Using technology in road safety
Enforcement is hard, costly and not always effective.
So while it’s an important part of our approach
(and probably the only thing some people will take
seriously), our thoughts often turn to ways of making
people obey the law that don’t rely on us always being
there to keep an eye on them. This often brings us to
technological efforts that can potentially prevent the
use of a mobile phone in some way, or can at least
educate drivers of the dangers associated with mobile
phone use while driving.
Currently, there is no technological alternative to
the physical policing of mobile phone use by drivers
(there’s no reliable equivalent to the speed camera for
catching speeders), but technology does appeal for
various reasons and can help in various ways. Some
approaches, such as settings and mobile phone Apps
might be described as ‘self policing’ - where individuals
choose to voluntarily inhibit their own ability to use
a mobile phone while driving by activating options
such as ‘do not disturb’ settings. Others use advances
in technology to make our efforts at education more
convincing, or use technology to identify drivers that
need an instant warning message about their offending.
We shouldn’t see ‘techno-fixes’ as entirely neutral
solutions to social problems. Plenty of research has
considered how some technologies (that worked
perfectly well in the laboratory) have unintended
and unexpected consequences when let loose on
humans¹! It’s also likely that people will work out
ways to ‘get around’ technologies that restrict them
- especially if they don’t see them as necessary in
the first place².
Case studies within this section will show how technology has been used as an educational or awareness
raising tool to remind individuals that they should not use their mobile phone while driving and the consequences
where they do, as well as how the the functionality of the mobile phone itself can actually limit temptation.
¹ Wells, H (2008) The Techno-Fix versus the Fair Cop: Procedural (in)justice and automated speed limit enforcement. British Journal of Criminology, vol. 48(6),
798-817
² Wells, H (2015) Getting Around and Getting On: Self-Interested Resistance to Technology in Law Enforcement Contexts. Annual Review of Law and Social
Science, Vol 11, vol. 11, 175-192
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