Driving Lessons: Exploring systems that make traffic safer
Driving Lessons:
Exploring systems that make traffic safer
J.P Rothe: Editor
University of Alberta Press, 2002
343 pages
Softcover
US$22.95
Driving Lessons is a very timely book. At a time when the highway transportation system is cracking under the strain of congestion and economic pressure, drivers are cracking too. A big part of the problem for drivers is lack of understanding of the complexity of the driving task. The culture of the roadway is breaking down as jostling for scarce road space intensifies. Instead of tackling the challenge, drivers are tackling one another in a blame game that amplifies the breakdown rather than resolves problems.
In a way, drivers are victims of a system that has traditionally treated driving as a simple "psychomotor" skill. "It's easy," new drivers were told. "Drive safely." But it isn't easy, and driving safely isn't just a matter of deciding to do so.
Driving Lessons editor J. Peter Rothe has long been an advocate of looking at driving through a much broader lens. He's the author of several previous books that look at driving from the standpoint of "traffic sociology," a standpoint that looks at drivers' social motives for behaving as they do rather than as formal rules prescribe.
This book emerged from a conference held in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada in 1998. The conference was a collaborative effort conceived under Alberta's Mission Possible, traffic safety initiative. Experts in a variety of traffic safety-related fields gathered to explore driving from diverse points of view such as Neuropsychology, sociology, law enforcement, medicine, communications, safety advocacy, engineering, design, education. Everything from the social cost of traffic crashes to automobile advertising and the influence of cinema was grist for the mill.
The result is a 343-page book that explores the many facets of driving. It's a must for the bookshelf of anyone who has a serious interest in the role of the driver in highway transportation and in taking a new look at traffic safety.
