This report investigates the types of driver behaviour linked to crash involvement and suggests how to persuade drivers not to take unnecessary risks behind the wheel. The authors see three phases in learning to drive: technical mastery, learning to read the road, and using the manner of driving to express personality and attitudes. Three basic types of faulty driving behaviour are identified: lapses (not life-threatening), errors (of observation and misjudgement), and violations (deliberate deviations from safe driving practice). Violations are linked to crash involvement, in all groups of drivers. These drivers were found to hold certain attitudes to their driving and to its effect on other people, and to have a low level of perceived behavioural control. The authors reconnnend that effort is focused on attempts to foster and maintain appropriate attitudes to driving among both pre-drivers and licensed drivers. Persuasive messages should be targeted at those drivers who hold attitudes liable to encourage violations, taking into account the factor that violation is seen as exciting in itself.
Abstract