Pre drivers
One way of reaching young drivers is to actually interact with them prior to them becoming drivers , either as part of their learner driver experience or in settings where those aged below 17 can be found , such as in schools . This is particularly important given that research has found risky road user attitudes develop prior to any personal driving experience ¹.
Pre-driver education is often offered in the hope that safe attitudes taught at this stage will translate to safe driver behaviour in the future . This group is also made up of other forms of road user ( pedestrians , passengers , bike and powered-two-wheeler riders ) so this perspective may make them useful in challenging unsafe driver behaviours . Older teenagers may spend a lot of time being driven about by older friends , so can also be encouraged to share positive safety messages . Empowering them with strategies for challenging unsafe behaviour will be crucial so that they can put these messages into practice to keep each other safe ².
Widening our focus in this way can be useful in an attempt to ‘ prevent rather than cure ’, or to tackle the issues associated with mobile phone use by drivers before individuals even have the opportunity to do it .
In a similar way , ‘ significant others ’ can be targeted , rather than the individual in question . Your target demographic may be defined as young males , but you may include young females in your chosen approach in an attempt to equip them with the knowledge to influence the behaviour of the males that they may interact with . Many of the projects we spoke to saw potential in this approach , as their analysis of the data , plus their experiential knowledge , suggested that young males were likely to show off for female passengers .
Even young children can be useful to engage with in their role as passengers , as they may relay messages back to parents and other family members that they share vehicles with . It ’ s also never too early to share good road safety messages that will hopefully be carried with them as they progress through various forms of road user status ( from passenger to independent pedestrian , to driver ).
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¹ Waylen , A . E . and McKenna , F . P . ( 2008 ). Risky attitudes towards road use in pre-drivers . Accident Analysis & Prevention , 40 ( 3 ), pp . 905-911 . ² Dula , C . S . and Geller , E . S . ( 2007 ). Creating a total safety traffic culture . In AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety . Improving Traffic Safety Culture in the US . pp . 177-
199 .