Driver & other Road Safety issues

The introduction of a 120 hour log book requirement for learner drivers created an imperative to provide advice to supervising drivers and to driving instructors about lesson planning and the maintenance of a safe and effective training and learning environment over a prolonged period of time. In 2009 an enhanced training proposal was presented to the New South Wales government in support of a structured lesson planning program to overlay the graduated driver licensing system and the 120 hour log book requirement. Structured lesson planning is an education intervention that allows for the direct targeting of an individual—their knowledge, beliefs and attitudes, and their behaviour and skills—within the real on-road context where driving occurs, and over the full period of learner driver licence tenure.

“Competence is a habit. The distinction between being qualified and competent is analogous to that between potential and actual. Currently, completion of the Roads and Traffic Authority computer knowledge test ... and successful completion of the on-road driving test ... establishes a person as a qualified driver. Competence requires the habitual demonstration of driving competencies in the actual and dynamic on-road traffic environment, and as such it requires a broader array of structured tuition and assessment techniques”.
_{(Extracted from the policy review document commissioned by the driver training industry that prompted the New South Wales government to introduce the new structured lesson planning program for learner drivers that commenced just before Christmas 2009.)}

Ian Faulks is a partner in a transport consultancy, Safety and Policy Analysis International. He served as the Director of the STAYSAFE Committee (Joint Standing Committee on Road Safety) in the New South Wales legislature for 15 years, where he led road safety policy and program review activities. Among other accomplishments, he prepared the reports and recommendations that resulted in the introduction of lower 50 km/h speed limits in urban areas across Australia, lower speeds around schools in New South Wales, and the upgradings of the New South Wales graduated driver licensing scheme for young drivers since 2000. His recent work has examined: graduated driver licensing systems; speed limiting technologies; drink driving and drug driving; traffic policing and enforcement; alcohol control policies; driver fatigue; railway level crossing safety; safety around schools; and motorway safety. Ian has convened a number of major transportation safety conferences on themes such as: road safety for infants, children and young people; distracted driving; young driver safety; developments in vehicle technologies and safety systems; transport planning and road safety; and older driver licensing. Ian has advised governments in Sweden, Singapore, China, South Africa, Mauritius, New Zealand, the Irish Republic, the UK and US on transportation safety matters and other areas of public policy making. He serves on the state executive of the Australasian College of Road Safety and is a member of the Rotary Club of Wahroonga.