Drivers 'need psychometric tests'

[Womble]

When is this bloody nanny state going to stop, they are like the damn Nazis, next you can only have childern if they will have blond hair and blue eyes

Psychological assessments should become part of the UK driving test, a road safety expert has urged.
Robert Gifford, director of a road safety charity, told BBC Radio Five Live the current system failed to root out drivers prone to breaking rules.
He said psychometric tests could help to identify people with the wrong attitude to the road.
The call comes as the Driving Standards Agency carries out a review of how people learn to drive.
The government said it would keep an open mind over what changes might be brought in.

'Risk-takers'

Mr Gifford, executive director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS), said the current test assessed people's technical ability - their hand, eye and foot co-ordination.
But he said it failed to look at their psychological attitude to the road.
For example, it fails to assess if they see themselves as risk-takers, making them more likely to break the speed limit or jump a red light.
He said a psychometric assessment would help identify such faults and instructors and examiners would then be able to modify the person's behaviour.
"What one would want to do is - in addition to the multiple choice questions that there are in the theory test at the moment - we would give people a series of value judgements," he said.
"These could include, 'At what speed would you anticipate driving down this road?' or 'Have you ever left the traffic lights while they have been on red?'.
"We would ask people the extent to which they agree or disagree with these statements.
"It would be a way of picking up their underlying values rather than just the facts that they have at their disposal, which are a series of multiple choice questions."
Dr Lisa Dorn from Cranfield University has drawn up psychometric tests for drivers.
The tests are currently being used by Arriva buses to assess new drivers, who face a one in two chance of being involved in a collision in their first year.

Hidden checks

In the last four years, while the tests have been in use, the company has reduced fatalities involving its buses by 31%, Dr Dorn said.
"The principle is that when you administer a psychometric assessment what you are doing is trying to highlight the extent to which people believe certain things, how they feel about certain things and how they will generally behave towards, obviously in this case, traffic," she said.
She said it would be difficult for people taking the tests to give a false impression of their attitudes towards driving.
"We incorporate two scales within the assessment to identify the extent to which people hold some very strong beliefs about their driving," she said.
Gary Austin, former chief executive of the Driving Standards Agency, runs a driving school which uses psychometric tests to assess students.

'Safer drivers'

He said they were useful in deciding how someone should be taught.
"For instance we may reveal that someone is actually quite an aggressive driver, or aggressive personality, or they find it very difficult to cope when someone perhaps cuts them up," he said.
"And if you use that - the test on its own is of no use whatsoever, wouldn't save a life anywhere - in combination with education by the instructor they can take coping strategies and teach someone how to drive more safely for a long time afterwards."
A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: "The Driving Standards Agency is conducting a review of driver testing and training and when ministers have had a chance to look at that the proposals will be put out to consultation."

Its the director of some charity? They are allowed to say what they want, what does this have to do with the state? You think the government should stop inderpendent charitys from expressing a view?

[jkat]

yes whats this got to do with the so called nanny state?? its just another nut expressing his views, cant say i agree with him, having bad eye, hand, foot coordination myself! whoops gone and put my foot in it again!

[joglynne]

The trouble with all these ideas being put forward, for consideration on how to make us safer drivers by altering the driving tests, is that they assumes that only the people eventually deemed suitable to have a licence to drive will get behind the wheel of a car.

My family and friends have had the misfortune to be the innocent victims involved in 4 separate accidents in as many years. In the first accident the driver responsible had only got a provisional licence and was on his own in the car and in 2 others the drivers hadn't even bothered to get a provisional licence. Only the drunk had a licence but at least he was insured.

No matter what changes to the driving test were made at least 3 of these accidents would still have taken place.

Do you think it might stop stupidity like this?

Frankly I think there is a limit on how far you can legislate human nature before you get into the realms of removing freedom...Also if the driving test becomes too hard I think the number of drivers won't go down..they will just be joined by those who haven't yet passed a legitimate driving test and have the license to prove it..We already have too many who drive drunk,without a license and without insurance or MOT or having even paid vehicle tax.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Damien

Its the director of some charity? They are allowed to say what they want, what does this have to do with the state? You think the government should stop inderpendent charitys from expressing a view?

Hardly independent and if government takes no notice of them, what's the point of having them as advisors?

Mr Gifford, executive director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS),