There are a lot of things that we could be doing in order to improve driver education and reduce road fatalities, but we're simply not doing them.
The million-dollar question is, 'why not?'
Yes, road fatalities in Ireland have decreased a good deal in recent years; according to the Road Safety Authority (RSA) the period of 2007 through to 2013 saw an overall reduction in deaths of 44 per cent; however, 2014 saw an increase in road fatalities with 196 losing their lives, a three per cent increase from 2013.
So, what is the solution?
Unfortunately, there isn't an easy answer to that question. The RSA has run increasingly hard-hitting advertising to try to get its road safety messages across, but one of the problems with these advertisements, no matter how much shock value they contain, is that, after watching them several times, they hold our attention less and have less of an impact. We, as viewers, are becoming increasingly immune to terrible things on the telly.
Even the new rules that the Department of the Environment put in place to prevent drivers from getting on the public byways until a set amount of driving lessons have been completed (no bad thing) and branding newly qualified drivers with 'N' plates for a further two years has failed to halt the increase in road deaths. It has also greatly expanded the number of offences punishable by fines, penalty points and driving bans, but these too have failed to stop the year-on-year increase of deaths on Irish roads since 2012. One of the main problems with these measures is that they require catching the offenders in the first place. It would appear that most of the actions put in place to improve Irish road safety are all negative reinforcements or punitive measures - and they just aren't working. If anything, it's all acting as a barrier rather than a gateway towards getting new and younger people on the roads, roads currently occupied by a large proportion of motorists that have never even sat a driving test. Remember back in 1979 when Ireland's then Minister for the Environment, Sylvester Barrett, just gave away driver's licences to anyone that was on their second or subsequent learner licence because it was easier than trying to process them all?
So, what can we do?
Well, we need to look at long-term behaviour change and the tactics that will most likely bring this about. It's the Australians leading the way with this driver behaviour modification. Down-under, the New South Wales Police, in conjunction with mobile phone manufacturer Samsung, decided to try something different. Rather than trying to scare and punish drivers, it trialled a programme called S-Drive, which rewards drivers for taking more care when driving. Using technology already in existence and putting it to work in a clever yet simple way, via drivers' smartphones, S-Drive encourages motorists to become more road aware and helps modify their behaviour whilst behind the wheel. As you will see in the video, it is having some fairly impressive results that are easily achieved and are likely to have long-lasting effects on the drivers using the system.
The biggest feature of S-Drive is the fact that it is primarily a rewards-based programme, which undoubtedly prompted a far more organic uptake of users; after all, we all love getting something for nothing, right? So why shouldn't we link the positive reinforcements from something like S-Drive with road safety in Ireland? Granted some organisations have trialled experiments along these lines. Topaz, the fuel retailer, regularly offers drivers on the Friday of a bank holiday weekend - a time when more people undertake longer-than-normal drives - a free cup of coffee. The cost is minimal and it brings more people through its doors on the day; I'd hazard a guess that the percentage of people who go in solely to obtain their complimentary coffee and nothing else is virtually zero. So, why don't more businesses do it? Moreover, why only limit this to a bank holiday Friday?
Of course, for people to really take it seriously and adopt it the rewards scheme needs to be far greater than a free cup of coffee. So many aspects of our lives are reward based. It's what so many consumers thrive on and respond to in positive ways. It's why I have seven different air miles cards and several half-filled coffee shop stamp books in my wallet. It's why I turn on my fitness app before my run, to reward myself with the data and see how well I have done, or where I need to improve. Why don't we apply this to the one thing we all could do with improving, our driving?
The beauty of a system like this is that it can very easily be tailored to suit all types of road users based on their reward preferences, therefore inviting even more companies to get on board, thus further reducing the costs of rolling out such a system. Parents, for example, may prefer to earn discounts at their local grocery shop. Young fashionistas might want to earn a voucher for their favourite clothing store. Those who drive more could have an eye on a fuel voucher to go with their bank holiday Friday coffee. Car brands and garages could get involved and offer a free annual service or valet.
We don't need to get all big brother and have insurance companies installing black-box recorders to our cars to make sure we don't slip over the 30km/h speed limit in town. But, how about we start with hanging some appealing carrots, rather than a menacing scythe, in front of drivers to give them some positive encouragement and reinforcement? Surely, we are worth more to some large multinationals than the cost of some cinema tickets and free lunches, but we all need to eat, so maybe that is a good place to start. Nevertheless, in fairness to Topaz, at least it is trying something different to improve road safety; isn't it now time our government does the same?