
Abstract