Olsen's Tours and Training Blog

Researchers at Newcastle University (UK) found that drivers who didn’t find the highways taxing enough were more prone to speeding or overtaking as they sought excitement. As a result the researchers suggest that making roads more complicated by building in more obstacles could actually make them safer. 

The researchers draw some other interesting conclusions: 

• They described 35% of the driving population as enthusiastic drivers – persons who find driving more challenging and intrinsically interesting. Because they enjoy driving they are calmer and therefore are less likely to have an accident. 

• 31% were described as “easily bored, nervous and dangerous” and these people were more likely to have an accident (seeking excitement through risk-taking driving activity). 

Comments made by the lead researcher – Dr Joan Harvey – and Edmund King (president of the AA and Visiting Professor of Transport) also throw up interesting perspectives on how efforts to make roads safer and vehicles easier to drive may (in some instances) increase the risks that drivers take because they’re not sufficiently mentally engaged in the task at hand. 

For more information on this study please follow this link to the Newcastle University (UK) Press Release

This is just one reason why our bush tracks are safer than improved roads, a point I’ve been trying to make to the Cook Shire Council for some time with respect to the Starke to Kalpower Road.