Better Driving: "Respect on the Road"
Chapter 2: Background
The 'Respect' agenda
2.1 The Government's campaign, launched by the Prime Minister, to tackle anti-social behaviour generally and to build 'respect' is being taken forward by the Respect Taskforce which is based in the Home Office and was formed in September 2005 out of the work of the Anti-Social Behaviour Unit. 'Respect', for this purpose, is defined as:
"...the basic decencies in behaviour which should be the hallmark of all our encounters with others. That is the way we are treated, the way we treat others, our neighbours, our work colleagues, our public servants and our public spaces. It means tolerance and understanding of other people's needs. It means also a willingness to stand up for common decencies when they are being undermined."2.2 The Taskforce has developed a national action plan that sets out the steps required to build respect amongst people and communities. It focuses on six core areas: activities for children and young people; improving behaviour and attendance at school; supporting families; a new approach to the most challenging families; strengthening communities; and effective enforcement and community justice.
Respect on the road
2.3 Bad - 'disrespectful' - behaviour on the road is of course an aspect of bad behaviour generally, but there are special features which suggest that it raises different issues. They are:
- as road vehicles are potentially lethal weapons, their construction, maintenance and use is regulated by the criminal law which contains a large number of detailed offences;
- the way in which road users interact with one another is different from the way that people generally interact. Drivers are cocooned in metal boxes and they rarely communicate directly with one another. Motorcyclists are hidden behind visors. Communication is normally limited to a few mechanically produced signals, though motorists sometimes shout or make gestures; and
- the notion of community is different. There are communities on the road, for example groups of motorcyclists; people taking part in rallies; or owners of certain kinds of cars such as 2CVs. But, by and large, drivers of other vehicles are, and want to remain, strangers to each other.
2.4 In addition, one interesting difference between bad behaviour on the road and bad behaviour generally is that the population of people behaving badly on the road is much wider. Otherwise law-abiding people may, on occasion, drive very inconsiderately by doing such things as tail-gating, blowing their horns, making rude gestures or shouting, whereas they would not behave in such ways when walking down the street. People who would never drop litter in any other environment will drop litter from their cars. Research carried out for the DfT[1] confirmed that people do not equate disrespect on the road with anti-social behaviour generally.
2.5 People who would not steal or commit other crimes break the speed limit regularly if they think they can get away with it and they are not causing danger. A survey by RAC suggested that 84% of drivers consider themselves to be law-abiding, but 55% admit to exceeding the speed limit by a little every day[2]. Over 1.9 million fixed penalties and prosecutions for speeding offences detected by cameras were handed out in 2004.
2.6 The Literature Review[3] of 'Respect on the Road' that the Motorists' Forum commissioned revealed that the term 'respect' did not seem to be used much in published research. Where people talked about 'respect' in the context of motoring it was usually in admiration of big, powerful cars or the status and superiority of those who own them. More important, there is the question whether a broad definition of what is meant be 'respect on the road' offers the most useful way into the problem of why people behave badly on the road and what can be done about it.
2.7 So how should we define 'respect on the road'? In our view, 'respect on the road' has two separate but related connotations. The first is obedience to the formal rules and regulations of the road, irrespective of whether the rules were approved of or thought to be relevant. Along with this concept goes respect for those who enforce the rules - police officers, parking attendants, and the other officials who have the power to issue warnings, penalties and so on - and a responsibility to maintain one's vehicle in a safe condition.
2.8 The second connotation is respect for other users of the road by recognising their rights and driving in a considerate and safe manner; by keeping one's own skills up to the standard required to drive safely; and by concentrating on the task of driving. Such respect would appear to be based on believing that one should treat others in a respectful way either because one would hope to be treated in a similar way or because it was believed that this is the right (or moral) thing to do. This concept of moral norms is explored further in Annex B.
2.9 So our view is that 'respect on the road' might be defined as 'compliance with the law, toleration of the mistakes of others (and recognition of one's own mistakes), and acceptance that the right to use the roads comes with a sense of responsibility to others'.
