Persuasive Essay On Young Drivers
Young Drivers Hundreds of young drivers die or are injured from horrifying car crashes on Australian roads every year, almost all of them are preventable. ‘Young drivers represent 13% of licensed drivers, yet they are involved in 26% of all fatal crashes...’- Sydney Morning Herald 2010. The Australian Government is continually researching multiple new strategies in hopes to reduce this statistic. This essay will critically evaluate two of the current and suggested strategies and try to determine each one’s effectiveness.
One suggested strategy is the introduction of night curfews for P platers. This is because statistics show a high proportion of young drivers are involved in night time crashes. Currently the only state in Australia where night curfews exist is Western Australia (for the first 6 months of provisional …show more content…
licenses). Other states including NSW are considering or have considered similar proposals.
Those parties supporting night curfews suggest there is a clear link between the existence of night curfews and a reduction in crash rates. For instance, in North Carolina the introduction of a night time curfew caused a 43% reduction in night time crash rates - Foss, Feagnes and Rodgman, 2001. Similar studies have been conducted in Australia.
Motoring groups (such as the NRMA) have not been supportive of the proposal as they have questioned the evidence put forward. For example there is another study conducted in the United States to “examine the involvement of 16 to 19 year old drivers in fatal crashes between the hours of 10:00pm and 6:00am”. The analysis examined crash rates in 40 participating US states over a three year period (1999 to 2001). The results showed that, controlling the correct variables such as licensure rates and reference crash rates, the presence of a night time curfew in a state is linked with lower night time crash rates. However this association was not found to be statistically significant.
There is also strong opposition to curfews from drivers (particularly young people). Many people believe that curfews are a violation of their right to travel, and are fearful that a curfew will limit their options of work, times to study and ability to socialise. They say that ‘blanket restrictions’ are unfair to good drivers. Those in favour of night curfews argue that any inconvenience caused by the curfew will be outweighed by the potential gains in lives and reduction in injuries.
Have night curfews been effective in reducing the amount of young driver crashes on Australian roads? To the extent that only Western Australia has adopted the curfew it hasn’t been successful. On the other hand in Western Australia the curfew has meant fewer young drivers on the road at night which can only lead to less crashes however small the difference.
Another strategy introduced by the Australian Government to reduce the amount of young driver road fatalities and crashes is the use of shock tactic advertising used to educate young people.
“Of all speeding drivers involved in fatal crashes between 2002 and 2006, 34 per cent were aged 17-24 years of age”- NSW Government RTA. The Australian Government’s advertisements targeted speeding and used the graphic consequences of accidents to their advantage.
After years of drilling the nation with ‘shock tactics‘ on television and in magazines it was found that the rate of young driver crashes did not go down. After finding this out the NSW Centre for Road and Safety ordered a study to be conducted to see ‘what images young drivers react emotionally to’. Research revealed that young drivers fail to connect with ‘shock and horror’ imagery. Immediately the Centre for Road and Safety got their advertising department to come up with a new campaign that didn’t try to provoke horror in young drivers. This birthed the ‘Speeding, no one thinks big of you’ campaign. This creative approach was to show the unacceptability of speeding within the
community.
The campaign had a major impact since its launch. A survey recored in 2009 by the RTA’s Road Safety Marketing team found that:
56 per cent of the general population and 60 per cent of young males (17-25 years) said that they would be more likely to comment on someone’s driving as a result of seeing the ‘Pinkie’ campaign.
69 per cent of the general population, and 70 per cent of young male drivers, believed the campaign to have some effect in encouraging young male drivers to obey the speed limit.
The same high level of 94 per cent of the general population and 94 per cent of young males revealed strong recognition of the anti-speeding message, aimed at making speeding socially unacceptable and at undermining the perceived pay off for speeding.
Equal measures of 58 per cent of the general population and 58 per cent of young males recognised the meaning behind the message that speeding is not cool and does not impress.
Overall, respondents believed the campaign increased community awareness about speeding and understood the campaign’s clear anti-speeding message.
