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
experience¹.
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 safe².
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).
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.
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