WHO MAKE THE BEST DRIVERS?

Horowhenua Chronicle, 14 July 1936, Page 3

WHO MAKE THE BEST DRIVERS?

There are no perfect drivers. Skill varies with age and intelligence, and women drivers on the Avhole are not so expert as men. These are some of the interesting conclusions made by the Harvard (U.S.A.) University Bureau of Street Traffic Research following an investigation which attempted to determine what human elements play a part in causing traffic accidents. Tests of 4UOO people revealed that among all glasses of drivers, young men of about 23 years of age have the quickest reactions to danger and have on the average a shorter time lag in application of brakes. Contrary to general opinion, Dr. H. K, De Silva, of the Harvard University, found that the braking time of the average person, after taking an alcoholic drink, is faster, not slower than normally. He, however, qualifies that finding by stating that the general efficiency of the driver is lowered, but in this particular operation the reaction is speeded up. The tests showed, on laboratory apparatus which simulates all manner of traffic conditions, that although the average driver can decrease his braking reactions by a tenth of a second by considerable practice on the apparatus, quickness seems to be an inborn potential factor.

It was learned tliat as a group, women learn to steer a car less readily than men, but it was disclosed that women continue to improve in steering as they drive, while men stop improving.

Checking steering ability against the driver’s age, it was revealed that children under 15 years do very poorly, but over 15 show a marked improvement. Young people of from 17 to 21 scored highest points of all those tested. From the age of 23, the average driver’s braking reaction time (about half a second) lengthens gradually. At 55, steering ability ordinarily begins to fall off, indicating that drivers should take more precautions after this age, to compensate for their increasing loss of driving co-ordination. A driving disability, termed ‘tunnel vision” was also segregated during the investigation, says the Dunlop Pcrdriau Bulletin, it being found that a number of drivers see only what is directly in front of them as if they were looking through a tunnel.

The co-ordination between eyes and hands obviously is of great importance in safe driving, and it was proved that this quality is closely allied with intelligence. Emotional stability and other personality traits were also found to render a person more or less prone to bad driving and accidents. In fact, the investigation showed that it is faulty machinery of the human organism with its varying perception of distance, colour, judgment of speed, wandering attention, and the like, which are accountable for traffic accidents, more than,, faults in the machinery of the automobile. If the human machine were as stable and dependable as the automobile of today, motor accidents would be far and few between.