The only disadvantage to education based advertising (such as anti speeding) that has been proven in many countries around the world is that it is only a short term solution. Although young drivers understand that speeding leads to death and is not socially praised it will not stop them. A study from the US shows that over the past 40 years adolescents have taken a higher interest in ‘risky’ activities. It is still unknown how or why this happened but it is confirmed that it has happened and isn’t stopping anytime soon. It was said that, “ You can make teens listen, but you can’t make them hear. So you can continue with advertising and educating teens about the dangers, but its a waste of money...it is now human nature to be ‘risky’ and you cannot change human nature, it can only change itself.”
Has education based advertising been effective in reducing the amount of young driver crashes on Australian roads? This strategy has certainly brought awareness to the issue of speeding among young people in the Australian community, but it hasn’t made a noticeable change to the reduction of speeding among young drivers. Often there is a shift in awareness before a shift in behavior. Perhaps it’s too early to assess the long term effectiveness of the strategy yet.
In conclusion, although the strategies above have shown some effectiveness they are not flawless and are not ideal solutions to the problem of young driver fatalities. Night curfews are impractical and advertising does not make a big enough difference to solve the problem. I personally believe that there are very few options that society would be happy with that would noticeably reduce the amount of young driver fatalities and injuries. My suggested possible solutions include: changing the age at which you receive your P plates to an age of more maturity and creating more public transport with later hours to minimize the amount of people on the road between the times of 10pm-6am. These tactics in my opinion would be more effective in reducing the number of P plater fatalities on Australian roads.
Bibliography
http://ors.wa.gov.au/Regional-Information
23/2/13
http://www.pbf.asn.au/media/docs/changes_to_driver_licensing_system_in_wa.pdf 23/2/13
http://www.ls1.com.au/forum/archive/index.php/t-55286.html
23/2/13
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-news/nsw-auditor-general-peter-achterstraat-recommends-putting-p-platers-on-a-night-curfew/story-e6freuzi-1226171140972
24/2/13
http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/geared/driving/night_vision.html
24/2/13
http://eprints.qut.edu.au/7018/1/7018.pdf
24/2/13
Safe Driving (class hand out) edited by Justin Healey
One suggested strategy is the introduction of night curfews for P platers. This is because statistics show a high proportion of young drivers are involved in night time crashes. Currently the only state in Australia where night curfews exist is Western Australia (for the first 6 months of provisional …show more content…
licenses). Other states including NSW are considering or have considered similar proposals.
Those parties supporting night curfews suggest there is a clear link between the existence of night curfews and a reduction in crash rates. For instance, in North Carolina the introduction of a night time curfew caused a 43% reduction in night time crash rates - Foss, Feagnes and Rodgman, 2001. Similar studies have been conducted in Australia.
Motoring groups (such as the NRMA) have not been supportive of the proposal as they have questioned the evidence put forward. For example there is another study conducted in the United States to “examine the involvement of 16 to 19 year old drivers in fatal crashes between the hours of 10:00pm and 6:00am”. The analysis examined crash rates in 40 participating US states over a three year period (1999 to 2001). The results showed that, controlling the correct variables such as licensure rates and reference crash rates, the presence of a night time curfew in a state is linked with lower night time crash rates. However this association was not found to be statistically significant.
There is also strong opposition to curfews from drivers (particularly young people). Many people believe that curfews are a violation of their right to travel, and are fearful that a curfew will limit their options of work, times to study and ability to socialise. They say that ‘blanket restrictions’ are unfair to good drivers. Those in favour of night curfews argue that any inconvenience caused by the curfew will be outweighed by the potential gains in lives and reduction in injuries.
Have night curfews been effective in reducing the amount of young driver crashes on Australian roads? To the extent that only Western Australia has adopted the curfew it hasn’t been successful. On the other hand in Western Australia the curfew has meant fewer young drivers on the road at night which can only lead to less crashes however small the difference.