2.10 For the reasons set out above, we do not believe that promoting a more 'respectful' - and safer - stance amongst drivers would benefit from any explicit link to the 'Respect' agenda being taken forward by the Home Office. We believe that study of how to promote 'respect on the road' will be pursued most usefully by looking at particular behaviours on the road rather than as a generic issue.
2.11 There is, however, a close correlation between criminal behaviour generally and the commission of serious traffic offences - see below. And measures such as education and enforcement may be elements in the treatment of both forms of criminal behaviour.
What do we know about 'respectful' and 'disrespectful' behaviour on the road?
2.12 Much useful research has been done into various aspects of driver behaviour. But the term 'respect' is not used much (perhaps because it is ill-defined); the research findings on particular behaviours do not all agree; and there is not much work on how frequently various sorts of bad behaviour occur and in what circumstances. More work has been published on the related subject of 'road rage', though there is no accepted definition of that either. The prevailing view seems to be that manifestations of impatience, aggression, anger and defiance of the law are most common among younger, male drivers who travel for high mileages. These behaviours include tail-gating, 'undertaking', going through red lights, racing and displaying hostility[4].
2.13 As good and bad behaviour is not recorded in official statistics, for quantitative data and time series we have to look to DfT accident statistics and Home Office statistics on traffic offences. These are the best proxies that we can find for bad behaviour. We can also look at what drivers think about particular behaviours that they or others engage in.
2.14 Human factors play a major part in road accidents. From 2005, police forces nationally began to collect detailed information on contributory factors in accidents. There were 77 contributory factors used by the police. Analysis of the returns shows that the most common factors were respectively failed to look properly (32%); failed to judge other person's path or speed (18%); and careless, reckless or in a hurry (16%)[5]. When each of the 77 contributory factors were fitted into one of nine categories, the contributory factor category driver/rider error or reaction was the most frequently reported category, involved in 66% of all accidents. So human factors clearly play a role in accidents.
2.15 A further relevant piece of research is the Home Office study on the criminal histories of serious traffic offenders[6]. This showed that a high proportion of those convicted of serious traffic offences had criminal records, for example:
- disqualified drivers had criminal histories similar to those of mainstream criminals (mainstream criminal offences are defined as violence, burglary, robbery, theft and handling, criminal damage, drug offences).
- 50% of dangerous drivers had previous convictions, and a quarter was reconvicted within a year;
- drink driving is less closely associated with criminal behaviour. Nevertheless, drink drivers were about twice as likely to have previous convictions as would be expected in the general population and 40% of drink drivers had a criminal history;
- women were less likely to commit serious traffic offences - females made up only 8% of drink drivers, less than 3% of disqualified drivers and less than 5% of dangerous drivers. Among mainstream offenders, 13% were female.
- most dangerous and disqualified drivers were in the age range 18-32; drink drivers tended to be older.
2.16 Broughton (2003)[7] also demonstrated that the number of motoring and of non-motoring offences that a driver commits is linked. This confirmed the hypothesis that a driver's willingness to commit motoring offences tends to be associated with their willingness to commit mainstream non-motoring criminal offences. Later research - Broughton (2006)[8] - confirmed that the numbers of motoring and of non-motoring offences committed by individual drivers are strongly correlated.
1: Respect on the Road: Qualitative Research To Explore Public Attitudes Towards, And Participation In, Anti-Social Behaviour On The Roads - Cragg Ross Dawson 2006.
2: RAC Report on Motoring 2005.
3: Respect on the Road: Literature Review - Mott MacDonald.
4: Parker and Stradling 'Influencing driver attitudes and behaviour' 2001; and Stradling and Meadows 'Highway code and aggressive violations in UK drivers' 2000.
5: Robinson and Campbell 'Contributory factors to road accidents' DfT 2006.
6: Rose: Home Office Research Study 206, 2000.
7: Broughton J (2003): The number of motoring and non-motoring offences. TRL Report TRL562.
8: Broughton (J) (2006): The correlation between motoring offences and other types of offence. TRL Report TRL650.