Better Driving: "Respect on the Road"
Executive Summary
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Background
- The 'Respect' agenda
- Respect on the road
- What do we know about 'respectful' and 'disrespectful' behaviour on the road?
Chapter 3: Are Driving Standards Better or Worse Than They Were?
Chapter 4: Types of Behaviour
Chapter 5: Who Should We Try to Influence?
Chapter 6: Research Evidence
Chapter 7: What Can Be Done to Encourage and Recognise Good Driving
- Communication between drivers
- Influencing behaviour
- Training and testing
- Enforcement
- Incentives
- Self help
Chapter 8: Conclusion
Chapter 9: Summary of Recommendations
Chapter 10: Code of Practice for Scientific Committees
Annex A: Summary of Recommendations
Annex B: Psychological Background - A Paper by Professor Mark Conner, University of Leeds
Annexes C - F: Self Help Advice
This report has been prepared by the Motorists' Forum Better Driving: 'Respect' on the Road Working Group. It has been endorsed by the whole Motorists' Forum. The report has been sent to the Secretary of State for Transport, the Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP and the Home Secretary, The Rt Hon John Reid MP. Copies are available on the Motorists' Forum web site www.cfit.gov.uk/mf/.
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Executive Summary
This study has been initiated by the Motorists' Forum in response to an invitation from the Department for Transport for the Forum to consider how the Prime Minister's 'Respect' initiative might be applied to road user behaviour, as a contribution to their review of road safety.
There are still far too many deaths and injuries on the road to be tolerable in a civilised society. Human error is a contributory factor in a high proportion of collisions - probably about two-thirds. If we could find ways of persuading drivers to drive with more consideration for the safety of themselves and others - in others words with more 'respect' - there would be far fewer casualties; and driving would be a less stressful and more pleasant experience than it sometimes is now. How to influence driver behaviour is a challenge as old as the motor car itself. We have looked at the latest experience and research to see if we could identify new approaches to the problem.
Bad behaviour on the roads has obvious connections with anti-social behaviour generally, which is the subject of the 'Respect' work being taken forward by the Home Office. The links between serious traffic offences and criminal behaviour generally are worth further work, building on the research already done. And issues such as education and enforcement are part of the solution to both sorts of behavioural problems. But the differences in the legal framework and the measures that are possible in each area are sufficiently large to make it sensible for 'respect on the road' to be considered as a separate issue. The Home Office work has now seen 'parenting' as a key issue to be tackled. Rather than try to deal with 'respect on the road' as an aspect of the broad 'Respect' agenda, or even as a generic problem about conduct on the road, we think it more practical to consider how individual behaviours, whether good or bad, can be influenced.
This study has not been able to establish any clear indication as to whether driving standards are falling or not. But standards are still not high enough and with the ever reducing amount of road space available to each motorist and the modern high technology based vehicle, high standards of competence and awareness become ever more important. We think that monitoring trends in different types of driver behaviour would be useful in evaluating whether particular interventions are working, and in planning new measures. So we suggest that more work should be done to establish facts about, and trends in, driver behaviour and we have put forward a number of possible ways of collecting the necessary data.
We believe that it is not only necessary to discourage and if necessary penalise bad behaviour but also to encourage and recognise good driving. Positive incentive systems can be more useful than coercion or punishment in encouraging drivers to drive responsibly and we should like to see the Government consider positive incentives for those who drive responsibly and safely.
It will not be a simple task to persuade people to change behaviour. Messages have to be got over in new, up to date ways if they are to reach target groups such as young men and women. This cannot be done exclusively by central Government, though we endorse the approach of the Department for Transport's 'Think' campaign which seems to us to be well-targeted and successful in avoiding sounding like the voice of officialdom. A whole range of other initiatives is needed to start to swing opinions, as has been done in the past with drink driving and seat belt wearing, and we suggest a number of possible ways of influencing behaviour.
Finding role models to bring their influence to bear is important, not just directly in fronting campaigns but also indirectly in highlighting particular issues in ways that strike home to target groups. 'Soaps' can also have an influence. We see a lot of scope for local initiatives by community groups, sporting clubs and so on; and we propose a bigger role for Local Road Safety Officers to coordinate and stimulate the whole range of local initiatives. We propose that the DfT should take on a role of disseminating and encouraging best practice, and in evaluating results.
Training and testing is also a key area. The driving test is the one opportunity Government has to ensure new drivers are capable of being safe road users for the rest of their lives. We recognise that important changes have been made, notably the introduction of the written test, and we welcome the thought being given by the Driving Standards Agency to the question of life-long learning. But the basic test has been unchanged for many years. We recommend that it would be worth reviewing the test to see whether it best meets current needs. We recommend that more attention should be given to testing the attitudes and behaviour of candidates. We generally support the suggestions put forward by the Association of British Insurers, in particular the idea of a structured learning programme for all new drivers. We also suggest the introduction of a log book for all learner drivers to underpin the structured learning process.
An active and visible enforcement effort by police presence, as well as by automatic devices, is essential for discouraging bad driver behaviour. We recommend that the Home Office should set police forces Performance Indicators in relation to road policing with an emphasis on targeting serious and serial offending to improve public safety and deny criminals the use of our roads.
In our view, road policing would show a high benefit to cost ratio. To test this we suggest that DfT and the Home Office should carry out a study of the cost-effectiveness of increasing the resources devoted to road policing by, say, 20% both in relation to its effectiveness in reducing casualty rates and wider criminal behaviour and its effectiveness as opposed to education and other road safety matters. We do not propose diverting police resources from other priorities such as counter-terrorism or neighbourhood policing. But we do not regard the present level of resources devoted to policing as immutable if good evidence can be produced for increasing it.
We also consider that it would be very desirable for research to be conducted to examine the frequency with which bad and good driving behaviours occur and the characteristics of those who perform them; to assess the predictors of various types of good and bad behaviour and the extent to which these are similar across behaviours; and to devise and to test those interventions which might be useful in influencing or changing these behaviours.
A summary of recommendations is at Annex A.
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Motorists' Forum
January 2007