Another strategy introduced by the Australian Government to reduce the amount of young driver road fatalities and crashes is the use of shock tactic advertising used to educate young people.
“Of all speeding drivers involved in fatal crashes between 2002 and 2006, 34 per cent were aged 17-24 years of age”- NSW Government RTA. The Australian Government’s advertisements targeted speeding and used the graphic consequences of accidents to their advantage.
After years of drilling the nation with ‘shock tactics‘ on television and in magazines it was found that the rate of young driver crashes did not go down. After finding this out the NSW Centre for Road and Safety ordered a study to be conducted to see ‘what images young drivers react emotionally to’. Research revealed that young drivers fail to connect with ‘shock and horror’ imagery. Immediately the Centre for Road and Safety got their advertising department to come up with a new campaign that didn’t try to provoke horror in young drivers. This birthed the ‘Speeding, no one thinks big of you’ campaign. This creative approach was to show the unacceptability of speeding within the
community.
The campaign had a major impact since its launch. A survey recored in 2009 by the RTA’s Road Safety Marketing team found that:
56 per cent of the general population and 60 per cent of young males (17-25 years) said that they would be more likely to comment on someone’s driving as a result of seeing the ‘Pinkie’ campaign.
69 per cent of the general population, and 70 per cent of young male drivers, believed the campaign to have some effect in encouraging young male drivers to obey the speed limit.
The same high level of 94 per cent of the general population and 94 per cent of young males revealed strong recognition of the anti-speeding message, aimed at making speeding socially unacceptable and at undermining the perceived pay off for speeding.
Equal measures of 58 per cent of the general population and 58 per cent of young males recognised the meaning behind the message that speeding is not cool and does not impress.
Overall, respondents believed the campaign increased community awareness about speeding and understood the campaign’s clear anti-speeding message.
The only disadvantage to education based advertising (such as anti speeding) that has been proven in many countries around the world is that it is only a short term solution. Although young drivers understand that speeding leads to death and is not socially praised it will not stop them. A study from the US shows that over the past 40 years adolescents have taken a higher interest in ‘risky’ activities. It is still unknown how or why this happened but it is confirmed that it has happened and isn’t stopping anytime soon. It was said that, “ You can make teens listen, but you can’t make them hear. So you can continue with advertising and educating teens about the dangers, but its a waste of money...it is now human nature to be ‘risky’ and you cannot change human nature, it can only change itself.”
Has education based advertising been effective in reducing the amount of young driver crashes on Australian roads? This strategy has certainly brought awareness to the issue of speeding among young people in the Australian community, but it hasn’t made a noticeable change to the reduction of speeding among young drivers. Often there is a shift in awareness before a shift in behavior. Perhaps it’s too early to assess the long term effectiveness of the strategy yet.
In conclusion, although the strategies above have shown some effectiveness they are not flawless and are not ideal solutions to the problem of young driver fatalities. Night curfews are impractical and advertising does not make a big enough difference to solve the problem. I personally believe that there are very few options that society would be happy with that would noticeably reduce the amount of young driver fatalities and injuries. My suggested possible solutions include: changing the age at which you receive your P plates to an age of more maturity and creating more public transport with later hours to minimize the amount of people on the road between the times of 10pm-6am. These tactics in my opinion would be more effective in reducing the number of P plater fatalities on Australian roads.
Bibliography
http://ors.wa.gov.au/Regional-Information
23/2/13
http://www.pbf.asn.au/media/docs/changes_to_driver_licensing_system_in_wa.pdf 23/2/13
http://www.ls1.com.au/forum/archive/index.php/t-55286.html
23/2/13
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-news/nsw-auditor-general-peter-achterstraat-recommends-putting-p-platers-on-a-night-curfew/story-e6freuzi-1226171140972
24/2/13
http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/geared/driving/night_vision.html
24/2/13
http://eprints.qut.edu.au/7018/1/7018.pdf
24/2/13
Safe Driving (class hand out) edited by Justin Healey