A survey by the insurance company AAMI has shown some worrying attitudes among young drivers. The survey was not based on actual road behaviour or accident statistics. Rather it was a survey of what young drivers are thinking and what older drivers think of younger drivers. What older drivers think of younger drivers is of little moment. The alarming thing about the survey was what young Canberra drivers thought of themselves.
Nine per cent of drivers under 25 thought is was okay to drive after using “‘a little bit of recreational drugs”; 74 per cent admitted they got mad at other drivers cutting in, compared to 64 per cent of other drivers; 29 per cent admitted impatience compared with 12 per cent of others; and 30 per cent admitted to using rude gestures compared with 21 per cent of others. This is capped off by 80 per cent of the young people surveyed saying they are better drivers than anyone else.
An immediate response would be, “The arrogance of youth”.
Another immediate response is that of the Victorian Government – to propose that P-plate drivers loose more demerit points that others for the same offence.
But that is too easy. Those concerned with safety on the roads should address the issues with more subtlety if the response is to be effective.
The survey revealed also that older drivers thought younger drivers drove too fast, were rude and were most likely to be the car weaving in and out of the traffic. There may be a lot of truth in that. Nonetheless it reveals an attitude by older drivers to be down on younger drivers. So the situation is more akin to the deliciously ambiguous headline on an article in a Sydney tabloid newspaper about poor academic results in an outer western Sydney school: “”We failed them.” It suggests, on one hand, that adults in society had given the young people a “”fail” mark out of a 100 because they were academically poor or bad drivers, but also that the older adults had failed to provide the wherewithal for the young students or drivers to become good students or good drivers.
If there are young drivers speeding, hooning and jeering with finger signs, it indicates not only that they are bad drivers with a poor attitude, but that the older adults who have been responsible for teaching these young people to drive have also manifestly failed.
It is no use applying more fines and demerit points without addressing the whole question of driver instruction and driver behaviour.
Here there is hope. Eighty-five per cent of the young people said they would be safer drivers if they undertook a defensive-driving course. Further, the ACT has already introduced a scheme under which P-plate drivers can get an early release from wearing P-plates upon attending a driver-attitude survey. The ACT has already revised the system of licence testing.
We must redirect some of the passion that young people, particularly young males, have with cars and driving. We must teach them that good driving does not mean getting from A to B in the shortest possible time, but getting there safely. And we must teach them that good driving means making allowance for human error. It may well be cheaper in the long run to roll out defensive-driving courses for all P-plate drivers before they can graduate.
As things stand, we will get nowhere just railing against the excesses and poor driving of young people. That is failing them, and us.