Resources to help people drive to the standard

 

 

An introduction to changing driver behaviour

 

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Attend to both skill and will

Figure 1

Skill and will: a useful model

In this model there are a number of parts which must come together to form the whole driving package. Drivers must have the skill (and knowledge) to drive appropriately, and most importantly, have the willingness to drive appropriately. Willingness must be ongoing, not just something demonstrated during training.

The skills and knowledge for appropriate driving are solid tangible things - we can call them hard components. They are the nuts and bolts of driving; they are reasonably easy to explain, demonstrate and assess, and they are also easy to learn.

The will to drive appropriately on the other hand, comprises 'soft' components - hidden things that energise and direct behaviour. They are subjective and invisible, and you can only infer them from people's behaviour.

Some people bundle soft components together and call them 'attitudes', but having one label to describe a wide range of human attributes is not useful. A variety of labels are depicted in the next diagram.

Figure 2


To be effective, a driving program must use a comprehensive and integrated approach that ensures participants learn both hard and soft components. Most importantly, they must learn these in a complementary way. For example, during a lesson on managing tyre slip the driver should receive appropriate safety messages from the instructor and feedback which helps to 'calibrate' his or her performance. Contrast this with a message that says, 'this is fun and later we will do a lesson on attitudes'.

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