ABSTRACT
Risk homeostasis and other so-called compensation models have been postulated in terms of road-user behaviour. These theories share an emphasis on the level of risk populations are prepared to accept, rather then the absolute level of intrinsic risk, as the unique determinant of accident loss. Here, intrinsic risk refers to the risk inherent in the environment. The theory suggests that time-unit ‘actual’ risk can only be reduced by motivational interventions, and that non-motivational interventions aimed at improving the intrinsic level of risk are negated by the behaviour adjustments of those affected by them. As stated already, the theory has, in the main, been applied to road-user behaviour. Only recently (Wilde, 1986) have writers begun to consider the possibility that the theory might have wider implications encompassing other cases of physical risk.
