ABSTRACT
To conclude this volume a brief summary of the chapters will be given to pull together some of the common themes emerging at the Second International Conference on Driver Behaviour and Training. Firstly, the driver training and education contributions provide us with evaluations of driver training (Edwards and Lee), an approach to training driving instructors (McCormack), assessing the value of a skills-based approach (Hastings) and the use of a hazard perception framework for scenario modelling (Dumbuya et al). We are also asked to consider how our knowledge of successful health education campaigns might be useful for the design of media-based road safety interventions to educate drivers (Morphett and Sofoulis). This collection of papers exemplifies how road safety professionals seem to be taking stock of existing knowledge applying it to different contexts to gain a road safety benefit. The second group of chapters discusses the advances in the use of technology in both simulator-based driver training and education (Allen, Falkmer and Watchel) and in-car technology (Khan and Kazi), with the aim of improving road safety. The third section to the book focuses on young driver behaviour and illustrates that we still have a long way to go before we fully understand some of the issues that lead to this driver group being most at risk of being involved in road traffic accidents (Gregersen, Wundersitz, Biermann, Glendon, Jerome and Cunill et al). Interestingly, de Craen suggests that a driving diary method asking young drivers to self-reflect on their driving behaviour as they develop greater experience of driving might be quite useful. Given that the number of killed and seriously injured accidents involving powered two wheelers is increasing, the fourth collection of chapters is particularly important reporting on motorcycling or moped riding (Broughton, Labbett et al and Antonio et al) and one chapter on how drivers ‘cognitively code’ cyclists. The next section of the volume demonstrates that there is an increasing recognition that personality and emotions are critically involved in collision risk, yet little is known about the contributing and causal factors. Matthews, Sullman et al and Vohringer-Kuhnt et al provide 472some insight into this quite complex relationship. Dias et al contribute a fascinating account of a group-based intervention with deviant drivers in Portugal using Traffic Psychologists to uncover some of the emotional and attitudinal factors that may have led to them breaking the road traffic law. Work-related road safety is a major concern amongst the road safety communities across the world, and it is not surprising that there are a number of chapters dedicated to understanding why people who drive for work appear to have greater risk of being involved in collisions than those who are not driving for work. There are chapters that deal generically with this issue (Rae and Karrer) and ones that focus on particular professional driver groups, including police drivers (Gandolfi et al) company car drivers (Murray and Fletcher), coach drivers (Machin) and bus drivers (Wahlberg). It appears that each driver group is differentially exposed to risk dependent on the nature of the organization and the type of driving they are required to do as part of their job. Research into accident analysis is also represented in this volume (Hillard et al and Sullman) as a useful approach to investigate crash causes. This methodology inevitably relies on a comprehensive database and valid statistical techniques (Sommer and Hausler). The final section considers the role of driver attention in the use of driver psychometrics (Lord), mental models (Hoger) and driver knowledge (Leonard) and whether psychomotor skills in sport transfer to a driving environment (Matos et al).
