psychology

Jon Sutton interviews Ian Walker about how psychology can assist non-car drivers.

Psychological perspectives on drivers and driving have been with us for since before the advent of mass motoring. The car’s unique potential to afford freedom and compromise safety has been a focus of formal psychological study for almost as long. This has resulted in a canon of excellent research, the shaping of interventions and legislation, and the saving and enhancement of lives. In seeking to prevent collisions, it has had quite an impact!

Cars contribute to local air pollution, traffic danger, congestion and poor physical health due to lack of exercise. If the final goal of sustainable development is to sustain or improve the quality of life for all, now and into the longterm future, the current growth in private car use is clearly unsustainable. Understanding why most people prefer using a car over other modes of transport for their daily travel, and how they can be persuaded to use their cars less or even abandon them altogether, is therefore an important goal for psychology.

It is clear that young people have the highest crash involvement of any group. What are the direct and indirect factors associated with these high crash rates? How do biological, personality, fatigue and experiential factors affect risky driving behaviours? And what potential countermeasures can be deployed?