The study had four broad tasks: 

A Finnish adult usually has two options in getting driver training for a driving licence. These are through driving schools or driver training by an individual permit. Since a family member is the trainer in the latter, its influence on traffic safety has been questioned. Previous research has provided no methodologically sound means of assessing this question. Traffic safety in the literature is normally seen as the lack of accidents.

The research applied systematic analysis, including phenomenographic interviews and phenomenographic analysis. Newly licensed young males provided the main data, while newly licensed young females and master drivers served as the comparison.

This approach, deviating from the usual hypothetically deductive one, produced a new view of traffic safety. The interviewees' understanding of safety was in line with socialization according to the categories of description identified from the conceptions. They conceived no absolute or perpetual state of safety. The young male permission interviewees focused on driving and taking precautions. The young male school interviewees utilized concepts in analysing problems but could not resolve them.

Chance conceptions represented a personal lack of resources in driving, which were characteristic of the permission interviewees, the school interviewees conceived unpredictable incidents where there was a lack of resources in particular events, such as an elk on the road. The interviewees managed critical incidents by common sense but this concept was also used when they excused their mistakes.

The interviewees constructed a thinking process called maxims in this study. These were rules of thumb justifying pieces of driving or directing performance. The maxims, approximating to internal representations, were few. While none of the road rules provide a maxim, the interviewees fundamentally agreed with the legislator that traffic is always dangerous.

The young males thought of chance divergently, i.e. they deliberated on aspects of driving, which enabled experimentation. The young females and the master drivers thought convergently, i.e. they began with appropriate maxims, ensuring that their behaviour was as safe as possible.

Autor Oy
Konalantie 10 A 4
00370 Helsinki
Finland
Mr. Reima Lehtimäki, tel. +358 40 7632 375

01/01/2001

Reima Lehtimäki

research

Urban Policy > Transport and infrastructure > Roads and road transport

Road safety