Road safety is a seriously important public policy issue. Around 1.3 million people die in road crashes around the world each year. Among teenagers and young adults, road crashes are the number-one cause…
Different people behave in different ways behind the wheel of a car.
Flickr/Nuno Sousa
Personality traits can be used to predict a lot about a person. They can tell about their probable career success, if they’re likely to get divorced, their risk at dying early from disease – and now, how…
Most drivers recognise the need to observe a lower speed in school zones, so why do many still break the limit?
AAP/Paul Miller
Blaming motorists for their speeding may at times be undeserved. We have recently shown that, rather than intentional wrong-doing by drivers, cognitive factors can explain speeding behaviour. Policies…
Is our car culture soon to come to an end?
Jes/Flickr
There is an unexpected revolution underway in road safety. True, the highly visible community-wide programs continue, but behind the scenes there are major changes underway in how safety will be managed…
Would adverts on the road take your attention away from driving? (Digitally altered image.)
Flickr/Patrick Nouhailler
People have to take in a lot of information when driving, including the locations of other road users, lane markings, signals, speed limits, directions and the dashboard display. It only takes a second…
Helmet-free on Washington DC’s Captial Bikeshare.
Ben Schumin
Public bikesharing schemes are sprouting up in towns and cities worldwide. The bikes are generally provided without helmets, and this has led to concerns regarding the risk of serious head injuries. It…
The National Sleep Foundation has done a great job terrifying citizens since the 1990s with its annual Sleep in America poll results. In 2005, 60% of adult drivers in the US reported that they’d driven…
A 20-year-old man died in this accident in WA earlier this month when his Ford Falcon utility a tree.
AAP/WA Police
Too often in Australia we hear tragic stories of another young life cut short in a car accident and yet any attempts to dramatically reduce the death toll are not working. Young male drivers are our hardest…
Motorcyclists are about to get a green light to “filter” through traffic on New South Wales roads. But what does that mean, for them and others sharing the road? And what are the rules for motorcycles…
The use of rail for freight can save lives.
NSW Govt/AAP
“Without trucks, Australia stops” is now a fact of modern life. But when all costs are considered, road freight is an expensive way of moving large amounts of freight. And, as shown by ongoing fatal crashes…
People in Arab countries are now living longer with less disability, but face a rise in problems related to chronic illness such as heart disease, according to a new paper in The Lancet. With the exception…
In the UK today, there are sizeable inequalities in health – and sometimes that gap isn’t just about north versus south. In Stockton Tees in the north-east of England, for example, there’s a 15-year gap…
Licensing authorities place the onus on drivers to report any medical conditions that might affect their driving.
Image from shutterstock.com
Few states mandate that doctors or other health professionals must report unfit drivers to licensing authorities – and for good reason. Driving is an everyday practice for many Australians, but that doesn’t…
A cyclist “die-in” protest outside the offices of Transport for London to protest.
Dominic Lipinski/PA
Much has been said in recent weeks about the death toll of cyclists in London. Yet the only immediate response media coverage seems to have produced is police on street corners handing out tickets to cyclists…
A ban on any mobile phone use while driving should be standard for young drivers – but should it extend to all motorists?
Image from shutterstock.com
If you find it hard to put your mobile phone away, you’re not alone – young adults check their mobile phones around 60 times a day. Worryingly, drivers continue to use mobile phones despite the evidence…
A ‘ghost bike’ at notorious Bow flyover in East London.
Dominic Lipinski/PA
It has been a grim month for cycling in London. Just days ago newspapers wrote of five deaths in nine days, and barely is the ink dry before yet another death this morning makes six in under two weeks…
Cycling needs investment and ideas to avoid costly accidents.
Ian West/PA
Bristol will be the first British city to “go Dutch” after the city council gave the green light to building a European-style cycle network that would not be shared with road traffic. The city’s plans…
We’ve got to stop seeing paint on the road as adequate for cyclists.
Flickr/crosby_cj
Between 1% and 3% of Australian commuters are out on the roads today proving cycling is often the fastest transport choice in Australian cities. Why don’t more people join them? It is not for a lack of…
New P2P cameras, which calculate average speed, avoid fines for momentary lapses of concentration.
Brooks was here
Speed cameras - love them or (more likely) hate them, they’re here to stay. And as with most technologies, there is room for improvement - highlighted most recently when Wheels magazine sponsored a journalist…