A psychologist from Sheffield University will explain to delegates at the 2013 National Road Safety Conference how ‘risky driving attitudes’ can develop in young people before they actually become drivers.
More than 120 people have already registered to attend the conference which will take place in Harrogate, 13-14 November. Road Safety GB Yorkshire and Humberside Region is hosting the event
and Colas and AA DriveTech have both renewed their sponsorship.
Speaking in the session devoted to issues surrounding ‘young people’, Dr Richard Rowe will discuss how risky driving attitudes may originate before independent driving begins, and suggest that interventions may be effectively targeted during this period.
Richard Rowe will present data from a longitudinal study of adolescence and young adulthood showing that attitudes to speeding become riskier as experience is gained from pre-driving to fully licensed driving. He will conclude that the training phase is the ideal time to target attitudinal interventions to foster safer attitudes in learner drivers.
Dr Rowe is senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Sheffield. His research career began with a PhD addressing hazard perception at the University of Reading, and includes eight years of research at King’s College London.
His work focuses on the development of general risk-taking and antisocial behaviour with application to unintentional injury in general, and risky driving in particular.
Since 2008, he has been working with road safety officers at Sheffield City Council on the design and evaluation of road safety interventions for young people.
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